My Etsy shop is sooo quiet now

[WeRD]

I opened my Etsy shop a few years ago and was blown away by the success of it. I managed to leave my 9-5 and live off of it alone. It was great, so flexible and I was making enough money not to need anything else, I couldn’t believe it. Fast forward a few years and the sales have all but dried up. I don’t know if it’s mainly that people just don’t have the extra cash anymore to spend on ‘nice things’. I’ve had to put my prices up a bit due to my increasing costs or it’s hardly worthwhile selling my items. I don’t know what to do 😞 I have a fairly decent social media following but it doesn’t seem to convert to sales anymore. I pay for ads sometimes but it’s not worth it for the number of orders I get in return. Do I need to shut up shop and go back to a ‘proper job’? How else could I save it now? 😢

I am very spendy and even I have cut back massively in order to be able to stay on top of my credit card payments and to try and save. I used to be able to do all this comfortably and treat myself to lots of little treats from Etsy but I have to work at not spending now.

I’m dying to know what you sell, OP!

Aww shucks!

Also are your product photos beautiful? Do you have video?

So many things you can try - it’s just knowing which one 😅

it’s all about TikTok shop these days, my friend had an embroidered baby jumper business on Etsy that did really well for a while- that market is really saturated but it got a new lease of life on TikTok, not sure how long that will last though! tbh I wouldn’t buy from TikTok shop, for personalised things I look at not on the high street (but generally try and find the seller’s own site, they’re usually cheaper and even they’re not id rather the money goes straight to the business!)

Yeah the images are key I think. It’s so hard to stand out against these ones and they usually have the good marketing and photographers pics while little old me sits at the kitchen table with my own pathetic set up 😂 I do have hundreds of really lovely 5* reviews and the majority of the pictures I use are sent to me by customers and are way better than I could do. I wonder about paying one of these places on Instagram to help me with marketing but don’t want to part with yet more money I don’t really have

OP I buy a lot from local people advertising on my FB page/FB marketplace? Perhaps you could try this?
Not sure what you sell but even on Etsy it's really hard to find unique handmade stuff anymore.

Nothing at the minute it seems 😂😂

I’ve always avoided selling locally and have preferred doing it online, for the ease of not having to deal with loads of messages or waiting in on people collecting orders etc but maybe it’s the way to go now

Can you message me your Etsy shop name? Love supporting small businesses :)

I wonder about paying one of these places on Instagram to help me with marketing but don’t want to part with yet more money I don’t really have
don’t most of the time it’s very generic posting and you know your product better than them, I’d grab a free Skillshare month and do the courses on marketing, product photography etc before paying out to a marketing

what about the new site from the founder of Not on the high street, Holly & Co?

https://holly.co/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi6DKtue_hAMVMYdQBh05CwnAEAAYASAAEgKk6fD_BwE

I refuse to use etsy, as most of the stuff on there can be found on ali express / temu

Well you can post it as well, no need to collect, but that's just my perspective. Obviously local isn't as big a market , and I don't know your target customer but.
I personally prefer to pay more for handmade products and want to support small businesses, and my town (that I quite like living in).
The trouble with Etsy IMO is you don't know if someone is really a small business or a drop shipper pretending.
Customer pics, 5* reviews etc you can pay for people put these even on Etsy. It's really hard to trust anything. Although your Instagram page proves your authenticity I guess.
Also I found quite a few things I liked on Vinted... so didn't buy new from Etsy.

@Ithinkitstimeforbed I used to like NOTH but stopped after the last couple of times when I found the same thing on Amazon etc for several sellers clearly not unique.

I did get some of my wedding flowers from Etsy, things like that do well when people are wanting to splurge. Not generic 'gifts' that have other competing stuff and requires space. I have a list of 'quirky things' that I want to buy, like a massive galaxy canvas 😂but where would I keep them all?

What is it your selling exactly?

Spread your shop profile, ebay, Amazon, whatever else
.

I’m away to get a notepad and pen for this.. this has been sooo helpful 📝

I'm exactly the same. The mortgage increase has eaten up all the 'nice to do/nice to have budget'. Lovely things off Etsy are mainly off limits now along with holidays etc.

Or ethical

if its good enough for DFS...

I see so many comments about Temu, but as far as i am concerned that's a load of tat compared to what you get from sites like Etsy and Notonthehighstreet. I love both Etsy and Notonthehighstreet, they have a personal touch to their products. I just hope both continue.

I’m finding that Etsy is just becoming clogged with stuff that’s been shipped in in bulk. Agree with others that diversifying might help. Really hope it works out for you.

What's your Etsy shop? Link it

@ThisOpalCritic actually I found that quite recently as well, which is a shame. I didn’t even realise Amazon did personalised stuff until recently!

Also OP, I hate to mention influencer marketing… obviously it depends what you sell, but the friend I was talking about sent an unsolicited freebie to an influencer when she had a baby, she got tagged in the influencers IG post and it generated loads of sales (so much so she cancelled our lunch date to work on orders!)

I avoid shops like this.