Just in case anyone is wondering, our economy is really sucking wind. People are either without jobs or not making enough in the jobs they have, therefore they're spending less. For us online sellers, especially though of us with little to no advertising budget to speak of, that means our sales are not just slow, their downright horrible in some cases.
I think that at first we all take it so personally. Check our collective breath and arm pits -- is it us? Our way of listing? Our Studios? Our products? Some of us get mad at our venues: they’re not helping us get that traffic, or they’re asking too much of us to get that traffic. Some of us get frustrated and close up their shutters and move on, wailing about the injustice of it all.
Some of us dig our heels in and start posting and posting and posting and posting -- and either we annoy the heck out of our audience with our eternal links, or we spend ourselves into a hole with listing/re-listing/renewal fees.
I’ve been riding down all those roads for the past few years. They’re all bumpy and nasty and have a lot of potholes and more red lights than you can shake a stick at.
Then I took a step back and looked at the retail world around me. I reminded myself that I actually work in retail for my ‘day job’. I’ve been working in and around retail since I was 16 years old. No matter the branch of retail, there is one thing I’ve noticed over and over again:
1. The months of February and March are super slow, sales wise
2. The months of July and August are super slower, sales wise.
So, now I sit here and think; if it’s slow in brick and mortar, why shouldn’t it be slower in the online community?
And here’s the bottom line ick for the year 2011: with our economy sucking so loud, they’re probably not thinking about that either. I mean, think about it (if you haven’t already): if you have to choose between a tank of gas or that cool thingy you saw on Etsy or Artfire, or Ebay which would YOU choose?
Why would you expect anyone else to be different? No matter what you have in your shop, unless it’s a free tank of gas, you are probably not going to sell it as fast as you would like to.
Okay, thanks Captain Obvious, you say, what’s the point? Well, after I checked by pits, my breath, the items in my shop, the venue(s) I sell in, pulled myself from the ledge and took a deep breath, I had the following epiphany. You can’t force people the buy if they don’t have the money.
Instead of digging that hole of listing fees, that pile of non-selling inventory, or annoying the following I’ve worked hard to gather online by constantly advertising things that they probably aren’t ready to buy yet, I’m going to concentrate on the infrastructure of my business.
I’ll save all that money up from Etsy listing fees to create an advertising budget. To design some marketing campaigns that will help those customers out there make their choices.
I’ll get my current inventory fit and ready for the season that’s coming up.
With the two companies for whom I work as a representative, I’ll do some training, become even more familiar with the products, and find ways that I can serve my customer base better.
When August ends and September begins, I’ll be all ready to dig in with something targeted, informative, educational even. Something that the customer base can use while they’re making their decisions to buy. And even if they’re not quite ready to spend those hard-earned dollars, at least they’ll know I’ll be here with a quality product that I have confidence in, that they will be confident will stand the test of time.
And now that I’ve slowed down (because I found myself moving too fast),
And learning that I had to make the morning last (by not killing my wallet or my customer base);
Now that I’ve finished kicking down the cobblestones (and making good plans), guess what?
I’m looking at fun (the fun of making my own brand shine) and… you guessed it… feeling’ groovy.
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