Is Your Shop Professional?

When people shop online, they want to feel secure in their purchase so they buy from professional-looking sites. If your shop does not look the part, it may be hurting your sales. What you need to do to improve your look:

Have a Logo
Brand your shop by having your banner, avatar (profile photo), and business cards all look the same. They don't need to be fancy, just consistent. If you don't know how to design your own brand, ask another team member for help. We have many talented designers!

Include Policies
Fill out the policy page of your shop. Customers like to know what to expect with returns and refunds, turn-around times, custom orders, etc.

Edit Your Writing
Have someone look over your listing descriptions for spelling and punctuation errors and missing or inconsistent information. 

Reply Promptly
What bothers me the most as a customer is sellers not responding to my emails quickly. That tells me they are forgetful or too busy with something else. Even if your shop is only a part-time gig, don't let it show! A simple reply of "Got your email. Can't reply now but I will by tomorrow evening" is better than a late response or none at all. This tip also applies to shipping notifications. I like to know the seller is aware of my purchase and is working on it or shipping it off.

What Doesn't Matter
Many of the people who buy from Etsy are not too familiar with the site, which means when they search for an item, they usually go straight to the listing and check out from there. They probably will not see how many sales you have. Nor care. They may, however, try to find your feedback to make sure you are reliable. So don't worry if you have low sales. Just make sure you do all you can to be professional and earn great feedback! (Also keep in mind that since many people don't see your shop page, include important information such as current processing time in each listing or include a link to your policies.)

New Year, New Goals

It's a new year and time to make some new goals for your shop! Just a few things to remember as you plan:

1. Be realistic. Challenge yourself but not so much that you can't accomplish your goal. Take into account your daily life, emergencies, holidays and vacations, capabilities, and resources.
2. Be focused. Instead of having a whole list of goals, narrow it down to three important ones or one long-term goal with a few short-term goals that will help you reach the big one.
3. Be flexible. Understand that things may happen that can change your goals, for better or worse. Adjust accordingly and move forward.
4. Be positive. Take one day at a time. Congratulate yourself for your efforts and improvements. But be honest with yourself too: if you're getting lazy, give yourself a pep talk and get back to work!
5. Be organized. Keep a journal of your successes and failures so you know what worked and what didn't as you achieve your goals. 

Good luck!

Featured Seller: Roanne from Grandma Grizzly's Teddy Bear Wear

This week's featured team member is Roanne from Grandma Grizzly's Teddy Bear Wear.

I learned most of my basic sewing from Grandmother. She was quite the homemaker/craftsperson. Then all the other sewing and knitting skills (good, bad, and otherwise) I just kind of learned on my own by trial and error--mostly error!

A good friend of mine started on Etsy about 3 years ago and I had no idea what Esty was all about. When she explained it to me and said that it may be a great way to get my teddy bear wear in front of a new audience, I got interested. I had virtually no e-commerce experience, but Etsy makes it so easy. And you can't beat the fees! I have decided that Etsy stands for "Easy To Sell Your (stuff)." I wouldn't conduct my business through Etsy if I had anything other than good experiences from it. Sure, it can be a bit time consuming to keep up with the marketing, but I get to stay home--in my pjs if I want.

The gospel keeps me on track with my everyday dealings with customers, suppliers, and the Etsy community in general. I can immediately detect if someone is misrepresenting what they're selling or if they're dealing with someone in an unethical way. But I'm glad to say that I've seen very little of that on Etsy. In my own business I strive to provide good value, positive and beneficial service to the customer, and an honest days work for an honest days pay ("By the sweat of thy brow")!

Check out Grandma Grizzly's Teddy Bear Wear for more cute patterns for your (grand)children's teddy bears or for personalizing a teddy bear for a gift!

Etsy Talk: Coupon Codes

Now is the perfect time to offer coupon codes as you try to get last-minute Christmas sales. Some tips to remember when creating coupon codes:

1. You cannot use the same coupon code twice, so be wise choosing coupon names. Keep them short, simple, and easy to remember.
2. Make multiple codes of the same discount but each named after a different source so you can track where people are finding and using your codes the most. For example: Facebook10 (Facebook page), shop10 (shop home page), thankyou10 (thank you/business card), etc. And don't worry about people trying to take advantage of them all; they can only use one coupon code at a time.
3. Be generous! I cannot stress that enough. I was thoroughly disappointed in the low discounts offered on Black Friday and Cyber Monday of all days. The point of coupons is to encourage people to buy something they otherwise would not buy. And honestly, most people don't even use them, so you won't be losing money but gaining some return customers. If your coupon codes are used often, take that into account when you price your items.

Featured Seller: Tera from Tera Cheri's Baby Boutique

This week's featured seller is Tera from Tera Cheri's Baby Boutique. Her unique story:

My dad taught me the basics of crochet when I was about 15. I made one scarf with that knowledge and then didn't touch it again until about 8 years later when I first found out about Etsy. I would see all the super cute crochet baby hats and wish I could make all the cute stuff I saw. Back then I was addicted to browsing Etsy and I’d use it as inspiration for craft projects. Then I wondered if I could take what my dad taught me and learn how to make a hat on my own. So I did some Google searching and YouTube searching and eventually I figured out how to make a hat. I was so excited! And from there I have just tried different things until I found a look I liked enough to stick with.

I hadn’t really thought about selling on Etsy until I saw what I could do with crochet. When I would finish a hat, I couldn’t believe that I was the one who made it. They were just too darn cute! Then I thought, “I bet I could sell these!” So I decided to give it a shot and opened up shop on May 26, 2011. It has been a fun experience for me and so exciting every time I sell one of my hats.

I really feel like Heavenly Father has blessed me with this gift. Not really to make money with it, even though that is a nice plus, but as a way for me to express myself. I feel like if I couldn’t make things pretty, I would just go crazy. Not just with crochet, but in my life. I love to organize, and make my home look pretty, I love to dress up my son really cute, and I love to crochet really cute things for my family and friends, and of course, for all of the lovely people on Etsy who also like what I do!

Check out Tera Cheri's Baby Boutique for more adorable hats!