Brass Mother Plucker Guitar Pick[/caption]
Has buyer behaviour somehow radically changed in 2015? Shoppers spend big for the holidays and event, but somehow have the jitters in between and therefore curtail their discretionary spending? If Wall Street is any indication or metric for measuring the state of the economy, then for sure wild mood swings seem to be the new norm. It's easy to imagine the chain reaction of jitters. Here we are a small business caught in the mood swings. Last week, I was thinking of growing our business, hiring staff, searching for studio space, and even looking to purchase a house this Spring. In matter of just 7 days, those thoughts are now on hold as we once again are chasing business and being faced with the reminder not rely on Etsy to support our business.
My first task of business for the New Year was going through our new website Nici's Picks and start publishing the listings to Google Shopping. At first opening the merchant account and navigating a maze of menus which usually starts with the ever frustrating "claim your site" as the first step, but with each click of the mouse the process gets easier. By midday, I managed to publish 143 items and have about 75 remaining. The slowdown is having to add a variation for color even though we are only selling 1 item.
As I mentioned in a previous post, another amazing surprise of the Christmas season was opening a Wanelo Shop for Nici's Picks and having immediate sales. The downside of Wanelo is not being able to sell custom items, so today I worked my way through the listings and removed custom items such as Monogrammed Guitar Pick Cuff Links and other products that require customers to enter their personalizations. Overall, I must say I am extremely impressed with Wanelo, the search function, and the organized layout. Clearly the target user group for the site is women which was obvious in the hundreds of pages of bikinis and women's underwear, however there is definitely a good offering of men's accessories and gift ideas. The next step will be working on our higher end jewelry site, The Wild Paw.
After One Mother Plucker of a slow start to 2016, I am glad that we aren't just hanging around the Etsy forums, waiting for sales, or revising titles and tags. Perhaps I'm just overly optimistic, but I still believe getting off your ass and taking charge is always a key to success.
One Motherplucker of a Start
Having an online business always has its degrees of surprises and mysteries, but at least there is a guitar pick to suit just about every mood, quandary, or feeling. 2015 closed out as yet another record year for NiciArt LLC and felt like 2016 was going to be a screaming New Year for sure. As the clock struck 12:01am and the rumbles of distant fireworks all merged together as a background hum, our Etsy orders mysteriously dropped and have yet to rebound. When it comes to understanding the psychology of shoppers and the great mysterious behind Etsy, I am always left baffled and dumbfounded. It's just one big Mother Plucker in my mind.
[caption id="attachment_638" align="alignnone" width="1808"] Brass Mother Plucker Guitar Pick[/caption]
Has buyer behaviour somehow radically changed in 2015? Shoppers spend big for the holidays and event, but somehow have the jitters in between and therefore curtail their discretionary spending? If Wall Street is any indication or metric for measuring the state of the economy, then for sure wild mood swings seem to be the new norm. It's easy to imagine the chain reaction of jitters. Here we are a small business caught in the mood swings. Last week, I was thinking of growing our business, hiring staff, searching for studio space, and even looking to purchase a house this Spring. In matter of just 7 days, those thoughts are now on hold as we once again are chasing business and being faced with the reminder not rely on Etsy to support our business.
My first task of business for the New Year was going through our new website Nici's Picks and start publishing the listings to Google Shopping. At first opening the merchant account and navigating a maze of menus which usually starts with the ever frustrating "claim your site" as the first step, but with each click of the mouse the process gets easier. By midday, I managed to publish 143 items and have about 75 remaining. The slowdown is having to add a variation for color even though we are only selling 1 item.
As I mentioned in a previous post, another amazing surprise of the Christmas season was opening a Wanelo Shop for Nici's Picks and having immediate sales. The downside of Wanelo is not being able to sell custom items, so today I worked my way through the listings and removed custom items such as Monogrammed Guitar Pick Cuff Links and other products that require customers to enter their personalizations. Overall, I must say I am extremely impressed with Wanelo, the search function, and the organized layout. Clearly the target user group for the site is women which was obvious in the hundreds of pages of bikinis and women's underwear, however there is definitely a good offering of men's accessories and gift ideas. The next step will be working on our higher end jewelry site, The Wild Paw.
After One Mother Plucker of a slow start to 2016, I am glad that we aren't just hanging around the Etsy forums, waiting for sales, or revising titles and tags. Perhaps I'm just overly optimistic, but I still believe getting off your ass and taking charge is always a key to success.
Brass Mother Plucker Guitar Pick[/caption]
Has buyer behaviour somehow radically changed in 2015? Shoppers spend big for the holidays and event, but somehow have the jitters in between and therefore curtail their discretionary spending? If Wall Street is any indication or metric for measuring the state of the economy, then for sure wild mood swings seem to be the new norm. It's easy to imagine the chain reaction of jitters. Here we are a small business caught in the mood swings. Last week, I was thinking of growing our business, hiring staff, searching for studio space, and even looking to purchase a house this Spring. In matter of just 7 days, those thoughts are now on hold as we once again are chasing business and being faced with the reminder not rely on Etsy to support our business.
My first task of business for the New Year was going through our new website Nici's Picks and start publishing the listings to Google Shopping. At first opening the merchant account and navigating a maze of menus which usually starts with the ever frustrating "claim your site" as the first step, but with each click of the mouse the process gets easier. By midday, I managed to publish 143 items and have about 75 remaining. The slowdown is having to add a variation for color even though we are only selling 1 item.
As I mentioned in a previous post, another amazing surprise of the Christmas season was opening a Wanelo Shop for Nici's Picks and having immediate sales. The downside of Wanelo is not being able to sell custom items, so today I worked my way through the listings and removed custom items such as Monogrammed Guitar Pick Cuff Links and other products that require customers to enter their personalizations. Overall, I must say I am extremely impressed with Wanelo, the search function, and the organized layout. Clearly the target user group for the site is women which was obvious in the hundreds of pages of bikinis and women's underwear, however there is definitely a good offering of men's accessories and gift ideas. The next step will be working on our higher end jewelry site, The Wild Paw.
After One Mother Plucker of a slow start to 2016, I am glad that we aren't just hanging around the Etsy forums, waiting for sales, or revising titles and tags. Perhaps I'm just overly optimistic, but I still believe getting off your ass and taking charge is always a key to success.