Etsy's Handmade Blog
Team Tip: Merchandising!
Story by daniellexo, EtsyTeams, sarawearsskirts
Published on November 10, 2008 in How-To 		Photo by

Anda Lewis Corrie

There are many benefits of joining an Etsy Team, including cross promotion among Team members.  With the holidays quickly approaching, joint merchandising and promotional efforts are a really great way members can help each other and boost overall sales — and help shoppers find those perfect holiday gifts. 

For example, take Leandogpottery's Labyrinth Soap Dish. She might include a link in the product description to fellow Team member savor's Tart - Olive Oil Soap, and mention what a lovely pair the two items would make for  a gift! 

Savor would do the same, including a link to Leandogpottery's soap dish in her item listing. Now, with a little teamwork from sellers, shoppers can easily find a great gift set within a modest gift budget.

 soapdish_soap.jpg
 Savor's Tart - Olive Oil Soap, $4.50 & Leandogpottery's Labyrinth Soap Dish, $13.00

Below are some other ideas for bundling, coupling, grouping, branding and merchandising items from your Team:

  • You can also pair items from your shop with other items in your shop - suggest coordinating items in listings.
  • Or you can include a link to a search for your Team's tag in your item listings to help shoppers find items they might like from shops of other Team members.
  • Use the Etsy mini to highlight great items from your Team on your blogs, social networking sites and other places on the web.
  • If you're primarily a buyer on Etsy, you can show support for your favorite Teams by including links to their Team tags in your Etsy profile.
  • To mix things up a bit, try occasionally Twittering or blogging about a Teammate's shop from your account - it's more fun and you'll get more attention that just talking about your own work all the time.
  • Many Teams find it useful to include a Team image as the last item image in an item listing - the image might have your Team's logo and a Team search tag, so shoppers can recognize items by a particular Team more easily. 
  • Organize a ring of links to your Teammates shops in your announcement. 
  • Follow the steps in this previous Team tip to promote your Team everywhere.

Teams are a wonderful way to work with your fellow sellers to accomplish more marketing than you could by yourself. By getting creative and doing some smart merchandising, you and your Team can work together to drive more traffic and increase sales for each other.

For more Team Tips, please check the Teams Resource page.  Also, we discuss the Team Tips, news and ideas in the Etsy Teams email list! Keep up the great work, Etsy Teams!

Tags branding, bundling, collaboration, cooperation, coupling, Etsy Teams, gift sets, ideas, item pairing, Leandogpottery, marketing, merchandising, savor, seller how-to, selling, soap, team tip, teamwork, team work
All articles in How-To
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31 comments     Login to add your own!

Nov. 10, 2008 at 1:57 p.m. etsyBABY

Wonderful helpful tips and advice! Thank you Sara & Danielle!!!

Nov. 10, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. sassalynne

Joining a team was the bbest thing I did since I joined Etsy. I can't recommend it enoug.

Nov. 10, 2008 at 1:59 p.m. GoldtoneDesigns

Great Article!!!!
Jen
EtsyBABY Team Leader

Nov. 10, 2008 at 2:01 p.m. myzoetrope

Oooh, that soap dish! Great article and advice.

Nov. 10, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. EJPcreations

Hedgehogs in love are the cutest thing in the world!!!! I need them!

Nov. 10, 2008 at 3:23 p.m. autumnsarrival

Great article & great tips!

Nov. 10, 2008 at 4:04 p.m. JustJaynes

We have the team ring of links going for ESST and are in the process of setting it up for EtsyWMI, too!

Nov. 10, 2008 at 4:07 p.m. ronniegunn

Always, thanks for the help Etsy folks. Gotta find a team gotta make a blog and gotta twitter.

Nov. 10, 2008 at 4:58 p.m. LazyTcrochet

Great tips!

Nov. 10, 2008 at 6:29 p.m. theqstore

Great tips and ideas! I am excited to try them all. Etsy is fab as can be expected. Thank you tons.

Nov. 10, 2008 at 6:46 p.m. sarahcruse

Ooo Good I am learning more great stuff about Etsy all the time! I want to be on a team!

Nov. 10, 2008 at 9:36 p.m. JewelryByIrene

Great article! Will think about joining one! Lots of information. Thanks! Irene

Nov. 10, 2008 at 11:20 p.m. tinygreenapples

Great tips and great Mugs!

