Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to share their experiences and insights. It’s incredibly helpful to hear different perspectives and to know that many of you are facing similar challenges.
It’s reassuring to see I’m not alone in struggling to get external customers to use Folksy. As some of you pointed out, it’s less about trust and more about familiarity—people tend to stick with platforms they know.
Regarding the Plus Account, your comments have given me a lot to think about. It seems like it only makes sense with a higher number of listings and the ability to actively promote them. My current hybrid model, with sales through Facebook and direct orders, seems to work for now, so I might hold off on upgrading for the moment.
I also relate to the points about the stress of taking perfect photos and the effort required for consistent promotion. It’s a lot to juggle, but it’s reassuring to know we’re all navigating this together.
Thanks again to everyone for your honesty and valuable suggestions. It’s great to have a space where we can openly discuss and learn from one another.
Hi Marco. That’s interesting to hear your experiences. I have never had any issues with customers not wanting to buy off the platform…in the past I’ve had people actually ask to buy off this one rather than a previous platform I sold on as they find it easy and intuitive to use. It’s not super well known, but that’s never put folks off as far as I know!!
Sales are a bit at the moment but on the whole I’ve been very happy with the plus account as it’s easier to pay and forget and it acts like a website where I can list as much as I want as often as I want and the additional photos are great for me to show my bags from as many angles as possible (great for customers as I don’t currently sell in person).
Hi! Thanks for sharing your experience, it’s really interesting to hear how things are going for you. I agree, the ability to list as much as you want and show multiple photos is such a useful feature, especially for online selling. It’s great to know that customers find the platform easy to use! I’m still figuring out which one works best for me, but your positive feedback is definitely helpful. I hope your sales pick up soon!
@FunFlowers If you cancel your Plus membership, your Plus features will stay active for the time you’ve already paid for (until the date that shows as next charge date) and then your account will return back to basic. Once you’re on basic, any photos after your first 5 will disappear from the public listing (but as @theslothscavern mentions, you’ll still see them when editing a listing so you can move the 5 you want to the front). The quantity will remain as it is, but when you come to relist you will be charged 18p per quantity, so it’s best to reduce the quantity to 1 before relisting.
Things like the featured listings in your shop, ability to watch webinars and inclusion in selling events will also disappear on the day your Plus features expire.
You have raised an interesting issue. I think it may be public awareness. We sell direct to public, we also supply the retail trade and other online platforms we are very busy!
An example! We sell on Etsy via a third party. A popular seller from our Mackintosh range of mirrors is a 30cms x 30cms. mirror selling at £75.00.
Our Folksy price is £40.00 including a 30cms x 8cms. mirror free (retails at £18.00).
So, we sell on Folksy for less than half of the price than they sell elsewhere. Have a look!
To date we have had no sales or enquiries.
Most of my buyers are not connected to Folksy, I do sell a few to Folksy sellers but the majority of Folksy sales for me are from people who found me on instagram.
I have the plus account not because I need it but I like the extra photos it brings and as Brenda said once it’s paid that’s it for the year.
Hi, I just had a look at your shop page and noticed you don’t seem to have any links to social media, there’s no shop announcement or about section filled in and the couple of mirrors I clicked on only had a couple or so tags filled in.
I think in order for people to find you it might help if you used more tags and linked to your social media pages. I also think customers often like to read a little about the artist when buying handcrafted items.
Do you promote your Folksy shop on social media?
Obviously we are just one of thousands of sellers out there so promotion is needed in order for people to find you.
You can’t! We supply quite a few craft shops across Scotland. Mainly payment on delivery. A neighbour of ours who deals with the ordering for a local gallery asked if we would be ok if she sold them online . That is how we do it. She sells them, and buys them from us and gives us 50% more than the “Trade” price and we don’t have to deal with the admin.
Hi Sue, we know the feeling! We make stained glass mirrors. One of our trade customers resells on other platforms, which we are happy with. We thought we would give folksy a go even though it meant extra work with packing and sending one mirror at a time as opposed with twenty or thirty to a trade customer (retail craft shops and galleries). Since we joined up with Folksy our “trade” buyer has sold over two hundred mirrors on E*sy, same advertising format, we haven’t sold a single one on Folksy despite them being less than half the price on "E"platform
I had a very successful Xmas fair a couple of weeks ago. The only disappointment was a number of customers asking me the same question I get asked at every fair: “Do you have an E shop?”
When I said no, I have a Folksy shop, I got the same bewildered responses from all of them: “Oh that’s a shame. I’ve never heard of Folksy, what’s that?”
One customer actually said: “Oh, I have no idea what that is, is that like a copycat of E?”
I spent a few minutes explaining Folksy to them but the end result was the same from all the customers: “Just open an E shop, you’ll do really well on there.”
at the moment but on the whole I’ve been very happy with the plus account as it’s easier to pay and forget and it acts like a website where I can list as much as I want as often as I want and the additional photos are great for me to show my bags from as many angles as possible (great for customers as I don’t currently sell in person).