I get the urge to clean up my house in the spring, so why not clean up my shop, too? I’m often surprised at what sells and doesn’t sell. Sometimes I think what I made is really cute and I’ll sell a ton of it. In reality, it hardly gets any views let alone sales. Other times, ornaments I’m not as thrilled about become my bestsellers. I have also learned that an ornament may be super cute in person, but it doesn’t photograph well so therefore doesn’t sell well. When I’m designing products, I keep in mind how it might look on camera. I’ll also try a different picture on a poor seller to see if that brings in views.

My goal since I started my shop was to have 100 listings. I reached 102 listings this April, but I didn’t celebrate because I wasn’t happy with my shop. Not all listings are created equal. Just because I have 100 products available doesn’t mean they all sell. Some of them have been active for a year, and I haven’t sold any. I let a lot of my non-selling items renew because it was cheap, and I figured maybe one day someone would see them, like them, and buy them. Now I’m letting all my poor sellers expire. I realized that when my products come up in searches, I want them to be my best and most popular. I could lose sales if Etsy search chooses to display a poor seller over a best seller.

So, this spring and summer, after all my poor sellers expire, I’m going to see how many listings are left and start designing my new products for Christmas. Summer is a slow season for Etsy, so I like to take advantage of the extra time to get my shop looking its best. When I reach 100 listings, I want each of those listings to have earned its spot in my shop.

Cari Harris
www.etsy.com/shop/embervalley
embervalley@hotmail.com