I have 2 shops, one here, one on another Craft Shop site. I put different stock in each one. I find it quite straightforward once it’s all set up but I find the social media side of having 2 shops a bit hard!
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I run 2 shops on the other side. I have pretty much the same Bimble Bird items but combine some pieces from my 2nd shop from the other side into my shop here. I thought it would be best of both worlds, but unfortunately it hasn’t worked out that way. I do sometimes charge more on the other side as they are so greedy with their extra/hidden charges etc. If you were selling a lot, it would be a nightmare to keep up with deleting items from another shop once sold. Fortunately (?!!) that’s not been an issue for me!
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I guess anyone with slow sales will be quick to join in this thread, which makes it look like no-one is getting sales here, but my shop is doing ok. The only reason I had very few sales earlier this year was because I didn’t do any promotion. About a month ago I got back into the swing of things and have plenty of sales. Don’t give up hope!
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Hi. Since posting on this thread last week re slow sales, I have had 5 new orders, so fingers crossed it picks up for everyone in the run-up to Christmas
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maybe things will pick up for me and I wont have to open another shop. The hidden costs are a bit off putting too 
plus I really do love Folksy 
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yes I was thinking different items in each shop, if it actually comes to opening another one , and as you say the social media is very hard to keep up with at times.
No sales for me yet, not sure what to do.
I am plodding along, also get sales from promotions on facebook, insta, pin etc. When I slow down on sm the sales slow down too.
The daily forum challenge is good you have to commit to visiting all the items listed and love the item on the sellers page. All the other sections are worth using, this month have been bad and not bothered.
Effort is what it takes, hard but needs must.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling rather discouraged! To be honest I have never had many sales here and when I mention Folksy to people (even other crafters) they’ve never heard of it! When I’ve been searching for handmade crafts on Google Folksy never appears in the search results. So I do wonder if I’m wasting my time here. I used to do better at craft fairs but I can’t travel to them now. I’ve been exploring setting up an E**y shop but it’s all a bit confusing, potentially expensive - I would have to raise my prices there to cover their costs, and as someone else said I’d feel like a very tiny fish in a great big ocean! I appreciate that at the moment people are having to watch their spending, perhaps there will be an improvement as we get closer to Christmas. I hope so as most of my stock is seasonal! Last year I put some Christmas stockings in a local shop and whilst people liked the uniqueness and quality they quibbled over the prices. So if I don’t sell my Christmas stock this year it will probably go on the bonfire and I’ll just give up trying to sell anything!! Sad because I love making things but there’s little point in just keeping them all. And on that depressing thought I’ll go back to my sewing. Good luck everyone!
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Yay! Good news! Blow some fairy dust our way please?!
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I do join some of the daily threads here but I gave up on the daily listing challenge. While I got a lot of favourites, it never improved sales (at least not for me) and it was quite a lot of work. Maybe will try there again, it is nice to connect with other sellers on there.x😊
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My ‘other’ shop combines all that I do into one shop, I do very well. Last month I met all the criteria for their star seller programme. Not that that is something particularly wonderful but it does show that I’m doing well with sales I’m very sad I don’t do so well here, because Folksy deserves to have a much higher profile. It’s the better site in many ways.
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The variance in prices is the irony here. Over there I have hike up my prices, yet the same items over here at a lower price, just don’t sell. Which makes me think that what lets Folksy down is their lack of promotion.
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I have been working hard to improve my shop listings. It is very hard to get any feed back on whether for the better. As an artist I wonder if this is a place to try selling paintings and prints.
I feel Etsy got too big for their boots . I used to do well on there many moons ago. I think they had a few years head start on Folksy so people got established on there. I made many friends on there and we still keep in touch , we all did well but one by one we all found other ways of selling.
Folksy are not greedy with their commission and I feel if it was promoted more then it would get more and more popular.A television advert showing images of what we see on the Homepage would be good… especially now with Christmas around the corner. I like something different so my go to places have always been Etsy or Not on the High Street but I think Folksy are hot on their heels
Tv ads cost approx £5k and go up if at prime time. Not sure Folksy charge us enough for that.
But if the business grew then it would be to their advantage surely? It was just a thought, off the top of my head, I hadn’t thought too deeply about it.
It would be down to cost, Folksy is small compared to the others. Noths is expensive to join and with the commissions can afford to do tv adverts. The other side again is huge and funds are not a problem. If Folksy asked everyone to contribute £100 each to advertise know there would be a lot of people who would not do it or have the funds. Then you have the predicament that only those that can pay and grudges set in.
There is nothing stopping individuals buying advertising for their own shops on fb etc.
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The business has grown. Those of us who have sold on Folksy for many years have seen how much it’s grown 
Think of Folksy as being a high street, and you’re renting a shop front there. Those shops do their own advertising to bring people in, and also get some passing trade from people visiting other shops. The ‘rent’ on Folksy is incredibly cheap in comparison, we can be open every day, 24\7, what’s not to love?
Yes, Etsy is bigger, like a huge shopping centre, but the quality isn’t there any more. Yes, they can afford to advertise, but to be honest, there is so much competition over there that sellers still have to do their own advertising to get customers to actually find their shops.
Whatever business a person runs, and wherever they sell, they have to be responsible for their own advertising - it’s part and parcel of running a business.
It’s no good blaming your ‘landlord’ if you’re not making sales. You couldn’t do that in a bricks and mortar shop, so why do it online? Plus the people (not robots, but people with feelings) can see all of these negative comments, and it must hurt them.
Let’s all try and promote not just our own shops but Folksy as a whole site! That way we can keep the site growing every year, and help ourselves grow our businesses too.
Hope that didn’t sound too much like a rant, but negativity breeds negativity, and sometimes you’ve just got to look at things from a different point of view.
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Sorry I didn’t realise I was being negative… I just suggested on another thread that I would like to put a Folksy sticker in my car window if they were available…. And yes I do agree with you that you only get out what you put into something .Luck is hard work. I like what you have said there it certainly makes sense.
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