What can i be doing better?

Shop Talk
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I’ve been active on Folksy for a while now, have stocked my shop with a good range of my products, yet have only made 2 sales and hardly anyone is seeing or liking my products. I’m starting to wonder if theres something i’m missing!

I have a successful Facebook page which generates 90% of my orders, a website and an Etsy shop, which seems to be much more actively viewed and results in about 3% of my sales. So im not looking for the earth from Folksy, just 2-3% of total sales. My worry is that my products dont seem to be getting seen.

I’ve reviewed my SEO and used the tags on each listing, my photography is moving forward, so what is it i’m not doing? All input and help (good or bad) welcomed and appreciated!

Caroline
Boo-Bear Wares
Www.folksy.com/shops/carolinemclean

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Hi Caroline

If I click the ‘Buy Now’ button on your facebook page, it takes me to your website, where there are lots of links, including a big button to take me to your store on the ‘other side’, but the text that gives your folksy site link isn’t actually a clickable link.

So it’s much more likely that people with go to your other shop from your Facebook page than come here.

Helen

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oh, your products are lovely, by the way!

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Hi Caroline, I wish I knew the answer, I sell on a couple of other sites and have a steady stream of orders, but here on Folksy I just have one every now and then. I promote on pinterest and join in the promotion threads here in the forum. I have even paid to have someone else promote me on twitter and facebook as I don’t use them. I have upgraded my account to a plus account in the hope that this improves sales. I’ll keep slogging on hoping that something changes :expressionless:

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ok first thing I notice will get you into deep trouble the word Taggies it’s Trademarked and can’t be used unless you have a license from the Trademark owner. Also the very design of a Taggie is protected by the Trademark owner so a big no no. Sorry to start off with that bombshell.

You need to work on the titles a bit more put the words you’d think a potential customer would type iinto a search bar. dinosaur soft toy for instance.

Sizings are always something a customer will require. Try using both imperial and metric.

If you are making toys they have to by law be CE tested not just the stuffing. CE testing can be done by yourself but you have to follow the testing rules. There are toy makers on folksy who will be able to point you in the right direction and I believe there is a very good facebook group on Self CE testers.

You have problems with your bags they are not customer order ie personalized with the dates, or customer’s names so they are subject to normal 14 days returns.

You don’t say how long it will take to make one ie processing time and how the customer is to tell you which one they want. That needs to be addressed.

Again there are no sizings mentioned this will confuse and put potential customers off.

There’s no photo of inside the bag so people can see the inside.

You need to think like a shopper, remember when selling online the potential customer can only go by your photo’s and descriptions. If they go into a high street shop they can pick up an items feel it, look it over inside and out before deciding on whether to buy or not.

Your descriptions are a big problem, even your Notice board doesn’t say what you make it with, if you’ve used fire retardant foam. What wood, hardboard you’ve used, if the material is cotton or polyester cotton mix etc etc. There are no sizes either. Also there’s a typing error.

The tags and titles are poor again think about what word or phrase someone would use to find a noticeboard. Tags don’t have to be single words but also two or three word tags. You have only used a few of the 15 spaces available for tags. Again your boards can’t be classified as custom made as they can be resold if returned unused and undamaged so can be returned.

Ok lets now look at how you are promoting your listings how often and how many different social media platforms are you using and also are you using word of mouth and business cards?

I’ve not seen you join in with the Showcase part of the forum that’s also a great way to get know. As we have threads where we promote each other’s items which helps as we all have different people following us on different social media platforms.

Here is a suggest list of social media platform you can use for free to promote your shop and individual listings.

Facebook but it take’s time to build up a following and when you do it only shows your post to about 1% of your followers.
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram but for this you’ll need an android phone. I don’t use this one but those who do will help you.
Google plus this one improves your presence on a google search
Craftjuice and we have a thread where those of us who use craftjuice vote for each other.
Wanelo

Hope some of that helps.

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Thanks Helen, that is something i can fix! X

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Good to know im not alone! Follow this thread though and we may both learn something new! X

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Hello Eileen,

Firstly, massive thanks for taking time to really look at my shop in detail, all of it will be taken on board and allow me to grow, although its not, i admit, easy to hear!

Taggies - i did not know about the TM and will be taking action by removing the square design and amending descriptiins if my other comforters so thanks!

CE testing is something thats now underway for me as i get time to make up samples to test. My cloud cushions are now CE tested for example and butterfly comforters are next on the list. But i think i shall withdraw my toys untik they are all done.

Titles and sizes - all fair comments i will work on.

Custom order - now i read this to mean an item made specifically to the customers requirements, rather thsn just applying to personalised items. My boards, bags and other items are available to order in a range of fabrics of the customers choosing, which makes them custom orders. Thats my thinking?

I currently have 2500 followers on facebook and this is my main revenue stream, i also regularly post on Twitter, Instagram, pinterest, Tumblr and my own website as well as my Etsy shop. Google+ ive tried but gotten nothing from. Craftjuice is new to me which ill investigate. Meantime though i shall redirect my Shop Now button to Folksy to see if that generates some footfall here.

