Craft Show in November....Cancelled.... :+{

[danny]

Hello All....  I know this subject has made its round before, but don't remember anyone saying what

their plan for Future ways of Selling their Crafts.  Wife and I have Many.   Am aware that many out

there use ETSY.   Can We start again with Suggestions on how We are going to sell our crafts.

Oh yea and Yes I have Considered Christmas Gifts....    Thanks ......................Danny  :+}

[danny]

Well I'll be....  Sure felt there would be Many replys to this....Maybe I can just ask does anyone sell their

Scrollsaw Crafts using ETSY?  If so I would Love to Learn the way to get started.   Thanks Danny  :+}

 

PS .... Oh yea and if if its really worth it.        :+}

[amazingkevin]

I,ve sold nothing on esty,took it all down.

[John B]

Danny, Kevin, @kmmcrafts, sells via etsy and have posted quite a few how to's.

[kmmcrafts]

I'd go to the business forum topic and search for etsy.. it should bring up many topics on this.. I have written many topics on the subject there.. I may have replied but I rarely get down here to the coffee house section.. 

Let me also just say.. everyone and their brother / sister is flocking to etsy right now so competition might be quite tuff for a new shop without any type of a following.. This time of year is slow.. I'm a seasoned seller and today at noon I've only had 3 orders on etsy 2 orders on my website and 2 orders on amazon.. yes.. if you serious about selling and making money you need to sell in many places.. I couldn't live off of just those 3 etsy orders.. .. the day is far from over and could change to be a dang profitable day.. but as a new seller.. don't expect to get any sales for 3-6 months.. maybe much longer than that now with the flock of craft sellers that have moved to etsy since shows are cancelled out.. not to mention those that sold there in the past while they also worked a full time job but are now laid off work.. now they have time to put more focus on their business.. Tough market out there right now.. I see it getting tougher in the future for a newbie.. 

Also consider though... with the millions out of work.. there is also more shoppers online shopping.. so it's not all bad like I made it sound above.. It's worth a try worst thing that'll happen is you don't sell anything.. and you might spend $1- 20 trying.. More products in a online store the more chance of someone seeing something they like.. don't set up a store and put 5 items in it and think you're going to sell out, LOL.. If you're going to the lumber yard for plywood.. do you go to the one that carries only cherry plywood or go to the one that has lots of different types including exotics etc.. catch my drift? put yourself out there and tell everyone on every social media site you know and belong to.. someone somewhere might like what you have to offer...

Best advice I can give.. patients... it doesn't happen overnight and also without a lot of work.. 

Anyway, search the business section.. i've put a lot of good info out there..

[meflick]

In today’s post on his blog, Steve Good provides a link to a video from a person who talks about setting up and selling from an Etsy store. I have not watched it yet myself so cannot give any insight on it. However, I trust Steve enough that if he says it’s worth watching, I probably will when I have some free time as I have contemplated settling up Etsy site. I have a niece interested now in it so I was going to watch to help answer her questions as well.

http://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/2020/08/tea-light-lantern-scroll-saw-pattern.html
(scroll down past his initial post of information on the pattern he was providing today to find the info. on the Etsy information.)

As for not getting much replies here. As Kevin noted, you placed it in the Coffee Shop subforum here in the Village. Not as many folks come and visit in the Coffee Shop. Most interested in scrolling and running it as a business post in the Business subforum as Kevin also noted. A good place to look back through the threads there for useful information.

Edited August 2, 2020 by meflick

[danny]

Feel like Blushing!  Yes Wrong section to Ask this type of Question.  But Did think it was the right one.  Blush!

