Why Customer Reviews are Important on Etsy

Why Customer Reviews are Important on Etsy

 

I think we all know that product reviews serve to sway consumer decision making. Having honest and transparent reviews has become an integral part of online shopping for most platforms. But consumers don't necessarily need to see a perfect score. In fact, studies have shown that a perfect review score is perceived as either false or manipulated. Buyers feel better when there are at least a few less than positive reviews for a business, since these represent a more honest account.

Beyond the obvious importance of reviews for customers though, how else are reviews and feedback important as a tool for an Etsy shop, particularly if they are less than positive?

It's critical for businesses to understand how their products or services are being perceived in the market and can often inform on future business decisions.You should pay close attention to this feedback in order to make any improvements or adjustments to your daily operations.

Here are some reasons why they are so important:

1. Identify areas for improvement: Feedback and reviews from customers can help businesses identify areas for improvement in their products or services. By listening to customer concerns, businesses can make necessary changes and adjustments to improve their offerings or their level of service.

2. Build customer loyalty: When businesses listen to their customers and address their concerns, they build trust and loyalty. Responding to feedback and reviews in a timely and professional manner can also show customers that their opinions matter and that the business values their input.

3. Increase sales: Positive reviews and feedback can be powerful marketing tools. Many consumers rely on reviews and recommendations when making purchasing decisions. If a business has a strong track record of positive reviews and feedback, it can help attract new customers and increase sales.

4. Competitor analysis: Customer feedback and reviews can also provide valuable insights into how a business is performing compared to its competitors. By monitoring competitor reviews and feedback, businesses can identify opportunities to differentiate themselves and improve their offerings by comparison.

Overall, customer feedback and reviews are a crucial component of any successful business strategy. They provide valuable insights that can help businesses improve their products or services, build customer loyalty, increase sales, and stay ahead of the competition.

 

Shawnna

 

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7 Tips for Building a Loyal Customer Base on Etsy

7 Tips for Building a Loyal Customer Base on Etsy

 

Building a loyal following or fan base for your Etsy shop is not something that is going to happen overnight, instead, it's something that you'll need to work at over the long term. With commitment and consistency though you should eventually gain momentum and build a customer following that will purchase from you again and again.

Here are seven top tips for building a fan base that loves you:

1. Offer high-quality products: It's important to provide your customers with high-quality products that meet or exceed their expectations. This will help to build trust and establish your brand as a reliable and reputable seller on Etsy.

2. Provide excellent customer service: Great customer service is key to building a loyal customer base. Respond promptly to inquiries, be friendly and professional in your interactions, and do your best to resolve any issues that arise.

3. Be consistent: Consistency in the quality of your products and customer service is important to build trust with your customers. Make sure that you're always delivering the same level of quality and service with each transaction.

4. Offer special deals and promotions: Offering special deals or promotions can help to incentivize customers to make a purchase and encourage repeat business. Consider offering discounts for repeat customers or for larger orders.

5. Personalize your interactions: Show your customers that you care by personalizing your interactions. Use their name in communications, include a handwritten note with their order, or offer personalized recommendations based on their purchase history.

6. Encourage feedback and reviews: Encourage your customers to leave feedback and reviews for your products. Positive reviews can help to build trust and attract new customers to your shop.

7. Be active on social media: Social media can be a powerful tool for building a loyal customer base on Etsy. Use platforms like Instagram and Facebook to showcase your products, share behind-the-scenes content, and engage with your followers.

 

Shawnna

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Should You Respond to Negative Reviews on Etsy?

Should You Respond to Negative Reviews on Etsy?

 

Responding publicly to reviews on Etsy is sometimes contentiously debated in the Etsy forums. But which is right, to respond or ignore it?

Some sellers quite rightly argue that it is professional to respond publicly to a negative review. This response is meant for future customers and shows how you handle different situations, what your customer service is like and what new customers can expect from you.

The argument against responding to reviews usually doesn't come with a robust argument as to why it's not a good idea but sellers opposed to doing this often cite the tendency of some sellers to respond very emotionally and not in a more professional way. 

I think it should go without saying that responses need to be kept professional and emotionally detached. But in case you need to hear that, it's super important to remember that you are talking to your next customer and your response should reflect well on you and your shop. Stick to the facts and leave the emotional drama out of it.

Other sellers simply feel afraid to respond. There's a fear of seeming imperfect, or to admitting there was a problem, or just simply preferring not to acknowledge reviews that are unfair in their context.

Getting an opinion on these types of important business decisions is often not best served by opinions from your peer group. Opinions aren't facts and it's usually a lot more helpful to have concrete data to inform your actions either way.

Looking outside Etsy for answers for this question opens up the discussion to more robust argument, which happens to skew very heavily in favor of yes - you should definitely respond to your negative reviews.

Let me provide some good statistical data that puts this into a whole new light (this data has been taken from a variety of studies and surveys):

1. 89% of customers say they read replies to reviews

2. 53% of customers expect a business to reply to their online reviews within 7 days

3. 82% of customers actually look for negative reviews for a business

4. 95% of customers get suspicious if there are no negative reviews

5. Businesses that respond to reviews on average earn 4% more revenue than those that don't

6. 41% of customers feel review responses show a business cares about their customers

If you google the topic you can find so many more stats around the benefits of responding to negative reviews but I wasn't able to find anything in favor of (or detrimental to) not responding (provided the response is professional).