As for Showcase i have taken part in a few but as i work part time, have 2 kids and concentrate on other social media too, i cant always manage the time as otherwise id never actually get any sewing done!

I hope to run BBW full time in the next year or so, which would give me more time to perfect things. Thanks a lot though for giving me lots to think about!

Caroline x

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Just jumping in to answer a couple of your queries.

Custom made - made specifically for the customer, not something you could easily resell e.g.: personalised items

Made to order: Items made to the customers requirements but things that could be resold if returned.

You are required to accept returns from made to order items but not custom made ones. (At least I think thats how it works)

Also, you mention your cloud cushions are CE tested - I notice you state this in the description but it would be worth adding it to the title and tags as well as some people may search for CE tested items.

Hope that helps

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Check to see if your website conflicts with your folksy shop,is there duplicate content ? google se frowns on this and will lower your ranking.
I don’t know who you current web host is but you may like to check out Spanglefish.com, I am with them and they have the facility where I can add a url to an image and if that image is clicked on it takes the viewer straight to folksy.If you just want to try them there is a free version but you get adverts,I go for free at first untill my site is built.
Beware of keyword cramming (too many per Page),google s.e see this as spamming.

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First thing I notice when I look at your shop front is the cropping of photos - folksy crops our main shot (the one that gets shown on your shop front or in search results) to a square, if the original wasn’t square then bits get cut off. Your elephant is missing part of his ears and trunk, the dinosaur has neither head nor tail, poor things, its rather off putting and if a potential customer is scrolling through a page of search results it may well be putting them off as well. When you move forward with your photography you might want to think about arranging the piece so it naturally makes a square and then use Picasa or similar to crop the surplus background out to make shot actually square (hopefully that makes sense).

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Thanks so much! Have added CE testing to the title as suggested for those products which are now approved.

As for the custom thing, having read Folksy’s description on this, “items designed specifically to the customers own requirements” - i believe this applies to my products with fabric choices as depending on the customers choice of fabric , they may not be easily resold and some also come with personalisation options. Thanks for your help though!

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Thank you James, not well enough versed on the techy stuff but something i will investigate further, appreciate your input :grinning:

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Thank you Sasha, a good point which i hadnt given enough attention. :wink:

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Hi All,

If anyone is able to spare the time to give my shop a critique that
would be great! There will be a discount code sent after as a thank
you!

I look forward to hearing you views!

Laura.

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@Lauratoal My thoughts feel free to ignore them:
Collections - your items would sit very well in collections.People could click on a collection and then look at all the styles and colour ways of eg hair bands on one page at the moment I have to scroll through and click forward to the next page to see them all (nb I like the fact that you have organised the shop by colour as it means I can see all of the eg jade coloured items in one go). At the moment your only collection is ‘clearance’.
Key words - search engines put more importance on words the further up a page they come so it is worth repeating key words from your title in the first paragraph eg in your aqua velvet bracelet you don’t reuse the word bracelet or choker in the first paragraph so if I didn’t have the title or photograph I wouldn’t know what you were talking about (I was once told to write the description as if I was describing it to a blind person). I would have written it ‘In this wrap bracelet aqua colour bugle beads…’ and then lost the first line break so the first two paragraphs become one. Perhaps not so important if people are doing an internal search but more important if you want to bring traffic in via google. (One listing had an opening paragraph about a now defunct discount code which should definately be removed)
Linking between matching items - if someone has landed on an item via google they won’t have seen your shop front so won’t have seen all the co-ordinating items so I’d make reference to them in the text, it might help get additional sales.
Photos - a couple could do with recropping to square as they have lost the edges of the item but I like the fact that the hair bands are modelled on a person and the belts/ sashes on a taylor’s dummy.
Finally I can see your pieces working well for bridesmaids especially the hair bands or sashes. Not sure how best to work this in but some wording to highlight that you could make multiples (assuming you can) if someone has several bridesmaids and that they should contact you about lead times. Ditto if you can do colour matching to make items to go with a specific outfit or colour scheme (again if you are prepared to do that). Like I said not sure how you would work that in.
I’ve waffled enough so hopefully some of that might prove useful.
Sasha

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Hi Sashs, thanks for taking time to reply! Not sure however that you are viewing the right page as i dont make jewellery or hair bands! My page is www.folksy.com/shops/carolinemclean.

Saying that, you make some points that im sure will apply to my shop, so i do appreciate your time and thoughts.

Caroline
Boo-Bear Wares

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Sorry I thought I was replying to the other lady who had posted on your thread asking for a critique. I shall go back and tag her in my post to make sure it gets through to her.
Sasha

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Hi Sasha

Thank you for your comments! I have just added more ‘collections’ to reflect the items for sale
and will look into rewriting item descriptions to include keywords, multiples and swatching service. For some reason Folksy crops my item photos, so I will try to maybe create a smaller square version in Photoshop. Plenty to work on!

Please accept the discount code I will shortly contact you directly with as a thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time and have a great week!

Laura.

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