Spring Has Arrived, Etsy Update

Spring has arrived, though you'd never know it at the Jersey shore. It's about 46 degrees today and the wind is gusting to about 50 mph. I had hopes of beachcombing with my sons today, but the brutal winds will be keeping me in the house...maybe tomorrow.

My Etsy shop was critiqued by Etsy administrator, Michelle a couple of nights ago. It was very exciting and I picked up some wonderful ideas of how to improve my shop (unfortunately, my customers won't be all that happy...see more)

The Etsy critiques are live critiques held in the one of the Virtual Labs and there was probably 20-30 members in the lab at the time. Participation in the critiques are welcome and overall, I received some very good advice. My avatar has been changed to reflect what I sell in my shop and I will probably change avatars from time to time to reflect the items in my shop.

A few pictures have been switched around and with the sunny (but windy...lol) weather, I'll be re-shooting a few items and I hope to improve the images of a few pieces I thought I would have sold by now.

The one aspect of my shop that everyone agreed on... my items are not listed for enough money. Michelle stated my items should be offered for nearly double the amount. I won't be doubling the prices, but they will be going up. Etsy has some very informative articles on pricing formulas on their site and while I am making a profit, I should be asking far more for my items.

Everyone agreed my asking price indicated cheap, my items showed quality. Some folks may turned off by the low price, perhaps they are concerned about buyer inferior items.

I believe I have a buyer (or two) that buys items to resell and I'm okay with that, but I was told that if a buyer wants to by wholesale from me, I won't be able to lower my current asking price too much or I won't be creating at a profit. Soooo.....

After this weekend, I'll be raising my prices on several of my newer pieces and hopefully the sun will stick around for a few days so I can improve the images.

If you've been seriously considering an item from my shop... hurry, now's the time to pick yourself up a nice spring or summer accessory before the prices go up!

Nothing new on the Spring Craft Show schedule... my first show is scheduled to be April 13th in Lacey Township-- Forked River High School