Shop Sale and Various Items of Newsage

(You know, newsage? Not new-sage, but news-age, as in, “I wanted to share a few various items of newsage”? I know, just click away, I never have any idea what I’m talking about. <—see? Told you.)

Item Numero Uno:

I decided to have a fall kickoff sale in my shop! Fall is my absolute favorite time of year, and it just so happens to be the perfect time for you to start thinking about what winter hat you (or your little munchkin) will be wearing in the chilly weather. And I just so happen to make many awfully cute ones.

(Clockwise from the big one: Baby Bear Hat, Slouch Hat, Flower Beanie, Owl Hat, Headwrap, Cluster Cowl)

Pop into my shop, take a gander, decide what you could use this fall/winter, and use coupon code FALLKICKOFF at checkout for 25% off. That coupon code is good for THIS WEEKEND ONLY, so don’t drag your feet if you’ve got your eye on something!

(That coupon code can be used on any purchase from my shop, so feel free to use it on a pattern purchase if you’d like to crochet something yourself. And, as always, I love doing custom work, so shoot me an email [maybematildaquilts at gmail.com] if you have a style in mind that I’m not currently offering and I’ll let you know if it’s a possibility for me to recreate. And don’t feel limited to the colors in pictures—I’ve got a big old yarn stash of colors to choose from, and I’m always happy to go shopping to find the color you’d like if I don’t already have it!)

Item Numero Dos:

My friend Chelsea over at Two Twenty-One has started a new business venture—photo editing for the shots you love that require a little help to make them shine. Just look at what she did with this formerly lackluster photo of me and my sister from last fall’s visit to the pumpkin patch:

Nicely done, Chelsea! Click on over here if you’re interested in seeing what she can do to help your photos out, too.

Item Numero Tres:

Did you know I’m famous? (That’s okay, neither did I.) My husband informed me this morning that my pixie growout post is the top google hit (is that the right terminology?) for the search words “grow out pixie cut.” I guess this explains why I’m still getting comments on that post, 6 months after writing it. 

Well, this google news (plus the reminder of my Beiber hair offered by the photo above) makes me think that the pixie growout post desperately needs an update—the first post covered pictures, growth, and general Beiberocity for the first 6 months of grow-out, and I’ve now passed a year of pixie growth, so you can expect an update to that post soon. I apologize sincerely if you have been anxiously sitting at your computer for these past 6 months, refreshing my blog every minute whilst sweating and biting your nails as you eagerly awaited an update. To appease you until I can take proper hair pictures, enjoy this shot taken yesterday with a severely webcam-obsessed Forrest that includes my head and, unavoidably, hair and hence is semi-related to this item of newsage without actually being informative or helpful at all. (Translation: I feel the need to redeem my naughty child’s reputation after my last post and this picture ought to do the trick.)

(See, I told you he was cute at home. Now if he could just keep this up when we leave the house, we’d be all set.)

You asked . . . how I package my etsy orders!

I got an email recently from a reader who had been looking over my Etsy Success Tips posts (here are parts 1, 2, and 3) and came up with a good question. I mentioned in this post that you ought to package your items as if you were sending a gift instead of a purchase--I want my customers to feel excited when they open their mailbox, not deflated when they open it and find an ugly package. So one reader requested to see how I package my etsy orders for shipment . . . I'm happy to oblige.

Hopefully it won't be a letdown--my orders are packaged in what I would consider to be a "middle-of-the-road" sort of way. The majority of the items I have ordered on etsy have arrived in downright ugly packaging (am I the only one who hates the big yellow envelopes? And addresses written in sharpie? And fragile items wrapped in crumpled newspaper?), so if we're comparing to those, I feel pretty proud of my packaging. 

But I know there are many sellers who put a lot of love and effort into their packaging (there's an entire flickr group devoted to it, and my word, their packaging is beautiful!)--compared to theirs, mine is a wrinkly manila envelope smudged with black sharpie. 

Unfortunately, time and money create a problem at some point. Frankly, I'd rather spend my craft time working on orders than working on their packages, and if I made the packaging too fancy, I'd have to pass the cost on to the customers. So this is packaging the Maybe Matilda way: inexpensive, quick-and-easy packaging that still looks nice and feels like a treat to open.

