Hi
I love to see the new shops that have opened. One thing I am curious about is about how many sales many shops have had already. Are these sales since opening a Folksy shop? I would love to know how they do it. 
Or have these sales been transferred over from a previous selling platform?
The Sales figure is 100% only sales since opening on Folksy. I think i can say that with total confidence.
That’s not to say that some new shops might purchase from themselves in order to show a sold total and give a review. I have no evidence this happens but it probably occasionally does 
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If they are real sales then I definitely want to know how they can sell 200 items in only a few months. I am always trying to improve!
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Not allowed to call out in here but would love to know which shop you mean. Please DM me.
I am nosy 
When I first started looking into opening a shop on the other platform, one of the pieces of advice that I came across was to get a friend or two to buy and leave a review, because it can help your shop to show up in searches better. I don’t know if this is frowned upon or not!
I really don’t think that is a problem at all. 
I have before now recommended new shops buy something from themselves just to check that everything is set up correctly, contact details, payment method and also to see what emails you get as a buyer and a seller. Maybe don’t leave yourself a review though… that would be cheeky
Don’t think Deborah is talking about that though, something on a bigger scale.
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If a shop sells us handmade items and a lot of them, I would suspect money laundering. Perhaps these people if on the other side were doing well there and just brought customers with them.
I spotted a shop open recently ish that is selling a specific type of tool for jewellers. Jewellers are a sharing community and when we find something well made we tend to let all the other jewellers know about it so i’m not surprised that this shop has made it over 100 sales in a few months. There might be other shops that have achieved similar levels of word of mouth growth to achieve high sales in a short time.
I didn’t know you could buy from yourself, it doesn’t seem right as the reviews would be like those on Amazon, I wouldn’t buy from someone if I knew their reviews wern’t legitimate, I didn’t realise people did that on this platform.
Debby I don’t know that anyone does do their own review. My suggestion is only to make a test purchase to test shop set up and see how the process works not to review it too… that is a big no no
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Oh sorry Joy I misunderstood lol 
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Sorry, I didn’t mean the advice I saw was to review yourself. It was to get a friend to buy and maybe leave a review, as no sales or reviews can be bad for the algorithm (apparently). Anyway, I didn’t do it. It would be nice if someone would leave a genuine review though!
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When I first opened my shop, a relative tested it out for me with a genuine purchase. It turned out there was a problem with the set up, my fault not Folksy! So I did do a test purchase to check and also to see what the customer sees too. I didn’t leave a review.
There are a few shops having huge amounts of sales in a new shop when I click on shops new March 2024 for example on Folksy collections and wondered if the sales transferred over from the dark side with the bulk transfer of listings.
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I just checked those and very few had any sales at all in that collection and the highest number was just 9 I think. Puzzled
Even more puzzled after looking at New in May with the same. Most shops have sold nothing at all, of those that have just one has made it to 9. ??
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I’ve just gone back through them and can’t find the one I saw this morning. Also puzzled.
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I’m so pleased you said that. Thought I was going nutty
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Oh well, we can be nutty together.
I know it was a fused glass and they had sold a lot of xmas decorations which made me wonder. But as it is just in my imagination there is nothing to be worried about. 
Interesting discussion though.
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I opened a new shop early this month. No sales 
so far, very few visits. A week later I did list a few items on Etsy, a new shop to me, had a few more visits, but no sales. I have not put my handmade items out there before and it has knocked my confidence and belief in what I am doing. I have been doing craft events and handing out cards with Folksy on them. Very few people have heard of Folksy, I felt like I was selling the platform instead of my items!
It’s interesting to read some of the tips below, which may help.
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Louise please don’t give up but can understand how you feel. I opened a shop years ago, closed it and had my own website. When the cost got stupid came back, took about 6 months for my first sale but now have regular customers and 1 in particular who has a penchant to buy as soon as something listed.
We do have to promote our own shops and sadly Folksy tend to only advertise for new sellers, leaving us to get on with it on our own.
Thank you - your positivity is much appreciated 