Selling Custom Orders on Etsy ✽ Variation Options

(I didn't get my blog post up yesterday, oops! I was busy working on a custom order for Under the Tapestry... haha! That post was begun though, and so it will be finished up as an extra after the month is over :).)

Selling ready to ship items is nice in that when the order comes in, you just package it up and schedule a pick-up, and that's that. But I really enjoy making custom items, as well. It's really fun to make the perfect item for someone to give as a gift!

There are a few ways to make custom items through your shop. If custom items are something you want to offer, you might want to go to Shop Manager>Settings>Shop Options, and you can turn on the "Request Custom Order" button option. Then buyers can request a customization from your shop page.

There is also a button to ask the seller a question, and you can offer in your description that they can convo you with any requests they might have.

Once you've talked about options for customization with prospective buyers, they can either purchase the original item they contacted you about, if you are doing all changes free of charge, or you can create a new listing if a price change is needed.

If you need to create a new listing, you have two options. You can click "make this a custom order" in the conversation box you have been working out the details in, which will create a private listing for them to order, which Etsy will notify them has been set up. The other option, if for some reason you do not have a conversation to use as a custom order base (say, it's for a church member, you have been discussing the possibility of changes on one of your social media platforms, etc), you can create a regular listing for the customer, and just email them yourself when it is available. It's a good idea, using this option, to title your listing "Reserved for ----", or "Custom Order for ----", so that nobody else buys it first ;). Some people even put a generic shop icon picture instead of a picture of the product, that way no searchers see a neat looking picture and order it. It's up to you.

I offer canvases that are made with quotes of the buyer's choosing, with several color options for the background and the text color. This has been a best seller in my shop, and people enjoy being able to make that personalized gift. Several people have come to me with additional changes they wanted made, though, and it has been neat to see how this simple starting point gets people's minds turning! I've customized the font, made the canvas horizontal rather than vertical, and my favorite canvas orders were the ones that I later took and made into my other customizable canvas option, the Family canvas! I'm considering listing a few more custom canvas listings as more "springboard" points, based off of the frequent questions I have received :).

Another option is to not offer customizations, but to offer variations. If you sell multiple colors, sizes, or item counts of things that cannot actually be changed in their design, setting up variations when you create your listings gives you those options to allow set changes within pre-set boundaries. It's a simple operation; it's one of the optional boxes when you post your item. You can create variations that have a price change (works well for different counts and sizes), and a way to be turned disabled later down the road (so that if you run out of one color of yarn, you don't have to cancel an order for that color). Disabling removes the option from the drop down menu from buyers, but allows it to stay listed on your side, to be reactivated when you get a replacement of the option. Variations are nice to use as a seller, too, because you can list multiple items for one listing fee!

Do you offer custom orders? If you could make a change to the custom canvases I sell, what would it be?

Reviews on Etsy ✽ An Important Aspect to Building Trust

One of the things that is going to help people decide to buy from your Etsy shop is going to be having good reviews! If they get to hear others excited to share that you were an awesome person to order from, it will help build that confidence that you'll work well with them, as well! Obviously, you don't have a lot of say over people giving your reviews. They either will, or they won't. You can give them a little nudge to think of doing so, but ultimately they'll decide whether the time is worth it to give back to you. So how do you make that time worth it? You become a seller worth giving great reviews to! Go above and beyond, and always do everything in your power to make sure the customer is getting what they are paying for!

-Don't make promises you can't keep. Make sure your product is as stated, make sure your shipping estimates are realistic, and don't tell someone that you can definitely do something when you mean you can *try* to do something!

-Do NOT let your items seem better than they really are before the person is holding them. Make sure you are certain what your products are made of and what it includes. Make sure the quantity is what they expect, ect. Be honest!

-Mail your orders out ahead of time. This really grabs people's attention! It's always nice to get what you ordered ahead of time, instead of constantly having to worry about whether it will arrive in time, if it's even on it's way to you, because it just feels like it's taken for.EVER to get here... it's really appreciated!

-If you make items that can be changed up slightly, you may want to consider allowing your buyers to have an option to change those! And I personally love offering completely custom orders. My Family Goals Canvas was actually originally my regular Custom Quote Canvas, but two ladies came to me separately, asking if a larger one could be made with phrases rather than quotes, and it was a neat idea :). The more your customers get to know you, and the more you go out of your way for them, the more involved with your shop they feel, and it really makes the worth of their review go up in their own eyes, I think!

-Make your package special. Don't just mail them their order, put a little effort into making it seem like a gift box than just something they earned. This will look different for each seller; I'll share what I include in my packages tomorrow :).

While you don't have a say in who writes your reviews, or if they even will... your actions are chiefly responsible in determining whether their review will be average, poor, or glowing! Outstanding service will often be rewarded with a review; a review makes future customers a little more willing to make their purchase!

And it is perfectly alright to tell them you would appreciate a review in their package... a lot of people don't think about how important it is for small sellers to get them! I also like to convo buyers after they should have received their item; it helps me be proactive about any issues, it gives me another chance to make sure they know I am available to help them with their order, and, they often take the initiative while already on the site to go ahead and rate your shop when they answer your convo :)!

