Etsy too, Brute?

Etsy is a savior. A savior for the gift-giver who has no idea what to buy. A savior for the online shopper who is missing out on cool, local artists work. A savior for the artist who's never had the wherewithal or the knowledge to open their own shop or site.

Etsy is not, however, the savior of Mighty Distractible.

Let me 'splain.

As you all know, we did the trunk show a couple of weeks ago. And then I blogged about how we were going to put up the rest of the stock on Etsy. But, as I began the foray into the world of setting up an Etsy shop, I learned a very valuable lesson - Etsy is not for every situation.

The brilliance of Etsy is that, if you're going to have an online shop, they do it all for you - and for a very reasonable cost. Fees are like this:

• Each listing generates a non-refundable "listing fee" of $0.20 per item so, if you list 100 items, your listing fee would be $20. Not bad, except that the listing is only good for 60 days. If you need to re-list the item (it hasn't sold or it's a standard item that you'll always carry) you pay that 20 cents again - every 60 days - for as long as you want the listing active. Also, it's per item so, just like the grocery store check out lane, 30 cans of cat food is 30 items, not one. If you list 10 of the same item under one listing you pay $2.
• Then, for every sale you make you pay Etsy 3.5% of the total sale price (not including shipping). So, if you sell one item for $25, you give Etsy approximately $0.88.
• Fees are paid at the end of the month - they don't come out of your individual sale - so you have to stay on top of it and not spend that entire $25 because at the end of the month, Etsy's coming knocking for their $1.08 (listing fee plus sales fee). This can add up pretty fast so it's important to have halfway decent book-keeping skills. 

For these fees, you get a cool, customizable online storefront where you can conveniently sell your wares. For the average bear, the idea of having to build their own website, with a shopping cart, is too much. It costs money to get set up and then you have all the hassle of marketing your store and dealing with issues like your server going  down or your shopping cart not working. Etsy is a savior.

But if, like us, you really just need a place to sell off some inventory, Etsy isn't really the solution. Can you imagine how sad the Mighty Distractible Etsy shop would be once we were down to five skeins of yarn and two or three embroidery kits??

No... a successful Etsy shop needs to be a living, breathing thing. A constantly restocked, lovely to look at, store. Not a fire sale.

So, we have a question for you all. What would you think if we just posted what we have left out here on the blog and did our transactions via email? We could take PayPal and/or credit cards (thanks to Square!) and just work with you individually. Let us know. Comment below and tell us if you think this is a good idea or complete rubbish (that's for you @pinkundine!).  If you all vote that it's a good idea, we'll put photos, quantities and prices up on the site this weekend and then we can get down to business.

Speak up friends! And thanks. :)

Alex

How it went....

The Distractibles

Last week, Cassandra and I posted about the trunk show we were participating in on Saturday. I thought that, today, I'd give you the "post mortem" (as it were.)


Friday night, at 10pm, the last bit of work I needed to do was put button holes on 15 notion bags and sew on the buttons. The car was packed and I was ready to go except for that last thing. Aaaaaaand.... my button-holer decided not to work. I was so tired and frustrated at that point that I was, quite literally, cross-eyed. So, I resigned myself to the fact that the notion bags might not have a closure and I went to bed.


Saturday morning I was up and running at 7a.m. I sent a text to Cassandra and asked her to stop at the craft store and pick up some elastic to make a button/loop closure on the bags. In the end, we figured it would be true-to-form if we were sewing at our table during the sale. I had a massage at 8a.m. (GREAT way to start the day), then home to clean up, run the last couple of errands, and get to the show by 10:30 or 11. Smooth as silk.

part of our display

I rolled up to the house at 10:30 and started unpacking the car. By the time Cassandra got there at 11, all we had to do was arrange everything and make it pretty. The craft shop didn't have elastic but Cassandra picked up some grosgrain ribbon that was just the right color. Aaaaaaand.... then I realized that I'd never stopped to get change in case people paid in cash. Yikes! Out the door I race, trying to get to the bank before noon.


I managed to get to the back and back to the show-house by noon. A little frazzled but ready to go. *whew!*


All day long there was a steady stream of people browsing and shopping. The crowd was wonderful and seemed to be into the spirit of the event. Cassandra and I got to do what we do best - talking and making friends - while we sewed buttons on the notion bags (which sold surprisingly well!)

sewing buttons at the last minute (not surprisingly)

Overall, we sold about 25% of the stuff we took with us. We're going to put up an Etsy shop in the next couple of weeks and will hopefully sell the rest of the stock. And, if certain items are particularly popular, we may be convinced to continue making them!


We had a great time although it's a lot of work for two, inherently lazy souls such as us. We learned that we have a strong brand that's well received by strangers and that "making physical product to sell" is not really our forte (unless we can just manage the process and have other people do the actual work! LOL)


Keep your eyes peeled for an Etsy announcement soon.

Alex


PS - I hope that the people who invented the Square are making $10 BILLION dollars. If you don't know what Square is yet, check it out. Best.Invention.Ever!