What's in a shop name?

I’m looking for some advice regarding my shop name. I have been crafting for a couple of years making lots of items of varied crafts and had my folksy shop and facebook page (Rozcraftz). I have now decided I would like to concentrate on my felted items and sell off any remaining stock of everything else although I may keep one or two non felted items going. I have opened a new facebook page (Felt the Needle) and a similarly named shop on the other side. Just wondering if I should bite the bullet and change my shop name here too or wait until I have sold off all my excess non felted stock, or just keep it as it is.

What are the pros and cons to changing it and do shop names really make a difference?

Any advice/comments welcome

Roz

I think the shop name makes a huge difference. Up until the end of last year I was selling under the name “FlowaPowa Art”, and in approximately 20 months I sold 58 items from that shop.

In January I bit the bullet and changed my name to Stephanie Guy Fine Art and have sold
84 items already.

I believe people can relate to me more as a person and a grown up artist using my real name, and that will make them more inclined to buy from me.

I also wanted to change my user name on the forum and to do that on folksy I had start again with a new id. It was a wrench as I no longer had any feedback, and I even gave up the yellow star that I had earned as a best seller :frowning:

I’d say go ahead and start stocking and promoting your new shop now :slight_smile:

I agree the shop name is hugely important as it’s often the very first thing any potential buyer will notice about you. Does the shop name give them a clue about what you sell and tempt them in, or not…If you’re going to do it, it’s best to do it sooner rather than later.

I would say as long as the shop name is short and memorable, it doesn’t really matter if it has what you sell in it. Your marketing keywords will get the customer to your shop, or images of what you make. If they want to find you again, having that short name will help. I would say that having a consistent brand is quite important. So if you’re selling under a different name everywhere else I’d consider changing it here.

There was a thread about changing shop names a while ago. Here is it - Changing my shop name - it says your URL won’t change. Might be worth looking into that if you decide to keep your shop for the feedback and just swap the name.

Jo

When i first took the leap in selling online, i had no idea how to start so i google online craft sites and Folksy popped up. So i followed all the instructions and when i got to name, i hadn’t thought about what to call myself. I spent ages trying to link words together and every time i came up with one, someone else already had it - then my cat walked into the room so i used his name Biskett but someone had that name!! so i added my fave colour blue so Biskettblue was created. Sometimes i wonder if it is the right name for me as it doesn’t relate to knitting and my sales are low, but i have had the name for 2 years now is it too late to change ?