I know what you mean becaus i am there under ‘tarot’ and ‘palmistry’ both of whoch I love but they are worlds apart from the items I make and sell in my shop which are bears, rabbits etc.
It doesnt make sense at all I still think there has to be a bug or something.
My biggest customer on Folksy ordered an item today, I messaged her and asked if she had used the search…her answer was this,
" i only buy from you on Folksy, I don’t look for anything else as I don"t like the site, I buy a lot from E.. I only buy from you on there because you don’t sell anywhere else."
This is a customer who has spent thousands in my shop who originally found me on Instagram. I havn’t asked her the whys or wherfors of why she doesn’t shop on here but she just said she goes straight to my shop.
I know for a fact my repeat customers will not go to the search and leave feedback.
I think this is the whole point. I’m pretty sure that many of Folksy’s most successful sellers (such as yourself Debby) are the engineers of their own sales success and direct their own traffic. Folksy would be in a worse place without them but they are still entitled to a search facility that is capable of generating some views. I’m a great believer that’s it’s down to the seller to convert the sale, but if there aren’t any views, there is nothing to convert. At the moment many of us aren’t being found.
@teabreaks Your shop comes up with a search for “Money” though
The randomness of it all would be quite amusing if we weren’t all now paying for something we never agreed to buy !
I just searched listings for Frog Suncatcher. There are only a few, 4 in fact, and yes they did appear but note, as a discerning customer, I know what i want and what i am looking for.
If I search for Frog suncatcher that astonishingly is what I want. In this case as a discerning customer I obviously know much better than Folksy what i want and I don’t need to be shown those 4 frog suncatchers in a hodge podge display of randomly shaped and sized boxes so they are difficult to pick out among the other 332 non Frog Suncatchers spread across 7 pages. Plus 7 incidences of in your face invitations to view the gift guides which i was totally p***d off with seeing after the 3rd…
Until this shockingly bad and obviously totally untested software change is removed i will be doing no promotion to bring my customers to Folksy as I would not want to insult either their eyes or their intelligence.
I note that however many new shops open every day (and seems to be about a dozen) the total number of active shops never goes up. I must deduce from that that as fast as new shops open, existing shops close. Folksy quote ‘around 4000 shops’ in their promotional posts but my calculator says 3140 active shops would be a more accurate figure (with only 157 pages showing in the New sellers list). So that 4000 very recently quoted to Our customers is a bit misleading I fear,
As is this invitation to use the search facility
as if the search facility currently in place will help anyone find anything !
They are in my bio part of a sentence about me and who I am that’s all, might take it all out and keep it purely business, just because I don’t have any pets now and everyone seems to mention their cats lol
Good to meet someone else who loves it as well x
I have around 30 new items I could add to my shop at the moment, but I’m holding off because I genuinely don’t think it will be worth the effort until the search problems are rectified.
Although I sell elsewhere, I have considered Folksy to be a very worthy platform that I’ve been happy to be associated with. As I don’t want to put my eggs in one basket I would like to continue selling here. But this does feel like the final throw of the dice so I sincerely hope it’s resolved soon.
Joy @JOYSofGLASS …was that a joke?..mind you I don’t mind people searching for “money” and finding me, as long as they spend it ha ha
Chris @ChrisStoneArtist …after your degree, is art your only occupation now?
Debby @Bearlescent …I think we need to look at our palms and turn a few cards ha ha
I am doing the same, no more new listing’s until this shocking search bar error is put right by Folksy. I think they have done all sellers old and new a terrible diservice. I would actually like a refund on my subscription from when this hash up was started to when it’s but right by them. I didn’t sign up or agree to putting up with incomplete live trial alterations. My sales have declined and I was informed by Folksy on 24th December by an email (James) i was one of the top 50 sellers for 2024. I don’t think I will be one this year!
I have been absolutely shocked at the results I have been getting using the new search bar. Now I don’t even know what to include in my tags to hopefully get seen.
Hello Demelza
One of my searches did contain quite a few of your makes. I think it was ‘gifts for children’. I was looking for some small gifts to post to my grandchildren. Even without your shop name they were recognisably yours. Just thought I’d let you know your not completely invisible x
@teabreaks perhaps we could offer it as a service on Folksy…you do the palms I’ll do the tarot, it pays quite well we could go into partnership,buy a painting or bear and get a reduced price reading, it would be unique.
@ChrisStoneArtist thats sounds great, I did a first teaching course at Hull college not long before I started Bearlescent. I worked in health and safety and as such did tool box talks etc with the lads on the shop floor, I took the course to give me the confidence to stand up and speak to an audience. I thought about teaching bear making classes for a while but then decided against it.
I sold an item to one of my regular customer this morning and she mentioned my new doll and she would like her when she has the money etc and i said I hadn’t listed it but would do, went on to list then shortly after I saw another of my repeat customers had bought her so i have been lucky to have had 2 sales, the first this week but they are both off customers that come straight to my shop and have seen her on social media.
Thank goodness they both know how to spell my shop name
Yes that’s all very true Chris and we all do need to self promote and drive traffic to our shops. I am fortunate that I have some lovely return customers which account for a big part of my sales but I do also get new customers and those that repeat but less often. I Often wonder where new customers have found me and I expect it’s a mixture of social media and on Folksy, I don’t expect to see any new customers spending at the minute and perhaps not those who may have bought only once or twice before because if they search for my items or name they will probably think I’ve left.
It could be damaging for a lot of sellers, the vast majority on this chat have become invisible or less visible and there are a huge amount of sellers that never come to the forum and might not have even noticed that anything is wrong. I don’t recall seeing anything in my emails about the changes but might have missed it.
I am so pleased you have returned going your dolls. I love mine I purchased from you a few years ago. I am awaiting for a furry teddy bear with your gorgeous embroidery on the feet, chest and baws. Unfortunately, the one I was hoping to buy sold!
Hi Gail, I remember your doll, they are quite different now but I love all cloth dolls, it’s been a few years since I made any and although i find them hard work it’s lovely to bring some back again, trouble is with dolls I want to keep them.
I’m actually doing some bears with embroidery to their fur again, the right bear can take ages to come up and choose a person to adopt, they kind of have to speak to you I think. (not literally i might add).and the ones with embroidery do tend to sell fairly quickly.
I’ve just done a commission for a bear with my customers pets ashes inside, she lost her cat at xmas and asked if I could put them into a bear so i made a little velvet cushion to pop inside the body, that reminds me I must post a pic on instagram x
Debby, what a fantastic idea. My 16 1/2 year old faithful westie is now really showing his age, but he still enjoys two small slow walks a day, eats well and still plays with toys. We nearly had him put to sleep last June, but decided to bring him back home for a few days after he had a slight stroke to see if he improved. Within 48 hours he was back to normal shouting for his dinner and playing with his toys. The only thing which stopped was he could no longer get up the stairs. So, he sits on my knee and we go up the stairs together on my stair lift! I shall think about him going in a bear when his day to say goodbye actually arrives. I know each day with him is very precious now.
I’m putting my shop on holiday mode, and cancelling my Plus Account until they sort this so called search out.
Edit, when I cancelled my Plus Account, it ask for a reason, told them that the search facility is not fit for purpose .
Debby, @Bearlescent sounds good to me ha ha… I also do psychic art and readings so we could have a good business going here…lol… ( predict who will make the top sellers list )
Has anyone else noticed when you click on to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th (etc) page of the search, it always opens the page half way down and you have to scroll to get back to the top of the page?
we could go into partnership,buy a painting or bear and get a reduced price reading, it would be unique.