Here's what I use:

- Poly Mailers from Royal Mailers (I highly recommend Royal Mailers--every item I've bought from them has been top-notch, their shipping is crazy fast, and their prices are incredible.)

- white tissue paper (I just buy the big value pack from Walmart . . . I haven't even looked at ordering this online, because I have proven myself to be, for some reason, incapable of assessing my tissue paper supply and restocking before I run out. Walmart to the rescue.)

- cute scrapbook papers (I try to keep a large variety of colors on hand so I can match the papers I use in the package to the item inside the package . . . unfortunately, I'm running low right now [translation: I currently have two, count 'em, two sheets of scrapbook paper in my house], so for these pictures, they won't match the hat at all.)

- washi tape (won in a giveaway from The Modern Marigold! Yay!)

Since customers are ordering a handmade product, I like to keep little handmade touches on the packaging. I used to print out the address labels, but I've stopped doing that recently because I enjoy seeing a seller's handwriting and feeling like they put a little effort into the packaging. Also, I'm out of ink. So I write out the addresses by hand and use scrapbook papers to add a little color to the white envelope, matching it to the item if I can.

I also include a handwritten note with orders, written on scrapbook paper that matches what I used on the envelope. This hat was headed to a friend who's expecting her first baby, so this isn't the note I would normally send (and I'm feeling silly now that I bothered smudging out names . . . I can hardly decipher my own handwriting in that picture). If I'm sending an order, I thank them for their purchase and give a coupon code to use on future visits. I've been meaning to order business cards to include as well, but haven't decided where to order them (anyone have a site to recommend?).

 

I wrap the item up in white tissue paper, and seal it with a little strip of cute washi tape.

Slip it in the package and we're good to go! 

It's nothing particularly fancy, and it doesn't belong on the etsy packaging flickr group, but I like that it's clean and simple, looks nice, would make for easy gift-giving (just pop the tissue-wrapped item in a gift bag and it's ready for gifting!), and doesn't take too much time or money to pull together. I'm able to keep my shipping costs low while still sending out packages that, I hope, are exciting to open. 

Definitely better than a manila envelope and crumpled newspapers, right?

Etsy Success :: Behind the Scenes

(You can find the first and second parts of my etsy success tips here and here!)

I've written two etsy success posts now . . . one about your shop and one about your product. But I think there's a third, bigger, more important element to doing well on etsy--the work you could be doing behind the scenes to make your shop successful. 

Customer Service

You need to have good great incredible customer service if you ever want any customers to come back for a second visit or tell their friends and family about you or even just leave you nice feedback! If you get an email with a question, answer it promptly and politely (I've lost sales before because I didn't respond to a customer's inquiry quickly enough!). Ship your items as quickly as you possibly can, and package them as if you were sending a gift instead of a purchase--for me, nothing takes the excitement out of an etsy purchase more than waiting weeks for it to arrive, then receiving an ugly, re-used, torn and tattered package in the mail. Send an email to thank your customer for their purchase and to let them know when their package has been/will be shipped so they don't sit around wondering what's going on. Include a thank you note in your packages--it adds a nice personal touch, and makes the customer feel appreciated. 

Thank you cards from Everything Elaine

If a customer leaves you especially nice feedback or sends a picture of their item in use (oh, how I love seeing pictures of babies wearing my hats!), make sure to thank them and let you know how much you appreciate it (nothing feels crummier than putting forth a nice effort that goes completely unacknowledged!). Chances are, you'll get the occasional customer who will make semi-annoying requests or just generally be a bit of a pain . . . rather than immediately saying no or acting like they're being an inconvenience, just do whatever you can to be accommodating and friendly, because they'll have the chance to leave you public feedback, and wouldn't you hate to get nasty feedback because you weren't willing to ship something faster than usual, or change a detail on an item, or alter the size? I've made special requests before that were probably obnoxious, like requesting gift wrapping, or asking that an item be sent to an address other than mine (like an adorable necklace I recently bought from Bajo La Luna on etsy and had mailed straight to my mother-in-law for her birthday), and I was so grateful that the sellers were happy to do as I asked. They got glowing feedback from me, and I'll be happy to shop with them again and recommend them to friends because I know they're great sellers who value their customers and are willing to go the extra mile to make their customers happy. Treat each shopper like gold and they'll be happy to come back to your shop and pass the word along to their friends!