So the consensus is clear, the benefits of responding to negative reviews far outweighs any perceived opinion on it not being necessary or it having any kind of negative effect.

If you struggle to write responses without your emotions getting in the way consider asking your peers to help you out. It's always easier to write a response for someone else! Some sellers are even utilizing ChatGPT with success to formulate a response, so if you're inclined in that direction and want to harness the power of AI for your business this is also a good option (just be sure to proof edit everything).

 

happy crafting
Shawnna

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Are Negative Reviews Increasing on Etsy?

Are Negative Reviews Increasing on Etsy?

 

Over the past decade there has definitely been been a measurable increase in negative reviews for many Etsy sellers, although Etsy themselves have not published any such stats for the platform as a whole.

I recently chose to measure 12 years of review history in my own Etsy clipart store in order to know definitively if what I felt was happening really was. Because feelings aren't facts and the numbers don't lie!

I measured my own reviews in 3 year increments splitting the reviews into positive (4 and 5 star reviews) and negative (3 stars or less) and converting that to a percentage from the total of reviews left.

From 2011 - 2013 I had 1106 reviews and only 1 was negative - so 0.09% of my reviews were negative. The negative review impact started to increase slowly over time so that the next three year period it was up to 0.58% and the following three year period it had increased to 0.89%

For the years 2020 - 2022 my negative review percentage was up again to 1.31%. This isn't a trend I'm happy about, obviously, and while it may still seem like a small number it's not something I want to continue growing upwards.

Both my products and customer service have improved over time, so these weren't reviews that were left because I had slipped in my offerings or was providing worse service/goods. In fact, most of the reviews left were from customers who had never spoken to me and simply didn't understand what they were buying or how to use the product.

In talking to my peers about this and what they were seeing in their own shops I heard very much the same feedback, although without solid numbers to back it up. But anyone who had been selling on Etsy for 6 or more years said they felt a definite increase in customers leaving negative feedback.

I have a few thoughts on why that is. First, Etsy is attracting a much different customer today than they were 10 years ago. As the marketplace has become more mainstream we're seeing a much broader customer base and so consumer behavior is more likely to follow the patterns of e-commerce in general rather than that of a small specialty boutique shop.

We're also seeing a lot more customers shopping on Etsy who are not very familiar with the platform or how it works. First time buyers often struggle to find their way around and that can be frustrating. Etsy doesn't make the site particularly easy to navigate and buyers have complained for years about the quality of search results.

Buyers are also increasingly using their phones to shop from, which due to the smaller screen size means it's much easier to make mistakes when making a purchase. You simply don't get the full amount of info that you would on a larger screen. But Etsy hasn't been doing much to address the buyer experience on the platform, instead focusing purely on getting customers to spend.

In more recent years, negative reviews in my shop at least, started to take an odd turn where it has felt more like buyers were reviewing themselves, leaving comments on things that I could never have any influence over. Etsy started pressuring buyers to leave reviews, often pestering them to do so and the quality of reviews suggests that buyers are simply not always in the right mindset when leaving a review.

So what can Etsy sellers do to minimize negative reviews in a climate where buyers are behaving with such increasing patterns of self-centered critique?

Over the years I have had to continually work at adapting my product information, from the listing images and descriptions to product enclosures and support material such as tutorials. I always try to keep improving or tweaking things over time as trouble areas pop up. This can be very nuanced so you have think creatively at how to solve buyer interactions in your shop.

Be open and proactive with communication. Make sure your buyers find you approachable and that you are open and transparent with them from the outset. I have several nudges in my shop that encourage buyers to reach out to and I put these everywhere I can, including my responses to negative reviews.

Don't sweat the occasional negative review. It's actually to your benefit to receive these once in a while because it makes your shop look more trustworthy. A perfect review record looks fake to many buyers so striving for perfection is not necessarily a good thing.

Keep the big picture in mind. The stats I offered were solely based on reviews left, but didn't take into account how many sales I had made that went smoothly without any review at all. When you do the math that way, negative reviews against total products sold... the picture should look a whole lot better.  

And lastly, always respond to your negative reviews so that future buyers have a sense of how you handle issues when they crop up. Nothing will go perfect all the time so how you handle problems is important.

Shawnna

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How Long Does it Take to Get Your First Sale on Etsy?

How Long Does it Take to Get Your First Sale on Etsy?

This question gets posted in various forums so often by new Etsy sellers looking for their very first sale and the answers are never even remotely helpful.

Sometimes the answer is very definitive: "it takes six months". Usually it's a range months such as 6-12 months or 10-18 months. Because the sellers replying to this are giving their own experience. 

Which ultimately means nothing at all to someone else's situation and it isn't even the kind of info that's actionable. What do you even do with info like that? Is it reassuring? Not reassuring? I don't know.

