Don't HURT Your Etsy Shop Like I Did! 😱
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2024
- Curious to know the ways I hurt my own Etsy shop? Then you're in the right place. 😄 While there are lots of factors why things on the platform are challenging right now, there's always things we can do to help ourselves and I thought it would be fun to shine a light on some of the things that I've been getting oh so very wrong lately! Or to put it another way, I make mistakes so you don't have to!
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www.beechtreehandmade.com
(I don't link to my Etsy shop here, but it's called Beech Tree Handmade if you want to check it out).
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The issue I’m having with selling on ETSY are my competitors selling their listings for half the price.
Oof. Yeah I get it. I found someone selling embroidery art for a fraction of the price that I do the other day. I looked closer and saw that it was printed fabric in an embroidery hoop! I had to put my phone down at that point. 😄
Are they running a sale or do they sell at that price. I will run sales with a huge discount on items. It seems to bump them up in the listings and when they are at regular price they still sell. Helps your listings get a nice boost.
Yes I have the same problem!
Great having coffee with you in the morning! Cheers from Sweden, you funny lady💛
Thank you for joining me! ☕
I also have a Charlie in my life, he's a Brittany spaniel. He typically waits until I'm on the phone to either a) bark at the world, or b) bring me every toy he owns.
I have no idea how starting a youtube channel is gonna work for me. 😅
Thanks for the insights, as always!
You have a SPANIEL??! My thoughts are with you. I used to have one growing up and they are a special kind of nuts. 😄
@@KimBliss Yup, about 8 months into his puppyhood I reached the point where I was like, "What have I DONE?"
Now I've just embraced the crazy 😆
😂😂
I almost exclusively have organic traffic only on Etsy. If I did social media, I would use it to send people to my website. If I had a website. I do offer a 10% abandoned cart and 10% returned customer. I’ve never done sales, and don’t plan to. I actually find SEO fun, but I do absolutely zero research on what words to use. I do fairly well, but apparently Etsy is changing up the algorithm again, so…
Omg your shirt and doggo are soooooo cute!!!! 🌻🐕🌻
HAhahaha! You crack me up!
Your photos aren't bad, Kim. Please don't slam them so hard. At least you are able to get true-to-life colors. I cannot get a true-to-life with my pos phone, I have to have my daughter take them for me. When she isn't available, my pictures are terrible, terrible, terrible! Hugs
Aw thank you. I guess we're all our own worst critics. 😊💚
A cute t-shirt, a puppy dog AND raspberry blowing in the one video. Best video on the internet today! 😀In answer to your question, in the last week I promoted myself on Pinterest daily, posted in a couple of online forums - and thought about putting a Facebook post up but didn't actually do it. I don't suppose that last one counts. You asked me to keep you updated about Pinterest though - it's two months this coming Friday since I started posting daily, using keywords, pinning other people's stuff, following other creatives, etc. So far I have had a smattering of re-pins, no follows and no click throughs to any of the items. However I have heard it takes about 4 months to see proper traffic so I'll keep going.
Thanks so much for letting me know. I keep thinking about it and I don't know why I'm dragging my heels. Just not sure where to start I think.
I hope it keeps getting better for you!
@@KimBliss Kara Buntin has some Pinterest videos on her tutorial channel. I went thought them, made some notes and then went for broke. I used Pinterest when it first started and got a lot of visits to Etsy back then. I think it's a bit harder to get seen these days 😆
She knows her onions does Kara! I turned to her membership when I needed Google SEO help when starting up the website and found it really helpful too. 😊
I do really struggle to drive my traffic, it is true! I feel like I'm throwing spaghetti at a wall and talking to myself on Instagram and TT lol. I'm also really struggling with feeling like another person trying to sell people stuff in the sea of ads and influencers when I know $ is such a sore subject with the economy at the moment. It's something I desperately need to work on for sure because you're right, it is impossible to get seen on etsy these days (and I did notice my views go down when I turned free shipping off but I refuse to turn that back on 😅)
Yes this! Selling and promoting during a time when people are finding things challenging financially, I think about this a lot.
For my part I'm trying to include more lower priced items so that if someone did want to purchase from me, it wouldn't be such a big investment. But it's tough for all of us. Hopefully things will ease up soon. 💚
I can relate! ;p
I got a kick out of you with your dog today. Sending more traffic to my Etsy shop is my biggest problem. I’m struggling with whether to include the free shipping for over $35 purchases option. That, along with some coupon discounts is reducing profit a lot.
