Hi, I’m hoping someone out there can be of help as I’m really struggling to get sales in my Folksy shop. ( Zulekhastudio). When my designs are seen in the flesh so to speak my items do sell, I can only assume my images are the problem. But in what way, I’ve read lots of tips and advice but just get bogged down with it all.
Welcome to the forum.
Some of your images are blurry, plus you need more close ups. Use all of your image entitlement. One does not make it clear to a customer.
What are the size of the bracelets, even if memory wire a lot of customers may not understand that.
What is the size of the main bead, 5mm! 6mm. Descriptions need to be as if explaining to a blind person.
Tags, more words needed 2 is not enough. Use as many as you can.
The title of deepest green does not reflect the colour especially in search engines, use dark green.
Materials should be everything used not just crystal ie pearls, crystal, memory wire, rondelle.
A lot of experience on this forum and sure more help will follow.
As Caroline says, you need to use all your tags, all your photo’s (I’m told staged photos are best) and your descriptions need to be more descriptive, at the very least you need to give sizes of the finished piece and if possible bead sizes for the main beads, Ive no idea what memory wire is so I wouldn’t have a clue how your beautiful bracelets would fit.
Sorry I’m not more help, Ive had the same issues with photos and feeling bogged down with it all, but honestly persevere and it will pay off.
The other thing I noticed is you’ve no social media - its really worth trying it, again, I was never interested in it but it’s hugely important as a way to get yourself seen.
Good luck.
I am no expert when it comes to photos, but I find the extra sparkly bits in your images a bit distracting from the item itself. I think you ought to use more than one photo for your items, they are so pretty and you could show them off in several different ways.
I am really grateful to the helpful replies, am eager to get stuck in and watch the space ! I don’t usually engage in forums but had run out of ideas and now I’m so glad I did. Thank you very much Folksy forums.
My advice would be to rethink the silver background a bit - perhaps going for a plain background instead? I’m not sure it lends anything to your pics and I think something less intrusive might make your work ‘pop’ a bit more! Having said that, lifestyle images can also work - in your sold items, that pic for the charm of Autumn is lovely - it’s just a little bit out of focus, and needs more photos to go with it (ones that are a bit more simple/‘here it is’ sort of thing!
Close-ups definitely - and also maybe crop your photos a bit tighter for the main image, so that you can see more clearly at a glance. When you look at your shop home page some of the items look a bit lost and far away if that makes sense? Oh, and as the others said, lots of different angles of each piece would be great, so that customers can really get a feel for the piece.
Descriptions need to be longer - remember to include things like dimensions too, and include things like metal type/colour etc. Perhaps include things like who the item would suitable for, what sort of occasion, what to wear it with, who it would make a great gift for, that sort of thing? I looked at one of your listings, and I don’t know what ‘memory wire’ is (probably me being stupid!), so I don’t know if you want to allow for people like me and perhaps explain what memory wire is? Is it stretchy? Because that’s something that’s useful to know. Maybe try to be a bit less technical?
And definitely use more tags - use all of them! And make sure you use all the colour tags that are relevant too!
When you title an item think about what people will be searching for - try to include that in your titles (and descriptions etc). Eg with this one:
I know that pearls are very on-trend at the moment for example, so perhaps make the title something like Deep Green Pearl Bracelet with Swarovski Charm
Green is still a very trendy colour, and Folksy have Moss Green as one of their colours of the year, so perhaps include ‘moss green’ on the listing, especially in the tags?
Going off subject a bit, and this is something I know nothing about, but I’m sure I read that Swarovski have copyrighted and removed the use of their crystals - just something to maybe look into? I could be wrong!
Sarah
Thank you so much for your helpful and informative reply, and yes you are correct about Swarovski and did intend to remove it. Obviously now I will and am currently experimenting with other crystals.
Kind regards
Sue
My immediate thought it that without any social media links you will find it difficult to attract views of your shop. And If you don’t have views you don’t have sales.
On Folksy you need to promote yourself. It is really the only way to be seen especially in the jewellery world as there are lots of jewellery shops out there and on here.
You’ve already got a lot of great tips here so I’ll try not to repeat it all again and focus on the photos.
I agree with @PhotoFairytales that the autumn charm has a particularly eye catching photo, and that the photos currently in your shop look a bit distant. The silvery background gives an unusual effect which makes your items easily identifiable as yours, but I’m not sure the colour always looks right. I’m not sure whether it’s a white balance issue, or maybe that the silver is picking up other colours from the surroundings and reflecting them back, which muddies it a bit and can makes the colour look inconsistent.
You might want to change your background, but I know rephotographing everything can be a big job and take time, so a simple change you could make is just to crop your items a bit closer. The thumbnails on Folksy show in your shop as square, so it can be good to make the first photo on your listing square so you know exactly how the thumbnail will look, and it won’t suddenly have important bits cropped off.
For example, your red bracelet currently shows like this in the shop front
but a simple crop could make it look much clearer and eye catching in the small thumbnail view
I really appreciate the time spent by you in offering help and advice, I wish I’d have entered the forum sooner. I’ve spent so much time looking at my images but not knowing where to go next, I now have so many matters to address and cannot wait to get started, thank you.
Kind regards
Sue
More than happy to help Sue, the forums on here are super-friendly and supportive! It’s so easy to get bogged down and find yourself not able to see the wood for the trees sometimes, isn’t it? I know the feeling all too well!
Wishing you lots of success with your shop!