Good evening all you lovely Folksy folk, I was hoping you could help. Iv recently opened my shop - Crafty wee cow, Iv had all positive view results, Iv been told by members of the public my work is good, yet my shop hasn’t been a favourite by anyone Nothing has been bought, my shop almost feels invisible. Can anyone interested in helping, check out my shop and provide honest feedback on what they would like to see or where I could improve in any way?
Hi Gem, welcome to folksy! I’ve had a nosey in your shop and have a couple of thoughts for you.
Profanity will, unfortunately, put some buyers off. When photographing your work remember that your photos are the only thing a buyer has to go on when they’re deciding whether to buy or not. Try to ensure that your backgrounds don’t detract from your items, that your shots are in focus and that you remove stray threads beforehand. Also, I think you may need to look at your postage rates - additional items are how much extra it would cost to post an additional item. Postage is always calculated taking the most expensive first and additional amounts are added to that for any further items bought. Hope this helps!
Hi there, I’d put “custom make” in your title of items that aren’t for sale as they are. That way it’s quite plain and clear that a conversation needs to be had on what your client requires.
And as Eileen says, you need to promote your shop, just like if you had opened a bricks and mortar shop. It is hard work promoting and marketing, but it really is the only way people are going to know your shop is here.
It took a long time for my shop to be favourited by anyone (I’m upto 6 now in 20 months and I think I’ve been unfavourited by someone unlong the way), some of my items have had multiple favourites but have yet to sell (via Folksy at least, they sell well at craft fairs) so those things don’t necessarily mean anything. So what in my opinion could you change;
I understand the importance of the watermark but it is very distracting as it goes over the main part of the image, could you position it else where on the picture?
You’re photos are over exposed - not sure how you are lighting them but it needs work as it is bleaching out the colours.
For the paper cuts - could you include the actual image size? People aren’t always going to keep it in your frame and image size might be important to them. Also could you offer them unframed? (my partner and I have an eclectic collection of art that is unified by the frame colour/style and object to having to pay extra for a frame that we will then remove)
Its unclear if things are custom makes or the actual item pictured for sale
Bad english let alone bad language is enough to put some people off - could you sensor your titles in someway?
compare your prices to others on folksy - are you competitive?
Hope that’s helpful.
Sasha
The bad language would definitely put me off - why would you do that? Even if you have some wonderful things in your shop, people won’t go back if they’d been previously put off…and I’ve never considered myself a prude.
To me, the two things are targeting different customers and, as you’ve seen above, you’ve got the potential of offending some of the papercut buyers, so that means lost sales. I would either, start a separate shop for your embroideries, or just lose the more offensive language embroideries. I would imagine there are tons more customers around looking for papercut art than there are for potentially offensive embroideries, so you don’t want to upset the papercut buyers
Maybe 2 shops: one with the swearing and one without. I know several cancer patients who have a F-cancer picture, embroidery, hat, etc but you need to understand your audience.
I personally wouldnt buy from your shop because of the offensive language. Also I do find your papercut listings rather confusing as to what is actually for sale.
I think I “get” your embroideries-they’re Scottish phrases and are aimed squarely at that market. I don’t think that Folksy (which is a bit Anglo/Scandi) would put them on the front page, though. That doesn’t mean that your other work will not get noticed. You might want to do as some of the others on this thread say and hive them off into a separate shop, not because people might be offended, but because you can target your Scottish market more effectively that way and reach out to a wider market with your other items (I also loved the Clydesdale-and I know a lot of other people who would also).
Personally I did not see anything wrong with your photos, on my screen anyway.
Sales can be a bit slow on this site also-you really need a good Facebook following to get big volumes of sales because Folksy can be a bit hard for customers to find if they are just browsing through Google. I recommend you read the article by Buttonsy on the Folksy blog-just because I found it useful and I have had a lot more views this year, if not sales.
Hi Fantoosh, Thanks for your honesty, The postage prices is actually something I meant to change and completely forgot so thankyou for bringing this to my attention.
Im thinking of removing the swear words and Scottish only embroidery. a lot of people seem to be put off by this despite my shop having other non sweary iteams, people are still passing by.
Im thinking of removing the watermark or putting it in another place and updating the pictures, they seem a bit over exposed.
Many thanks for all your help, its greatly appreciated…
Im thinking of removing the sweary words embroidery, updating my pictures, moving the watermark and will in the description which is a custom make as Iv had a few people mention they are confused by what is for ready for sale. Im on Facebook,instagram and pinterest and promoting like hell so Il just have to keep going.
Im thinking of removing the sweary words embroidery, updating my pictures, moving the watermark and will add in the description which is a custom make as Iv had a few people mention they are confused by what is for ready for sale but only one item on my shop is customizable however all works can be customised if wanted, Im just not sure how to word this in my shop . Im on Facebook,instagram and pinterest and promoting like hell so Il just have to keep going.
Nothing has been bought, my shop almost feels invisible. Can anyone interested in helping, check out my shop and provide honest feedback on what they would like to see or where I could improve in any way?