Hi Folksy sellers. I need a little advice please. I’ve photographed my items as best as I can with natural light (I’ve chased it all around the house) and on the backgrounds and props that show up my work and I think they and my shop look good overall, but I’m still not getting any sales. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? Any tips & suggestions will be very welcome.
Thank you for looking.
Karen
2 Likes
Your pieces are beautiful (I love the hare pendant)
but the first thing I notice is that you have no social media. I see you have IG but no followers and the posts I am seeing on my laptop are all shop items. No words, tags to invite people in so nobody is going to see them.
You do need to promote yourself.
I would not add the FREE UK POSTAGE to your titles, especially in capitals. If somebody wants to buy from you they will, the postage being free will not make any difference and the titles look better without the suffix.
Also you would be better to lose one of your 7 categories. It loolks so much neater to have a single line of 6 and you only have one cross in your crosses section so could probably just put that in one of the others.
Thinking about the hare pendant those actual words are right near the end of your title. It is unlikely to be found on a Google search for a hare pendant. Try moving the important words to the front. After all there are more people searching on Google for gifts than on Folksy and if Google finds you then a customer will then get to you on Folksy 
Your shop announcement says November sale , maybe keep that up to date.
Hope these snippets help. (I do love the hare )
Are you selling elsewhere ?
3 Likes
your work is beautiful and your photos are fine…for me personally they are out of my league price wise. Sadly a lot of people are counting their pennies right now, so higher priced items are more difficult to sell. x
1 Like
Hi Joy
Many thanks for your reply and ideas. I’ve been trying to remember to put things on instagram, but I tend to shy away from facebook and other things like that as I’m not a great fan of them, but is that the main problem do you think? I’ll definitely lose a category, that makes sense especially as I was going to add more, and I’ll re-arrange my titles and lose the postage bit and update the sale notice. The only other selling I do is from commissions.
I’m glad you like the hare, I’ve a silver & gold one to put on this week.
Thanks again for your help Joy.
Kindest regards
Karen
1 Like
Hi Brenda
Many thanks for your reply. Yes, pricing is a tricky thing isn’t it, I will have some cheaper items in my shop next week, but your comment will make me think of different quicker ways of making, so thank you for that.
Thank you for your lovely comments about my work and the photos.
Kindest regards
Karen
1 Like
The photos look good.In my opinion it is not the fault of the photos and the difficult time for everyone.The same is with me.Each of my thumbnails is a month of work and after a few months I have only one sale…
1 Like
As another jeweller I will echo what Brenda said - people are watching their spending. I was listening in to a talk between Folksy and Craftscouncil and they were saying that at a recent craft event items under £50 still did ok and items over £300 did OK but the price point in between struggled.
My suggestion on what you could improve are your tags - these need to be phrases that people will put into the search box. So tags like ‘chasing’ or ‘anniversaries’ aren’t going to perform well in the search - tags like ‘golden wedding anniversary’ will perform better. Your top key phrase (what ever you think that will be) should also be at the beginning of the title and in the first line of the description.
Good luck, you have some beautiful pieces.
1 Like
Hi Sasha. Many thanks for your advice, it’s very interesting, I’m learning a lot so I’m glad I asked for help. Clearly, I have a lot of tweaking to do.
Thank you also for your kind words re: my work, that means a lot from another jeweller. I love your work too, those stones are beautifully set.
Thanks again.
Karen
2 Likes
Hi George. Thank you for your reply. It’s a tricky time isn’t it; the postal strikes don’t help either do they. I love your work, it’s so intricate and so interesting so I wish you all the best with future sales. I have to say that I think I should have stocked my shop months ago and asked for help then. Still, you live and learn.
Best wishes
Karen
2 Likes
You create fabulous work which speaks for itself BUT I think you need to go back to basics when it comes to selling online. It’s the eternal battle between being creative and getting to grips with the commercial side of a business not only do you have to be a good artist but you also need to be hot on marketing and selling which I think is your problem. It will take time but you need to build certain areas of your shop. Using the right titles, descriptions, tags and key words are very important (your photos are great) so have a look at the folksy guides on line and find out what you need to include (or lose). Next social media is also very important - you have to ‘drive’ traffic to your store. I would suggest using Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram - again read up about how you can use these vehicles to ‘showcase’ your products and encourage potential customers to visit your shop (I’m not great at this area either but have seen increased sales as I get better at using Social Media) On the subject of pricing - it’s true that higher prices limit your customer base but this is all the more reason to understand and target your potential customers. Although many people are watching budgets there are still lots of wealthy people who want to buy ‘high value artisan items’. I’m afraid selling online is also a waiting game - very few people get rich from ‘art’ but with patience, hard work and planning you should get sales. Use these ‘quiet times’ to get to grips with selling your work online and bear in mind that even when you’re not selling you may be getting noticed and building a following which will probably pay dividends at some future date. I regard Folksy more as a showcase and a brilliant resource and source of information and encouragement - I don’t sell much on Folksy directly but since joining there has been a significant pay out in terms of increased sales elsewhere all indirectly linked to Folksy. Hope this helps and good luck.
