We all want our businesses to be successful year round, but many of us thrive seasonally. Buyers shop seasonally, so there’s really no way around it. Although I shipped scarves and coffee cozies everywhere, my shop still always took off from September–December and experienced a major lull from February through summer. That’s over half the year! I think a lot of people who have seasonal shops like mine find other means of income during those times–either other ways to sell, other things to sell, or have other jobs. Crafters tend to have more than one craft after all. While I could’ve come up with other products (though, crochet always comes off as fall, no matter how springy the item), or thrown myself into vintage (which at times I did) I always chose to dedicate late spring and the summer months to preparing my Etsy shop for the fall rush.
Even if you’re not selling strictly winter items, there’s no denying that biz picks up leading up it the holidays. Making the most of these months before it is vital to Etsy success (read: profit). Things can seem slow at first but they have this ability to take time off instanely fast and provide endless growth opportunity. Onto my tips for preparing for a good last half or even quarter of 2015 on Etsy:
Get your inventory up to speed
Especially if you take custom orders or have physical inventory, it’s a good idea to get as much of your product as possible prepared before the season starts. Oh my goodness do custom orders take time, even with the things that are normally quick to whip up. Collaborating, shopping, communicating—it all takes so much time! Doing this while getting sales in your shop and shipping orders can be seriously overwhelming. Not to mention if you need to shoot or upload photos each time you sell something. (Side note: The more you list, the more you can sell, not just because you’ll actually have more, but you’ll show up in search, which is difficult with little product, and it’s exactly why a lot of people list each item individually–even if they are simply different colors or sizes.) Create and shoot your product in advance, then list throughout the season.
Get all the nitty gritty out of the way
Tags, titles, descriptions, I call all these things the nitty gritty. If your shop really needs help getting seen, now is the time to do so. This is SO important. You can create all the product in the world, the most unique and in demand of items, and get not a single sale if no one enters your shop. Just like listing a lot, the more people that enter the shop page, the more you have the chance to make a sale. That’s why all of the text and visuals on your page are so important, they contribute to the customer’s experience. (Ecommerce is such an awesome outlet for us introverts, but that doesn’t absolve us from having to make that sale!) For more information on improving your Etsy, check out this post on product descriptions and these photography resources. Make sure to give yourself time to implement the strategies.
Set your social media strategy in place
No matter how big or small your social strategy, it’s a good thing to consider early on. Whether it’s deciding whether you’ll put money into boosting your Facebook posts, making your images pinnable, or launching a full-on social media plan of attack, putting the plan in place beforehand saves you time and gives you a buffer if you need to change anything. What we who have done social media for businesses know—regardless of if we were successful or not—and those who have never experimented with it before don’t is this: It. Takes. Time. Hours even. Hours daily even. Unless you’ve got a bunch of extra hours to spare that you’re going to choose to spend on Facebook and Instagram, might as well make it easy on yourself! These resources that we’ve had up on TBM before like Pinterest for business and Instagram for business can definitely help can Etsy shop. It’s intimidating but it can pay off big time!
These three things are pretty basic… Feel free to add more in the comments. And, I’m happy to go into specifics on any of these things as the season inches closer! If you have a shop, link below. Maybe we can feature it in a roundup!