Hello all
I am new to selling the things I make having previously just inflicted them upon those I love as presents.
My shop is called Ruby and Moo and I make bears. I haven’t sold anything yet and am feeling a bit blue. I wondered if anyone would be able to tell me where they think I am going wrong, or suggest ways to improve my shop.
I would be so grateful
Sue
Hi Sue your bears are lovely. The main thing i would say is to promote your shop on social media Facebook ,Twitter, Instagram etc as you do need to direct people to your shop on folksy.
It did take me a few months until i had my first sale
On the forum there are threads for suggestions for different gift guides were you can join in and hopefully get into one of the Folksy gift guides.
Good luck with your shop and i hope you soon have your first sale
Hello
My store is about a month old and its early days.
Promotion in whatever form is the key i think to drive traffic to your store. Facebook is free so its a good place to start. Plus forums are a great source of help and inspiration.
With a product like yours i would very quickly think of an event ( say wimbledon for example and make a tennis bear in a kilt ( murray). Then maybe run a promo to give it away free. Get the equivalent of a raffle ticket for favouriting your store.That way you get a buzz going and build up your contacts
Are there other traders who might want to feature your bears in their product shots? Yiou get the idea.
But good luck.
Steve
Promotion - we all have to do it whether we like it or not, pick a social media platform you like and start there then move onto the other ones once you are set up. See if you can find facebook groups of teddy bear collectors and start interacting with them - you can then occasionally say ‘oh I make bears and sell them in my folksy shop’ (don’t do it often or they will feel like they are being spammed).
You state that the bears aren’t suitable for kids so I think you need to upsell the the collectability of them and write your descriptions more for the adult bear collector market. This might help with that
The tags don’t get found by google/ internet search bots (only the internal search bot) so you need to make sure that your title/ description includes all the search terms that people might use (it also helps with getting a better ranking in internal searches). Eg Fizz (as lovely as he is) doesn’t have anywhere in the title or description that he is a collectible mohair teddy bear so anyone searching the internet for a mohair bear isn’t going to find him. I did a test folksy search for ‘mohair bear’ and ‘collectible bear’ and you didn’t feature in either set of results so your title/ description and tags definately need work.
Sorry if this has felt a bit harsh but hopefully a rework of your descriptions might get you the views/ sales.
Sasha
Thank you Jennie, that’s helpful
Thank you Steve. I will definitely take your advice
Thank you for taking the time to help, Sasha. You have given me a lot to think about and to work on. I will follow all the advice given
I have had an idea at the back of my mind for ages that features bears. Maybe you guys could be part of it or help with it.
When you get a min please give me a call. I’m not in the office today till noon
Number is on our shop in the inspiration section
Steve
Hi, Your shop is lovely. I will favourite a few items and share on pinterest and twitter for you to help promote you xx
Claire
Thank you Claire.
It is great to be part of such a kind community