2 Likes
Hi Anna. Many thanks for all your tips, they’re greatly appreciated. I know social media is my downfall, (I blame all the worlds ills on it), guess I’m just not patient enough to spend that amount of time in front of a computer when I could be in my workshop. I will try though, I do try to put stuff on Pinterest, I like Pinterest, it was a great source of inspiration when I did my degree. I’m taking on board everything everyone has said, and all the tips given. It’s been so useful to ask for help, wish I’d done it long ago. So, I have my tasks all set for the weekend now (after I’ve finished a couple of commissions) and hopefully I shall eventually have sales. Thanks again for all your help, your work is really beautiful by the way and thank you also for the kind words regarding my work.
Take care
Karen
1 Like
My pleasure Karen @KarenStottJewellery - hope it helps.
Hello,
I have had a look at your shop and the jewellery is amazing and unique. A lot of your pieces are high end and it maybe due to difficult times you are not getting sales. Is it possible to make a few affordable items with cheaper materials to generate interest. This may help traffic to your site………I also agree with others you need to use social media. Try Facebook first and join folksy face page just to get started.
Good luck!
2 Likes
Hello. Thank you for your reply and kind words regarding my work, it’s much appreciated. Thank you also for your suggestions, I’ve just this week been making some more affordable items in bronze, copper & pewter which I just need to photograph now, so we’ll see how they go, and I’ll try to remember to pin them. I do have a great aversion to Facebook, so it’ll be a while before I can bring myself to use it, however I didn’t know about the folksy face page, so, I’ll check that out. Looks like I have a busy weekend ahead of me.
I’ve looked at your shop and your tealights are beautiful and, it so happens that I’m making some tealight holders which need some lovely tealights, so I shall be ordering some to go with them.
Thanks again for your help.
Karen
Hi,
Please let me know when you list your Tealight holders, I would be interested.
Try the folksy Facebook page it’s good to get exposure and get to know other members.
1 Like
Hi, yes, I will do, they need a bit more work yet but aren’t too far off.
I’ll definitely try the folksy Facebook page, I had a look yesterday and somehow, I had already managed to put a pair of earrings on it, though I don’t remember doing it.
Take care & have a lovely weekend.
Karen
Your prices are really reasonable especially for the work that you have had to do to create your pieces. It’s not a pricing issue as silver and copper is expensive and the time it takes to make them.
On a photograph point I would try keep the background similar to make your shopfront look good as a whole. By that I mean some have red material in background while others have different set up. Photographing silver is extremely hard due to the reflection. There’s some of your pictures look blurred to me for example the seed pod and the silver spoon. Your work is good and the most difficult part is capturing how good it does look so people will part with there money. It’s a hard competitive business to be in and to stand out against the competition.
I have a lot to look at and sort out in my own shop so I’m speaking to myself also.
You’re work is great so that’s not the issue. It’s a complex issue to work through and as others have said social media plays a big part and I also hate that I have to do that too unfortunately especially when the rules and algorithms are always changing
Hi Adrienne
Many thanks for your advice. Looking at my backgrounds, I’ve found it very hard to get the right light around the house, so I’ve chosen the backgrounds that best suit the item and the light at the time, they don’t all show up on the same background unfortunately, as you say silver is very difficult to photograph, I have a photographic qualification and I cannot do silver justice most of the time but then as I was a medical photographer it’s not really surprising, bodies are easy silver isn’t. I do know someone that is an expert at photographing silver but he’s in Cornwall and to use him, much as I would love to would put my prices up too high. Your tips have made me think about it in more depth though and I’ve decided to leave my backgrounds as they are for the moment, but I’ve shuffled the images around so that all the same backgrounds are together. I think my shop looks a lot better now. I’ve taken on board what people have been saying re: social media and I’ve been putting things on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. I can’t say it’s my favourite way of spending time as it takes me away from my bench but if I have to do it I will, I can’t say that I’m going to tell people all about my life, but my work will be shown. I shall re-photograph some of my work, as you say some are not quite sharp enough. Your work is beautiful by the way and your shop looks stunning. So, thanks again for the advice, hope you sell loads in the coming year. Karen
Just a heartfelt thank you to all who replied to my question and for all the great tips & advice you gave me. So, with your help I think I’m now on the way to sorting my shop out and already I feel it looks better, I’m feeling hopeful and inspired for 2023.
Happy New Year to you all and thanks again.
Karen
3 Likes