Selling..

[MichaelaJewelry]

I was just wondering how those of you who have a shop on Hand Made Artists are finding your sales? I have my own website plus an Etsy store and while there are many people who are doing well on Etsy I think it's swamped right now and because there is sooooo much competition you really have to be on top of everything to keep up with the competition. Your thoughts?

[Blue Highways]

I have only had a HAFshop since the end of June and in that time I've had 7 sales here, it says 5 at my shop but there was a little glitch in the beginning with the first 2 but that was ironed out straight away. I have an Etsy shop as well and during that same time I had 6 sales, my other sales have been local and not through either of my shops.
 
The thing with Etsy is you are just another vendor, and yes, the competition is fierce. Here Andrew and Kimberly work incredibly hard in getting new listings out to hundreds of thousands on Facebook, twitter, Stumbleupon etc - that sort of exposure can't be beat anywhere - I mean where can you get an item viewed 2500 times in the first hour it was listed? It happened to me and others here too.

HAFshops is a new site, patience will be needed, but I truly believe that it will be one to contend with in the near future. Not to mention, a lot rides on your own efforts to get yourself out there too, but that is the case no matter where you are selling from.

I hope your shop does well. Hang in there, I feel big things coming here 

[trusk4u]

I've had an Etsy shop since 2008 and at first things went really well. This past year and a half have been awful. My the end of this year, my shop there will be gone.
I've been with HAF for a long time. Had 1 sale on the old site. Now with the new site, I've also had 1 sale. I have jewelry, and I think that the market in general no matter where you are is just saturated with it. I've been reading that jewelry sales and down in general anyway. With the economy the way it is, it's not a necessary item, so people put off buying it. It's that way in my B&M store too. The poeple who make everyday, usewful things are selliing okay. Us jewelry folks, not so much.

Keep the faith, and promote your shops as much as you can!

[chainmaille]

Sales on the shop are picking up in general but we still are not setting the world on fire. One the site needs to continue to build, which it is. Two the economy in general needs to break, which it isn't. Patience is the key right now for online sales, unless you can find a nitch.

[LisaE]

I was out in New York tonight.  Yet another longstanding restaurant shut its doors. The economy is simply not friendly to anything that is not a necessity.  I think we all have to hang.  There are things we can do to drive traffic, but we cannot fix the economy on our own.

[MakinTheBest]

The economy will swing up again, at least I have faith that it will!  We did two craft shows this weekend and did really well at one and not at all at the second...so if anyone figures out the magic formula, let us know! 

[Larissa]

You're right about the economy.  It's all cyclical.  And it'd move faster if the goons on TV would stop spouting about how terrible the economy is.  They're scaring people into hanging onto their dollars instead of spending them... which in turn further crashes the economy.