Considering the wide range of items offered here, in terms of type and price, my question might be a bit tricky to answer, but…what sort of price-range(s) are buyers tending to go for?
Is it the under-a-tenner category, or middle of the road £20-50’s?
Quietly looking around last night on here, I saw a number of sellers had reduced their prices on items that, to be fair, I would have thought might have sold easily enough at their original offering.
Assuming that people have less money in their pockets now to spend on “nice” things, and it isn’t going to get any easier.
This is a hard one and only the seller will know what is right for them. I do not do sales as does not eat or drink and sometimes can come over as desperate. Does depend on the circumstance though.
My average sale is anything from £3 to £50 per item. Have had multiple orders for nearer £100.I think depends on what your customer ps want to buy and if you make what they want. My style, I have been told is distinctive, people can see something I have made and know it was by me. That has taken years to perfect mind you and I am known for vintage styling, hence that is the customer I attract. A modern preference would just get passed by but that is fine as a p,ace for all styles.
I agree money is tighter but if someone wants something enough they will pay the asking price. Reducing allowing for Folksy Fees, PayPal fees, price of supplies could end up out of pocket. As said there every one runs their business how they want and mine is to charge proper prices and still get the sales.
My main sellers are my artist bears ranging from £65 to £100 plus.
I have cheaper ranges starting at £20 up to £35 but as I said my biggest sellers are my bears so high end, mainly collectors but some do buy for gifts as well. My cheaper items are mainly bought as gifts.
I currently have a few pieces reduced but they are mainly ones that I want to clear, some are things that were a range that I won’t be continuing, Some are the oldest items in a collection or occasionally an item that I didn’t feel had as much detail as others in the same range.
I think it varies from shop to shop. I look at my shop and if I don’t feel happy with it i might reduce a few to clear them. To be honest it doesn’t make any difference, my collectors buy when they see them if they love it and it could be £120, if there’s one in the sale those customers rarely buy it as they would have bought it when it first went on if they had wanted it. I was going to take some items out of my shop that I don’t feel fit now but I reduced them instead, I can lose out with a sale item but better than it sitting in a cupboard at least the costs are covered and a happy customer if they get a bargain.
I know there are shops that must be losing out with their prices especially when they have sales as well
OK…it’s just I am still in the mode of trying to “pitch” my items and prices into suitable categories. I’ve not got a huge number of items right now, but I’ve only been on here a few months anyway. Maybe I need more “themes”, I notice this seems to be quite a strong feature on here and requires me maybe to think a bit sideways from my usual output of images.
I have small original artworks and also some cards, aimed at the lower end of the prices; with a few others at the higher end; am trying to monitor what people view, via the stats, and get a feel for their preferences. It’s coming…but is still not too clear.
Many thanks for your input, though, it does help.
It is hard to guage sometimes, the customers
that buy the majority of my artist bears on here have been following and buying from me the past maybe 4 years or so, I do get sales from newcomers as well but my biggest values go to return customers. None of those were customers previously to me joining Folksy and starting on instagram. My Smaller items that are bought as gifts are mainly between £19 to £35 and £40 for kits. It is difficult knowing what you should stock, when I joined I only made my artist bears and asked similar questions, a lot of people recommended I make some affordable items for my shop as well so I did. Then i worried that I should have stuck with the bears as that was what i was known for, but I think after a few years on here people recognise my work now whethwr it’s the bears or smaller embroidered collections. I am currently spending more time on bears again as I don’t want them to get lost amongst the smaller items or to lose being a bear artist. Perhaps try a few different price points if possible and then review it at the end of fhe year. I always look back in April over the previois years sales to see what my biggest sellers are and if there’s anything that isn’t working but I do think it takes a while to be able to montior it. I don’t think you need lots of different collections, I think if you have your own style once you have a few sales and repeat customers they will start to recognise your work and particular style. As @caroleecrafts crafts mentioned, she has her own vintage styling and her work is easily recognised, mine is similar with lots of detail and influenced by victoriana and heritage styling, again my work is recongisable, a lot of the sellers that do well on here have a niche product or style.
I am also going to introduce some cards after christmas hopefully with a few bear images taken from my photos, hopefully then I will have some affordable pieces in my shop as well.
Yes…guess I’ll just keep producing and re-arranging things; cards so far have been a flop in my section; might try a few prints of some larger work I have at home…try anything, I guess, till it hits the buzzer for someone
Just a suggestion Chris, your painting if food add the tag Kitchen Art and maybe a separate section by room. When I was looking for prints for the kitchen search for kitchen art, kitchen, food prep etc. Try to think how people would search and often when looking will go for a particular room. Hope that makes sense, tired so may be a load of rubbish.
Thanks CC…I confess I have considerable difficulty trying to think like the majority of buyers…(I’m an oddball)…must try harder; and I don’t actually hang artwork in my kitchen so would probably never have thought of it…
You have some beautiful work I especially love your Autumn painting with the reflection of the trees on the lake, your shop looks lovely. Yes some larger prints may work as well.
Agree with Debby your Autumnal work is lovely. Why not do a board of the Autumn ones, add your logo in the middle along with on Folksy and post on Insta and Facebook. Similar to the Filjsy FridY boards but just if your own work. Try to post to fb and Insta everyday. I schedule through the FB business suite and currently have lists scheduled up to 5/9.
Do you have a Pinterest account? Again if not open one I use the business one and again post everyday to consider with my scheduled listing. My impressions on there are currently running at about 23k per rolling month.
Please as, if unsure about anything we are always happy to help you and push you in the right direction. I have been on here about 10/12 years but been selling on my own site and craft fairs since about 1982.
Cards are pretty much all I paint now and even at the price I charge I can’t say they sell well, if I reduced my prices I’d be selling at a loss.
I’d say it does take time and effort to start getting sales here and for me you definitely get back what you put in in terms of time promoting yourself, I’d say most if not all of my sales in the last year have been from repeat customers too, I get very few new customers.
I honestly don’t think that art sells well on here and I’ve no idea why, if anyone has the answer I’d love to know.
S’funny re art not selling too well on here; I estimated that by placing smaller artwork it might catch the attention of people who went for crafty items as opposed to huge canvasses. I’ve had stuff on some of the online art galleries in the past, sadly two of the best ones decided to close down after over a decade and the remainder charge an absolute packet on commission (35 to 50%)…still with poor results.
I’m not going to sweat too much on it but take all your ideas in hand and just tickle along…