Steady Sellers, how do you do it ?
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Original Post
Advise us. Help us. Tell us what we need to do to generate regular weekly sales.
How did you establish your customer base ? Do you have a lot of return customers ?
It would be really nice if you would share with us. I want to know what method is best. Should I pour more time into computer promoting or personal promotion ?
:-)
Renee
Posted at 2:47pm Jun 3, 2008 EDT
Responses
I have to run right now...I have a customer in our brick and mortar store! But I will be back later! Great ideas!
Posted at 1:01pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT
My sales seem pretty steady, but they drop as soon as I don't promote. So I guess they aren't steady enough yet!
Posted at 1:05pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT
I only have a few sales a month so that's not as steady as I would like --- I'd like a few A DAY!! Something to work towards. My suggestion is to list something new a few times a week, participate in forums, learn something new and most of all --- WORK on your craft and just be amazing. If you have something that is amazing, it will almost sell itself. Now if I could just find something at the store that would fix itself for dinner.....
Posted at 1:06pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT
I started selling scarves last August, in the heat of the desert summer (I live near the Grand Canyon). My goal was to sell a scarf a day, and I've steadily surpassed that by selling 8.5 scarves a week (of course, as Allison said, my new goal is to sell 1000 a year). Here's what I did:
1) Have confidence in my own creativity. Ignore any doubts. Be willing to take reasonable risks (i.e. spend or risk a little to make a lot). That means accepting custom orders, personal checks, paying craft fair booth fees, renewing as often as is productive for me (I experiment & pay attention)& making my shop welcoming to international customers (read more at www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5509173 ).
2) Feel & express gratitude, humility & helpfulness always. This is a symbiotic relationship: I provide excellent product, excellent customer service & a piece of art, my customers provide word of mouth marketing, good feelings & revenue. Over 1/3 of my customers here on Etsy have come back to buy another scarf, and I've only been here about 6 months.
3) Diversify my market and venues. I sell via wholesale & consignment in boutiques. I sell at fairs & expos. And here on Etsy. And to individuals who know me or have heard of my work. I offer over 100 different scarves in various styles/colors/weights to cast a wide net and grow my target market. I cater internationally to women, men, youth, seniors, belly dancers, country club types, goth/emo types, anyone with sensitive skin, people of different ethnicities & cultures, vegans & other animal-friendly types, etc. For me, the key has been to have diffused focus. In other words, only scarves, but lots of different types of scarves.
I hope that's helpful; my sales volume isn't huge, but it's very steady!
Celeste (Crickets)
Posted at 2:09pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT
very nice advice, Celeste!
I guess you would consider me somewhat steady. There are times when I dont have a sale for a couple days, then I get slammed.
I just opened up a new shop, just for my felt brooches and hairpins. I hope it grows as quickly as Balsam.
I sold dozens of them while they were listed with Balsam lol
so, we'll see
but, making sure you are always creating, shaking things up helps and like Celeste said, GREAT customer service =)
Posted at 2:19pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT
I read these types of threads with great interest. Sadly, my Etsy sales don't materialize. I am now looking for a second part time job or a full time job. I am very sad about it b/c it would be so nice if my Etsy shop could be my second part time job.
Posted at 2:32pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT
p.s. I like how many keywords are in allisonstrine's item titles. I recently sold a scarf to Better Homes & Gardens for a photo shoot and I post extensively, starting on the page linked to below, about how I think they found me by my use of tagging and keywords:
www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5642714&page=16
Celeste (Crickets)
Posted at 3:09pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT
I have a lot of repeat customer, although I do get a lot of new customers weekly. I also have a premium points program that gives my buyers points toward each dollar to redeem later in discounts. Lot of my buyers take advantage of this for repeat sales. I blog, I ning, I flickr, and participate in the forums.
I also try to take good clean pictures of my items to attract looks.
I keep the listing fresh and try to relist daily or every other day.
Posted at 3:12pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT
Celeste thanks for the tagging and keyword info I have to look into that closer.
Posted at 5:51pm Jun 4, 2008 EDT