Nov. 11, 2008 at 12:22 a.m. MeadowbelleVintage

I think teams are a great idea, and a wonderful way to help buyers find just the right item they're looking for.

Nov. 11, 2008 at 1:32 a.m. LegendaryTigerHero

Cool! Who wants to buddy up with me?

Nov. 11, 2008 at 1:40 a.m. sycamoreboutique

Great article, great concept.

I knew I was missing something by not checking in more often.

Do we have to create our own teams to belong to one ??

Need to figure out how this is done and find a complimentary seller.

Nov. 11, 2008 at 10:35 a.m. LaurenFaythe

Thank you! Very helpful! Just having opened a shop, I realize I need some support. After I just read this, I started checking into the teams.

Nov. 11, 2008 at 12:19 p.m. DonnasBeadDesigns

Hi! I just joined Etsy this weekend a listed a few of my many beaded jewelry designs & just found this! I was thinking I could link up with crafters selling clothing & accessories-anyone game? But I don't know how to yet! Hope it's easy!

Nov. 11, 2008 at 12:31 p.m. sarahlbauder

This was a great help. Thank you so much for writing this. Not only do you help your own store, but its nice to give help to another, especially in this season of giving that's approaching. :)

Thanks again!

Nov. 11, 2008 at 12:32 p.m. aslibinal

I actually tried to join some teams, but they never got back to me :( I feel like the kid sitting alone at the lunch table -waaaah...must try harder!

Nov. 11, 2008 at 1:01 p.m. LindaGJ

Joining the team: Etsy Texas Crafters (ETC) had helped me in so many ways, including organizing our own little team here in Houston. We are able to pitch in for booths at Fests, and also we realy help inspire each other & I'm making new wonderful friends as well. I list a lot of items on my flickr space as well, and when I make treasuries or am in one, I post them to Flickr and also post all the artist's shops that are included in the Treasury for added promotion for them! You can see this on my flickr page: http://www.Flickr.com/VisualSmilesGal... but you will have to sign in I think to see all the shops listed in my details. Even when I buy an item from Etsy, I list their shop to go check out and that has brought in many buyers for them!
Great advice from yall!!!
Thank you!
Linda

Nov. 11, 2008 at 1:13 p.m. signsofmylife

great idea! does anyone want to team up with me?
i'm open for suggestions and creative imput, constructive criticism...i would LoVe to meet some more new creative people!

Nov. 11, 2008 at 3:11 p.m. parrott

Interesting. Thanks for the article.

Nov. 11, 2008 at 5:29 p.m. dordlor

I definitely want to be a part of a team. Etsy is a great place and I am doing anything that I can think of to spread the word about how much unrecognized talent there is and how etsy is doing a great job to highlight it.

Nov. 12, 2008 at 4:11 a.m. beesandbacon

i appreciate the tips and support you guys are grandular!

Nov. 12, 2008 at 12:49 p.m. minniesheart

I'm off to see about joining an Etsy team!

Nov. 13, 2008 at 4:16 p.m. traceygarciadesigns

These tips are great! I am part of the Design Style Guide team which features things for the home and interior design items. It is so helpful. I would really recommend for everyone to find a team that suits what they sell. I will try to team up with some people now-that might help me with sales and getting "known".

Nov. 18, 2008 at 7:07 p.m. HModine

Another area that I just never thought to do...cross promoting. WOW! All your tips are a huge help!

Nov. 20, 2008 at 11:13 a.m. cintillajewelry

I need a full day just to go over all the great tips provided by Etsy!!!

Nov. 27, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. shujayat

Hi Buddy.
Randomly browsing the good blogs, I went to yours. Truly speaking, I'm here to promote my innovations, my services, my links.
Well, I'm a 20-something guy running a 2-years old creative technology company, SkoolsOnline Technologies. Literally, as the name suggests, we are focussed on Education but our primary aim is to help Start-Ups acheive their goals, their dreams with the help of services and those of our alliances.

We're into Creative branding, Applications development, Data mining, Online promotion and content development. All with an innovative edge and focussed on Start-Ups. Why dont you visit our site, http://www.skoolsonline.com and have a look yourself. Perhaps, we could of any help to you.

Honestly, it's a spam! But I hope it doesn' matter much to you. In fact, It's a good addition to your comments. Well, it's upto you if you accept it or not.
Many thanks buddy.

March 27, 2009 at 5:40 p.m. gibson3798

Thanks so much for the tips. I NEED them.

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