Search results (tags) for: "business"

Etsy Shopper Survey

2008-11-25T19:01:00Z

Attention Shoppers!

We want to make the shopping experience better on Etsy and we need your help. We value your input and would love to gain some insight into your experience of Etsy's current checkout process, how you find what you want to buy, and how you prefer to pay for your purchases.

If you've ever purchased on Etsy, please take our brief Shopper Survey. It'll take three minutes! This survey will only be live until Sunday night, November 30, 2008, so please don't delay!

UPDATE: The survey is now closed. Thanks for participating!

The Etsy Seller Handbook: All Our How-Tos about Selling

2008-11-24T08:19:00Z

Dear Sellers!

Below you'll find a handy index of all the useful How-Tos about Selling on Etsy. We're calling it the Seller Handbook. We'll be adding all new how-tos for sellers to this index.

You can also search the Storque tags for "Seller Handbook" for a chronological list of all our published how-tos related to Selling.

Your Shop 101: How-Tos for Getting Started on Etsy
Please also see the Setting Up Shop Help Guide, Selling Dos and Don'ts, Selling FAQs, Listing an Item Help Guide.

[photo by Artsy]

Photography How-Tos

[image by TwoHiddenHeads]

Alchemy and Custom/Reserved Listing How-Tos

[image by moxiethrift]

Shipping How-Tos

[photo by missplum]

Advertising How-Tos
Please also see the Showcase Help Guide.

[photo by Earmark]

Business and Pricing How-Tos

[image by NewDuds]

Promoting & Marketing How-Tos

[image by DancingMooney]

Craft Show & Events How-Tos

[image by MiNDJACKET]

Social Networking, Blogging, Podcasting & Video-making How-Tos

[image by houseofharriet]

Legal Info for Artists

[image by jessgonacha]

Tagging How-Tos

[image by Anda]

Team Tips

[image by iheartmoustaches]

All about Etsy & Site Features

Comment below and let us know what other topics would be helpful for sellers! If you'd like to write a how-to for the Seller Handbook, pitch to the Storque editors.

Etsy Statistics: October's Fall and Rise

2008-11-06T11:13:00Z

We're definitely keeping our eye on the economic conditions here at Etsy, but despite the turmoil, we still had another record setting month in October.

Here are October’s key numbers, each of which represent the highest total ever:

$8.4 million of goods were sold — a 5.9% increase over September.
That represents 577,398 items sold, a 6% increase from September's stats.
976, 234 new items were listed, up from 911,191 items last month, a 7.1% increase.
102,778, new members joined the Etsy community, including 19,689 new sellers. That’s our first month ever with over 100,000 new members — a 6.5% increase vs. September.
358,000,000 page views were recorded on the site, a slight increase from September.

Thanks to everyone in the Etsy community for all of their hard work in October!

Curious about how other months compare? Check out our past Weather Reports for more statistics.

Talking Shop with Etsy CEO Maria Thomas

2008-11-03T16:37:00Z

Dear Friends of Etsy,

My good friend Patty, a recent mother of twins, describes herself as “addicted to Etsy.” She tells me all the time how she would like to see the buying experience improved on Etsy. Beyond my friend Patty, I frequently engage with Etsy sellers and buyers. Mostly this happens through email and by reading the Etsy Forums. Sometimes, it happens in person. A few weeks ago I was walking the streets of lower Manhattan and I came across an Etsy seller. Then, a few days later, I sat next to the daughter-in-law of this Etsy seller on a plane. A couple of months ago, I met JuliaPott and Sweetestpea, now Zooguu, when they visited Etsy’s Brooklyn offices. And buyers—I seem to bump into them everywhere.

Recently, I met the Philly Etsy Street Team in Philadelphia (Go Phillies!). The meeting was a casual gathering of six or seven Etsy sellers. I asked if I could attend their regular monthly meeting because I am trying to learn more about how different Etsy Teams work and how Etsy can better serve them. We discussed their experiences on Etsy—what they find useful and what frustrates them. I learned a lot from the discussion.

More than anything, I left the meeting with a sense of real optimism about Etsy’s future. Etsy has a lot to deliver on, to be sure. That’s in part why I am here and what I want to tell you more about in this update.

But first allow me for just a moment to reflect on what drew me here in the first place: the celebration of unique artistry and authentic connections between buyers and makers. These Philadelphia sellers reaffirmed my strong feeling that Etsy can foster connections among people, communities and cultures through stories, products and experiences. They showed me how they created beautiful, one-of-kind, little Philly Etsy Street Team branded totes to give away at a recent Swap-o-Rama-Rama. The swap bag is made with great care and exhibits qualities of craft and qualities of the heart. And in our increasingly throw-away culture, these are the kind of treasured items found on Etsy—items that will last a lifetime.