What if I told you that I've launched three digital stores on Etsy in the past 12 years and for each one I had my first sale in week one.

Would that be helpful? Probably not. Not on it's own anyway. It's probably disheartening if you've been waiting for six months for your first sale and it hasn't happened yet.

But that's because sellers are asking the wrong question. Asking, how long did it take to get your first sale, is not a useful or helpful question.

Instead, try asking, how does one go about getting sales quickly after launching their Etsy shop?

That question is bound to give you some really good actionable steps you can take. It also means that the people likely to answer it are not other sellers struggling to make sales, but experienced sellers who know how to get sales.

See the difference?

Here are my top tips answering the question: 

How do I Get Sales Quickly After Launching My Etsy Shop?

1. Do your homework first! Don't skip this very important step, there are loads of things you need o know BEFORE launching an Etsy shop. Prep yourself to know what those are.

2. When you do launch your shop, fill it out completely. I can't over state this. There are parts of your shop info that Etsy uses for your shop quality score that affect ranking in search.

3. Look and act trustworthy. There are so many scammers and crooks operating on Etsy. If your shop is legit, make it look legit. Be open and transparent, offer as much info as you can - fill out your shop info!

4. Offer quality products that people actually want to buy. This takes research. Do the research. KNow your product industry and your target customers.

5. Make sure your listings are filled out fully, accurately and in detail. 

6. Understand and implement good SEO. This is how you get found in search. If you do a poor job you won't get found and you won't make sales.

7. Have a plan to drive your own traffic. Etsy isn't going to do all the work for you. There are so many products on the platform that you simply can't/shouldn't be relying on Etsy exclusively for traffic.

 

Bottom line, you have to do the work. If you half-ass the job you aren't very likely to get great results. Set yourself up for success by putting everything you have into it. It may seem hard at first but it gets easier in time once you've learned the ropes and understand the dynamics of the site.

Shawnna

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How Many Listings Should You Have on Etsy?

How Many Listings Should You Have on Etsy?

 

When I started selling on Etsy way back in 2011, my digital seller peers were convinced that a certain magic happened with sales once you had 50 items in your shop and then again at 100 items.

They weren't wrong. Once I hit those inventory numbers (or thereabouts) I did notice an uptick in sales. So did many of my peers. 

But here's where people get this myth about listing numbers completely wrong. There is no magic number. It just depends on what you sell, how competitive your niche is and the quality of your listings.

Let's be honest. Of course the number of products you have in your shop matters. But the ideal number of products suitable for one business isn't the same for another.

Let me give you an example from brick and mortar retail. If you walked into a really high end designer boutique hand bag shop you might find 20 different hand bag designs each in a variety of colors. And let's say each bag might cost thousands of dollars. This store wouldn't need a really high volume of daily sales to make a profit and be successful.

Contrast that to the Dollar Store where you probably have something like 1000 different products. But each is sold at a dollar each. (actually 1.25 these days). This store requires significant daily traffic to earn a profitable income.

Two completely different stores, serving completely different needs and requiring completely different inventory strategies based primarily on the price of their product. 

Would the dollar be successful if it only had 20 products? No. Would people continue to shop there if the choices available were reduced to only 20 products? Probably not. People shop there because it has an amazing array of choices for really cheap.

So there is some aspect of quantity needed to sell successfully anywhere, in addition to having products that people actually want to buy. The way that Etsy SEO works, and the people shop on Etsy is where the beginning of this myth comes from.  

When competing for sales against hundreds or thousands of other products, it is much easier to get found with 100 listings than it is with 10. At the very least you should have a broader range of keywords to get found in search for with more listings than with less. But there is no one specific number of listings that creates a magic formula for getting found or getting sales. 

Getting found in Etsy search results depends on quite a few factors; including, your particular niche, how much competition you have, your photo quality, your SEO, how much traffic you yourself are sending, your sales history, your shop quality score etc.

When I first started selling on Etsy, and hearing about the so called magic of the number 50 or 100 for item listings I cam across a shop that had less than 10 listings that was doing really really well. Totally blowing up the myth of 50. The shop owner was a lawyer offering e-books on topics relevant to Etsy sellers.

This kind of shop doesn't need a high volume of listings because they have a very unique skill backed by accreditation that can't be easily replicated. At that time I believe they were they only shop of its kind on Etsy. So they had no competition with a high quality product that was targeted directly at customers who needed the info in those e-books. Talk about a recipe for success! 

No matter what kind of shop you have, determining how many listings you need in your shop should be based around the income you're hoping to earn and the price point you are selling at, factoring in how much competition you have or how easy/difficult your product is to make.

Generally speaking, the greater skill o complexity of a product + a higher price point the less amount of listings you'll likely need. Versus the opposite, the less skill or complexity + lower price point the more likely you'll need a higher number of listings. Even within this very generalized rule there will be exceptions. And much of that has to do with popularity. If you have an amazing product that you can't keep in stock inventory doesn't much matter :)

Bottom line, be consistent with your listings. Don't rush to create mass amounts of products that aren't good quality or are not what people are looking to buy. Just keep working away at it and have some longer term goals in mind to aim for and you'll get there in time!

happy crafting!!
Shawnna

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Is it Getting a bit too Crowded on Etsy?