Promote Responsibly

You often hear about the importance of having a facebook page and a twitter account to connect with customers and promote your business . . . but I think you need to tread very carefully here. I'm fairly certain there's no more effective way to lose customers and fans and friends than to be obnoxious when you're trying to promote your shop. 

Facebook Onesie from The Itty Bitty Boutique

We don't need to be provided with a link to every new listing you add to your shop, or every treasury you're included in, or get constant updates on the number of sales you've had. Nor do we need to hear about what you're having for lunch, what you're doing this weekend, or what grade little Susie got on her spelling test. Believe me, potential customers don't want to be bombarded with constant updates, and they'll unlike your facebook page and unfollow you on twitter faster than you can say check-out-my-newest-item! I'm definitely no marketing expert, but I think you should use facebook and twitter (or whatever else you use to market your shop) very carefully. Sure, get yourself a facebook page and include the occasional link to new items or listings you've put on sale or a product you've found that you love, but a little goes a long way! 

Everybody loves a deal!

Coupons box lamp from Yellow Square Love

Etsy lets you create coupon codes that customers can use to receive discounts on products, and it's a great way to find out where your customers are coming from and bring them back in for a return visit. I always include a coupon code in the thank you card I send out with my packages that customers can use for a discount on their second purchase, and you can create special coupon codes for different events . . . is it your birthday? Offer a special birthday coupon code for the week! Feeling festive at Christmas time? Create a holiday coupon code! Or are you wondering how your customers are ending up in your shop? Advertise one coupon code on your facebook page, another on twitter, another on your blog, and so on--that way, you can track which codes are being used the most frequently to find out which of your marketing techniques are the most effective. 

How 'bout a giveaway?

I think offering giveaways is a great way to find new customers and spread the word about your shop--obviously, you can't go overboard with them or you'll never make any money, but find a blog you like whose readers you think will love your work and shoot the writer an email to ask if they'll host a giveaway for your shop.

giveaway info from Handmade Silhouettes

 Be aware, though, that some bloggers will charge you for hosting a giveaway, but if it's a big blog with a lot of readers, maybe it's worth it--after all, a lot of readers means a lot of potential customers! I've never paid to do a giveaway (it just seems to me like you shouldn't have to pay to give away free stuff), so you can certainly find people who are happy to host your giveaway at no charge. In my experience, you're best served by giving away store credit of at least $20--people love being able to choose whatever they want from your shop, but if you're only giving away a few dollars' worth of credit, they don't feel like it's worth taking the time to enter. And while it might feel like you're giving away a lot of valuable product, think of all the people who will be checking out your shop and falling in love . . . you'll probably end up making a lot more than you gave away!

Advertise!

Maybe you already have a facebook page or a blog to promote your shop . . . another great way to get your shop noticed is to advertise on blogs whose readers you think might be interested in your products. 

vintage French advertisement from Curious Prints & More

Most bloggers offer ad space for pretty darn cheap, and you can get some new traffic headed your way as readers notice your cute lil button on the sidebar of their favorite blog. I know, it kind of hurts to spend money on advertising, but if it brings you more sales, it's worth every penny!

Get friendly

One of my favorite parts of selling on etsy is the personal side--making friends with customers and other sellers is a huge part of the etsy experience, so be friendly! Join some teams that are related to your craft or your location to share advice and experience and meet new people. 

best friends print from Cute & Fun Arts by rkdsign88

I love the pals I've made on etsy . . . Lori of Jewllori is an absolute riot, Haley of Handmade by HJWilke always has something sweet to say that totally makes my day, and I think Amanda of Amanda's Beans is my proverbial kindred spirit. Having some etsy friends means you'll know just where to turn for advice on your shop, honest comments about your products and prices, and answers to questions you might have, not to mention that you share a common interest already--we're all hanging out on etsy because we love to buy and sell the things we've whipped up ourselves, and wouldn't you love to have some craft buddies? The only downside of etsy friends is the sad realization that you don't all live next door to each other and probably won't get to hang out in real life, but I guess that's an occupational hazard of etsy selling that you'll just have to come to terms with. Or you could be a little hermit hiding alone in your etsy shop if you'd rather take that route, but the friendly option is probably more fun.

