Etsy Questions

[TeeDee]

Hope this is the right forum for this.
I recently opened and started populating an Etsy shop having read a fair bit on the forum about the pros and cons.
I had a lot of initial viewings and an unexpected early sale but since then things have slowed to a trickle in terms of views.
I must confess that due to the pressures of retirement, house maintenance and a love of my motorcycle (2nd to my wife and family of course), the shop has taken a bit of a back seat lately but now I must press on.

I really would appreciate though if any Etsy shop owners could advise on a few issues:

1 - Policies.... are there any statutory requirements for returns/refunds for both UK and overseas sales? I have looked at various shops and they often have differing policies.

2 - Advertising....Any advice on linking to social media as I am registered but am a near Facebook virgin and don't Tweet at all. Facebook seems to have options to 'advertise either as a 'Local Business' or as a Product or Brand' which option should I use?
Also any advice on using their tags system to increase exposure?

3 - Payments.......Why do some people only accept Paypal? Is this just to keep the transaction costs down? I have currently opted to use Etsy's online payments system as the cost seems quite reasonable especially when compared to gallery commission costs.

Also, has anyone used http://www.madebyhandonline.com/ ? I went to a craft fair in Bovey Tracey (Devon) at the weekend sponsored by them. very interesting with lots of high quality work from many different crafts.

Tim

[EmmaC]

I haven't sold on Etsy for some time, but a lot of sellers blatantly disregard distance selling regulations such as providing your actual address, and giving a the statutory cooling off period, returns etc., which is why shop policies seem to vary so widely. The rules have changed recently, there is a load of info here http://dshub.tradingstandards.gov.uk/dsrexplained and on the governments own website .gov.uk which is worth checking out

I've recently got rid of my Facebook page as posts get to only a fraction of the people liking it, unless I pay to boost the reach. Even my own mum stopped getting posts of my artwork in her newsfeed. Eventually I didn't think it was worth my time, however this is just my personal thing as I decided recently to concentrate more on doing work rather than worrying about the promotion and sales aspects. Some people still seem to do quite well on Facebook though. You must have a page if you want to sell, I'd go for local business and again you will need to publicly display your address if you wish to conduct sales via Facebook.

I think people use PayPal now because it's quite easy, I'm not sure how the charges compare to Etsy's own system now.
Good luck with your venture

[TeeDee]

Thanks very much for taking the trouble to reply Emma,
The Trading Standards link on Distance Selling Regs is really useful and certainly not as dry a read as a HRMC guide!
Its certainly given me a few ideas to cut through the mental blocks I was having regarding policies. ( strange really as in my old job I often had to put together policies and procedures but then that was another life)
I think my address is displayed on Etsy whenever an order is raised but I will check.
At the moment I am hoping to use Facebook just as an extension to marketing, but your observations are really useful to me.
Interesting your comment about making rather than promoting. I've been treating it as a bit of a hobby really and every time I learn a new technique I get the bug to make a few things. Unfortunately I now have about 50-60 hallmarked items that I really need to move on and hopefully recoup some of my outlay.
I never realised though just how much work was involved in setting up and maintaining just one Etsy shop let alone setting up a website.

I took the opportunity to look at your website link and I think your artwork is quite stunning. I see you've posted on other threads so I'll add my two pennyworth on one of them.
Thanks again
Tim

[CJ57]

I registered for etsy but have never done anything because it seems so much work. I have a FB page and before the open studio I seemed to spend as much time taking editing and posting photos as I did working, I now need to do the same for the gallery website. It's just so time consuming and I find FB just a showcase and hard to keep up interest made worse by the fact that little gets shared now. People think that if they like something it's job done but they really need to share or comment or your audience just doesn't grow

[EmmaC]

I *think* the distance selling regs are changing a bit on 13th of June and buyers will then have 14 days to return items, I'm not totally sure of all the changes but I would think there would be something in Etsy's UK and Ireland support bit.

Some people are amazingly successful selling online, but I think it requires a large investment of time being online promoting, re-listing items, and networking. I ended up with burnout as basically I couldn't cope with that, doing the actual artwork and the small holding, I never got any down time, which is how I got into jewellery as a creative hobby.

