Hows sales?

Me too! I just want one sale! I haven’t any any sales at recent craft fairs either so im just feeling pretty rubbish! sigh! I only opened my shop in October so i am still pretty new to this.
We shall see how it goes though!
x

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Sales are good , the men appear to have started their xmas shopping earlier than usual this year.

Last weekends craft fair was the best I have ever done , there was no hint of people counting pennies like the last few years.
Bodes well …touch wood .

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I only opened my shop in October too … but I’m not a patient person… I just wanted a little bit of validation I suppose that I had a chance of making my shop work.

Good luck.

Jx

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Same as Deborah @DeborahJonesJewellery here. Currently in my best November ever (4 and a half years of online selling), possibly going to be my best month of selling ever, depending on what happens over this weekend. Going on my previous years figures, this weekend is the start of the busiest bit of the Christmas run in for me, so looking good. And I have noticed a lot more new multiple orders, and returning customers buying multiple items this year too. Does seem like there’s a bit more of the folding stuff around this Christmas :smile:

Jo

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Two sales in October, only one so far in November :cry:

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Nothing so far but just recently opened so not expecting things to fly off immediately. These things take time I know. Good luck everyone!

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I’m celebrating doubling my sales this year. That sounds good doesn’t it. But I sold only one item last year and now two this year. I think it takes a while to get noticed, so don’t give up, I’m not going to. Look at other shops that are doing well. See how they photograph and describe their items. I wish you luck.

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I daren’t say when my last sale was due to it giving buyers the wrong idea about folksy, but it’s been some time and it’s not looking good for the run up to Christmas.

My last sale on here was October. I have had a few over the other side. Had some custom orders for my dog coats and some on instagram, but Folksy is a bit of a dead loss, sorry, but had to say it. Will I be renewing my plus account?? Will see how the rest of the year goes. As if nothing sells, then whats the point in throwing hard earned money away?
My lady who ordered the dog coats, said to me, I ought to just let my dogs do the advertising, with my logo on their coats. She even offered to take some business cards off me!

This is my second Christmas on Folksy and I would say it’s on a par with last year. I have sold 38 items in October and November, although 20 of those were a special order to 1 customer for 20 sets of Christmas oven gloves. I would love to hit 100 sales by Christmas (I am on 86)…but it might be a bit late now! Technically I have already done it as the 20 sets of oven gloves went through as only 2 sales…one for a deposit and one for the balance…

x

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Not sure what my stats prove but I had 17 sales in Nov 2011, 27 in Nov 2012, 5 in Nov 2013, 12 in Nov 2014 and just 1 so far this month!

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Never had a sale in nov last year, but then the whole year was not good as i was starting afresh.
This year in general has brought me more sales.

Hi @JuliaYorkDesigns , I am in the same situation. Just I am trying the best I know, also the Christmas fairs haven’t been the way I expected…It doesn’t sound very positive, but if you are a sewing machine lover like me, perhaps you will agree that our profession and passion has a lot of cons at the moment. Hope and much more hope is what we need.

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as stated above 2012/13 was very good, then it started to tail off, not been doing anything different, still promoting but it’s just not happening for me on here anymore. I am not renewing my folksy plus as it has just run out. I shall move over to the dark side and renew my item in my shop over there. I always had a preference for Folksy as it was british, but mention it at craft fairs and you still get “what’s that then” so it’s obviously not as out there as the other site. so I think I am giving up on here and will just let my things run out.

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It’s weird isn’t it, the way things have gone here for many long time sellers? If I only sold on Folksy I would probably be rather depressed at the state of my sales. Thankfully business elsewhere is literally booming so overall it’s not bad, but the slowdown here is still noticeable. And before anyone jumps on my back, I’m not having a moan! Things are different here than they used to be a few years ago.

It’s a shame because I really, really like Folksy. I like the way my shop front looks here and I love the fact that Folksy is the most consistent site I know of in terms of being the place to find truly handmade, beautiful products. Folksy blows the other so-called handmade marketplaces out of the water in that respect, yet it seems that not enough people trying to shop for genuinely handmade products realise it. Thinking of the more well known sites in the UK: Etsy has problems because of it’s size and NOTHS is pretty much just a joke (or at least it definitely wins the award for the most ironic name in the ‘handmade’ market since you can find 80% of what is sold there on most high streets these days), but Folksy is like the little engine that definitely could … if only it were more well known.

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It’s been quiet on here for me this year but I’ve done ok in other places. I’ve had a few repeat customers and some commissions via fb and my blog. I like Folksy and I’m going to stick with it. :slight_smile:

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I too have been much busier on my other site but I love folksy - its so welcoming and I feel like the staff really are routing for you. And they love different, which is all good by me!

I know what it’s like working for somewhere where you have to chip in and do a bit of everything - the folksy staff seem to work very hard and I think its because they believe in what they are doing. But being small there just isn’t the budget on folksy to compete with things like NOTHS if folksy had the same budget I am sure it would be more well known. I bet there is loads of things folksy would like to bring in if they could!

I think for the price of creating a shop it is fab. Yes I do think lack advertising may be something that is becoming an issue - but then it is cheap to list and sell so…and also there are some larger sellers on here to that seem to being doing well.

I think there is a gap in the market for a business to offer pr and marketing for business like us on folksy for sure.

Fingers x the next week or so sees good sales all over :slight_smile: good luck everyone!

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I’ve had more sales in the last 5/6 months than I have all my previous years on Folksy. However, in the last 5/6 months I’ve been concentrating more and putting more effort into the shop. Although I’m not flooded with orders, I have been getting multiple orders every month, since this min-month I’ve had an order every few days. It’s been great, this is how I’d like to continue although I’m sure it may be Christmas sales. However I’m very hopeful that I’m building a reputation now, and I have customers who are coming back. Ive started sending discount codes with orders over a certain amount, or if a customer has returned, sometimes with a little freebie.

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Agree 100% with all of these points! I think I will always stick with Folksy too, the plus account fee is absolutely worth it for me and it’s nice to be a part of this real handmade community.

I don’t know if there is an easy solution to making Folksy more well known. Folksy is in direct competition with sites like Etsy and NOTHS and both of those sites have had to do some sharp about face’s on their (dubious) definitions of handmade in order to fund the growth that in turn funds their advertising that funds their growth and around it goes.

We all know how much hard work it is to run a successful truly handmade business. A site of 100% handmade sellers is always going to have a hard time competing with more deceptive sites who market themselves as more-or-less-handmade while knowingly securing a lot of their revenue from the sale of factory made goods. I just hope that Folksy can continue to stick to it’s 100% handmade ethos and be successful at the same time!

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Just been having a tally up and while I had double the sales last year(calendar not tax year), the value has been higher this year, only slightly down on last year, but December was my best month in 2014. It’ll be interesting to see how the year ends.

I seem to just chug (blunder) along :kissing:

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