26 July 2009

Do you double up?

Let's say you have two or even three online shops. Do you create different things for each shop, or do you list the same stuff twice...in hopes that something doesn't sell simultaneously from both shops?

For me, I like to keep my etsy shop fully stocked with goodness. Etsy is my main squeeze. Artfire is coming up second....I only have two sales so far in my artfire shop (compared to 228 on etsy) but the traffic there is steadily increasing. They're so young, and have so much potential. I am staying insofar as I can tell.

The problem is that I'm so busy...it's very hard to have 70 or so things available on etsy at all times as well as: keeping up with custom orders, and stocking the B&M's I'm in - oh yeah, and having a life outside of madbird. I can't imagine doubling that for Artfire. So, I basically double list. There are some things available only on etsy, and some only on Artfire...but that's not the majority. And 1000Markets? I'm not so sure about them. The website is beautiful and it's nice and clean, but the traffic is zip. I also think relying on amazon checkout w/o accepting paypal is a mistake. I admit - I hardly list there at this point, but now I'm getting off topic.

Anyway....I've yet to have things sell at the same time. I don't think I'll be so cavalier with my listing practices come holiday season though. Things are picking up already, never mind Oct-Dec. So, I think I'm going to have to stop double listing and just start cranking out more work.

*sigh* At least it's been a really lousy summer thus far on the East Coast of the US...so I'm not missing much by being glued to my sewing machine. I do, however, have a plan that involves bringing my sewing machine and supplies pool-side, if the need arises ;^)

2 comments:

  1. I too have an artfire and an etsy shop and at times post an item or 2 on Ebay that doesn't quite fit on either of those sites. I agree about 1000markets, I got accepted there and then realized it was a waste.
    I love Artfire and get lots of traffic but not enough sales but I keep hoping. I have alot of stuff listed on Artfire that I don't have on Etsy because Artfire seems to get more traffic. I don't get a lot of sales, so I have to remove it from another site(all my stuff is ooak). Just trying to get the customer where she likes to shop!

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  2. You get more visitors to your artfire shop than your etsy shop? Wow! I get about 6x's the traffic on etsy vs. artfire. But...I show up really well on google thanks to artfire, so that may shift a bit. Yeah, I'm thinking 1KM is either too new, thus too unknown...? Some days I don't get a single view. But...I've only got about 7 things in there, and I never market that shop. I love artfire - I hope it continues to grow!

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