How do reviews change your view of a shop? What would you do to create outstanding customer service?

Shipping from Home ✽ Things to Know

When selling on Etsy, you could guesstimate your shipping prices, take your orders to the post office as you get them and ship them from there. It might work well if you sell the same one or two things, giving you a really good idea of shipping, and if you give yourself an estimated shipping time that allows you to take orders in batches to the post office, so you aren't constantly running to the post office with each package.

Or, you could buy a letter scale, set up a USPS.com account, keep packaging materials on hand, and manually key in each packaged product's size and weight when you set up your listing info. This gives you exact shipping cost for each order, no matter where it mails to, and allows you to reduce the time that you spend at the post office!

I started out with the first option, and quickly realized it wasn't ideal, because I have such varied package sizes. And always I seem to get to the post office during lunch hour, which is a wonderful time waste... ha. I've been shipping from home for several months now, and it's been so much easier! There have been a few things to learn, though, and so I thought I should share those with you as well :).

-Shipping actually costs less on Etsy than on USPS's website! Not always significantly, but enough to be worth it. This might affect your Etsy billing schedule a bit as your number of orders grows; it makes your fee to Etsy larger, obviously, so you may hit your fee threshold before the end of the month, and pay your bill both in the middle of the current month and again and the customary 1st of the month payment. After this happens, they bump your threshold up, and payments will be at the beginning of the month again... until you hit your next growth spurt :)!

-You can purchase labels from Etsy, but not schedule pick-ups. This means you will still need to have a USPS account, if you expect to schedule pick-ups. Also, I forgot both my first username and password on their site. It was a pain to set up another, since I'd already had one for my address, and I suggest using something you will never ever ever forget. Haha!

-You CAN NOT schedule same-day pick-up after 2:00 a.m., so take that into account when planning how much time you need to ship out. I had to run my package to the post office anyway the first time I tried to do at-home pick-up, because I needed to get it picked up that day, and didn't go to schedule it until 10 o'clock, since I didn't know that yet :P. Scheduling is free, as long as you don't want it picked up at another time than they deliver your mail at.

-I have been told that you can place packages under 13 ounces in your mailbox with the flag up and it will be taken with your regular mail without scheduling. I've not tried this, but it seems to be the norm. Everything above that weights still needs be scheduled.

-You can print your labels on plain printer paper, but you can NOT place tape over the label bar code (it can wrinkle, glaring light back at the scanner and making the bar code inreadable). For this reason I'm now going to be using actual adhesive shipping labels, because I was worried about the bar code, which is the important part of your label once you've paid (it's what they'll use to scan your information into the computer when they get it), getting wet and running without anything covering it. It's not a necessity, but for peace of mind I thought it was worth it. I can't find a way to change the size of Etsy labels, so I have the half sheet sized labels.

Do you ship from the post office, or prefer to have it picked up at your house? Would you use adhesive labels or printer paper?

The Cost of Selling on Etsy ✽ 40 Free Etsy Listings!

This one is a post for those who would like to sell on Etsy, but haven't started yet! Maybe you have been reading my posts and decided that it doesn't sound as hard as you feared, or maybe it's something you have only just considered. Either way, before you start selling on Etsy, there is one thing that you will want to think about; the cost of owning a shop.

Since you will be the only one responsible for your shop, you want to be sure that you have enough resources to get you through the initial starting up period, before your items start to sell, so that you don't have to close down before you see any reward! Obviously, you want to count in the cost of your materials. That will vary depending on what you sell ;). Other costs you might pay are promoted listings; prices vary, as you can set your own budget. This is not a required feature, though, and one that so far I have not used. The same applies for any Facebook ads, etc. that you may want to run. You may also want to invest in a light box or photographer's paper for your pictures, and a letter scale. These are all variables that are up to you and your product, though. Here we'll only talk about the costs directly related to using Etsy's site...

Fortunately, the initial cost for listing the items is not that expensive; every time you publish a listing, you pay just 20 cents. That means that for 50 listings, which is the amount people usually suggest aiming for (a shop with 2 or more pages gets better attention, and each page holds 24 listings), only costs $10.00! These listings last for 4 months now before they need renewed, so it's really not bad. The 20 cent fee is applied even if the same item is bought two or more at a time; even if it comes out of your shop 2 at a time, without being renewed from one to another, they still get their initial 20 cents for both of the items. The listing is automatically set to auto-renew for another 20 cents after 4 months; if you forsee that being an issue, you can change it to require manually relisting :).

Material costs and listing fee are the only things you will pay until you actually make a sale! At the point that one of your item sells, Etsy will take 3.5% of your profit, the actual cost of the item (but not shipping or tax). There will also be a small fee for processing the payment from one bank to another. Depending on whether it is a credit card, debit card, paypal, or another method, it varies slightly; usually it is approximately 2.5-2.8%. If they have to change the funds from, say, GBP to USD, there will also be a fee of 2.5%. This means that at the most, using Paypal and needing your currency changed, you will be paying 8.8% of your profit. For a $10.00 item, after subtracting all fees from Etsy, you will make $8.92, not taking into account your material costs, which varies. And again, only the first 20 cents is paid before you have made money!