If you are thinking of a website I can totally recommend clikpic. I've been with them for ten years, the sites are easy to maintain and use. You can integrate PayPal for purchases online, so you would pay no commission on any sales.
I recently registered with Folksy as I also wanted to recoup some funds and thought I'd get a bit more traffic than to my website alone. However I was told time and time again on their forum I was solely responsible for bringing all the traffic to my shop. From a business point of view personally I think it makes far more sense to drive that traffic to your own website, no chance then of a customer straying off and purchasing from anyone else, as well as less fees. I've since closed my account as I couldn't see any benefit to being there if that was the case. There's a lot of pressure to keep listing new stock to bring in new views on these sites, although I will be very interested to see what happens with Etsy as they are going to advertise on TV to make UK buyers more aware of the site, so in theory you should get more "passing trade" on there.

Many thanks for the compliment too!

[camalidesign]

A quick few thoughts on having your own web site versus listing with e.g. Etsy (I do both, as well as NotOnTheHighStreet.com)

With Etsy you can have a shop set up and working in minutes really! Descriptions, prices and photos have to be done first obviously but that's the same with your own web site. Yes, on Etsy you are competing with a LOT of other sellers, but they do a lot of marketing to drive traffic there, so there are also a LOT of potential customers there. I sell on Etsy and although I have only sold a few bits yet, there are some people even in the UK who do really well there, so I keep persevering! Listing regularly is definitely the way to go, so I tend to list my one of a kind pieces there, which varies with time as opposed to my ranges which stay pretty static over time. Etsy also don't charge very much, think it's 20 cent per listing and then a PayPal fee, so pretty low.

Having your own web site is all very well and yes you make the most money that way, but it can be costly and time consuming to have one built for you. Setting up a DIY one can work well for you if you want a basic shop but as soon as you want something wiht your own unique branding and some functionality out of the standard ones you are stuck. You get a larger proportion of the money on each sale, but you also need to get traffic to come to your site and get the right kind of traffic (those who actually buy as opposed to just browse!) and this can be very time consuming and requires some knowledge of search engine optimisation. Well worth the trouble if you are serious about selling. Having your own site shows you are serious.

I think, if you are just selling a bit as a hobby, then Etsy or similar is a quick and low cost version, if you are trying to go pro you should probably do both. I find that since I have already done all the pricing, photos and descriptions etc. it isn't that much more work to list on my own site as well as on Etsy and NOTHS.

Oh, and for Facebook, if you have your own web site drive traffic/link to your own web site from Facebook and Twitter obviously.

Just my two pennies worth...

Carin

[Wallace]

I have found the link between Facebook and Etsy has been invaluable. I have had a few Etsy sales and although the fees for both Etsy and PayPal mean 6% of the total; it has been worth the hassle free, ease of use. I don't have the funds or style of pictures required by not on the.....

As Carin mentions, web site maintainance is onerous. A basic fee for a company to set it up and manage it can be a lot of money. I chose to use my website as a signpost and show and tell with Etsy mini and all the other things needed.

Etsy has been good to me, and so has being active on Facebook. The new changes, mentioned by Caroline mean the audience is down due to the FB drive to have paid for posts. I do encourage post comments, and responding to each person has been a conscious decision I have made that it is now part of my routine. I post later in the evenings if I can, but it still helps. More people are sharing and commenting now, however - it does and can dwindle very quickly, so is high maintenance. It isn't just about the likes, it is the participation. Keeping people engaged is important, as Cookies demonstrate everyday. I have just started on Twitter - now that is hard!

Good luck, with your decisions and directions. I will be looking at doing some fairs in the coming year, so might find it an area that needs lots of investing in a hair dye company, as I am sure I go grey just at the thought!

[medusa]

What are paid posts on FB? I don't use it much and only have a handful of friends but I see what they like and share no problem and also see posts by pages (including Tabby's) that I've liked.

[medusa]

The made by hand site looks interesting, not least because unlike etsy and NOTHS, stuff is actually all hand made. Thanks for alerting us to it, Tim

[Wallace]

What are paid posts on FB? I don't use it much and only have a handful of friends but I see what they like and share no problem and also see posts by pages (including Tabby's) that I've liked.

FB is now trying to get posts 'boosted' - they have, from research reduced each page's profile by 60% - a marketing ploy of course. If you like the posts, that is not enough, you have to comment and share to ensure that the information continues to show on your feed. Alternatively, it will go to the 'page feed' which you have to intentionally click on. I comment on a few, but I don't see many of Jill or Caroline's in my feed, despite liking and commenting.