Good idea or bad idea?

So I was looking at most top 10 viewed items in my Stats page for the last week.

Nothing currently in my shop was in the list.

Everything in the list I guess must have been found via google, taking people to an “Out of Stock” page in my shop.

So…I had an idea that I should relist all the random things people are coming in to see as they must be what are coming up in google searches.

But…I’m not convinced lol!

What do you think?

Would love to revive my Folksy shop!

I guess it depends if you would still enjoy making them.
Worth a try if you need sales.

1 Like

They are things I sell over the other side so it would be easy to do. Would love my shop here to tick over like that one does :slight_smile:

Had never really thought of making things that people are looking for rather than making things and hoping people will look for and find them!

2 Likes

That’s a really interesting idea Dottie. Last month I had a random high number of views on an older item, but couldn’t find out where they were coming from, google baffles me lol!

2 Likes

I think if you have the stock or can easily remake them, that would be a brilliant thing to try - and let us know how it goes!

1 Like

It has to be google doesn’t it cos if it’s not in your shop the internal search here wouldn’t pick it up!

Will report back! Going to try it on the 10 most viewed items (that don’t exist) starting tomorrow!

2 Likes

It is possible that they are being picked up by people looking at your sold items rather than by google. They may be checking out what sells or looking at your feedback on particular items. Still worth a try though if you already have the items in stock.

2 Likes

You might be right! It’s hard to tell isn’t it! After playing around on google I also think that people are maybe coming in via Pinterest - I was surprised how many “Wedding Ideas” pinboards my books seem to be on!

1 Like

I’ve got this situation too, a large amount of visits to my Folksy shop are from Pinterest, but with me they are landing on live items because I have the core of made to order bits that have been on Pinterest for years so are repinned all over the show. Yet all these visits don’t convert to sales for me here. I did a quick bit of research on Pinterest and found the items mostly pinned to Mosaic Ideas, or Must Make This boards.

I bought this up when the Folksy Social Media Stats were released at the start of the year The Folksy Charts are here! - and Camilla did confirm that Pinterest visits here are massive but aren’t turning into sales, so it seems it’s not just me, there is a problem there. So I agree with Roz @OrchardFelts, I think it’s people finding items for inspiration on Pinterest then popping over to get a closer look and probably to find more photos to see how it’s made. Then probably having a browse through the sold items in the shop while they’re here to see what else takes their fancy to try and create. I can’t see any other reason why loads of Pinterest leads don’t convert. It can’t be that they are from overseas, because I sell well internationally on Etsy, so I know customers are willing to pay postage etc, I think it’s just the wrong type of person that uses Pinterest, it’s not customers, but potential makers.

Saying all that, I guess you could use the items that people are finding on Pinterest and clicking through on as a guide to what would be popular in your shop, as even though the Pinterest people probably won’t buy, they are still being attracted to look by the item, so there is browse appeal, it just needs to be browsed somewhere else and by people looking to buy not create :slight_smile:

That’s really interesting and I didn’t realise that about the Pinterest/Folksy stat.

Interestingly I was lucky enough to go to a meeting at Etsy HQ in London and Pinterest is their biggest referrer to Etsy but also the biggest convertor to sales. I wonder if the Americans use it differently to the Brits!

Ooh, not sure then. That is interesting. Maybe the Americans find bits linked to here, but then try and find them on Etsy instead as they feel more comfortable buying from there as it’ll be more familiar, maybe?

Actually, I have some proof of that happening, sort of :smiley: Not Americans, but I was featured in a magazine in Sweden and the website link was for my shop on Folksy. I only got one sale from Sweden on here around the time the magazine was out, but over on Etsy I got a sudden rush of Swedish buyers, and it was the item that was featured that they were buying. So I can only assume they found me here, but went on to search me out on Etsy to buy, for some reason.

I would be interested if both folksy and etsy could separate out the conversion rates for sales of supplies and sales of finished goods (and if they could break that down by category that would be really interesting). If pinterest is used predominately by people looking for ideas of things to make then it would make sense that they are also looking for the supplies/kits to make those items and the supplies section of etsy is much bigger than the one here (and ridiculously cheap in places as you can buy ‘mass produced handmade’ from China/ India). There might also be a similar thing going on with clothing where people are looking at fashion trend boards and wanting to copy the look - etsy has far more clothing than here.
Going back to your original query - I’d say yes if you can still make the products that are getting the views I’d reactivate the listings and see how it goes. If you don’t get the conversion of looks to sales then maybe offer it as a kit for them to make themselves.

Good point. Plus there’s the vintage market over on Etsy and with upcycling being a massive trend that would bring in a lot of makers looking for projects bases too.