Critique my Etsy shop!

[NataliePatalie]

Hi guys! I recently opened an Etsy shop. I'm new to all of this, hahah. We make felt letter pins. I think my shop and items look nice, but I'm looking for an outsiders opinion!

Linky: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueberryPineapple

[Spindlewick]

Gonna be blunt here, but your prices are crazy high.
Not to undermine the work I'm sure goes in this but it's a 2" square piece of felt with crafty applique. And I don't see how $3 works for something that could fit in a standard envelope for < $1 in postage fees.

Again, cute little work for that niche market but I believe with fair pricing and maybe bundle options you may have some success. Good luck smile

[NataliePatalie]

Thanks for the honesty! I also thought the shipping price should be lower, but I took it to the post office so they could tell for for certain, and they said $3 - so that price I don't think I'll be changing. I might lower the price of the pins themselves, though. A lot of work does go into them, but what's the point of listing them if no one wants to pay for them? I'll talk about it with my Etsy partner. Thanks again!

[Kevsup]

If I really wanted a felt letter itel, i'd probably make it myself to save $15.

Pro: Love the idea and design
Con: $15, at most I'd probably pay $3 at a vintage gift shop.

[AkibeJosephus]

I assume it's the fiddly beading that takes the extra time? Perhaps a more simply cheaper line without the beading, and then the more expensive beaded ones as the top price range? It's always good to have a range of prices anyway.

You really need to fill out your shop policies, you need to tell people what their shipping cost is paying for, and you need to state your refund policy as well (everyone has a legal right to a refund within a certain number of days), not having a refund policy will put a lot of people off.

The best way someone told me to do descriptions was "Describe it as if there is no photograph". You should include colours, the size (which you have) and anything else you can think of that will help encourage someone to buy it. You can then also reflect this in your tags i.e. "yellow felt", "orange felt" etc etc.

It's a very good start, have a read of the Etsy Seller's Handbook and nose around the Etsy forums as both are a mine of information! I've been there for years and there's always something new to learn XD

[kitti kat]

as far as your pricing is concerned- you figure out what it is worth and sell it for that and don't listen to people tell you "meh I would make that myself instead of paying that much for it!" or "I could get this for 1/5 of the price somewhere else!" you need to know what your stuff is worth. Materials+overhead+time, no slave labor but the quality of your work should reflect what you would like to be getting for your time
And keep in mind what you are competing with on Etsy and think about what will make a buyer select your items over theirs? also has felt letter pins for $15 Don't just think about the look of the items themselves, think about you as the maker of them, the service you provide, the quality of your items, and make sure these selling points are made clear to potential buyers

As far as shipping costs, I can tell you that it costs me 2.45 to put my earrings in a gift-wrapped box inside a small bubble envelope and ship domestically to arrive in about 3 days, they don't weight much, but you don't really know much about the shipping until you've done it yourself.

I agree that you could work on your descriptions I found this to be useful

And your pics, they are soooo important for online shoppers, you should include as many of them as you can for each listing (max 5, using all of them is great!), they should make the customer fall in love from your thumbnail and treasury-friendly is a bonus (I don't think the concrete background does you any favors, I use scrapbook paper for my backgrounds which works very well as long as you pick out simple sheets- nothing that is a 2D rendering of a 3D object for a 2D picture, that just doesn't work....)

The biggest tip I have for your shop is YOU NEED MORE LISTINGS, MORE VARIETY! (I need more listings in my shop too....) You don't even have the whole alphabet here, and what about making themed pins, like for teachers or nurses or somethings like that? What else can you do with this? Something Etsy buyers love is things that are customizable, many of the top jewelry sellers on there make simple a** everyday s**t that uses metal stamping to easily customize jewelry with names, initials, dates, phrases, ect