Is it Getting a bit too Crowded on Etsy?

 

Etsy has been around for quite a few years now, but its popularity has really exploded in just the last few. As an online marketplace it's a great place for people to sell handmade goods, vintage items, and various supplies. But has its recent exponential growth made it too saturated to start your business on?

A lot of new sellers coming into the marketplace say yes. But in reality the answer isn't that simple. It's certainly harder to stand out and get found than it used to be, but not impossible. The Etsy of today is not the Etsy of 10 years ago. And sellers need to up their game to get in and do well, but there is definitely room for new products and new ideas.

HOW MANY SELLERS ARE ON ETSY

As of early 2023 the number of seller accounts are being reported as active on Etsy are approx 5.4 million - with 89 million total users on the site. An active seller account means that the shop had at least one transaction in the last reported 12 month period.

HOW DOES THAT COMPARE TO OTHER VENUES?

If we look to Ebay as a comparison (and ebay has been around a lot longer) there are 18.3 million sellers with 138 million total users. So more than double the sellers but no one is saying Ebay is over saturated.

Meanwhile, Instagram is currently at 2.3 billion users. So selling via social media would be just as, if not more challenging.

The internet as a whole is quite crowded, so it will likely always be difficult to be seen or found. Not impossible, you'll just need to work at it.

ARE CERTAIN PRODUCTS OVER-SATURATED ON ETSY?

This comes up quite a bit. There are certainly quite a few specific product groups that are very heavy in selection, jewelry is a popular example. But over-saturation means that product availability has out-stripped demand. And I'm not sure that this is true for any category on Etsy. 

You really have to look beyond Etsy to the wider market when you analyze this question. Is there more jewelry on Etsy for example than the rest of the internet combined? Hardly. Because Etsy is a marketplace though you're going to find a broader selection than single retailer sites. 

For some perspective the word 'jewelry' on Etsy had 25.3 million results. On Ebay there were 1.8 billion.

SO WHY IS SELLING ON ETSY SO HARD?

This is complicated, and the answer is, it depends on the seller in question. Here are a few factors to consider when starting out as an Etsy seller:

1. Most new sellers to Etsy don't have real world business experience or even a relevant education in a useful business field (like marketing maybe). So sellers are learning 'on the job' and that takes time.

2. A lot of new Etsy sellers jump in feet first without a lot of prep work or research beforehand. This step can make a big difference to how quickly or how well a shop does.

3. There's a common misconception that selling on Etsy is easy. It isn't. It's usually hard work.

4. Too many sellers make mistakes that get them shut down or simply ranked so poorly they'll never be found in search. See points 1 and 2.

5. Lastly, shops that are creative and original do better than those who just add more of the same that's already there. 

I hope this helps de-mystify the Etsy saturation question!
Shawnna

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7 Things to Consider Before Branding Your Etsy Shop

7 Things to Consider Before Branding Your Etsy Shop

As an independent retailer, branding plays a crucial role in your business success. A brand is the essence of everything you do as a business owner. It’s the personality, values and aims that you have for your shop. 

A strong brand gives your business credibility and sets you apart from other retailers. An effective brand can give customers a clear idea about what your store stands for and differentiates you from competitors. 

We understand that it may feel like something abstract or intangible but rest assured it has a huge impact on your business success. Moreover, establishing an effective brand is not impossible task to achieve! 

In this blog post, we will discuss 7 essential tips to build your own personal brand as well as the brand of your shop so you can start creating an image that best represents who you are and what you sell.

 

Why Should You Brand Your Shop?

Branding sets you apart from your competitors and creates a unique identity for your shop. It’s the process of creating a consistent visual identity that appeals to your intended audience. 

As an independent Etsy seller, you likely have plenty of competition both online and offline. Establishing a consistent brand that differentiates you from the rest is your best bet for standing out. 

An effective brand can increase your customer base and, in turn, increase your revenue. A brand can act as a source of inspiration for customers and help them connect to your brand emotionally. Customers that connect with your brand are more likely to purchase from you. 

A strong brand can also help you in the long run. Once you’ve established a strong brand, it makes it easy for customers to recognize you in the future. This can lead to repeat customers and an increase in revenue over time.

 

Step 1: Know your shop’s ultimate goal

Before you can even start building a brand, you first have to know what your goal is. What do you want to achieve with your business? What are your business goals and objectives? Why are you even opening up a shop in the first place? 

These are crucial questions to ask yourself while branding your shop. If you’re thinking of opening your own store, you need to know what your ultimate goal is. Do you want to become the next big thing amongst all the other online sellers? Do you hope to make enough money to live off of? Or, do you simply want to create a shop for fun and to interact with customers? 

Your ultimate goal can help you decide on what type of brand strategy to go with.

 

Step 2: Decide on a name for your shop

The first impression of your shop will occur when customers first visit your shop. They will be making a decision whether to stay or leave within seconds of landing on your site. This is where the name of your brand comes into play. 