Thanks to all of you who are making, presenting and buying on Etsy. I look forward to meeting more of you soon, including the fine folks on the New New York Street Team and the Capital Region Etsy Street Team, who I hope to meet later this month.

The Bigger Picture
Since I last wrote an article in the Etsy blog (the Storque), a lot has been happening, and I’d like to share with you some of what I’ve been doing in these last three months. Many Etsy sellers want more than anything to know what we are doing to address functional issues on the website and when those projects will be finished. At the same time, I feel that it is my duty to share with the larger Etsy community my sense of the bigger picture.

I’ll try to do a little of both here. I plan to write another article soon to elaborate on Etsy’s brand—where we stand and what we’re aspiring to.

For now, let me first say that Etsy is weathering the current economic storm comparatively well. Traffic and sales continue to grow, and we’re looking forward to a relatively strong holiday season, though it’s clearly impossible to project how tightly consumers will rein in spending as a result of the current economic uncertainties. In September, we attracted roughly five million unique visitors, and transaction volume is reaching new peaks.

As outlined in the holiday marketing plans Matt shared with the community, we’re investing in getting more buyers to the site. Much of our marketing investment is concentrated on online media channels, including search marketing. I believe that online media spending, as well as word-of-mouth marketing through social networking and blogging sites, is the most effective form of marketing for a web-only destination like Etsy. We are also actively reminding folks that Etsy represents both a unique and conscientious choice this holiday season, and of course the value of what’s sold on Etsy goes well beyond the price.

People
In my first article for the blog, I mentioned that I was focusing on People, Process and Product. And that’s indeed what I have been doing. I’ve spent the lion’s share of the last three months working on:

recruiting top talent,
designing the organizational structure Etsy needs to serve its customers and its mission for the long term,
defining the Etsy brand and what we stand for, and
prioritizing projects to meet our business goals.

Etsy is beginning to work in new ways. Chad Dickerson, who joined Etsy September 2, 2008, is leading all of our technical efforts as Etsy’s Chief Technology Officer. Like me, Chad is focused on assembling the best possible team. Last month, he provided this sobering and honest technical update after his first two weeks on the job.

Let me introduce someone who will work closely with Chad in helping Etsy to release more products and features more quickly. Two weeks ago, I hired Sara Hicks to lead Etsy’s Product Management team. Sara will join us November 10, 2008. She comes to Etsy via a company called Spot Runner, where she served as head of the Product Team for the past three years. Her background also includes a five year stint at Yahoo! where she worked on Yahoo!’s e-commerce hosting product lines. Sara and Chad will be joined at the hip, working closely to craft our product development plans, prioritize projects and, with your input, deliver the best possible experience for both buyers and sellers.

And in the last couple of months we welcomed a new Flash developer, Vincent Walker, and a new designer, Bek Hodgson. Another new addition: Liz Wald will join Etsy full-time in the new year. Liz will be responsible for helping to further internationalize Etsy. More on that in 2009.

I am also currently looking for someone to help lead our marketing efforts. To reassure everyone: Matt Stinchcomb is not going anywhere. He is an incredibly valuable member of Etsy’s team and will continue to play a leadership role at the company. It is my intention to develop marketing talent throughout Etsy. I want to instill customer-centricity and strategic marketing capabilities throughout the company. As we grow, I hope this will result in more senior managers coming up through the marketing ranks.

In the next few months, I will round out my management team with experienced leads for Customer Service, Human Resources and Finance.

Search
One immediate and urgent project involves architecting substantial improvements to Etsy’s search function. During the next week or two, you should see marked improvements in the speed at which Etsy’s search function returns search results (note: this refers to the speed with which users received results to a given query). Many of you and many inside Etsy want to improve search in other ways. That’s coming too, but I think speed trumps all, especially in the holiday season.

We also plan early in 2009 to begin to change the way Etsy’s site search actually works. It was originally designed to return the most recently listed items first. As a result, Etsy understands that many of its sellers renew listings before their original expiration dates in order to push items closer to the top of search results for a particular query.

I believe that Etsy must design its site search with buyers in mind. Its main purpose should be to help buyers find what they’re looking for. Returning items in reverse chronological order isn’t the best way to achieve that. At the same time, Etsy should provide sellers with various options to advertise and promote their merchandise to Etsy’s enthusiastic and growing buyer base. Redesigning the search function and creating new ways for sellers to advertise on Etsy are two important initiatives.

