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 used to buy stuff on Etsy, but as pp have said, nowadays it’s full of crap that’s been shipped from China and not handmade at all. It’s too difficult to filter out the genuine handcrafted stuff from the Temu rubbish.

I do still buy some handcrafted stuff, usually from makers who I’ve come across on Instagram, who sell via their own websites. I also buy stuff from Wolf and Badger, which could be a good option if the stuff you make is high quality.

Yes I’ve had orders from a few semi famous people before and they’ve tagged me and got sales as a result and sent a couple of freebies but I don’t make a habit of doing it often enough probably. It was mainly because I was always quite busy and didn’t really have the time to send them one, but now I do clearly!

Meant to say, if it’s door wreaths, I think every house up and down the country already has one 😮

I also dislike the idea of sending out freebies but if it translates to sales I guess it’s worth it! Worth a try if you can afford to. Anyway I hope things pick up- hopefully it’s just seasonal and short lived!

I think etsy isn't what it was, too much mass produced tat on their now drowning out the quality stuff. Also these places are always changing up the algorithm. I follow a lot of artists on Instagram and they say its almost impossible to stay visible with how Instagram set their algorithm , same on youtube. These apps are looking for new content daily which most good artists can't realistically provide so they drop off the radar losing viewers, followers and customers. Then the content you do get pushed at you is essentially just adverts.

If this is your business and you've no other income, you need to professionalise and diversify.

Look at a few online training courses for basic mobile phone photography, basic social media marketing etc. Some of them will be free.

Don't go spending big money on marketing unless you know how to use it - my brothers small business lost a fortune on wasted Facebook and Google marketing before he paid for a company to actually review how it was working for him and explain it all to him. He now has a marketing firm he works with who do his photography, socials media and comms but he's got the turnover and profit these days to justify that.

Agree with influencers, but the name dropping types with the huge followings are the best - Jack Jossa bought one of his products a few years ago and showed it on her stories and he sold out that night and for the next two days to the tune of many thousands of £ worth of orders! These people have no idea what they can do for a small business, it's incredible.

Paying influencers is often expensive and you need to assess the cost against the return you're getting from their work.

Folksy (mentioned upthread) is a good proper handmade outlet, but won't have the traffic of Etsy because not as many people have heard of them. Lots of sellers I come across on Etsy also have shops on Folksy (often selling cheaper on Folksy - I always cross-reference! - presumably due to lower fees), but I notice their total number of sales on Etsy is vastly higher than on Folksy. So I'd definitely recommend Folksy for buyers to try, but not sure if it would be worthwhile for you as a seller....

Would you mind if I asked what you sell?

Not to mention very misleading.

Etsy def not what it was as a customer, I ordered a custom item and it took a long time to come, chased and got a very standard reply, chased again and got the very same reply. Used to be much more personal than that.
Mind you before that I'd ordered a dog towel (embroidered with name) and it was a cheap Asda towel with the embroidery on. Evehrone was raving about the amazing towels

OP was your product more popular die to COVID / wfh by any chance? Has something else of that nature impacted its rise and fall in popularity?

also, tell us what it is and we will all buy one!!

This is symptomatic of today's world. Everything instantaneous and new. Quality doesn't count for much any more.
I stopped stocking my Etsy shop a few years ago.
You would be better finding local markets and getting your name known. Try local shops that sell handmade goods, and do craft fairs that get a lot of footfall.

I still buy from Etsy, but generally only original art, which is very reasonably priced. As your items are handmade I would think you would still do well. Is it more the particular kind of item is less popular as it is highly copied? Otherwise it is driving links to your site from other platforms.

I'm on a Facebook group called not on amazon, or something like that. Might be worth a look?

I used to buy a fair bit on Etsy but I’ve definitely noticed that it’s not as good as it used to be. And I’ve also noticed that things from high street shops are being sold by individual sellers for hugely inflated prices. They’d even pinched the photo from the shop’s website.

It's the current climate/ cost of living/ prices of everything etc. ppl just don't have money right now.
I can see it in my own email inbox, when every other email is a discount code for something.

They said with the mortgage rate rises it’s like a frog in a pot of water, and I think that’s the case. We used to be so much more comfortable but mortgage payments (along with everything else) has massively impacted our available cash. Saying all that I would suggest you get on LinkedIn and follow some content creators who advise on personal branding and sales. They give loads of useful tips and all the content is free.

I still buy from Etsy but generally only from sellers I follow on instagram. There is a lot more tat on there! I’ve also noticed that some of the sellers I bought from in the past have stopped selling on there, possibly because they were struggling too.some of them have launched their own websites but a few have just disappeared.

Folksy never seems to have stuff I fancy, though, and NOTHS often seems like just a lot of personalised crap too.

Have you tried google ad words?

Etsy chucked away what made it different when it failed to stop dropshippers pretending they made their stuff.
Now you've got something no different to bloody Amazon.

Their seller support is a fucking joke. Have you tried to talk to someone? It's next to impossible.

Buyers aren't finding actual hand made stuff among the mountains of shein and temu shite and it's attracted people who don't even value hand made and complain you can get the same at Tesco for a fiver.

I've just opened a shop on mademe. I'm keeping my Etsy shop but it's not the same any more and it's because Etsy doesn't care.

I have a shop on Etsy. Mine is all handmade which I assumed was the appeal of Etsy. That and vintage. Nowadays it's all full of Ali Express and Temu stuff being sold on with marked up prices. A few weeks ago a lady was advertising crochet gloves with embroidery which is something I make. Her items were ones that are from Ali Express. The whole thing, not just a part to make up that item. I see no problem in buying parts for things then making them up but it's now a lot of just whole products bought and sold on as handmade.

You can buy the same cheaper on Ebay and Amazon.
Also l get fed up of being hassled for reviews.
Most of what l have bought on Etsy I'm disappointed with.

Etsy harassing customers for reviews fucks me off. Particularly when the customer gets pissed off with the seller and gives a low review. We don't have any control over Etsy nagging customers sadly. I wish Etsy would pack it in.

Just to say, I love Etsy for certain things (when I have money!) and tend to use the same trusted sellers as there's now so much crap on there. I hadn't logged on for a while, and found that in my messages I had some discount offers from those sellers. I had no idea about those discounts, i had not received any notifications or emails about them. I'm assuming you've already tried that type of thing? If not, in future sales you could give a discount code for repeat business.

I think the reason I liked to sell on Etsy was hoping the buyers would be like minded as in looking for products that are not mass made and more personal to them. Also I really enjoy my craft and give it my all x