Off you go now! Get to work on your shop and stay busy behind the scenes, and I wish you billions and zillions of sales. Also, I want to come vacation with you in your Tuscan villa when you've made your millions on etsy. 

Etsy Success :: The Product

(You can see the first part of my etsy success tips here!)

All right! Part 2! So after reading my tips for getting your shop in order, you should have a lovely-looking shop that's stuffed to the gills with amazing photos of . . . your product. Dun-dun-DUUUUUUNNNNN! (Was that sufficiently dramatic? It was supposed to be the spelled-out version of this, which was the first hit when I googled "dun dun DUN." Oh, Google, you never let me down!)

Search it, baby!

Very few people are going to head straight to your shop to buy what they need . . . most customers are going to find you through the etsy search, so make sure your items are searchable! If you feel like being an all-star, you can learn about search engine optimization. I don't really know what that entails. I just try to help etsy's search work for me.

It's tempting to use cutesy titles for your products, which I did when I started out, but I don't think it does anything for you. For instance, I would try to give my quilts fun names (exhibit A, my Pure Joy Butterfly Quilt pictured above), but that's kind of a waste. Who's going to head to etsy and type "pure joy quilt" into the search bar? Give your items titles that could match what your buyers might type in to find it. Instead of calling something "The Pure Joy Butterfly Quilt," which no one in a million years is ever going to search for, name it "Baby Girl White Quilt with Pink Purple and Green Butterflies." It's not flashy, it's not cute, but it is descriptive and contains the sort of words buyers might actually include in their searches.

photo courtesy of Lisa Lytton Photography

When you list an item on etsy, you can use 5 photos and 13 tags (which etsy's search uses to find your item). Use. Them. ALL! Maybe you already have 2 photos that you think adequately show your product . . . but why waste that free space? Take a really close detail shot of your product, show how you package it so buyers know if it's ready to give as a gift (a photo like this has often been the final straw that got me to buy something--knowing it would arrive beautifully packaged and ready to give away!), show it being used, show it being displayed, show it being worn, and so on. And tag that sucker! Let's say I'm listing one of my baby bear hats. Some obvious tags come to mind: baby, hat, crochet . . . now what? Think of what people could potentially be searching for when they stumble across this hat--how about newborn? Infant? Toddler? Animal hat? Critter? Ears? Cream? White? Beanie? Cap? Winter hat? Accessory? Earflaps? Boy? Girl? Get creative and use tags that describe your item in a less obvious way.

Renew, renew, renew

Listing an item costs 20 cents and keeps your item live for a few months. So why would you want to renew your listings before they expire? Sellers are adding new items to their shops every minute, and newer listings show up at the top of the search while older items get pushed back to page 2, 3, 4 . . . or 40, 50, 60. So your latest item that was right up at the top of the search page when you listed it an hour ago is old news by now, and a buyer would have to click through pages of listings before finding yours.

USA Map from Plum Street Prints

If you want your products to keep showing up near the top of the search, you'll need to renew them on occasion. Renewing costs 20 cents, the same as creating a new listing, so you can't go crazy renewing every item every day or you'll never make any money. But every now and then, pick an older item in your shop and renew it just so it comes up higher in the search. I've often had items sit unwanted in my shop for weeks and weeks, then renewed them on a whim and had them sold within a few hours.

Give 'em options

One thing I've learned in my time on etsy is that buyers love having choices. I can't tell you how many times I've crocheted a hat, listed it, and almost immediately gotten a message that said, "I love this hat! Can I have it in brown?" or "This is so cute! Can I have it made for my 3-year old?" Shoppers love being able to customize an item to fit their style and needs, so give them some options!

Customizable tutu from The Tulle Shop by SBD

Can it be made in different colors? Different sizes? Different finishes? Different fabrics? Different fonts? Let your shoppers know that you're happy to create custom orders just for them, and you'll be amazed at the difference. I have quite a few products still sitting around my house because no one wanted it in the color or size I chose, but I've recreated them dozens of times as custom orders for people who wanted it in white, or black, or green, or an adult size, or made specifically to fit someone's extra big or extra small head or hands. I've had so many requests for items in colors I never would have thought of using (like hats with bear ears in bright pink and blue), but they come out adorable and the customers loved them . . . because they couldn't find what they wanted anywhere else. Be the one to offer them exactly what they want!