The final thing you will need to plan for is shipping price. There are two ways for you to charge shipping on Etsy. The first is to manually enter a price that is about the average mean of the cost of shipping it from multiple places. This is faulty and difficult, but can work in a pinch. The other option is to buy a scale, and add the weight and dimensions of your packaged item to Etsy. This allows them to calculate exactly the price from your house to the buyers, and there is even a handling fee you can add, so that you don't pay anything out of pocket for your boxes/bubble wrap/bubble mailers or other packaging requirements! We'll talk more about shipping soon :).

And finally, I have some good news for those of you who have not opened an Etsy shop yet, but would like to - I have a link you can use that will earn you 40 FREE listings!!! You could start up a shop with NO fees if you liked, by using this link: http://etsy.me/2xqiRJ6 to set it up! You must use that link (you can't navigate away from that page while setting up), and you'll be rewarded with 40 listings, no initial fee attached! I would be appreciative if you set up your shop through this link, because I would get these free listings, too :). To officially set up your shop, you will need an Etsy account, a shop name, and pictures and information for your first listing :)!And I'd love to help if you have any questions!

Do you have an Etsy shop? If so, drop your link in the comments so I could check it out :)! I'm doing some posts that will share shops later this month, and your's could be included :)! Are you considering the idea of starting an Etsy shop? Don't forget you could do so with 40 free listings using the link above!

Selling on Etsy ✽ Things to Think of When Writing Your Descriptions

Your shop is set up properly, someone has searched for one of your keywords, and your picture attracts them. They click on it, and what do they see? Hopefully, first off is your three lines of keyword filled description ;). But besides wanting keywords in our listing, what else should we think of while filling this box?

One of the things that you want to do is ask a question to get the shopper thinking. How will they use this product? Why would they get it? How would it help them? If you can include a question within those first few lines of keyword packed text, you have a much greater chance of drawing them into the nitty-gritty details about your product! Help remind them of why they are looking at the product, and why this is the one they might want to choose!

The rest of the description needs to do two things: it needs to give EVERY detail about the item being sold, and then it needs to be created to keep shoppers in your shop for a while! The thumbnail Etsy shows them is comparable to window shopping; them clicking on it is as if they stepped through the door to check out the item that caught their attention through the window. The pictures have to take the place of being able to pick up and handle the item; and the description has to answer all of the questions them might ask an employee or look for on the packaging, while also making clear any questions they might have because of how the pictures are taken (does it come as a set, or do I buy all three individually?). And then you want to put a little incentive to them to go check out the rest of your shop. This would be like having a table with complimenting product, instead of a table with ten of the same thing on it :).

Try your hardest to let your pictures tell every single fact about your item. Some people don't read text no matter how well you've written it, and you want to avoid customers being uphappy with what they receive. But don't just make your pictures as clear as possible and assume they know everything that they could need. Go ahead and include every detail anyway, so that they don't leave because the one thing they aren't sure of isn't worth messaging you!

Some things to think about when getting your description ready:
-What is it? Yes, this specific ;).
-Where and for what would it be used?
-Who would it be for?
-What size is it?
-What color is it?
-What comes in their order? (All three soap cakes, or just one?)
-Will they need something else to complete the purchase? (Hanging hardware, the stand seen in your picture, etc)
-What is it made with, and how is it made?
-What are it's unique features that make your item stand out? (Is your framed quote done in freehand rather than being a print?)
-How long will it take you to mail it to them? (Let them know both when it should ship by, and when they should get it after you do, if you have one set shipping method)
-How do they care for it? (Should it never be gotten wet, be washed only on cold, be used by a certain time?)
-Can it be customized? (Let them know how, and if it charges more, and also how to go about asking for that.)
-How do they place their order? (For my custom quote canvases, I have to ask that they include the quote to be used in the note to seller box.)
-Is there anything else they should know? (You offer free shipping on orders of multiple items, you offer gift wrapping, you don't ship internationally, you also sell at a craft booth locally, etc.)
-Especially if your product is something to wear or eat, you also need to be very careful to list ingredients and possible allergy warnings. Nuts, polyester cloth, being made in a house with cats; these can all be things that those with sever allergies would either not be able to use when it got to them, or would actually find dangerous if they forgot to read the labels!
-If you get a question from someone, go ahead and add the answer to your description (after answering the person who contacted you, of course!), in case it is a common question that nobody else wants to take the time to ask you about. You never know what little details may be hurting your results!

Lastly in wrapping up your description, try to keep them in your shop for a few minutes longer. The more they look around, feel like they get to know you, and find themselves staying in your shop rather than going back out to "check the other shops on the block", the more likely they are to feel comfortable making the choice to buy from you! Do you have a product that could go with this item, or one that is similar that they might like better? Let them know so, and give them the link! Do you think they would like the other items in that section of your shop, even if they don't go together? Let them see you have more! You can suggest that they check out your shop page to get an idea of what all you could make for them. And offer to answer any remaining questions they may have!

What is something you are careful to include in your descriptions? Have you ever decided not to buy something just because another product had more information on it?