The List: What Are We Doing Now
Many of you are interested in seeing and commenting on a complete list of projects Etsy is working on at any given time. We are researching ways that we might reliably publish such a list and allow you to tell us what’s important to all of you. Of course, Etsy must always balance competing priorities from different groups, and ultimately we have to make choices we think are in the company’s best interests. However, there are some examples in the market that we are studying as possible options for more easily getting your input, like Salesforce.com’s IdeaExchange (GreenMamba, I promise you I had my eye on that one before this thread, but I hadn’t seen Dell’s, so thanks for that example).

In the meantime, here’s an old fashioned list of products and features we are working on now and plan to introduce in the next three months or so. Each of these will be announced in more detail as we determine specific launch schedules.

Improving the Etsy checkout process to include, among other things, the option for buyers to save items in their carts to a Favorites list. We will enable buyers to see their favorites at the bottom of the checkout pages. These are part of what we’ve called Phase I of additional clarifications and enhancements to be made to Etsy’s checkout process in the first part of 2009.
Improvements to Etsy Gift Guides in time for the holiday season. These already launched October 28, 2008.
Making a few homepage tweaks:
- We will not change any major functionality.
- We will move categories higher up on the left side of the page and some of the “ways to shop” will be pushed down.
- We will replace the word “Alchemy” with the word “Custom.”
- For logged-in users, we will add a link to “Favorites” at the top of the page next to the cart.
Introducing new tools for Etsy Teams. These will include easier ways to find Etsy Teams as well as tools for management of activity in Etsy Teams.
Enabling sellers to pay Etsy fees with Paypal.
- Many sellers have asked for this, and we plan to make it happen on an optional basis (yes, that means sellers can use Paypal if you want but you don’t have to). As part of our overall attempt to offer sellers more options to pay their Etsy fees, we are also evaluating our collection policies. This isn’t cause for alarm; we are not going to change anything without first thoroughly communicating with all sellers our goals and plans. I mention it now because it’s one of many operational aspects of Etsy’s business that I am studying and making sure we execute as professionally as possible.
- Looking at the options for sellers to pay Etsy fees is part of a comprehensive look at all payments processes on Etsy, including payments from buyers to sellers. We are trying to address hurdles that currently discourage buyers from purchasing more frequently from more than one seller, and we are hoping to add new ways to buy like site-wide gift cards.
- I am aware of and taking into consideration the reactions in the Forums last year and earlier this year to the idea of an Etsy payment system. We are looking at a variety of different solutions. It’s too early to lay these out now, but there will be communications outlining more about these initiatives as we move them along.
Introducing new tools for Etsy’s Support Team to improve our response time in addressing flagged items.
Rolling out Super Etsy Mini (described in Matt’s holiday marketing plan post).

And, right about now, some of you are thinking seller stats, Maria, seller stats. Yes, I know they are important to many of you and that they’ve been promised in the past. Etsy is serious about providing them. They are not on this list because – although we are evaluating ways to offer sellers more complete metrics for your shops — I am not sure if we can come out with an offering in the next three-to-four months. Please know that this project is on our radar screen and under evaluation.

I am actively engaged in helping to prioritize the product launches and features releases beyond this list and into 2009. As we put timetables around such releases, we will inform you.

Thank you all for participating with Etsy. If you want to comment on this article, please do so in this forum thread. As mentioned above, I will be writing again soon to address more strategic topics.

Team Tip: How To Twitter!

2008-11-03T11:57:00Z

There's a lot of buzz lately about Twitter.com as an interactive marketing tool. (In fact, you can find Etsy at http://www.twitter.com/etsy!) I've been giving a good deal of thought to how Etsy Teams can use Twitter.com to their advantage to effectively engage their audience and bring new buyers to members' Etsy shops. Below are some simple steps on how you might develop Twitter as a useful tool for your Team.

What is Twitter.com? Twitter describes itself as "a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: "What are you doing?" After creating an account, people can choose to follow other people's Twitter posts, viewing posts online or via a mobile phone. Twitter is about quick glimpses into you or your brand, as you have 140 characters to type or include interesting links for your Twitter followers to read and respond to.

