Thinking about opening an Etsy shop? -Or your own online store? You aren't alone! Personally, I suspect just about everyone out there has that little twinge of desire to make, promote, and sell their own work. So how does one go about this process? Though it may not seem like it, there is a lot of initial work needed "under the hood" before you can click "open shop" and expect the sales to start rolling in.
The first question to ask yourself is "Do I have something to offer that people are willing to pay for?" The answer might surprise you. On Etsy and the rest of the www, clever people like you are selling everything from pin cushions to bean bag chairs, greeting cards to website templates, wooden toys to, can you believe it, advice to other shop owners. Interestingly, sellers on Etsy are their own demographic of potential shoppers. A good number of shops take advantage of this by targeting them specifically with "Etsy is my day job" mugs, "Shipping day!" tote bags, "hand made with love" stickers, and even customized, pre-written Etsy listings geared to drive the most traffic to your items.
So how do you know if what you have is marketable? This brings us to our first step in approaching your journey to e-tail!
Research your product. Fortunately for us, step one is also fairly easy. Do a little research on your items to find out who, if anyone, is buying and selling. Do a quick Google search. Better yet, browse Pinterest and Etsy to find your competitors. How are they doing? Do their numbers and sales look good? Are a lot of things coming up in search? Needless to say, there are two sides to this story: if what you're selling is too prolific, you can have market saturation. Jewelry, for example, is one of the toughest things to start with on Etsy right now due to the sheer volume of items being offered. This doesn't mean you should not try to sell your jewelry! What it does mean is that you will need to spend a little extra effort on step 2:
Give your brand a personality. Decide what it is that will make your items unique and capitalize on it. Yes, there are other dreamcatchers on Etsy. -But are they made with organic materials? -In your home state of Hawaii with local ingredients? -With humanely foraged feathers? How are the other dreamcatchers you find online packaged and photographed? What is a different way that you could do it to make yours stand out?
A shop that did a great job of this is Wish Charms. The owner, Rosaleen, knew she was competing against a lot of close up photography of beads and charms for her bracelets. So she decided to focus on her packaging to help her stand out. Instead of selling just a charm bracelet, she sells a mini gift set of charm bracelet and cute stationary note together. She expanded her items into the realm of paper, fonts, and quotes - setting her apart form other shops selling charm bracelets.
Find your niche. Finally, via the powers of research, find out who it is that will be buying your product. Women between the ages of 18-30? Mothers with young children? Men between the ages of 35-50? In what country do they live? What kind of lifestyle do they have? What kind of blogs, websites, other products do they like? Sleuthing is a big part of business planning. The answers to these questions will dictate the design, logo and branding of your shop as well as the format of your listings, your keywords, and where you advertise and promote. A shop with items geared to new moms will have a different banner and color scheme than one designed for teenage girls. Identifying your target group early is crucial to what will later become an ongoing and full time process of knowing what is trending with your shoppers.
Congratulations! You have answered the three most crucial questions in the first stages of opening an Etsy shop. The next step is writing up your personal business plan where you will address costs, calculate pricing and profits, and give yourself a timeline to get the shop up and running. We'll talk about this in part 2.
See you then, stay inspired!
No comments:
Post a Comment