I mean you could certainly try it and see if it works for you? It turned out I'd had the free shipping over $35 switched on for some time in my own shop, and got zero sales from it. So I personally won't be offering that again.
@@KimBliss in the Fall, I was finding people buying two or three prints so it did seem to work but then I find I can’t also allow discount coupons for favoriting or having an item in cart. I would have to increase my prices a lot to really make that work, and then might really get no sales. Right now, in June, that has been happening anyway. Back to needing to increase my efforts on social media, I think.
Charlie the Corgi!
I finally opened my Folksy shop a few days ago! So far I have promoted it nowhere, still not sure how I'm going to do that, but I want to get a few more items onto it first and make sure I'm doing everything right. BTW I was really struggling with my photos (no light, no space, too windy to do it outside etc.), so I ended up buying a little light box from Amazon. It's made such a big difference!
I might have to go down the lightbox route. At least then I'll be able to get some kind of consistent lighting.
Thanks for bringing it up as I'd completely forgotten about them as an option! 👍
Hi Kim 😊 it seems shops are sending coupons when people leave items in their cart, not just on Etsy, but other online stores too, and customers are starting to expect it. When I'm shopping for beading supplies I put various items in my cart to then compare and decide on which things I like best, and if I don't checkout the same day, I'll get emails with 10% coupons. Some shops will offer a percentage off a larger dollar amount purchase, such as "10% off $50". Those offers actually prompt me to buy, even though the actual savings might only be a few dollars. My own Etsy shop is currently closed, but if I re-open it I'm going to adjust my pricing and offer those types of coupons instead of running sales, and see how it goes. The thing is that people are looking for the cheapest price and true handmade items can't compete on Etsy anymore. Some of those slashed prices might even be shops trying to unload leftover inventory.
Sadly I think you're right. And for those of us that don't want to offer discounts/coupons, that's fine but then we need to be ok with fewer sales too perhaps.
I think I'd be more worried if I didn't have my website. Sales there are much healthier and regular thankfully. Hopefully I haven't jinxed it! 😄
You just make me smile. 🥰
Awwww, doggie 🥰
I started my own shop after watching your vlog but now its dead ...... hope it picks up after summer. Love your shirt 🌻
On Etsy? It is very quiet at the moment. Do you sell anywhere else?
@@KimBliss On Etsy, I already had but started new website after listening to your insight :) for me Etsy so far is doing well but good to have a backup plan.
Chatty is good. My traffic is all organic but I could do with a bit more. I've made over 100 sales since I started in October which I am happy with. I'm planning to start a UA-cam channel in September and see how that goes - at least my 10 year old daughter will watch it. She's my biggest cheerleader.
That's so cool. My daughter and husband have arguments about being the first to like my videos. Having cheerleaders like these are priceless. 😊💚
When you go through and change/ add keywords and titles the algorithm resets your listing. I hurt my store doing that. Went through and adjusted all my titles. Sales just dropped. I also hurt my store a different time by changing the name.
Yeah if your SEO is getting you seen in search then there's really no need to mess with it. Of course you do need some kind of keywords in there though to help the search algorithm out.. I'm really not helping myself! 😄
I do pretty good driving traffic to my Etsy, I can’t seem to get ANYONE to my website.
But I also admit I can’t figure out what’s actually working. May/June have been my best months since starting my business 2 years ago and that happened AFTER I decided I was gonna pump the breaks and not do as much
Are you driving traffic to both your Etsy shop and your website at the same time?
I ask because I only drive traffic to my website. If folks want to purchase from my Etsy shop they can, but they have to find their own way there. Convenience is definitely a factor sometimes.
@@KimBliss I do try to drive traffic to both. I’m honestly afraid to stop promoting my Etsy since right now it’s the only one making any income if that makes sense
You should sell your products for the same price across platforms. Yes, you don't pay Etsy fees on your website, you do however have to pay for your Shopify website. You are sending your customers to your website which takes time and time is money. Just a thought!
Don't worry, the prices on my website factor in the costs of running the website too. 😊
Thanks for another great video! It felt nice knowing that the things I know I'm not doing well enough, I'm not alone in this boat.
