4 Things to Look At When Transforming Low-to-No Etsy Views into SALES!
28. Aug, 2010 
10 Comments
From Steph @ nerd JERK
It’s easy to get caught up in the “Why NOT?” of sales in our Etsy shops. I mean, all the cool kids seem to be doing it.
But have you stopped to ask yourself about the “WHY?” in the situation and what you could do to help things move along?
As I’d only had one $14 sale for the whole month until last night, I can tell you that it wasn’t for lack of trying. I was doing craft shows, being active in the local DIY community, helping other sellers, talking to shops about consignment & even assisting organizers of San Francisco artists’ showcases in their part of the handmade movement.
I’ve found that redirecting your frustration to inspiration helps things move along a lot more than being negative.
So, even though they may just be reminders, here’s a few items I’d like to suggest to everyone:
1 – Revamping Your Shop Brand -
Are you happy with your brand? Does your shop have a cohesive feel/look to it? If you were a stranger discovering your shop, would you know where to go to find something you liked? Are your listings interlinked with other like-listings for a lowered bounce rate to keep people shopping with you? Are your categories searchable by Google? What do you feel works for your brand? What have you been given compliments on? What hasn’t worked? What have you been waiting to take a chance on?
2 – Photos -
How do you feel about your photos? If you were to compare them to the ones on the Front Page, how would they measure up? Have you been using any photo-editing software? Have you read any tutorials? Have you asked for feedback on your photography? Put your shop in gallery mode and ask yourself if all your photos in the thumbnail format create a destinctive theme. Do they mix well or do some stand out? Why do they stand out? What can you do to make it feel like your brand shines through your product images? If you were shopping in your shop, what would interest you the most about your first image? Are they in a clickable order – does clicking one photo make your finger itch to click to the next? You want your customer to feel this way – why shouldn’t you?
3 – Add New Listings & Relisting Popular Items -
It’s proven that new items get more views. It’s also proven that having more listings keep people in your shop. What items get the most views & why? Which items haven’t been given as much love? Maybe it’s time to make more items that fall along the popular lines & phase out items without as much of a following? What item ideas have you been pondering about that might also be interesting? Have you polled your social media resources about what they’d be interested to see in your shop? Having a giveaway for a $10 gift certificate to your shop can be a good investment when you’re asking for real feedback from your customer base! They already like you – ask them WHY they like you and what other things they might like! An incentive cost is a lot better than $10 in relisting fees for items that don’t sell & you don’t even know why.
4 – How Active Are You? -
What are you personally doing to bring people into your shop? Are you thoughtfully commenting on a blog post that has to do with your niche? Are you offering to feature other sellers on your blog/FB/Twitter to help create some cross-promotional buzz? Are you tracking your traffic on these days? Did helping someone else out give you more hearts/more views/more traffic? Have you approached anyone about featuring you? Have you created any giveaways? Have you thanked someone for hearting your shop? Have you hearted people that have hearted your shop back & find something new that you like in their shop? Have you talked to your Etsy team members? Gone to Etsy Shop Critiques & observed/taken notes/applied what was shared there? What else can you do to be active?
It’s true – the economy has been pretty horrible. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to be a little better.
With the holiday season coming up, it’s going to be more important than ever to get our shops ready for a rush. Who knows? What if someone from a magazine happens upon your shop? Etsy Admin? Local craft show organizers? Wouldn’t you want them to be interested?
What can we do to make things more interesting?
Any other suggestions would be welcome. 
- Steph @ nerd JERK
About The Author
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Wow – lots of food for thought here. I love your pro-active approach. Lots I can work on here – thank you!
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Thanks for the great tips! I love the idea of a gift certificate giveaway, rather than giving away a specific item. This way you can get others to move around your shop & stay awhile. Summer has been slow, all the way around, but we can use this time to improve our shops & come up with new ideas.
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Alright! One of the best articles ever!!! I am going to print this out otherwise, it will go the way of all blogs — into the unreachable recesses of the memory. Of all the great ideas, the one I have done, but neglect to do is “interlinking” items in step 1. Thank YOU for the time it took to gather all this info and organize it. Cheers, Susan Givens
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I’m so glad that everyone is excited about what they’ve read so far! It’s often times hard to turn one’s frustration into inspiring motivation, but I figured starting with a few simple questions, we can work our way through some slow times.
Thanks so much!
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Thanks for posting such an inspiring and thoughtful article! Lots of good advice here that I will surely apply to my shop now.
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Thanks for such a well written article with so many helpful points!
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I am a big advocate of turning things around to make things happen. Thank you for all of your inspiration!
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Thanks for the article! I’ve started inter-linking some items, but I really do need to take the time to go back and do it with ALL of them. My views show that it makes a difference… motivate, motivate!!
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Thank you for this blog post.. very inspiring indeed!
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thanks for the motivation to do better!
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