If you look on the companies house website, you can clearly see for free any companies accounts. When you view this you will clearly see that Folksy don’t make that much money, hence the reason they don’t advertise as Etsy. That said I am sure Folksy can do a lot more to make the platform well known. They have a great opportunity to keep existing and new members from Etsy but, if people aren’t selling, they will move
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I have just ordered some more glossy oval labels from A……n. I use these for the back of cards but will now design some to go on the front of my packaging boxes.
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I had heard of Folksy but only because I knew other crafters who had shops here… this may not be relevant to the discussion but on my Facebook feed for the past few weeks I keep seeing sponsored ads from an outfit called ‘MadeMe’ (nope, I’ve never heard of it) touting itself as ‘the new UK alternative to Etsy’ and what is striking to me is that these ads are getting literally thousands of likes, comments and shares. I have no idea how many sales their new shopkeepers are getting but I am very impressed by their social media traction and I wish I knew how they did it! (Bags of cash, presumably?)
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Just had a look at MadeMe. Not sure how long their business model will enable them to splash the cash. They are not making money from sales or listings so have no reason to promote sales, they only seem to get income from subscriptions so their priority has to be to keep getting new sellers onboard, not buyers.
Far better here where commission on sales gives Folksy an incentive to help us make more sales.
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there have been so many of these “alternatives” over the years. they come & go. i specifically remember one trying to poach loads of us folksy sellers years ago.
i could never keep enough stock in my shop back in those (my glory days lol) days, so i never got round to opening a second shop.
i’ve always liked that, throughout, folksy just keeps ticking away quietly, doing its job 
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I’ve seen mademe popping up quite often, as a selling alternative indeed, I have never seen promoting any of their products though. At least with E… you see ads with products 
I have also seen quite a few very disappointing comments. I have seen a few posts from individuals, but not enough to make me think of trying it. As Helen said, it targets sellers, not buyers.
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I too have been frustrated over the last ten years that so many people have never heard of Folksy.
I didn’t want to suggest that these are not good ideas, simply that many have already been implemented, both by sellers and by Folksy staff, and still we get that blank look when we mention Folksy.
The very small Folksy team are already focussed on Featured Sellers and Peddle for the rest of the year, so they are not likely to allocate someone to man a pop-up or redesign marketing materials. If any sellers have the time and energy to try out suggestions then good luck to them. But the magic bullet is advertising and more advertising, and that costs money which ultimately comes from us.
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In this case sellers might go somewhere else.
Unfortunatelly…
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Well I’ve cancelled my plus account today. I’m making sure there is plenty stock - most of my things are made to order - as when I pay per item to list I will be very careful.
I’ve really tried since end of December and 13 sales. Its eventually got to me the amount of time I have given for almost no return.
I’m curious to see what happens to traffic to my shop now
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Years ago I worked for a book publisher in the PR dept way before social media existed. We had a set of promotional materials that would go out to any library or bookshop that requested them. Obviously that was back when we didn’t have downloadable materials.
If Folksy had a set of PR materials available for use by sellers at events I am sure members would use them.
I think it would help if Folksy surveyed shops as to what we would find useful.
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The problem is Not the customers at the events, its the customers who shop online… and that is most customers nowadays. I have literally handed, posted out thousands of business cards with Folksy all over them over the last 14+ years. The customers who have received them now know about Folksy or at the very least my shop and yes I get lots of lovely repeat business as a result.
What I don’t get are many customers who do most or all of their shopping online and Never think…I’ll just pop into Folksy to see if they have something nice…
because they have never heard of Folksy so they can’t. It’s never popped up in their SM feed and SM feed has a huge influence on how people shop.
I bought an early Xmas present only last week when it popped up in my Facebook feed. Impulsive yes but I sometimes shop like that. I am sure i not alone in doing that .
Ps I didn’t buy it from Folksy because they don’t pop up in my feed.
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Until a few months ago, I had no sales on Folksy at all. I had customers who for months and months they were buying from me and even were coming to me with their ideas and I made customised items. All of them, had a card with the folksy link on, every time they were buying something. None of them looked, none of them used it. Comes April '23, I sent an email out to the clients I knew it was alright to do so, with my Folksy link, asking them kindly to use the shop as they can see more items, and of course they could still let me know for their bespoke items. They ALL started buying from the shop, sometimes to the point I find it hard to keep up with made to order items, as I am one person who does everything, and have two 9 year old troubles I need to look after. So the move was a success. I do not know if they buy from other shops on Folksy of course, but I hope they will eventually do so. The interesting fact out of this, was that 1 woman, purchased a card, BUT actually wrote to back to me, suggesting I should open an E… shop… To me, it shows how much the specific name is connected with online shopping. I’m not expecting Folksy to beat that, but I do find it is still very “unknown” for the amount of years it has been around. And it’s a shame, because it’s such a nice platform, but I feel the disappointment from people who put so much effort into it, grows fast.
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I would have emailed her back and exp,aimed that Etsy are a load of rogues and would prefer to be selling from a British site for British makers.
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Whenever I mention Folksy at craft fairs, my customers sound really interested in the concept - but they’ve just never heard of it!
I was also super surprised to find out how long Folksy has been active (before I moved from E***), but until a little while ago I’d never heard of it either. 
I get lots of lovely fellow Folksy makers showing the love on IG (I’m MoondropStudio44 btw - let’s be friends!), but not so much from organic shoppers stumbling across/looking for British handmade. It’s such a shame.
I put QR code links and discount vouchers for Folksy in all my sales too, but I haven’t seen any traffic from them yet.
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Just gave you a follow on Insta! Lovely work!
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I actually did Caroline @Caroleecrafts , as I have actually tried it and it’s not to my liking at all. Maybe because my first shop was here, so the standards were already high.
Back to the main topic, I do find Folksy has it’s own “character”, something I wouldn’t want it to “sacrifice” in order to get massive like it happened with etsy. I think it’s “that character” that needs to be promoted to the wider buying audience, because as a seller you get the vibe straight away.
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@kasumadesigns Thank you thank you! Lovely to have you 
x
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Maybe it would help us sellers to get a bit more of a grasp on the situation if Folksy could give us an idea of how much an advert costs, just a ball park figure. Because I would be happy to contribute, say £1.00 a month, to an advertising fund. But if it would take all Folksy sellers contributing £10.00 a month, then it’s not going to work.
But, interestingly, I listened to the webinar yesterday with Hobbycraft, and the ladies there said that their online sales were going down & they are finding people want to shop in store because they want to see & feel the product they are buying. So maybe online selling is just going through a downward slip at the moment.
Personally, I sell 99.99999% of my items at craft fairs and markets. I only keep the shop open as a “just in case”.
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I missed yesterdays webinar and I dont think its rewatchable. Were there any other insights that might be useful ?
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If you registered for it you should be able to catch up with it. Not sure how but I registered and then missed it so will be watching it this evening - I hope. Webinars are new to me 
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