How have your sales been for April 2023

How are sales this month? Mine are 0 so far, may be because of Easter and had a few days out.

Worrying as stats are showing hardly any visits we need a big advert as the other side have done.

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Still waiting for my first sale since setting up my shop 2 months ago, hoping it’s coming soon!

Hoping it’ll get a kick start eventually

I think it’d be good as a seller to have an understanding of what people are searching for each month (if that’s available I’d really appreciate if someone could direct me). It’d be useful to know what kind of terms people are using and which ones are popular etc. then you’d know whether what your making is what people are looking for

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Yes that information is available via your dashboard. If you go to your dashboard and click on ‘stats’ in the left hand list, you get a breakdown of where the searches are coming from ie from Folksy or Google etc and also the search terms used, plus a list of items plus other statistics. I don’t think that information is generally available for the whole of the Folksy site - but I was assuming you were interested in search terms relating to your own shop rather than the whole site.

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Slow, only 2 so far and one is actually for a local customer which wouldn’t normally go through Folksy but it was a restoration so wanted one to show in my shop,
I have a commission to do for a local lady next so not going to have new bears going in my shop this week.
I dont know about stats as I don’t track them very often so I can’t compare to other weeks, dont think I get a massive amount of traffic.

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Thanks for that, I’ve found the stats for my shop, but I did actually mean stats for the whole of Folksy. The dark side send out a regular email mentioning some trends with searches so sellers can get an idea of what kinds of things buyers are looking for

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I don’t think Folksy do that on a regular basis, though sometimes, if I remember rightly, they have updated sellers via email or the forums, with an overview of most popular items in searches. I think earrings is one of the most popular searches!

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Thanks, fingers crossed it could become a regular thing. I wonder sometimes if what I’m selling is just not very popular on folksy or if it’s something I’m missing. For the searches I can think of for my crochet blankets I think I’m coming up on first couple of pages, but it might just be that not many people search for those things in general, or maybe it’s because I’ve not sold anything in this Folksy shop yet and people don’t trust new sellers

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A big zero for me. In fact only one sale this year. I’ll see how the seo fixes go, but if normal play doesn’t return soon, then the only option will be to close down and concentrate on the other platforms.

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No sales in April so far, but then I haven’t added much new stock or done much on social media this month. I’ll stay optimistic and keep doing what I can!

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I’m normally quiet sales wise in April averaging around 5-6 sales during the month. I’ve had 3 sales so far and we aren’t quite half way through the month, so pretty normal so far.

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I usually look at the best sellers list as that gives a sort of guide to the types of crafts that are popular at the moment. I know it’s not a great guide to what you are after as the people on there tend to sell high ticket items but it gives an idea to what is selling. I sell mostly at craft fairs and baby gift items are my most popular items. A range of prices e.g low, medium and high are good to so that you can cater for all pockets even on Folksy. Obviously if you sell a lot of small items that is not going to show up in the best sellers list so that’s why I say it’s only a guide. I think the best sellers list should be based on quantity of items sold not the sales price.
I agree an overall guide on search terms on Folksy would be good, they did start giving us an update on trends but that seems to have disappeared.

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Thank you for the tips, I’ll definitely go have a look at that best sellers list, never thought of doing that. I do regularly have a nosey at other people’s sales to see what kind of things they have sold :joy:

My baby blankets sell well on Facebook to local customers. I post on local Facebook groups and usually get 1 or 2 orders each time. That’s what made me decide to try Folksy and see if I could reach a wider audience, but no luck yet. It’s on my list though to make some smaller baby items.

I used to sell jewellery and jewellery making supplies on here about 10 years ago, so trying to resurrect that too. I figured if I give everything a try and nothing sticks I might need to give up the ghost!

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My sales have been terrible lately one sale i had i had to refund haven’t known it this quite just doesn’t seem much interest lately

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No sales in April so far, I did have a few in March but it’s gone quiet again. Still not seeing many mentions of Google (or other search engines) on my stats. I used to see Google, Bing etc, on a regular basis, but still feel that there is a problem.
Hoping sales pick up for us all.
Jayne

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Not a lot of action this month - things are really slow at the moment all round (sales in my E…y shop are down too). I had to put my shops on holiday mode for a few days so that might be why it’s dropped off for me - I think it takes a while for everything to get back to normal after holiday mode.

I have also been lax with FB and Instagram promos which I know makes a difference.

Sales are very seasonal things and things always pick up September to December.

I suspect there’s been some hiccups with Folksy visibility lately but it has been improving since admin have got on to it - I think I mentioned before, changes (and improvements) seem to take a bit of time to bring in results.

When I started selling it took me ages to get first sales, since then I’ve experimented with items to see what gets sales (and what doesn’t) and got better at SOE. I’m probably never going to be a big seller though but I do manage to cover costs and I am making slow progress - I think it’s just a matter of patience and finding those rare beasts ‘items that sell well’.

I’m not sure how useful fashionable ‘trends’ are. I do take note of things such as ‘colour of the year’ but I’m not sure if they help. I do look at other ‘best sellers’ for a nudge in the right direction though and keep an eye on my stats to see what’s getting views/sales.

Hope this helps

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I agree @Zoknitandsew that bestsellers should be item based, can’t see how a profit based list helps anyone else on Folksy or visitors. I haven’t sold anything since November last year! Gradually lost hope and involvement in Folksy so the knock on effect of that is that I haven’t been listing, promoting or making for the shop - loss of mojo is not an uncommon problem on here I think ! :roll_eyes::unamused:

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I know a lot of sellers feel the same. If it carries on like this can see there be no Folksy next year.

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Just had a look at my sales since start of 2023, I’m in the best sellers as my items are high value but I have only had 17 sales so far on Folksy since January, 4 commissions, 7 artist bears, 4 kits and 2 smaller bear items, 14 of those sales are regular or repeat customers, so only 3 new customers so far, 2 of those kits went to USA and 1 to Australia. I’m pleased the kits are selling as I took a gamble on spending over £500 restocking 2 of them this year.
Nowadays most of my large bear orders are customers who collect my bears and come direct to my shop so not sure how many new people find me on Folksy. I do have sales from new customers but early in the year it’s normal to have mostly collectors.
Do you track your shop @Caroleecrafts and do you use the Folksy stats to do it? Am I right in thinking our own searches or clicks on our own items show up in those figures as well. Just thinking it might be useful to start checking them weekly, especially how many come from social media etc.

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Debby @Bearlescent
With the new stats our own views etc. are not included in the stats.

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Oh thats interesting to know thank you.
I thought they were so when I looked at mine today I thought all the direct or Folksy views would have been my own, thank you

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