Find a cute model

This one sounds shallow, and maybe it is, but I think it really makes a difference. If your item is wearable, always always always use a model in your photos to show it being worn. I would be a thousand times more likely to buy a hat pictured on a child than a hat just sitting there all lonely-like. And if it's pictured on a cute child? Sold!

photo source

In a perfect world, it wouldn't matter if your model is good-looking . . . but, shallowly enough, I think it really does. If you don't feel comfortable modeling your own items, I'm sure you have siblings or friends who would be happy to be the face of your shop.

 My pretty sister models for me on occasion and had this hat sold within a few hours!

Or maybe you don't have a little one to model your baby items . . . do you have a neighbor with kids? (The little cutie in the green hat above is one of my best friends' daughters who got bribed into being my model with a lollipop.) Or do you know a photographer who works with babies who could use your items in their shoots? (Bonus tip: offer a special coupon code for photographers in exchange for photos of your products to use in your shop! I've gotten some beautiful photos that way, and they get advertising through their watermark or a link to their site displayed in my shop.) Find some cute people and snap some pictures of them wearing your work!

Show me the money

I think setting your prices is one of the trickiest parts of running an etsy shop . . . charge too little and buyers will think you're making junk (not to mention that you'll go out of business if you never make anything!), but charge too much and you'll never have any customers. I've seen formulas here and there to help you figure out how much to charge. They generally look something like this:

(Labor + Materials) x 2 = Wholesale Price

Wholesale Price x 2 = Retail Price

 Money card from Letterary Press

But how much is your labor worth? And do you know exactly how much you're spending on materials? Are you including the price of the gas to drive to the store, your shopping time, and shipping supplies in your materials cost? I don't think most etsy sellers are really following this formula . . . if I set my prices by that model, I'd be charging at least $75 per hat, and I'd probably still be waiting for my first sale. Instead, I search etsy for items similar to mine to see what an average price seems to be and set my prices accordingly. But again, if you go too low, people will think you're selling junk and not take you seriously, and if you go too high, you'll never sell anything. So decide what price makes selling worth it to you and go with it. This will probably take some adjustment . . . when I started selling hats, I had them priced at $10 each. Sure, they were selling, but it stopped being fun pretty quickly because it hardly felt worth my time. So I played around with pricing until I found a number that was still selling well but didn't leave me feeling taken advantage of. Figure out a number that makes it worth it to you.

 All right! I'll get cracking on my last post for etsy success . . . things you could be doing behind the scenes that I think make all the difference!

Etsy Success :: The Shop

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway, and thanks for all your kind words about my shop! The 3 winners are Alice, Samantha, and Christina . . . congratulations, ladies! I've contacted all three of you, so if you don't see an email/comment from me, shoot me an email at maybematildaquilts (at) gmail.com so you can choose your patterns!

Since posting about hitting my 500th sale in my etsy shop, I've gotten a few questions from some of you who have an etsy shop of your own asking for tips and advice. Well, I don't think I have any huge secrets for you, and none of this will be groundbreaking or revolutionary, but I'm happy to share a few little things I've learned along the way that I've found helpful!

I'll be breaking this down into three parts: the shop, the product, and behind the scenes, so keep your eye out for the next two parts!

I'll be straight with you here: I don't think I'm some huge etsy success story . . . I still feel like a bit of a newbie there, and I'm learning new things all the time and am always working on improving my shop and products. I opened my shop just about a year ago and it seemed like it took forever to get going--when I opened, I listed 2 or 3 baby quilts and didn't do anything to promote or improve my shop, so it shouldn't be too surprising that I didn't sell anything for months. I thought customers would just find me on their own and whip out their credit cards . . . I didn't know you actually had to work for it! But when I started to actually put some effort into my shop instead of letting it sit there, ignored and almost entirely empty, I saw a huge difference. Here are some of the shop-based things that I think make a big difference:

Make that shop pretty!

Now, I don't think this first tip is vital to shop success by any means, but I do think it makes a difference when a shop looks nice. Take a good long look at your main shop page (here's mine) . . . if it were your very first time seeing that page, would you want to stick around?

Although it certainly isn't crucial to doing well, I love to see a shop that has a nice banner and a cohesive style; it makes them look more legitimate. If you're good at computer stuff, you can make a nice banner for yourself and save some money . . . my computer skills stop a little shy of Microsoft Paint, so I bought mine here for a few bucks (and, note to self, should probably update it to match my new blog look).