What you name your store is one of the most crucial aspects of your branding. It can make or break your business success. It will be the first thing that customers will see when visiting your site and is essential that you choose the right name for your shop.

 

Step 3: Create a logo and visual brand identity

Once you’ve found the perfect name for your shop, it’s time to create a visual brand identity. This is the visual representation of your shop. 

The elements that make up your visual identity include your logo, colour palette, fonts, and imagery. 

Depending on your brand strategy, your logo could be simple and straightforward or have a complex design. Take into consideration what customers will associate your logo with. You can create a logo using various design tools or hiring a professional designer to create one for you.

 

Step 4: Develop an ad campaign and newsletter

An effective way to get your name out there and build a brand is through advertisements. An ad campaign can help you create awareness and attention for your shop. Whether you choose print, social media, or even TV ads, you have the power to reach a wide audience with your ads. 

This is one of the best ways to build your brand as it gives you the chance to directly communicate with your customers and let them know what your shop stands for. You can use an ad campaign to promote your products and services or simply use it as a branding tool.

 

Step 5: Select the right colour palette for your shop

Colour plays a huge role in the overall branding of your shop. It can help you to create a specific mood and can even have an effect on your customers’ buying habits. It’s important to choose colours that best represent your brand and shop.

 

Step 6: Welcome customers with signage and merchandising

What’s the first thing you do when you enter a shop? You look up at the signage to figure out what that shop sells. This is why signage is so important in branding. It’s the first thing that customers will notice when they walk into your shop. You can use signage to create a consistent look and feel throughout your store.

 

Step 7: Summing it Up

Branding your shop can be a little challenging but it is definitely worth it. A well-branded shop shows customers that you are serious about your business and gives you a competitive edge. It shows customers what your shop is about and helps them connect with your brand. 

Now that you know what branding is and why it’s so important, it’s time to get to work. You can start by brainstorming ideas and sketching out a few different visual identities. Once you’ve nailed down a brand that you love and are excited to start using, it will be easier to attract customers to your shop.

 

 

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Inspiring Yourself: 7 Ways to Find Your Creativity

Inspiring Yourself: 7 Ways to Find Your Creativity

 

Creativity is essential for anyone looking to succeed in any field. It doesn’t matter if you’re a writer, an artist, a programmer or anything else. Creativity can take you places you never thought you could go. 

However, it’s also something that many people struggle with. Since so many people struggle to find their creativity on demand, we’ve put together a list of the seven best ways to inspire and find your creativity. 

If you have been struggling to tap into your creative side, keep reading to learn more about the benefits of being creative and some ways that you can begin unlocking your inner muse again.

 

Get out and explore

Creativity generally stems from curiosity. If you become interested in something or get out and explore new things, you’ll automatically become more curious. This curiosity can then help you find new creative inspiration. 

To help you get creative, you need to explore new things, go new places and meet new people. That’s one of the main reasons why you see artists traveling so much and networking with other creators. It’s because they know that exploring and meeting new people can lead to creative inspiration. 

If you’re struggling to find creative inspiration, consider getting out and exploring. Explore new places and new activities. When you do this, you’ll get that sense of curiosity that can lead to more creative inspiration.

 

Read a Book

In addition to getting out and exploring, you should also consider reading a book. Reading is a great way to spark creativity. It can help you access different ideas and concepts that you can use when you write or want to do something else creative. 

When you read a book, you can tap into the author’s creativity. You can explore the world that they have created. You can also delve into their thoughts and opinions about things. Reading a book can help you spark your creativity and find new ways to create that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to find. 

Additionally, reading a book can also help you learn new concepts and skills that you can use in your own creative ventures.

 

Doodle and play

At the heart of creativity is play. When we’re children, we’re very creative because we’re playing all the time. As we get older, we often lose the playfulness and creativity that we had as children. 

However, if you want to start being more creative, you need to get back to that child-like state of playfulness. That’s where creativity comes from. So, how can you get back to being playful and creative? 

One simple way to do it is to grab a sketchbook and a set of colorful pencils. Then, start doodling anything and everything. Doodle your thoughts. Doodle your dreams and goals. Doodle your inspirations and ideas. 

When you do this, you’ll tap into your playful side and find the creativity hidden within you.

 

Go for a walk

One of the best ways to get inspired is to go for a walk. When you go for a walk, you can’t help but get lost in your own thoughts. You have nothing else to do but walk, which means that your mind can wander as far as it wants. As your mind wanders, it will often lead you to new places and new ideas. 

This is perfect for those who want to get creative. When you go for a walk, you let your mind wander and come up with creative ideas and thoughts. You don’t have any other distractions to deal with and no one is going to interrupt you. 

When you go for a walk, you’ll be able to come up with new ideas and things to do on the fly. You’ll be able to tap into your creative side and find inspiration wherever you walk.

 

Go window shopping

If you want to get inspired, you need to get out of your comfort zone. You need to do things that make you uncomfortable because it’s in that discomfort that you find inspiration. One way to get out of your comfort zone and get inspired is to go window shopping. 

When you go window shopping, you’re essentially looking around at things that you want but can’t currently afford. This will help you get inspired because you’ll want the things that you see and you’ll want to create them. 