To get started, discuss with your Team what your goals might be for a Team Twitter account. Goals can range from, but are not limited to, sharing knowledge (posting links to useful tutorials or tips online), to giving the Team a personality (having a friendly, anecdotal voice in posts), or driving traffic to content around the web from your Team. Most likely, successful Team Twitter accounts will aim at all three of these goals.
Decide as a group who will be responsible for posting content - Many brands and businesses find it's most interesting when several people post, but some feel there's value to a consistent voice. Consider your goals as well as the natural talents and time availability of members when deciding who should have access to posting.
Register a username for your Team.
Tweet away! Don't forget to interact with other members by responding to posts - engaging the people who are following you is a great way to really make the most of this medium. By starting a post with @(username), it's easy for a user to find replies intended for them, even if they're not currently following you.
Find more people through Twitter - You can try the search tool to search for terms related to your Team, and then you can network with people talking about similar topics to what you're posting about. If you have a little time to do some tweaking, you can try one of many third party tools for finding other members and organizing Twitter feeds, such as Tweetdeck.
Stand out from the crowd - If you're looking to spruce up your Team's Twitter account page, you might consider adding photos of some recently listed products as a background, under Design in your Account Settings.
Enjoy! Don't think of Twitter as a chore, a task or a major thing to do on a giant to-do list. Rather, when you find something interesting, or perhaps whenever you find something worthy of bookmarking, simply post it to your Twitter account. When you have spare moment after checking email or starting a new task online, simply take a minute to check your Twitterstream to reply back to your network! Incorporating Twitter into your daily habits is the best way to have success with this tool.
Do remember how useful Twitter can be for communicating in real time - Twitter is a great way to promote events, like Team Virtual Labs trunk shows or local events!

For more information, you can check RedPanda's informative post in the Etsy forums, this interview that WineNutNYC did with some Etsy sellers on successfully using Twitter to market, or this great article on 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business.

Find us at http://www.twitter.com/etsy and post in the comments with the link to your Twitter feed!

Team Tips are a weekly series of tips and ideas from the Etsy Teams. You can find more Resources at team.etsy.com. Etsy Teams are growing quickly, and we love that so many sellers want to join in to promote their shops, Teams and Etsy. For more information on Etsy Teams, check out the Teams pages and this page of Frequently Asked Questions. Don't forget to read our interview with this week's Featured Etsy Team. Keep up the great work, Etsy Teams!

Etsy in the Press: Fall Fling

2008-10-09T14:12:00Z

The air is crisp, and the stories about Etsy are fluttering about like leaves this fall. With so much bad news about the economy, it's not surprising that people are looking for new ways to do business. That's the premise to this story on CNN.com, and it's also about how the vision of Etsy is coming to fruition. The article chronicles Etsy's beginnings, mission, and also talks about our place in a changing economic landscape. It can be best summed up in its closing remark (incidentally, music to our ears), "If... we see a growth in craftspeople and artisans selling directly to the public, then the commerce of the future may bear an uncanny resemblance to that of the past."

Next, may we have a round of applause for Rob and Maria, who scored a one-two punch this month. Rob is on the cover of this month's Inc. magazine, in a story about the latest generation of young entrepreneurs. Besides, the business aspects of the story, there are few juicy tidbits about Rob's past. Maria has been named one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web by Business Week. She's in good company, joining the likes of Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and (my personal favorite) Jon Stewart. Congratulations are in order!

On the tech news side of things, The New York Times profiled Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, one of our early investors. The story takes an interesting look at the changes that have occurred in the venture industry, and also casts an eye on Etsy's early days. And as of today, that's all the news that's fit to print.

For more Etsy in the Press, go here!

Etsy Statistics: September, Still Sunny!

2008-10-08T17:03:00Z

I apologize for the delay in publishing these — we're working on revamping the information we send out and were hoping to have these changes in place for this month.

Here are September’s key numbers, all of which represent the highest total ever for their categories:

$7.93 million of goods sold — a 5% increase over August.
That represents 544,157 items sold, a 5.3% increase from August's stats.
911,191 new items were listed, up from 869,000 items last month, a 4.9% increase.
96,473, new members joined the Etsy community, including 18,001 new sellers. Both of these rates of new sellers and new buyers are essentially flat from last month.
344,000,000 page views were recorded on the site, a slight increase from August.

A few things to consider with these numbers: September has one less day than August, which makes a significant difference as we start having $300,000 sales days (that’s right — even in these tough economic times, we set a single day record on Sept 30th: $305,000!).

Thanks to everyone in the Etsy community for all of their hard work in September!

Curious about how other months compare? Check out our past Weather Reports for more statistics.

Holiday How-To: Top Ten Financial Tips for the Holiday Rush

2008-10-01T11:00:00Z

The Holidays are a busy time of the year for most people — parties, shopping, traveling, baking, and various errands. If you are a seller on Etsy, you have one more responsibility to add to that list . . . managing the holiday rush that is associated with your business.

I hope the holiday season for your business will be stress-free, enjoyable, and successful. Here are some tips to help you manage your shop's finances successfully during the holiday rush.

