Etsy - The Importance of Sales Goals
It’s hard to say what sort of sales rate is reasonable or average for a new Etsy store. I spend a fair amount of time in the team forums, and the general consensus I’m getting is that it’s really hard to make any/many sales for smaller shops, but that larger shops (100+ items) tend to make several sales per week. Given that understanding, I have set a goal for myself that I think is aggressive but achievable.
Sales Goal My goal is 1 sale per week. I picked this goal for two reasons. First, it is beyond what I am currently selling, but not that far off (some weeks I make a sale, some weeks I don’t). Second, the 1-week time period is long enough to try out a new marketing strategy or two, but short enough that I have to be really organized and diligent. As soon as a new week rolls around, regardless of the previous week I am ready to go gung-ho towards a sale.
When I Hit My Goal Hitting a goal is great. It is encouraging, and renews my excitement about this project. I start the week really working hard on making a sale, so when I do make one, I sometimes take the rest of the week to relax and let some product ideas marinate. Other weeks, I spend my extra time working on more long-game marketing strategies, like reaching out to bloggers that might be interested in my product.
When I Miss My Goal Missing my goal sucks. My week starts on Monday, so as the weekend rolls around I start to get really worried if I haven’t made a sale. I try less targeted marketing strategies, even though they never really seem to pay off.
New Week, New Goal When a week ends, its success or failure is in the past. If I missed my goal last week, I don’t worry about catching up this week, and if I sold two things last week, it doesn’t make me any less hungry for a sale this week. This is really important for me to stay calm and sane, but on the other hand, if I have a somewhat sustained series of successes or failures, I’ll know I need to reexamine my goals.
Long Game vs Short Game My goal of 1 sale per week is evaluated every 7 days, but I keep in mind that it is really a long-term goal (“1 sale *every* week.”). For sustained success, I have to look beyond the current 7-day period, so I usually spend some time in the middle of the week working on new product ideas. The new items won’t make it into the store during this week, but hopefully they will help me next week or the week after.