Craft Sales are tricky beasts.
They are difficult to find, often are already full of jewelry vendors, and are… weirdly unsuccessful. I attended one last week, (yay!) a month ago(!) and then didn’t break even. (boo!) I was very excited to split my table between my jewelry and GelMoment display, but… didn’t quite win people over that way, either. Honestly, craft sales are a tough nut to crack!
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My dear readers, you deserve an apology. I have come here a dozen times to write, but hadn’t the energy… in the end I hadn’t realize quite how much time had passed. Nothing to do now but make up for it!
I didn’t expect to find more craft sales this season, but I lucked into a fantastic opportunity this weekend. It’s a smaller(?) venue at the St Boniface Museum. While there appears to be a lot happening, (such as Santa and wine tasting? :D) there are only 15 vendor tables at the event, meaning not a lot of competition, I hope! When I say I lucked into it, I honestly mean such. I wasn’t able to get my application together quickly, and let my anxiety get the best of me, assuming it would be rejected for my tardiness. They contacted me Friday evening to see if I was still interested as they had empty tables! Wow!
Fingers crossed I can be greedy enough for two tables? The vendor fee was nominal, and I’m hoping I can have a second display table for artwork. Crafters only, meaning I can’t advertise for GelMoment, but I am very fine with that. ::grins::
Will have to work hard this week to have artwork available!
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What about selling on Etsy?
Etsy decided to entice Canadian sellers with 50 free holiday listings. I wasn’t able to fully utilize them (because I misread the fine print), but I did re-list 25Â items, and tried out their new sale feature. (Spend $35CAN+ for 15% off [here], wink wink)
Listing with Etsy reminds me of a slot machine; you keep plugging in quarters until you run out of change. Whether the fault lay in not listing often enough, or my photos that weren’t quite good enough… I cannot say, but I was not a popular Etsy store, and Etsy will actually punish you for inactivity (few new listings, no sales), by making your items harder to see, which becomes a vicious cycle in a crowded (jewelry) market. As such, I have mixed feelings, knowing that Etsy will require more effort from me, yet I don’t have the mental energy to deal with it at this moment. (Listing is the hardest part of being your own boss!)
Still, the free listing offer helped me get into the mindset of creating more items, even if most have not been listed to date. The bracelets I’ve posted on my personal Facebook page actually had some love and commentary from friends, which was heartening. ::beams:: I wish I knew what trick was needed from strangers, haha. I actually had a photo of wine charms seen 900 times(!) and yet… didn’t attract a single new follower?
Pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself ::grins::
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Why aren’t you listing here?
That is a very good question, and I suppose the honest answer is to rip up my list of excuses and fix that.
I am having some issues with WooCommerce and don’t have the budget to use any paid options like Shopify or Ecwid. Ecwid offers a literal handful of listings at no cost to test it out, but I can’t decide what items would maximize this advantage? Realistically I should pick a few things and just go with it.
The notion of “passive income” keeps batting its baby blues at me, and all the self-help advice I dig up to help me become a better saleswoman keeps mainly shoving me in that direction. I participated in one workshop that helped clarify a few ideas, and… I am excited to move forward and offer my spin on dice jewelry. (See what I did there? ;) ) I have ordered the supplies… the hard part is waiting for them to get sorted through Canada Post! Due to the holiday season, I don’t expect to see my items before late January or early February. Much of the 6-8 week wait for items from China is due to the backlog of processing items at customs, and the holiday season exacerbates it, unfortunately. Gives me time to perfect how to pitch it? My friend has a lead on a shop I might be able to list at :D
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Last, but not least… Thursday is my birthday!
Dairy Queen ice cream cupcakes are in my future ;)
