From Etsy’s Merchandising Desk: March(ing) Into Spring

marymary

Story by marymary

Published on Feb 08, 2011 in Seller Handbook

Photo by Kristybee

According to Punxsutawney Phil, spring will be here before we know it. Today we’ll share our merchandising tips for March. It is our goal to create a healthy balance between promotions for traditional holidays, seasonal changes, cultural events, and lifestyle trends all while keeping you in the know with ideas, tips, and inspiration for the way you think about merchandising your Etsy business.

Rounding Out February:
Keep up with February’s seasonal themes, holidays and trends in the February edition of Merchandising Desk.

Promotional Opportunities for Sellers:

  1. Create and tag treasuries fitting February’s merchandising themes for a chance to have your collection featured on Etsy’s homepage or linked from promotional emails. Additionally, sharing these collections via your social networks during these relevant times will help increase traffic and engagement around your items and shop. Tip: We’re looking to introduce a wider variety of unisex, men-centric, and vintage niches into the more regular rotation. Make sure to tag lists appropriately for the best return.
  2. Update Your Location: Make sure your items can be found in Etsy’s Shop Local feature and Local Search by filling in your country, city, state.  Be sure to choose an automatically suggested location for your listings to appear correctly in buying features that use location data to surface items.
  3. Stay on top of success tips and opportunities as they arise by signing up for the Etsy Success Newsletter.

Stay Engaged in March
Our central merchandising topics this month will focus on the coming of spring. Below you’ll find the extended list of topics we plan to reference. While emphasis will be placed upon the seasonality of the Northern Hemisphere, it’s important to remember the Southern Hemisphere is preparing for autumn. Maintaining seasonally appropriate options year-round is good practice for boosting international and overall sales.

  • Intro to Spring: March brings the spring equinox and a lighter outlook with it. Think in terms of how you can market towards and contribute to seasonal activities like spring cleaning, spring fashion, spring break, spring planting, a fresh outlook, rejuvenation and splashes of light, bright color.
  • Gardening: It’s time to go outdoors and cultivate nature. Trends this season center around tools, plant markers, composting solutions, gloves, scrubs, seeds, plantable papers, organic methods, farmers markets, seasonality, planting calendars, tips and recipes.
  • Saint Patrick’s Day: Parties, celebrations, parades, touches of green, shamrocks, feasting, beer drinking and a nod to the Irish.
  • Etsy’s Euro Week: We’ll be celebrating the 2nd annual Etsy Euro Week this month from Monday the 21st through Friday the 25th. Stay tuned for more details on how to get involved in this growing event and check out the festivities from Etsy’s 2010 Euro Week.
  • The World in Sports: Time for both college basketball and baseball spring training. Think in terms of teams, colors, brackets, predictions and wagers.
  • April Fools: Practical jokes, gag gifts and emphasis on the sillier side of handmade and vintage.
  • Easter and Mother’s Day: Now is the time to plan ahead for holidays right around the corner — Mothering Sunday: April 3, Easter: April 24, and Mother’s Day: May 8. Tag appropriate items with related terms and list your items for these holidays now. Press and media outlets are in the process of finalizing print features and will be looking for content to populate web features well in advance of the actual holidays.
  • Fashion: Spring fashion will emphasize basics, dresses, bags in lighter materials, sunglasses, hair accessories, jewelry and the return of open-toe shoes.
  • Home Updates: Spring cleaning, organizational solutions, DIY projects and functional furniture.
  • Weddings and Celebrations: Try expanding your line of wedding offerings by considering the planning process from ring shopping all the way through the honeymoon — how can your unique point of view be threaded throughout?
  • Aquamarine is March’s birthstone, and March’s astrological signs are Pisces and Aries (Pisces: February 20 – March 20, Aries: March 21 – April 20).

Current Trends:

  • Gadget accessories: With the recent iPhone and iPad availability at Verizon, accessories for smartphones and tablets are on the rise.
  • World in sports: College basketball brackets and spring training (baseball).
  • Glass domes, terrariums, succulent plants, garden markers, and planters.
  • Fashion: Safari, nautical, American classics, tribal influence. Large beads and natural stones. Bold colors, intricate weaves and patterns. Lightweight materials: linens, canvas, cotton knits
  • Animals: Rabbits, honey bees, woodland and sea creatures.
  • The beard and its many variations have transcended the mustache in popularity!
  • Food trends: Year of the homemade pie, whoopie pie, and macaron.
  • Writable surfaces: Chalkboard, whiteboard, fingerprints.
  • Vintage designer pieces and collectibles, namely in fashion and bikes/auto.
  • Personalization: Monograms, initials, text, numbers, zodiacs, constellations, portraits, custom labels, stamps, fingerprints and family trees.
  • Lockets, secret hiding places, vintage letterpress blocks and skeleton keys, feathers, arrows, diamonds, geometric shapes and patterns, paper cuts, silhouettes, fortune cookies, wishbones, fortune tellers.
  • Farmhouse references, vintage industrial decor, vintage cameras, letterpress drawers, typewriters, brass and cast iron animals.
  • Natural history and woodland forest themes and animals, namely birds, owls, squirrels, hedgehogs, chipmunks, bunnies, butterflies, feathers, nests, eggs, acorns, leaves, trees, branches, woodgrain, and natural colors.
  • Colors: Bright pops of color in pinks, turquoise, yellows, avocado, peach and oranges. Earth tones and neutral palettes remain strong with the incorporation of rusts, deep greens and brown.

If you’d like to stay engaged and involved with the approaching merchandising themes, use them in your own artistic voice as you add to your shop. They can be translated in your listings, photos, shop announcements, descriptions, tags, titles, sales promotions, and more.

If you make items that would fit well with the themes outlined, try stocking up and listing them in advance to take advantage of potential shipping deadlines and site features. Do you already have items in your shop that meld well? That’s great! Now it’s time to revisit those items to make sure your tags, titles and descriptions reflect keywords that shoppers might be looking for this time of year. This is also a great opportunity to revamp your item photography with a new look. Check out some great how-to’s for item photography to get started.

For those of your who enjoy making Treasuries, we’ll be looking to highlight lists that interpret these themes in a creative and cohesive way throughout the site. Please tag your Treasuries accordingly.

Upcoming Dates to Remember

  • March is known as National Craft and National Poetry Month. March was named for the Roman god Mars.
  • March 1: St David’s Day (Wales)
  • March 5-8: Carnival
  • March 8: Mardi Gras
  • March 7: Labour Day (Australia)
  • March 12: Plant a Flower Day
  • March 14-18: College spring break
  • March 13: Daylight Savings at 2:00 a.m.
  • March 17: St Patrick’s Day
  • March 20: Spring equinox
  • March 20: National Quilting Day
  • March 21: Human Rights Day (South Africa)
  • March 21-25: Etsy’s Euro Week
  • March 26: Earth Hour

Have a date to remember that you don’t see on the list? Let us know in the comments section below.

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