Hello,
“A potted history of my business”,
I’m new here, just started listing my items and seem to be having the same image and title issues mentioned by others.
I’m not new to online sales though, I already list on Amazon, Ebay and my own DIY website, with varying degrees of success.
I have also had my own bricks and mortar shop, not now though, too expensive!
For the last 10 years I have also sold my work wholesale which is both expensive and demanding, I have some very loyal customers but I feel this may not be my future.
Having started in my back bedroom, I have tried lots of things over the last ten years and I have learned that for me, simplicity is the key.
Now operating from my dining room I am gearing my work to how I want to operate for the next 10-20 years. By keeping costs low I can protect my selling price and stay within the “present buying” price range.
To improve my online business (where image is everything) I need to take better photographs or pay someone to take them, this is my highest priority right now.
I admit that I am struggling with Folksy because I am not familiar with it yet, image sizing is the biggest issue but I’ll get there.
Any tips and tricks are always welcome.
Good luck with sales,
Marion.
Wow I love your vases, very pretty indeed! Things tend to get broken in our house though, so I’d better not let myself get tempted. Good luck!
Thanks for the compliment, maybe you know someone who would like a vase, Christmas is coming!
Hi Marion, I love your work…I think I may have one of your vases that we were given as a wedding present! Welcom to Folksy and good luck x
Wooh lovely art Nouveau styled vases. I adore Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
I notice you say your items are made to order so I would guess there is a processing time from ordering to painting and firing and posting the item. ie production time. If this is so you need to state that in your item description unless you can make one and post it within the 3 days you have as your dispatch time.
You might want to try doing a search as if you were a potential buyer looking for say a vase what word/words would they put into a search bar.
Your descriptions suggest you have every item available in different colours but you don’t say which and as it’s a made to order item how a customer are to suggest what colour combination they’d like to order.
So can be a wee bit confusing to potential customers.
You need to be a bit clearer with your descriptions ie sizing would be good in inches and cm not just the height by the width, maybe even the diameter of an opening, and the base if they are not the same size.
Try not to simply copy and paste the same description, try to be wee bit more original with each listing. Google don’t like copy and pasted descriptions and titles they seem to see it as spamming and put your listing further down in their search system and as google is a huge search engine you’ll need to mix things up a bit.
You want people to find your lovely items and your shop and the internet is now a vast ocean.
All the best with your lovely items
Hi, thanks for your lovely comments, I look forward to viewing your shop.
Hi, thanks for taking the time to make some very valid points, I think I will spend time editing the existing listings before adding to them.
Hi Marion!
Welcome ; your pieces are just lovely!
I touched with a lot of your potted history! I design and sell needlework kits and closed my bricks and mortar shop in 2012 to work from home. I too sell on Ebay and Etsy and to be honest haven’t looked back. I too have made the decision not to sell wholesale but am lucky enough to design and feature in magazines and this can be a big boost. A Facebook page is also crucial as this reaches out to potential as well as existing customers (collectors) and magazines too have the ability to share your work.
I think you are absolutely spot on with simplicity being the key. I don’t have a web site (although I have done in the past) as I found that when you weighted the Ebay/Etsy/Folksy fees up against paying Google Add words to publicise my site, it just wasn’t viable. I also found a webs site less interactive and community based and as a lone artist this is important to me.
Thank you for commenting,
As far as websites are concerned you have to ask “is it nice, or is it neccessary” the beauty of a DIY provider like Create is that they are easy and affordable with a vibrant and knowledgable forum. Folksy is new for me so we’ll see, I signed up for 12 months so my commitment is made!
I’ve not tried Etsy, I don’t ship overseas and I wondered if that was their main market?
With regard to social media as a promotion tool, I’m trying it but I could not point to any tangible results. Maybe you only notice when you stop doing it!
Good Luck,
Marion.