You say you're a fan of videos in listings. I've so far only added a video to 1, but plan to for all of them. What do you feel makes a good product video? Or at least what are you prepared to do for one? I'm thinking of making a little turntable for my homemade light box, and can take a video of every listing having a spin. But the idea of getting attractive footage of all of my jewellery being worn by attractive people, or my household items in actual use opening bottles and such. That's SO much time and work.
Edit: After watching you making the sunflower stick'n'stitch, the finished top looks awesome
Thank you! I can still remember the pain from stitching up those sunflowers. 😄
The good news about videos is that as a buyer, I'm only really interested in seeing the product in good light and being spun around. Basically it mimics how I would look at something in a shop.
The other thing I've started doing instinctively is looking for any photos in the reviews. I'm not looking for super polished and modelled photos. I was REAL.
That's me in buyer mode anyway. I hope that info is helpful. 😊
@@KimBliss that is good news. And very helpful thanks :) I found an old record player on Freecycle I'm planning to canibalise for a turntable. That may be the very next small project.
If I may say this, I think you need an assistant do all those tasks you don't like so you can just create, create, create,....
Doggo!!!!!😍
Relentless, red bull doggo! Oooh I sent your order out today, your comment has just reminded me that I didn't mark it as dispatched! *Slaps head*
I'll do that in the morning. 😄
@@KimBliss Woop Woop, Thanks! Also, feeling your corporate comparisons recently..... You sent coffee with my order right? :P
I would've done, but I was too busy drinking it. 😁☕️☕️
@@KimBliss 😂
+
not to good but still here. My god you can talk, and love it.
It would be a boring video if I just sat there and said nothing! 😄
@@KimBliss that would never happen.
Running sales does nothing for me. I’ve been on Etsy for about 8 years and it’s so different now. You should send your traffic to your own website because Etsy can shut you down at anytime. I think Etsy is doing some tests because I haven’t been getting views or sales for months. My daughter has a sticker shop and she use to average 3 or 4 sales a day and no visits or views on her shop either. I thought maybe they weren’t showing our stuff and searched with another browser and the items did show up so I’m not sure what’s going on. I noticed my stuff only showed with the exact match to the first part of my title, not the cross matching like they say they do. I do get sales if I run adds though but they stop when I turn them off. I always use all tags in my seo, well because it’s an algorithm so how are they gonna find you.
The platform is very different now, you're right. I hope that the changes they bring in will help, but it's going to take time to see the effects. Not to mention that we're heading into a time of year that is traditionally a quiet time for many even when things are good.
I think if you are able, use this time to start building something off of Etsy. Be that your social media, a mailing list or something like Pinterest. Anything that could help you with time. 💚
Hi Cutie Charli!! I love your shoulder flowers 😊 🌼
My Etsy shop is not doing well. I actually turned off the upgrade since it wasn't helping. I haven't sold one thing 😅
I will try the discount today. I question lowering my prices on Etsy every day!
I couldn't imagine someone who has 1000 listings on Etsy to fix their SEOs 😂
Do you find most of your website buyers find you through Etsy or this UA-cam channel?
Yup, I hear you. Etsy is so quiet at the moment.
For my website, people mainly find me here on YT, but a lot of folks will then follow me on IG from here and sometimes either buy after I promote there, or they'll join my mailing list and go from there when I have a shop update.
It takes time to forge that connection and build trust. But this (and my other handmade channel) are a huge part of getting my work out there. 💚
@@KimBliss 💌 Thank you for sharing. I have so much work ahead of me lol I'm excited to join your Patreon, so I'm doing that right now!!
Ooooh thanks for joining us over there! 😊💚
You have such beautiful eyes 😊
Do you think it's also because you've built up a custom base and social media following? I don't think a website would be as successful for a new shop compared to Etsy
I do! Which is why I say building a community around your business is so important. Whenever I make a video about websites I always point out that they may not be a good fit if you've just got started too.
That being said through, I've had more organic visits and sales through Google search on my website than on Etsy. So I'm not driving all of them. 😊
Loved your co host today Kim! Truisms with in 👍👏😁
He's usually sat right outside the door, a corgi shaped door stop. I thought I'd let him in this time, but was quickly reminded why he has to be Door Stop Charlie while I'm filming. 😄
@@KimBliss To funny Kim, a corgi shaped door stop 🤣😂🤣💗