10. Remember Tax Time is Near—The Holidays approaching also means that it is almost the end of the year (including the tax year). Now is a good time to know what your taxable income or loss for your business will be for the year. Maybe you can plan on buying some last minute equipment or incur necessary business expenses that will benefit what you owe to the tax man. If you plan on using an accountant to help you with your taxes, now would be a good time to start talking to them. Accountants get very busy after the first of the year.

9. Intelligent Short Term Debt—Too much debt can kill your business faster than you can pull out your credit card. Sometimes taking a little debt on can be a risk that has rewards. If you think you have a product that is absolutely going to be the bright spot in every shopper's eye, but you don't have enough cash to buy the materials—short term debt might be for you. If you are already in debt, I suggest you not go in any deeper, but promote what you have for sale even harder.   Talk with someone you trust if you are unsure if you should take on the additional debt.

8. Make Your Advertising Dollar Work Hard—This is the time of year to advertise intelligently.   Customers are ready with vast supplies of dollar bills to hand out to thousands of sellers. You need to give your shop an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Look for promoting where you get the biggest bang for your advertising buck. Don't be afraid to ask for a "deal" when it comes to advertising on someone's website—the worst they can do is tell you is "no".

7. Inventory Management—Increased sales can put increased demand on your inventory. It might be beneficial to make sure that you have a ready supply of products to take the place of the items you sell. Also, make sure you have adequate supplies of raw materials on hand. Inventory problems can hamper your holiday success.

6. Avoid Cash Flow Nightmares—No one likes being short on cash, and it seems that during the holidays, this can be an easy predicament to be in. If you are going to have a lot of cash inflows and outflows in the coming months, you might benefit from looking when that money will come in and when it will go out. The biggest problem that comes from having a cash flow nightmare is the unwanted debt that it puts you in. Avoid confusing your business cash with your personal holiday spending money.

5. Everyone Loves a Sale—Tis the season for sales, promotions, and discounts. Many retailers offer customers incentives to buy from their store at this time of year—this method might benefit your shop as well. You don't have to sell yourself short though—make a profit and give your customers something to be happy with. A good transaction is when both the seller and the buyer feel like they came out well.

4. Cure Your Bookkeeping Headache—If you think your record keeping is out of control now, wait until the holiday rush is upon you. Don't hate yourself come tax time—devise a system of record keeping that works for you. You should be keeping track of your sales, expenses, and inventory at a bare minimum. If you don't feel comfortable with your method, you probably won't use it. Use paper and pencil, a spreadsheet, or keep it in your head if you are a mathematical genius.   Whatever you do—don't avoid it!

3. Budget Wisely—Don't go into the holiday season without a financial plan. Set some financial goals for your shop to achieve. Set some limits on your spending. Proceeding without a plan is like telling Santa you don't care what you get for Christmas—go ahead and make your list and check it twice!

2. Plan for Time Management—Time is a precious commodity and you probably don't want to just focus on your business during the holidays. Plan ahead and realize you can't do it all. Take some time to bake holiday cookies. Go for a walk in a winter wonderland. Snuggle up next to the fire and sing a carol. Your business is important, but there are plenty of things that are a lot more important.

1. Keep Your Sanity—No one can run a perfect business and anticipate everything that comes your way. Learn from your mistakes. If you make 1,000 sales in one day—great! If you make 1 sale in 3 months—great! The Holidays are an enjoyable time of year—don't let your success or lack of success determine the joy you experience during this time of the year.

I wish you a happy holiday season and may your business be blessed!

For more how-tos about selling, see the Seller Handbook.

Tech Update: More Info on Search & Categories

2008-09-24T13:12:00Z

Last week Etsy's new CTO, Chad Dickerson wrote an honest account of some of the technical challenges Etsy.com is currently facing, specifically in reference to the search function. In that article, Chad mentioned some new hardware and "other tweaks" to improve things. Many of you may be curious about what we're working on, how it's helping and how it will impact your ability to shop and sell on Etsy. So let's get right into the nitty gritty ...

New Hardware

Without getting into too many technical details, last week we added some new hardware with the goal of improving speed. We're happy to say so far it's helped, and some of our slowest queries more than doubled in speed. This is a great improvement, but still below our internal goals — which means there is more work ahead. The Engineers are continuing to monitor search speeds and page load times.

Simple Searches Redirect to Categories

Many shoppers use simple one-word searches, such as earrings or purse. Since there are several thousands of items that will match such a simple query, the current system gets bogged-down in an attempt to return all the possible results. To help alleviate that demand, we've begun automatically redirecting several one-word searches to the corresponding category or subcategory pages.

