Selling on ETSY

I need to grow my business...

Finding new products to sell is only half of the solution - where to sell them is a whole new story.

So here it is - the new match - a new product on a new platform: Nathan Halpern, an Israely artist whom I know for many years now, creates lovely clay sculptures of imaginary vintage cars that "has curves and wings" - lovely, one of a kind, pieces.

These sculptures are hand made and glazed-painted, burnet in high temprature (above 1,000 C).

I opened a new shop in ETSY. Must say it is a piece of cake - well done ETSY! Took some photos, rendered them (as I know how good they are for traffic generation) and uploaded new items.

Than... Nothing happened :-( welcome to the cruel world of ecommerce - it is time to promote my site and create traffic.  More hard work. More to learn - how to generate traffic to ETSY, how to sell art. Already started doing so on my Pinterest boards.

Here are some of my items on ETSY:

Firtst Ethnic / Tribal Keffiyeh blouse was sold!

I am proud! The first blouse was sold. I felt the same as two years ago when I sold my first item on ebay - proud and nervous. Is my customer gonna like it?

Surprisingly, it was sold on amazon, not on my ebay store. I thought that my great reputation (100%) and high feedback score (currently 568) will make it go easier on ebay... You don't hear me complaining (-:



Next thing was to rush, pick two other keffiyeh and produce another two blouses - this time a bit more sofisticated. I should pick them tomorrow from the tailor and have Shani, my personal home model, wear them and model for my photos.

I am curious what else can be formed from keffiyeh...? ideas?

When You Have a Hammer, All Challenges Look Like Nails

One of my most successful products sold on my ebay store, Holyland Treasury, is a set of Langding Gear for dji quadcopter:




These legs were developed by Hanan, a 3D printing guru who is also in love with quadcopters. He knows how to 3D print, I know how to sell online - cooperation makes lots of sense to both parties.

And... we started to ask ourselves "what else to print and sell?" In other words, what the world need and we can imagine and produce? So here is the catch: virtually, we can print anything, but what is the object which is a true cure for a real pain?... Not an easy question. Suddenly, we find ourselves withno answer. We really don't know what are the paains we can answer.

Currently, the only answer we came up with, is a holder for a thermic cup than can be attached to bicycle and to be sold with the cup.

I wonder if anyone is actually looking for such a solution?!?

Selling Online is a Tricky Business

I'm selling kufiya by Hirbawi for almost 2 years now. My ebay store sales are not bad... but I hardly find my items via google. (Hey! buy some SEO consultency!)

Today, I found that the rest of the world is looking for KEFFIYEH, not KUFIYA. So, while other were buying some cheap chinese KEFFIYEH, I was selling really good stuff, almost secretly (-:

I revised my listings as fast as I could on all 3 sites: my ebay store, my amazon store and on my own Holyland Treasury store.

Now, i have to wait and see if I don't end up with 1000 "stronger" search results instead of being the king of my (small) neighborhood

Developing a New Product - Kufiya (Shemagh) Shirt

My wife came up with a great idea - create a 'kufiya shirt', produced from Hirbawi kufiyas.

I have so many beautiful, colorful, kufiyas - doesn't have to serve as a scarf!

So... she took it as a personal project. Chose a nice turquise kufiya that was not listed yet,  took it to a tailoress and now we have to wait for a week...

Ethnic accessories are very fashionable nowadays and I hope she'll bring some innovation here (-:

I believe that besides the fashion say we may have here, the origins of the kufiya may also make it a valuble item. Isn't it?

I'll put some pictures as soon as I have a first model.

Handling Multiple Online Stores

There is an old joke:
a. How are you?
b. In one word? Good. In two words? NOT good.

Managing two online stores is a nightmare!

Working with the ebay UI for so long in order to manage my  ebay store, certainly created some habits that now collide with the UI of my own new store -  Holyland Treasury

The platform I chose, by Auctiva, is really a pro! Everything I was ever deaming of...

An than,comes the problem - from mutual stock that needs to be reflected in two stores (or more... what about Amazon ? ), continue with the need to upload and manage descriptions on multiple platforms, ending with the need to promote them in different techniques.

 And yes... there are the tools that can manage multiple stores for you.But they are either very expensive (over $200 a month) or limited (only ebay, no amazon etc.)

So I end up spending tremendous amount of time with great frostration and dull results.

Any idea?

it is close to impossible

...the heat. Around 40 degrees Celsius. Air is dry like inside the oven. Dust. All the ingredients of a very hot day. Some relief in the swimming pool (and sun burns to complete the torture).

"They" promised it is over tonight - let's hope. So far, 01:00, feels like noon in Sahara without a shade.

Last thing you want to do in such conditions is to work. Hence, I did (not) work today. Just a little. Some strategy discussion with my business partner during the last 3 hours. I must upload some new products to my site, but cant put myself into it. Too tired.Too exhausted. The good part - had some new sells today on ebay. That always makes me happy.

I was posting a question in a professional multirotor forurm regarding the dji landing gear I sell. I did not hide the fact I sell, and asked for the opinion of the "experts". I have two new insights:
a. it is a great research tool to make you understand how to improve your product
b. it creates traffic to your store (I sold one set this afternoon (-: )

Tomorrow is another day. Plenty of work and plenty of time to do it.

A.

Setting Up An Online Store

So far, I was doing some eCommerce on ebay, learning its secrets, understanding how to be a seller, find what to sell (tough one). Quite fascinating!

I felt its time to move on and have my own store. Sounds simple? Yes. Sounds like it.

First, I had to choose a name. What comes first? An available domain that fits my store name, or a store name that will match an available .com domain... (-:    Not so obvious!

I am selling some unique stuff from the holy-land - key chains, amulets, olive-oil soaps, Palestinian kufiya (shemagh) etc. Guess what? I managed to put my hands on HolyLandTreasury.com!!!

Did any one mention a logo? 

I took a picture of this nice pendant with my iPhone, played with it in Paint.NET for 1 hour, and here it is.

Then, I had to select a platform. I chose Auctiva and discovered a whole new world. It took me 2 days just to set up my shipping methods (weight vs destination). I am a programmer and feel comfortable with continues dull work that has to do with tables of numbers. But this one was a record. I simply fell asleep so many times.

Now, I have to move on to product upload. It is so annoying to do it over and over again for each selling platform. I wish there was a tool that simply uploads to all your commerce sites at once (that does not cost $200 a month..).

...I read what i had just wrote - sounds like an old wailing bitter lady, isn't it?!

See you tomorrow, with some more stories.
A.