Opening an Etsy Store: Two Weeks In
I opened my Etsy store two weeks ago today, and I’ve learned a ton in the time. I have a long way to go before having any significant success, but it’s a fun experiment and side-project for me. Here’s where things stand so far.
Sales First and foremost, I got my first two sales at just under two weeks in. This is great, mostly because it’s encouraging. I am well beyond my expertise and comfort level in a lot of ways, so my first sales serve as a little confirmation that I’m on the right track. My first sale was an Illinois-shaped mirror, and the second sale was a custom-requested piece: a District of Columbia mirror. It seems like there could be some demand for a line of state mirrors, and I am working on California and Texas now. I also put two new pieces up for sale. The one I particularly like is the image to the right: the Celtic knot mirror. There hasn’t been much traffic on it yet, but personally it’s my favorite thing in my store. There’s no accounting for taste, though.
Traffic I have nothing to compare it to, but my traffic feels generally positive. It’s tough to say anything conclusive with only two weeks of data, but it does seem to be trending upwards, as you can see below. There was a traffic spike on January 9, because I wrote a blog post about laser cutting which generated a little bit of interest.
Marketing I don’t know much about marketing, so I’ve enrolled in the Etsy advertising program, where they put your products at the top of on-site search results, and it’s cost me about $8 per week. From that $16 worth of traffic, I’ve gotten a little less than 40% of my views, and a little over 50% of my “favorites” (people that effectively “thumbs up” my stuff), and none of my sales. I think that’s pretty good, and will continue to advertise at this level for now (you can set the weekly threshold at whatever amount you like). Below, you can see the stats Etsy gives about the results of my advertising dollars. It shows impressions (how many times one of my products was shown in an ad), views (how many people clicked on the ad), favorites (how many people tagged me as a favorite, after clicking on an ad), and orders (again, from people that clicked on an ad).
Struggles My biggest issue right now is my supply chain. I have my designs laser cut and shipped to me, and I maintain an inventory which I sell from. The time from ordering to me getting the product is up to three weeks, which makes it really hard to plan for what might be popular. It feels like a big gamble to get several copies of everything, because I don’t want to spend my money on things that are gonna sit on the shelf. On the other hand, if something becomes popular and I sell out, I may miss out on sales while I wait for a restock. I’d love to find a laser cutting service that will drop ship (mail items directly to my customers), and I may end up going with Ponoko for that reason (even though they are more expensive). For now, though, I will try to manage my inventory as clairvoyantly as possible. Update: I now do all my own laser cutting at a lower makerspace (where I can use the laser cutter).
The second issue I’m struggling with is taking good photos of my work. I’m not terribly happy with the ones I have so far, which is especially disappointing because I consider myself moderately good at photography. Other than simple lack of experience, my photographical challenges are: 1) poor lighting (I generally have to shoot at night, after work. Natural light would be better but I have a hard time catching it in these winter months, and seem to be so busy on the weekends), and 2) poor setup (my apartment isn’t terribly photogenic, and I haven’t found a corner that looks good, especially because when photographing mirrors you can see the stuff behind you, too). I have been reading up on photographing mirrors, and product photography in general, plus doing lots of experimenting. Hopefully I’ll tend towards better results in this area.
What’s Next Up next: new designs, same marketing. I feel good about how things are trending, two weeks in. I have some new designs in the works which should be out in the next week or two, and I try to get a couple prototypes completed every week (not all of them make it to the store). As for promoting my work, I like the Etsy ads setup, and will continue that at the same rate for now.
Keep Informed If you want to stay up to date with the business-side of my store, sign up for blog updates to the right (“Follow Me”). If you want to stay up to date with my products, add me to your circle on Etsy.