[ ABOVE: Screen shot of the Art category page. ]

As you may have noticed, we've already done this for terms like jewelry and art, and we will be adding more redirects as necessary. From a category page, shoppers can easily narrow the results by clicking subcategory links or searching within the category.

Limited Number of Search Terms (or "My nots are not working!")

Just as one-word searches can cause problems, too many terms in a search can be taxing on our current search structure. Therefore, we've limited the maximum number of terms available in a single search to seven. The current search system will return results based only on the first seven terms in an inquiry and simply ignore the rest.

[ ABOVE: Screen shot of the search results page for women dress -green -doll. ]

Unfortunately, "not" is counted as a term, so if you try to exclude several terms from a search, you are likely going to find that some of your "nots" weren't effective. The good news is that we've enabled the use of the minus sign (-) to work exactly like "not" in a search. The minus sign (-) does not count against the seven-word limit. For example, these searches should now produce identical results: women dress not green not doll and women dress -green -doll. We'll be updating our Search Tips sidebar and Search Help Guide with this info.

Batch Loading in Search and Categories

When you list an item on Etsy, there's a note that says it may take up to 24 hours for your item to appear in category and search pages. New, renewed and relisted items are posted in your shop immediately, but they are not added to search results and categories in real-time. Instead, Etsy adds items at regular intervals in batches to the category and search pages. This is a function of the mechanics of the master-slave database system Chad explained last week. Once loaded into the master database, items are replicated to "slave" databases. It takes some time for the data to be replicated; the technical term for this is "slave lag." This system is generally good for overall site performance (i.e., speed) and stability, but not so great for the instant gratification of sellers who want to see their items immediately appear at the top of their chosen categories.

Category pages and search results pages currently default to display the most recently listed items first. When there are many items being simultaneously listed, relisted and renewed it creates a traffic jam in some of Etsy's more populated categories. There could be dozens of items in a batch, however, each category and search result page on Etsy shows 21 items. This means some items could make their first appearance in a category on page two, or even farther back. Listing, relisting and renewing will place your item toward the front of a category, but not necessarily on page one and not instantaneously.

What Does This Mean For Sellers? (or "How will shoppers find my items?")

It's critical that sellers tag their items correctly. This will ensure that your items appear in the correct categories and subcategories. It will also make it easier for shoppers to find your items when they use specific multi-word searches. If you have items that fit equally well in more than one category, try placing some items in each category. For example, a potter could list one handmade ceramic bowl in the ceramics and pottery category and another one in housewares to have greater cross-category visibility. The articles on tagging in the Seller Handbook will help you determine the best way to tag your items so shoppers can find them.

So, is renewing for exposure worth the $0.20 if you don't land on page one each time? Ultimately, that's up to each seller to decide. While your item may not appear on page one for jewelry, it may be on page one of specific search for blue flower earrings or steampunk cufflinks or a specific subcategory page (like necklace within the jewelry category). Also, items still appear in other browsing features that function independently of the batch loading system, such as Time Machine 2, Recently Listed on the home page and Shop Local.

There are many ways to promote your Etsy shop on the site (Promotions Forum, Virtual Labs, Showcase) and through off-Etsy methods (blogs, advertising, etc). The best way to get customers into your shop is to target your own marketing. There's a wealth of information on advertising and marketing linked in the Seller Handbook. As an alternative to renewing to hit the top of a category, sellers may want to consider purchasing a Category Showcase spot. This is a one-day paid advertising spot displayed on the top of each page of a main category. To learn more about Showcase, check out 13.5 Questions about the Showcase and Showcase Deconstructed.

Looking Ahead

Chad and the Engineering Team are working on longer-term solutions to our current search issues. We don't want to disrupt site performance during the holiday shopping season, so in the meantime, the above measures are aimed at the goal of ensuring people can find and purchase the many incredible items available on Etsy.

We've closed commenting on this article. If you would like to comment, please join the discussion in this Forum thread.

The Numbers Game: Sales per Day

2008-09-24T11:20:00Z

Dear Sellers,

Let's continue the journey of listening to the stories that the numbers our Etsy shop tell us. As a review, a ratio is the story that two numbers tell when they are together. So far, we have explored a popularity ratio called the heart-to-sale ratio and a couple of inventory ratios. This week, we will explore a ratio concerning your shop's sales.

Sales Per Day Ratio:

The Sales Per Day Ratio tells us historically how many sales your shop has made per day that your shop has been open for business.