Fantastic photos

Let's say a potential customer heads over to etsy to search for a hat for their baby; here's what they're going to see:

 Page after page after page of teeny tiny itsy bitsy little thumbnail photos. So you darn well better have an amazing shot of your product as the first photo on each of your listings or no one is ever going to notice it in that sea of similar products. If you have any friends or neighbors who are photographers, consider having them take professional photos of your products for your shop.

Honestly, are you going to be intrigued enough to click on a picture like this, especially when it's shrunk down to a thumbnail and surrounded by dozens of amazing photos?

 Nope. You'd scroll right past it without even noticing it. But this one, on the other hand, just might catch your eye--bright, clear, simple, and cute:

Keep the colors and backgrounds simple, get up close to your model/product, and make sure there's plenty of light in your shot! If you need to, edit it up (I use picasa) to make it even brighter and crop in a bit closer. Make sure your first picture in particular is really great since it's the one that has to catch their attention in the search pages, but also include plenty of variety in your other photos--remember, your customers on etsy can't pick your item up and look it over the way they would in person, so include a close up so they can see the detail, shots from the side, top, back, etc.You have to really show your items well to make customers feel comfortable buying it without having held it and looked it over.

  Check out the competition

I feel a little nervous giving this advice because I don't want you to go about it the wrong way . . . I don't want you to pore through every description and picture in similar shops that are selling more than you, obsessing over why they're succeeding when you're not, altering your photos and wording to mimic theirs. The beauty of your shop is that it's you, so don't abandon that! 

photo source

But I do think it can be helpful to find a few shops selling products similar to yours (and selling plenty!) to try and pinpoint why they're doing so well. Do they have amazing photos? Are they using tags on their listings that you hadn't thought of? Are their prices significantly lower than yours? It just might help you to identify some things that could be drawing buyers to them instead of you--maybe your descriptions just aren't descriptive enough, maybe their shipping prices are much lower than yours, maybe they're offering more color or size options, and so on. You might find some things you could easily change about your own shop to step it up a bit!

Fill out your profile

One of my favorite things about shopping on etsy (and I'm sure it's a favorite for many shoppers) is supporting an actual person instead of some nameless, faceless entity. So make sure that you aren't a nameless, faceless etsy entity! For the longest time, my etsy profile was completely blank . . . I didn't have a profile picture, I didn't include my location, and I didn't write anything about myself. No wonder no one wanted to buy from me; they had no idea who I was!

Etsy buyers love getting to know the person they're shopping with, so this is your way of welcoming them to your shop. Include a picture of yourself (or, in my case, a picture of my pretty sister), tell your shoppers where you live, and fill out your profile with some personal info (and for heavens sake, please don't write it in the 3rd person). What do you do besides run this shop? How'd you get started? What's the story behind the shop name? What inspires you? I have often moved along after finding an item I loved on etsy because the seller's public profile was blank or boring. No matter how unique you think your product is, believe me, buyers can find dozens of other similar items, so what makes yours special? It might just be you, so be a presence! Let your buyers get to know you through your profile.

Stock your shelves!

So you're browsing etsy and you find two similar items . . . one in a shop with a few pages worth of product, all photographed beautifully and well-described, and one in a shop that only has 4 items for sale. Which one are you going to buy? My money's on the one in the well-stocked shop--even in a handmade marketplace like etsy where customers know they're shopping from home-based businesses and hobbyists, they feel more comfortable buying from a shop that looks and feels professional, and one way to get that look is by filling up your shop.

 photo source

Make plenty of products, and if that's not an option, maybe you could create custom listings for products to be made to order. Almost every listing in my shop is for a custom order . . . I make one hat, take some pictures, list the hat itself, and then copy that listing as a custom order for that style in whatever size/color the customer wants. That way I've sort of gotten a twofer--my shop is more full, making me look more "real," plus I now have the potential to reach two customers instead of just one! This won't work for every product, but I noticed a big increase in my sales when I started listing more items in my shop, even if they weren't all ready to ship.

Stay tuned for my advice on your products and (possibly the most important piece of all) what you should be doing behind the scenes to make your etsy shop a success story!