Anyone Have An Etsy Shop?

[bustedlifter]

As far as Ebay and Paypal screwing you...do you mean the charges for selling and using their system? If I've ever had a problem Ebay and Paypal have ALWAYS fixed it for me. I haven't had trouble with them. If we didn't use Ebay my husbands business would be 3/4 of what it is. I think the charges are cheap for getting it in the face of millions! It has also increased his hits and sales on his website. I feel safe with both Ebay and Paypal. Just my opinion.

Absolutely! Paypal ROCKS! I think if you don't use it you're just hurting your business.

[DoubleC]

I have an Etsy shop although I didn't keep up with it very well. Last week I updated it, added more items although I, like a former poster hate doing the tags, descriptions, etc. and I sold my first item the very next day. You can't beat a 4 month listing for 20 cents. But you will never sell anything without a Paypal account, no matter how you feel about them. I just sold a sewing machine for $150.00 and Paypal took 5 bucks off the top. That's not being ripped off, that's the price of doing business and making sales easy for your customers.

I haven't had Aaron's experience but I don't like messing with mailing the payment and waiting to get the item. I wouldn't shop online if I wanted to wait two weeks for something, and I like the protection Paypal affords me. It's your choice but emotions and business are poor bed partners. Just my opinion. Cheryl

[azrider]

To the OP, Etsy is now offering direct payment through them without using PayPal. They are billing it as a better customer experience, and I can see that. They charge about the same fees as paypal, so you can now take credit cards without Paypal. I have had about six sales since they turned it on, and half of them have been through Etsy directly.

[DoubleC]

Oh I didn't know that, like i said don't keep up with it as well as I could. I'll have to offer that as a payment method too, or do they do it automatically? Cheryl

[azrider]

They call it a shop payment account, and you might have to dig a little bit. I know I was part of the pilot group of stores who were given a chance to try it. I figure any new method to seperate money from customers is something I should check out.

[DoubleC]

LOL, thanks AZ. Cheryl

[lightingale]

I too, have an Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SalukiFeathers

I do custom orders for dog collars, and in the two months I've been open, average 2-3 sales per month. It seems to be picking up... I do it because it's fun and to help pay for my tools (I'm nowhere close to breaking even, hehe) and it gives me a great opportunity to practice my skills.

So far I'm only using Paypal. Last I checked the direct billing wasn't working for Canada. The funds tend to sit in Paypal until I spend it ordering leather supplies

[DoubleC]

LOL, heard that. Only mine doesn't have a chance to do anything but stand and catch its breath.

[Chief31794]

I've got an etsy account, just opened last week. Chiefsleatherworks.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChiefsLeatherWorks?ref=si_shop

I have been getting a little traffic, but have to wait and see if it picks up, it was the same way when I started selling at the local craft's fair we have here weekly, but after a while people got to know about me being here and the orders and sales of stock items started coming in.

One Problem I have is that I make a lot of special order stuff, so I don't have a lot of inventory to offer nor the cash flow and shop time to build out several hundred items that might or might not sell. I take pictures of the items I make and sell, then post them as examples. Got to work that one out.

Ken

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I don't use PayPal due to their anti firearm policies. A friend has an Ebay store , and has had his PP account frozen a few times due to irregular activity-or what THEY thought was irregular.

I use my debit card for online transactions. And yes, I have the same protection as a credit card-which I will not own.

With any online store you need good clear pictures without distracting backgrounds, and good descriptions.

One thing I see is a $10 key fob. I have tons of unused fobs laying around the house. With them being so inexpensive to free to obtain those may be a hard sell. Also for that $ I would want to see something more than a Tandy stamp impression. This is one criticism I see with a lot of "hand tooled" leather goods being sold lately.

With any business you will need to research your market, and your competition - unfortunately that will include WalMart even though they don't sell hand made items. There have been some threads in the business forum covering pricing of items that you may want to read through. Iforgeiron.com also had a good thread addressing pricing of handmade items.

Not trying to be snarky, just pointing out some things I have seen, and heard from my fellow artisans, and guild members.

Edited July 1, 2012 by BIGGUNDOCTOR