How to Calculate:

Sales Per Day Ratio = (Total sales you have made) divided by (The # of days your shop has been open)

You can find the number of sales you have made by looking on the right sidebar of your shop's homepage under other items. You can find how the # of days your shop has been open by first looking at your join date in the info section on the right sidebar of your shop (if you didn't start selling right away, you'll have to try to remember when that date was. Or you can go to your Etsy bill to see when you first listed an item). Go to this website and type in your join date as the start date, today's date as the end date, and then click the "calculate duration" button. The website will then tell you how many days your shop has been open. Find a calculator, and take the first number and divide by the second. The number you calculated is your Sales Per Day ratio.

This number tells you how many sales you make per day. If your number was 3.2, this means that you make about 3 sales per day

Fill your number into these sentences to get your interpretation:

Historically, I have made about _____ sales each day my shop has been open.

During any given day, I will make about _____ sales.

Predicting Your Next Sale:

Sometimes, ratios can attempt to make a forecast or prediction. Let's try to predict when you will get your next sale.

Next Sale Prediction = (One) divided by (Sales Per Day Ratio from above)

This ratio tells you an estimate of how many days you will have to wait until you receive your next sale. (Note: If it is a decimal, you can multiply that decimal by 24 and find out how many hours until your next sale and replace hours for days in the following interpretation).

Fill this number into the following sentences to get your interpretation:

Based on historical trends, I will get my next sale in about _____ days.

As a rough prediction, I will make a sale in about _____ days.

Variables to Consider:

There are quite a few things that could influence the results of your calculations, including the following:

You opened your shop a long time before you actually started selling products.
You have had major rushes on your products and/or extreme sales droughts.
Your sales are very sporadic.
Your sales come in clusters, where one customer buys multiple items.
You may have started or stopped an effective marketing or advertising push.

You can get a more accurate result if you use the date you really got serious about your business. You could also calculate this ratio for only one month at a time to get rid of seasonable variations. There are a host of variables and each shop should interpret their data in light of their shop's exact circumstances.

How to Use This Information:

These ratios can help us evaluate how your shop is doing and help you set goals. I use this ratio as a daily goal for my shop. Currently, I make about 2 sales per day. If I sell nothing or only one item, I know I am behind my average. If I sell two items in a day, I know I am having an average day. If I sell more than two items, I know I am having a pretty good sales day. (Of course, you need to take into consideration how much profit you make on an item and other variables as well). The prediction ratio can give us an estimate about when to expect our next sale. We can also set goals for how long it takes our shop to get our next sale and compare our actual results to our goal.

Final Thoughts:

Everyone loves getting a sale! It is fun and worthy of a happy dance. Next time you get a sale, remember—there is a numerical story behind that transaction. Until next time, keep crunching numbers!

For more how-tos about selling, see the Seller Handbook.

Holiday How-To: Sagittariusgallery's Top 10 Tips for Newbie Sellers

2008-09-18T11:25:00Z

Attention Newbie Sellers!

If you don't know Sagittariusgallery, you should. Not only a painter and an experienced seller, she takes it upon herself to share informative Newbie Guides on the forums (and on the Storque too — see here for her past posts). We invited her to list her Top 10 Crucial Holiday Rush Tips for Newbie Sellers.

The holiday season can be a maddening, glorious time for veteran sellers and newbies alike. For sellers who call the 2008 Holiday Season their first, it can be especially confusing, exciting, and stressful, not knowing what to expect and how to prepare. As a natural "fact finder" (not to mention online sales veteran of six years and Etsy seller since January 2007), I'm constantly looking for ways to make things more manageable, and of course, obsessively categorizing my findings and presenting them in countless forum threads ;)

So, without further ado, I present to you a list of 10 ways to make your life a little bit sweeter as a seller this Holiday season.

P.S. If you have your own helpful holiday tips, please feel free to share them in the comments! We're all in this together :)

1. Just because you post it, doesn't necessarily mean they will come. It is true that there is a "holiday rush" — but even the most successful Etsy businesses had to start somewhere. They needed to learn the ins and outs. They needed to advertise. They needed to learn their demographic, know their target audience...they had to teach themselves the marketing savvy they needed for their businesses to flourish. You need to figure out who you are selling to, find them, and bring them to you. Which brings me to....

2. Utilize targeted outside advertisement. It is up to us to bring potential customers to our storefronts. For example, several artists came together under AndyMathis' The Artist Collective and split the cost of a co-op ad in American Art Collector Magazine – our demographic. Know who your audience is and devise a marketing plan. You are directly responsible for your own success: Don't leave it to chance by dropping links everywhere without a plan. (See here for more advertising how-tos.)

