My Etsy shop window

Tuesday 1 July 2008

I made the Etsy homepage!

I'm so chuffed!

After 5 days without going online (the longest I've gone in..?) I've just logged on to find a message from my blog buddy Jaimee over at Modern Classics congratulating me on having made the Etsy homepage! Shame I missed it but how cool is that! (Thanks again Jaimee for letting me know.)

Well, since I'm winding down now and will most probably be having some much longer offline periods once this little bab arrives, I figured this seemed like a good time to do a few Etsy related stats.

I've been silversmithing for about 8 years, and for the last half of those I've been promising myself to make more of a concerted effort to get in to the market place and actually make a go of selling my pieces. Well, I never did, so once I became pregnant I figured that it was now or never to try and build something up whilst I still had the time and opportunity. And then, should life make it possible, I'll have something to pick back up and carry on when time allows.

There are a few shops around Bristol that I would like to try and eventually get my work in to but I felt like I needed to get a bit practiced and established and thought Etsy would be the perfect practice ground for me to find my business feet.

So to cut a long story short I eventually registered with the Inland Revenue and opened my Etsy shop in January 2008.

Since then, in the last 5 months I have had:
over 5000 views to my shop
224 people heart me
141 item hearts
1 homepage appearance

I've also learnt that the average ratio in the shop is 35 views per heart and that by far, the resin pieces are the most popular and in particular the turquoise items:

Resin window spot pendant (turquoise)

Resin window bangle (turquoise)

Resin window ring (turquoise)
The turquoise ring for example has been viewed 1538 times and been hearted 48 times, making it by far the most viewed and hearted item.

But here's the thing... I've only made 1 Etsy sale!

I have a pretty good idea that the main reason for lack of sales is probably down to pricing. This is an ongoing battle for makers - what it costs Vs what somebody will pay for it - but the fact the Etsy is primarily an American site means that the majority of my prospective customers are also facing my prices at double their actual cost because of the current exchange rate. Plus the average amount people are happy to spend on Etsy seems to be around under $50.

The fact that I did actually make a sale within my first two months kept me positive though. That, and the fact that I didn't need to rely on sales to pay my bills!

Just opening the shop has started preparing me mentally for all the different aspects of creating a business and because of this, I have actually made some sales outside of Etsy too.

So I definitely have more confidence now and know what I need to do to move to the next stage when I'm ready to.

But in the mean time SOMEBODY BUY THE BLOODY RING ALREADY!

NB: stats are all thanks to the Heart-o-Tron3000 at majaba

1 comment:

Jaimee McClellan said...

Well, I'm glad someone I know made the front page!

I'm sure I'm one of those hearts on that ring...but like you've said, it's the exchange rate that hits hard over here in the US. Wish I had more spending dough - it would most likely wind up being yours in the end :)

Keep up the wonderful work and good luck with your little-one-to-be!