You’ll want to make your own versions of these things and come up with creative ways to do it. When you go window shopping, you get inspiration by seeing what’s possible.

 

Take a breather

Sometimes all you need to do to get inspired is to take a breather. In the midst of your day-to-day life, you might not feel like you have the time or energy to be creative. In those moments, it can be difficult to tap into your creative side. 

Sometimes all you need to do is take a breather. This could mean a number of things. It could mean taking a break from work and doing something completely unrelated. It could mean taking a 10-minute break to do something you love. It could mean taking a long bath or even meditating and clearing your mind. 

No matter what form it takes, taking a breather can help you get creative again. It can help you get into that creative headspace again so that you can come up with new ideas and be creative once more.

 

Spend quality time with yourself

Lastly, you can also get inspired by spending quality time with yourself. When you spend time with yourself, you allow your mind to wander and think freely. You let your thoughts go where they want and come up with whatever they want. This is perfect for creativity. 

When you spend time with yourself, you let go of all your obligations and distractions and let your thoughts wander wherever they want. This can help you tap into your creativity once again allowing you to come up with new ideas and the wanting to create new things. 

Whether you spend that time meditating, writing or just sitting and thinking, you can tap into your creativity and find new inspiration.

 

 

 

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Change Your Mindset: From Hobby to Business Owner

Change Your Mindset: From Hobby to Business Owner

 

Starting your own business or side gig can be an exciting endeavor. But it’s also hard work. In order for your business to thrive, you need to have a clear mindset and the right set of beliefs from the very beginning. After all, your success hinges on how you think and what you believe about yourself, your business, and the industry in general. 

If you’re thinking about starting a side gig or launching your own business but aren’t sure if that’s the right move for you, read on for some advice about changing your mindset for the better.

 

Know Your Why

If you don’t know why you’re doing something, chances are you’ll fail. Even if you are successful (financially or otherwise) in the short-term, you’ll almost certainly fail over the long haul. So before you start your side gig or launch your own business, you need to have a clear and concise “why” in place. 

Your why needs to be something that drives you and motivates you to keep going when things get tough. It won't always be smooth sailing, there will likely be bumps and setbacks along the way. You might find yourself discouraged or overwhelmed sometimes so having goals in place that motivate you to keep going will help you push through.  

But, it needs to be something that grounds you and provides a sense of purpose for why you’re doing what you’re doing. Your why needs to be strong enough to carry you through the tough times.

 

Keep Focused on the End Goal

Starting a new business or launching a side gig requires a lot of hard work. You’ll likely experience some initial failures and setbacks. This is perfectly normal, but you'll need to be prepared for that and keep focused on the long-term end goal. 

Why are you doing this in the first place? What prompted you to start this side gig or launch your own business? What’s your ultimate goal? 

Getting sidetracked is very easy to do when you’re working on something new. But you need to keep focused on the end goal at all times. Otherwise, you risk falling down a rabbit hole of frustration and despair. By keeping your long-term goal in mind at all times it’ll help you stay focused and driven no matter how tough things get.

 

Negativity is Good — But Don’t Let It Define You

Starting a new business or launching a side gig is hard. It’s also risky. You’ll likely face some degree of criticism or negativity from family members, friends, and strangers. You need to be prepared for that and not take it too personally. 

Not everyone will want to see you succeed. That’s just the way life goes sometimes. But you need to keep that negativity from defining you. Instead, convert that negativity into fuel and motivation. Use that negativity as extra motivation to prove naysayers wrong and succeed against all odds.

 

Your Skills are Appreciated and Valued

A positive mindset is critical to success, you need to always remember that your skills and abilities are appreciated and valued. There are millions of people out there who desperately want what you have to offer. 

That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy, but it does mean that people are out there waiting for what you have to give. Your customers are out there and they appreciate what you have to offer. Your skills and abilities are appreciated. You just have to find the right people who appreciate and value your work.

 

Your Business is a Reflection of You

Your business should be a reflection of you and your personality. That doesn’t mean you have to start a business that’s purely based on your hobbies, though that may be a good starting point. 

Instead, your business should reflect your personality and be something that you’re proud of. Something that reflects your values and morals. Sinve your business is a reflection of you, that means you need to stay authentic and genuine at all times. Don’t try to be something you’re not or do something you don’t believe in. You’ll end up hurting yourself and your business in the long run.

 

You Have the Right to Make a Living

If you truly love what you’re doing, all of the above is worth it. You have a right to make a living doing work you love. If you have a hobby or side gig that you truly love, it could become your full-time gig one day. All it takes is a little bit of hard work, patience, and perseverance.

By working hard, working consistently, pushing through fears, doubts and hard times and still be true to yourself, it's possible to build a successful business that thrives for the long term. On your terms.

 

 

 

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An Overlooked Mistake that New Etsy Sellers Often Make

An Overlooked Mistake that New Etsy Sellers Often Make

 

More and more I'm noticing a trend amongst new Etsy sellers... they're not fully setting up their shops as they open for business.