3. Diversify your price points. Etsy has new buyers and sellers signing up every single minute of every single day, so there is no shortage of patrons for what it is you are offering. However, if you only offer products at one price point, you could be cutting out a big chunk of a viable customer base. As an artist, my originals are at a higher price point. I began offering prints of my work to be able to offer my artwork to a wider range of patrons who might not be in the market for a pricey original. My sister, a jewelry artist, offers lower priced earrings and zipper pulls as an alternative to her more expensive pieces utilizing higher end gemstones and metals. (See here for more pricing how-tos.)

4. Set certain times of the day or days of the week aside for certain tasks. Organization is key! For example, I ship on Tuesdays and Fridays. You might want to set aside certain days to ship, certain times of the day to check your email and respond to convos, etc. If it becomes a part of your routine, it becomes easier to keep it all under control. Budget your time accordingly and you'll be less pressed for time and end up less stressed at the end of the day. We all know stress kills productivity! (This post from a WAHM deals with organizing your work day.)

5. Have your shop policies clearly outlined and in order. During a busy retail season, it is wise to keep all pertinent information about your shop at your customer's fingertips. You need to account for the all important impulse purchases. It's not going to be an impulse purchase if a buyer needs to convo you and ask a question. Think of all of the questions you might ask a seller, and answer them within your shop, be it in the shop policies, profile, or the descriptions themselves. What courier do you use to ship your packages? What is your return policy? Do you offer expedited shipping? Do you offer multiple item discounts? Will you offer gift wrapping services? Would you consider sending the package straight to the gift recipient? Do you insure your items during transit? What about tracking? (See here for more policy how-tos.) Ahh...that brings me to another important tip....

6. Try to utilize courier pick up. USPS, FedEX, UPS and DHL all offer online shipping services. Don't want to stand in long post office lines this holiday season? Got a working printer with ink just begging to be used? This is the way to go. All you need is a postal scale (I got mine for 15 bucks on discount – just search online and you'll find them!). You can even order shipping supplies for free for Priority shipments through the Postal Service. (Remember, these free supplies are for Priority shipments only!) It's also important to remember that international shipments will still need to go to the post office directly, but having currier pick up for domestic packages is truly a time saver. (See here for more shipping how-tos.) Speaking of international shipments....

7. Offer international shipping! Etsy is an international site. If you are from the United States and only offer domestic shipping you are cutting out a huge customer base. Shipping internationally is not as scary as you might think. I know that is a big reason people end up holding back. Forms, rules, regulations: it seems daunting, I know. However, it's nothing to shy away from. If you have a question about a country's rules, USPS has a nifty area of their site where you can read up on what is and isn't acceptable as well as how much it will cost you to ship to any destination you choose. Bookmark it and pull it up anytime you have a question.

You can also go to your local post office and ask for a big stack of customs forms so you can fill them out at home instead of in one of the long lines at the post office. It saves time. I will say that the postal service is least expensive shipping option by far for international shipments. The rule of thumb: If it is under 78 inches when you add length and girth (you get the girth by wrapping the measuring tape around the package width wise), then you can send it through the post office to any international destination. Of course, it's important to consult your local post office if you have any questions. They are usually more than willing to help you out!

8. Expect the unexpected. You never know what could happen. Say you advertise in the right spot, a blog picks you up, you get featured, or you end up creating the "it item" for the Holiday season. Are you ready? Start preparation as early as you can to ensure you have enough stock, just in case. This is not to say everyone's shops are going to blow up with orders, but yours could. Plan accordingly.

9. Have a "stop date" in mind for shipping *and* custom orders. Keep in mind many people will be ordering closer and closer to Christmas for a special someone and will expect their gifts in time for the holiday. It might be best to put in your shop announcement the cut off date. With international purchases, it's important to remember that unless you send it guaranteed for a certain date delivery or express, there is no way you can guarantee that a purchase will be there on time. Be up front with your customers about what you can and cannot guarantee to them. They will appreciate it.

10. Last but not least, enjoy the time of year! Don't allow yourself to get overstressed and overworked. Only you know what you can handle. If you have too many custom orders and you've got a convo from someone about one more? Politely let them know you're booked, but appreciate their interest, and ask if you can put them on a waiting list. It's not rude to be upfront (but polite, of course!) that you already have enough on your plate. When you're stressed, it shows in your work — and you want to be able to give each piece (and customer!) the attention they deserve! We do this, after all, because it's what we love to do — and stress can make you want to tear your hair out and make you start to forget why you love what you're doing. Nobody wants that. So sit down, have a cup of cocoa in some cozy pj's, create something awesome and remember how cool it is to be doing what you do!

Read more how-tos for sellers. And post YOUR suggestions for newbie sellers in the comments below!