Big Thanks to All for Wonderful Advice.  I will take it Seriously........................Danny  :+}

[kmmcrafts]

The lady in the video did a good job of pointing out your "real cost" which most people seem to just look at the one number.. A lot of the rest of the video seems like an advertisement for etsy ads, LOL.. which I'm torn on recommending at all or not.. I admit I used them at one time.. but they have changed the whole ad system so in my position they're useless now.. used to be you could pick and choose what to advertise... but people got lost doing that.. so now they just advertise the whole shop full of items.. I used to advertise wedding themed things during wedding month and spend $1 - 2 per day.. and used to be able to set how much you pay for each wedding themed item you'd pay per ad click... Now it's an on-off button to advertise your whole shop full of items and I have no control on how much per click etc etc.. so to me they're a joke now.. BUT.. in her defense... probably could be good for a new shop.. I do my best to try NOT to get etsy sales.. I try to get the customers to my website because the fees are cheaper No 5% FVF's and no listing fee etc etc.. just a flat monthly fee.. 5% isn't bad considering Amazon giant is 15%... BUT.. no listing fees or any other fees.. just a flat 15% FVF.. so when you calculate the listing fees etc etsy could be more to sell on than the others depending upon your listings and price ranges you sell at..

I liked her comment about figuring out what you need to charge to make a profit.. I've talked a lot about pricing.. but only thing it's done is chase JT away and give others a dis-taste for me, so I'll leave it all for others to figure out on their own.. Just know.. without a decent profit you could end up owing etsy more than you made.. some don't care so long as you get rid of what you make.. others live off their profits..

I sort of agree and disagree with Steve's comment about selling the same themed things.. ie all Christmas stuff or all puzzles etc.. While it is best to have a uniform store with same things. I don't think it's critical.. because most people never make it to your actual store.. they run across a "Item" photo and click on that item if it catches their eye.. some will then go to your main shop but not really that many like you think would.. Random items aren't as big a deal as you'd think IMO.. Yes if you're selling puzzles it's good to have more dog breads than just the one... you might get someone that will see one click on it then click to go to your shop to see if you might have the dog breed they have an interest in.. BUT... that's a long shot for most shoppers... they're not going to click on a dog breed puzzle they don't have an interest in in the first place.. NOW it could be they have an interest in great danes but has a friend / relative that loves beagles so they may go looking and possibly buy two.. a great dane and the beagle.. So I think Steve is right in that.. a shop looks cluttered with just a bunch of random things.. BUT.. nothing wrong with selling several styles of puzzles, ornaments, cell phone stands and ???  But having a shop with one puzzle.. one ornament and one this that and the other.. isn't as desirable as a uniform list of things.. So if you like making portraits by all means make them and sell them.. But don't get bent out of shape when you only have 10-20 different portraits and not getting any sales.. You don't go to a paint store that only has 10 colors to choose from do you.. no you go to one that has 100's of colors and even an option for custom mixed colors.. 

[kmmcrafts]

You know.. an alternative to etsy might be Facebook.. I forgot they have a free store platform if you create a business page which is also free.. I have no idea how it works... but you could try it and let us all know..

Also there are many sites besides etsy that are quite easy to build a online store..  I have a store on most of these but have not really worked the store.. I've slowly been adding to these two stores again.. had full blown stores with these two a few years ago and got overwhelmed with too much business and hut them down completely..  

Artfire.com  and my shop on artfire here.. https://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/home/KevsKrafts

Zibbet.com  which they give you a site or now you can merge with etsy etc.. Here is my zibbet shop.. only started adding things again last night so it's empty kinda.. https://marketplace.zibbet.com/kevskrafts and the stitch sight through zibbet here.. https://kevskrafts.zibbet.com/

Indiemade.com is another low cost site builder that I have used in the past.. I've heard from other sellers that they've made many many upgrades and improvements since I was a seller there..

Lots of people like shopify.. I've never used it. seems quite pricey to me but they have a lot of offer too soo.. 

Anyway.. just thought I'd throw it out there that etsy isn't the only option.. etsy is kinda like ebay, and amazon in that.. a lot of people know about it so that is where most everyone is going so right now there is quite a lot of competition with all the new sellers coming on board.. maybe a different site is a better option..