Here are some common mistakes
Etsy shop owners make and how to avoid them.
Mistakes are unavoidable, but these may help you avoid the same ones I made. There are so many articles out there on how to do anything Etsy and I have read a lot of them.
Everyone has their formula on what will work. I have tried many of them and I want to share my personal experience and hope that from that you can make your own way as I did. I do hope that you are successful and I hope you don’t give up.
There are many of us Esty shop owners and with our collective information, maybe we can get it right. I am not an expert on how to avoid mistakes, however, I am an expert at making them.
I let myself down with my first Etsy Shop, Miss Thread. Here are some of the mistakes I and others have made.
1. Picking a name that is too specific or too nonspecific.
If you are absolutely positive on what your product line will be then a name that explains or suggests what you are selling is great to have but if you haven’t nailed down a product line then you may need a name that doesn’t “box you in”.
For example, if you are going to sell only coffee mugs then “Your Name Personalized Coffee Mugs” would be great but if you ever wanted to sell more than coffee mugs then “Your Name Personalized Gifts” would be better because you can sell anything.
2. Not having enough products listed.
A sparse storefront doesn’t look appealing to a shopper, that think “amateur”. I recommend starting with at least a dozen items and just keep adding as much as you can as often as you can. Try and make them as cohesive as possible, listing random products for the sake of having “more” products can be a huge mistake.
You want the shopper to understand what your shop does. Keep your target customer in mind, you don’t want their impression of your shop to be cluttered and haphazard. That being said, the more products you have, the more chances you have for potential shoppers to find you! Just be careful what you list.
3. Not having high-quality product photos.
When Etsy first started out you could get away with the “made at home” look because Etsy represented the handmade at home crafters, but not anymore. Your competitors will have great quality photos that have a theme. They will be light and bright and eye-catching. This happened to me and by the time I figured it out, it was too little, too late.
To this day I believe I fell short on this aspect of my shop Miss Thread. Please invest the time and money so you don’t end up wasting your time and money, which I did, big time!
4. Not pricing your product correctly.
Your time is worth something, and your products price should reflect that. It is very tempting to put a low price on your work but in the end, shoppers will most likely think that low price equals low quality.
I was all over the place with my pricing, I am sure shoppers were confused by my products prices changing from day to day. I know I was confused by it.
5. Not telling everyone about it.
Social media, I still don’t have this mastered yet. This is something I will be working on continually. You have to embrace the “I don’t care what people think” attitude which is really hard to do.
6. Not loving what you are doing.
If it’s not your passion, you will become bored and lose your enthusiasm for your business. I know because I am guilty of this. I liked to sew, but I didn’t love it!
That was the reason my shop fell apart. I became a chore. I was always thinking to myself “I don’t want to sew today!” which was a big problem! If you don’t love it, it will show.
The message here is to “think it through”
Anyway, sometimes it’s great to jump right in and go for it, that being said, opening your very own shop needs a little thought. Mistakes can be corrected and learned from.
Personally, I would love to avoid them if I could, except, where is the fun in that.
Keep reading and searching for what works for you.
Eloquently,
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