I'm seeing a lot of newbie sellers in the forums asking for help, and most of the time, they haven't set up the framework for their Etsy store, focusing instead only on the listings, and then at a bare minimum.

This is problematic for a few reasons. The first of which are legal obligations that any seller needs to be aware of. This will depend on the product type, where you live and where you sell to. There are consumer laws in most jurisdictions, not only do you have to be aware of what those are in your own backyard, but you also need to be aware of any international selling issues.

The EU for example requires any retailer selling any type of products to it's citizens to have a privacy policy on their shopping page as well as visible contact info. Every Etsy shop selling to Europe needs to comply with this, if you don't, any and all disputes you have with a customer will automatically be decided in their favor.

The second problem has to do with trust. Etsy gives us specific slots to fill out in our shops, the framework, and each of these works to build trust with our customers. Not filling out these basic pieces of information puts a seller in the same league as a scammer or con artist. 

There are a lot of bad players on Etsy looking to take advantage of unsuspecting buyers, and they generally do the least amount of work possible in their efforts. In order to stand out and be seen as a legit and honest seller, you need to make the effort and build that trust with potential shoppers.

And third, Etsy uses much of this information as part of your shop's quality score, which is used in part for search rankings. Want to rank a little higher in search? Fill out your policies and about section!

So many new shops I have visited this year have skipped over all these shop info pieces. Things like a shop banner, shop button, profile pic may seem un-necessary - and there's an argument to be made that these don't increase sales per say. But they do build trust. Your about section and policies though are a must have. So while on the surface it doesn't seem like these would necessarily be important or essential, it does in fact help in long term by building that trust, building a brand and building a following.

To illustrate my point I looked at the current top 100 selling Etsy shops to calculate how many were making use of certain shop features. Here are the results:

Shop Banner: 95% of top sellers had a shop banner

Shop Button: 100% had a shop button

Profile Pic: 99% filled this out with something

Shop Tagline: 93% made use of this for their branding

Shop Announcement: 86% were using this space

About Section: 85% had filled out at least part of this area

Policies: 100% had their policies filled in

This is how successful shops set themselves up. You can see from the numbers where the priorities lie. 

The shop button and profile pic are used throughout the site and on various communications, these are key trust points and the most successful sellers know this. It aids in brand recognition.

The shop tagline should convey what your business is about, and it's searchable by external search engines like Google. So it's helpful all around to write this up well.

Policies have legal implications. Simply put, you have to have them.

The about section is really for your own benefit, Etsy counts it in your shop's quality score, it can nudge you up slightly in search and it's an awesome tool to communicate with buyers and let them know more about you or your business. You can also add your social links here. Really, why wouldn't you make use of this even in part?

The shop announcement is useful for communication, but doesn't otherwise have specific benefits. Successful sellers use this to convey all kinds of different things depending on their needs and the vast majority found something to add here.

 

Do the work, sell well
Shawnna

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Is Branding Your Etsy Shop Neccessary?

Is Branding Your Etsy Shop Neccessary?

 

Branding is often thought of as just a logo and some pretty colors. But in actuality it is so much more.Your shop IS your brand. You might not see it that way right now, but trust me—you have a brand.Even a non-brand, is a brand. Because what branding really is, is the impression you leave on other people.

Even if you don’t know it, or aren’t aware of all the things you stand for and how they align with who you are as a person, your brand is still there, waiting to be discovered. It doesn’t matter how much time or money you spend trying to come up with ways to create a brand for yourself—if you don’t know what makes you unique and special, neither will anyone else.

If you want people to take notice of your creations and buy from you instead of googling around for another retailer who has the same exact thing, then branding is essential for new Etsy sellers.

But even if that’s not something that scares you off right now (and I hope it isn’t), I highly recommend taking the time to figure out what makes your shop unique so that others will get excited about having their own little piece of whatever you sell in their lives too.

 

So what is Branding exactly?

A brand is the combination of all the things that make your business a differentiator in the marketplace.

It’s the essence of who you are as a person and your general style and tone. It’s what you stand for and how you represent yourself to the world. If you want to draw customers to your Etsy shop, the first thing you need to do is find out what makes your business unique and different from everyone else in the marketplace.

Once you identify that, you can leverage that to create a brand for your business that resonates with your ideal customers and makes them want to buy from you.

 

Why is Branding Important for Etsy Sellers?

If you want people to buy from you, you need to be found by as many people as possible. In order to be found, you need to have a presence online, which includes having a unique brand for your Etsy shop.

Even if you don’t sell a single thing online—if you are an artist, you need to have an online presence. You need a website and a blog or portfolio on which to display your work and your branding needs to be taken seriously. Branding is what ties everything about you and your work together.

 

6 Things You Should Know About Branding Your Shop

1. You are not branding your products. You are branding your business.

2. You are branding your shop’s name.What does your shop name say about your business?

3. You are branding your shop’s tagline. How are you explaining yourself to others?

4.  You are branding your shop’s image. How will your image be perceived by others?

5. You are branding your shop’s description. Are you conveying yourself clearly and positively?

6. You are branding your shop’s information. Do others understand what your business is all about?

 

3 Strategies for Finding Your Unique Selling Proposition

- What are you passionate about?

