A question for shop owners on that other platform

Hi, I’m currently in the process of starting my shop on Folksy, listing my creations one a day. I have had a shop on Etsy for just over a year and almost all of my stock is listed there. My question for those who have a shop on both sites is; is it OK or even desirable to list items in both shops at once? I have taken notice of the warning on Folksy so titles and descriptions are worded slightly differently but I’ve used the same photos and similar tags.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

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Hi Mick if you are making custom items then I don’t see the problem. If not I would always have that worry in my head that two people are going to buy the same item…one on E$$$ and one on Folksy…at the exact same time :crazy_face: Your items, photos etc are great by the way!

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I have the same items on both, just have to remember to quickly delete items when sold. my sales are not that frequent, so it’s not too much of a worry.

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Hi Mick. I’ve had one of a kind items listed on both for a couple of years and it’s never happened yet that the same thing has sold simultaneously. Like @DeborahJonesJewellery says , I don’t sell loads but I think you’d have to be very unlucky (or lucky?) to sell the same thing at the exact same time. I think it’s worth the risk of cancelling a sale, apologising to a customer and telling them it’s sold out if it happens. After all, people also sell at fairs etc. If you immediately remove that item from the other shop when sold, you should be OK. Good luck with your shop.:blush:

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I have the same items listed on both. I always have my phone with me so can quickly delete if I sale but as others have said, I don’t sell loads anyway so not really a problem.

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I was going to just list the same items but in the end I decided to make additional - mostly the same or similar items. I decided to focus on specific products which I can take with me when I’m away from home so I don’t need to close or adjust the shop and to build it up gradually (has been more gradual than intended!).

I was worried I’d get mixed up and forget to delete a sold listing but as long as you keep on top of it there’s not much risk of someone buying the same thing from both platforms and if it did happen I’m sure you could explain to them and offer a positive solution.

I put details of both shops in with packages when I send them in the hope of cross marketing. I have had one customer who did buy from both my shops within a day - tho reckon they maybe found their way there via Instagram as they wouldn’t have had the first item yet. They bought a different style however even in this instance I would still have had time to delete any duplicate items (if there had been any).

Good luck with it :grinning:

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When I sell something elsewhere then I mark it with a prefix SOLD in the title and zeroise the quantity. This makes it easier for me to spot later as sold elsewhere :slight_smile:

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Thank you all for the helpful replies, compliments and good wishes, the forum here is so much friendlier than that other one… You do need a tin hat in there!
I don’t anticipate a flood of sales here (or Et$y for that matter) so I don’t think there will be much chance of selling the same thing twice inside an hour or two, though there are good solutions offered here should that happen!
@Bimblebird - I do also sell at craft markets and fairs, in fact that is where the large majority of my sales happen, so I am used to quickly deactivating listings ‘on the hoof’ when I sell them at such events, I’ll just get on my phone and knock them off two sites instead of one.
I don’t really have enough stock to keep two shops going without duplication, @feelfeltfound, in fact I sometimes struggle to get my stock levels back up after a successful fair.
So, all things considered, I will list eligible items on both sites for now, though it is my aim to escape from Et$y in the long term. Thank you all so much for your advice!

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I’m on both Etsy and here, and I sell lots of different items to what I have here, as I don’t just make stained glass. But sometimes wires cross and I’ll sell items that I have listed here. Never had a problem, so long as you’re on the ball with your sales etc. I find it’s a lot easier to have all my work on one shop, which is what I have on Etsy, but I tend not to do that on here. And with Etsy now regularly advertising on TV in the UK with the run up to Christmas, it’s a good time to sell on there.

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That’s happened to me a couple of times lol panic stations producing a duplicate !:woozy_face:

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yes that’s what I do take my phone with me and immediately remove any ’ craft fair sales’

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We list everywhere possible to promote our business.
The other place for two years was dead.
Now we sell regular on all links.
It’s persistence that helps.
It’s not about your products you sell.
It’s more about what customers are searching for.
Keep checking you use ALL 13 Tags.
Make sure your title is as short but accurate as you can make it.

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I have been on the other site for a few years, and was achieving about 6 sales a year. I discovered Folksy just over a year ago. The fact that Folksy is UK only makers really appealed to me, whereas the other site is full of lots of other kinds of sellers, not only makers, and from all over the World, so potentially much more difficult to get noticed. I now have items listed on both sites, more here on Folksy than the other one, some duplicated. If Folksy takes off for me in the way I hope it will then I will consider closing my shop on the other site, but not at the moment. I think being noticed, selling on multiple sites, is a good thing because customers have their preferences regarding who they will shop with, or where, online. And as someone else said, you can always put a flyer in with any sales from one shop to promote the other if you have different things on each site.

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Hi @ChocolimeAndSunshine thanks for your input, our reasoning and our aims seem much the same, a UK based platform really does appeal to me and my creations on the other site are buried under tons of mass produced Chinese offerings - at a price I couldn’t buy the electrical parts for…