- Who are your ideal customers?

- What are you most proud of?

- What are the main reasons people buy from your Etsy shop?

 

Wrapping Up

When you first start out as an Etsy seller, you might feel overwhelmed by the idea of trying to come up with a unique selling proposition (USP) for your business. Don’t worry—it doesn’t have to be perfect right away, and it will get easier as you go.

The first thing to do is to identify what makes your business different from others in your marketplace.

Once you have your answer, you can leverage that to create a brand for your business that resonates with your ideal customers and makes them want to buy from you.

There are a few things you should keep in mind when branding your Etsy shop. First, you need to remember that you aren’t just branding your shop’s products—you are branding your business.

Second, remember that the visual elements of branding are just as important as the written ones—if not more so.

And finally, keep in mind that while you are branding your shop, you should be branding yourself as well.

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Is Etsy Safe from Cyber Criminals?

Is Etsy Safe from Cyber Criminals?

 

More importantly, is Etsy doing enough to protect it's users from cyber criminals? From what I'm witnessing in 2022, the answer to that is a resounding no.

Over roughly the past two years organized groups of scammers have prolifically setup shop on Etsy. We've seen an increase of all users on the site, so this isn't surprising. Some of it Etsy is dealing with appropriately, and some of it they are either ignoring or taking a rather lax approach.

While there are quite a few scams, cons and crimes taking place on the Etsy marketplace every day (as there are all across the web), I've been closely following one particular issue for a few months now, one that I know Etsy knows about and yet appears to be blatantly allowing to prosper.

Here's the situation:

An organized group, likely spearheaded by a single organising individual, probably being run out of Asia or North Africa, are setting up new Etsy shops by the hundreds (thousands?) per week. These shops "sell" bundles of digital graphics made up entirely of trademarked and stolen copyright material. All of these shops have notifications all over their listings not to buy the item on Etsy, but to visit an independent website to make the purchase instead. And customers are incentivized to do so with seemingly huge discounts.

I've personally found approx 30-35 such independent websites being advertised on Etsy via these shops. 

All of these websites look to match up in registration details and all of them contain false contact info to make them look like bonafide american owned businesses. But if you dig deeper, this falls apart quite quickly.

Aside from the blatant Etsy fee avoidance policy violation there is also an element of data theft and hacking going on with this group, both on and off of Etsy.

Not all the shops used by this group however are 'new' Etsy shops. Some of the shops have been hacked into and are pre-existing but currently inactive Etsy shops opened by well-intentioned sellers. Which raises a whole other set of questions, namely, how?

Etsy recently sent out an email reminding sellers to keep their accounts safe and provided a list of helpful tips on how to do so. But is this actually enough? Is Etsy doing everything possible to keep the site secure? Personally I don't think so. I think they could, and should be, doing a LOT more than they are.

Further to this is that all the customers being funneled off of Etsy to these independent websites are probably having their data harvested during checkout. I say probably, because I don't have hard proof for certain...

But this is a group of individuals who are clearly working in an organized fashion with each other, who have no problem violating Etsy's policies, no qualms about selling content they don't have a legal right to, and are presenting false information about who they are on these websites. I'd say chances are pretty good that they would also steal customer data for other nefarious activities. Even possibly as a way to get into their customer's Etsy accounts. All they need is a matching email and password.

So what is Etsy doing about all these shops violating their fee avoidance policy? And we're talking about thousands of accounts here, it's not some small little issue. Well, they are actually removing a lot of these shops. But for some reason the crooks are able to create more accounts than Etsy is able to remove with a manual reporting and investigation system.

I monitored the situation quite closely for two full months and in a six week period I reported and saw removed just over 1,100 shops. Another 150 shops that I have reported however still remain open today. 

Two months on and there are just as many of these shops in existence as there was when I started looking at this, possibly more. No matter how many of these shops Etsy closes down, the same number or more are opened up immediately.

On the surface you might be inclined to think, well, Etsy has an impossible job then. If they can't keep up with it then it's a losing battle. But is it?

I have to wonder why Etsy hasn't deployed a bot to instantly remove these shops. It would be entirely possible to do, they all use roughly the same worded listings. They all have very clear identifiers to immediately separate them from legitimate shops. And why do some of the shops remain open even when they've been reported multiple times?

I have a few theories on both points but it all seemingly comes back to revenue. Sure, maybe Etsy really is just this inept. But, it just so happens that these cyber criminals are paying for advertising on all the shops they open. That's thousands of listings bringing in ad revenue on what appears to be very popular content. 

Is that a coincidence or an incentive to look the other way?

If you haven't seen what this looks like, here is a screenshot on the type of listing I'm referring to:

 

I think we need to start asking some hard questions about how Etsy is working to protect its users both while on the platform and where and how they are directed off the site. But we also need to take a serious look at what Etsy is willing to allow on the site for the sake of a few dollars and to hold them accountable in areas where they are clearly failing.

This type of listing has no business being on the site in the first place, but to allow it and thousands of others like it to remain, to proliferate and prosper, is utterly outrageous.

Shawnna

 

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