Selling One-of-a-Kinds in Today’s Retail Market: What are our Options?

For those of us that cannot wean ourselves from the love of making artisan crafts by hand, the constant dilemna is: How to market effectively and maybe…just maybe, have the chance of actually making a small profit through our businesses. Having gone the Craft Show, Home Show, Wholesale and Online Route, I cannot say I have the definitive answer, as it is different for everyone depending on how labor intensive your work is, how important it is that you are there to describe your process, and whether or not you have an item that can be mass produced in quantity or must be created as either one-of-a- kind or in small batches. But I have learned a lot in the 15 years I’ve been doing this since I left my position as a full time Art Teacher and set up a Ceramic Studio in my home. And I believe in Sharing because we’re not in competition, though it’s easy to fall into that trap. Really, We’re on the HVNY Etsy Team to encourage and enhance each others work and lives.

My business is making one-of-a-kind pieces of handmade ceramic and fused glass jewelry, and it is a multi-step process with creating pendant from raw clay, two eight hour firings, composing the necklace or bracelet or ring into a unique design. I plan to chronicle some of my ongoing marketing techniques, including successes and failures, and in so doing, hopefully shorten the learning curve for others. Currently, I have a Website, an Etsy site, I coordinate Craft Shows for others, (though am moving away from doing many myself), sell in some consignment boutiques, wholesale to Galleries and Crafts Shows and sell to a limited number of stores in the large Whole Food chain (in their Whole Body Depts.).

I guess what people might be most interested in right off the bat is how I got into Whole Foods as a vendor, which was an interesting process. I used to go fairly regularly to the Whole Foods in Ridgewood, NJ (where I lived until I moved up here to my little slice of Heaven in Warwick). I walked into their Whole Body Dept. one day when I was making a delivery to a consignment Gallery nearby. And of course, I was wearing one of my necklaces, which is always my most successful door to opening a dialogue about my business. I recognized the woman at the register and struck up a conversation.

Well, about 5 minutes into the convo, she commented that she loved the necklace I was wearing, and called over the Team Manager to look at it. The Team Mgr, in turn, said she thought the buyer would love the style and I made an appointment to meet with David. And I was IN. I said, “You mean I’m IN?” " Oh…you’re in", he said. Scads of paperwork, insurance forms, and getting UPC Codes later, I was selling at Whole Foods. Next, I approached another couple of stores in the chain who were eager to try out the line as well. And basically, that’s how it happened. So, the pros and cons.

The biggest PRO is the PR value of saying that you sell to Whole Foods, which of course, most people have heard of. Also, a lot of people with money shop there, and you never know WHO might walk in and discover your line, so to speak. It definitely inspired me to keep on my toes, bringing new designs all the time to keep the buyers interested. And now the CONS, of which there are many. Since my pieces are on-of-a-kind, I need to bring them to each store so that they can hand select. I have offered to email pics or send a “Pick Box” which I’ve done with other stores, but so far, No Go. I also need to sell my work to them at 50% of their Retail Price. Because my pieces are so labor intensive, and because I don’t like to move above the $50-$55 retail price, I end up with little or no profit once travel time, gas, time spent making the pieces, and materials are factored in. So, unless you can really rack them out, and have a great, easy to stock “Point of Purchase” display, it is very difficult to make any money, in selling handcrafted and “made with love” items to larger Chain Stores. Again, it’s nice to put in your Resume, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity, but for the type of product I market…definitely not a money maker. More of my musings to ponder next week….

Roberta Green from RGClay Creations

ETSY Success Book Review

I am a sucker for a $2.99 Kindle self-help book.

I do have a bunch of them loaded in my kindle.

But this latest one:

 

has a ton of helpful content from sellers that 

have sales in excess of thousands of dollars.

One artist who I have admired and been inspired by had 

a few very simple sentences to offer as advice.

One that intrigued me was something like this:

'Re-list often, even 2 to 3 times a day, if I don't re-list

I don't have any sales.'

This artist, I thought, had a ETSY store that was magically

self sufficient. But now that my attention was drawn to it, I realize that 

she does re-list very often.

So I followed her advice this week and re-listed at least once

every day. I did have two orders this week, which for me

is  a lot. I do have better sales at craft fairs but am working to increase my ETSY 

sales. I will give this another week to see if it really can help.

The increase in business should off set the increase in fees...hopefully :)

There is a lot of helpful information here from some very successful sellers.
I know that with all the changes that have taken place on ETSY,
each and every sale is hard earned.

I did follow through with the second week of increased re-listing
but did not have the same results.
However traffic has increased and theoretically that should
result in increased sales.....

The ETSY mystery to be continued.......

Susan - Digilio Designs

Hudson Valley Etsy Treasuries

Treasuries are a great way to check out many of our items at once. See more of this month's Etsy treasuries from Hudson Valley Etsy here: May Hudson Valley Etsy Treasuries

Creating Success from the Inside Out: Tracking Sales Goals

I hate selling.  There, I said it.  It's awkward for me, I'm shy, and basically a dork.  That's why the internet has always been my salvation.  I can sell AND hide behind a curtain of code in the process.  This has its advantages and disadvantages.

But I wasn't always like that.  My Catholic high school (rock stars at sales, by the way) had me going door to door to sell $25 daily raffle calendars.  They gave away really cool prizes (okay, Champion sweatshirts - yes, I'm dating myself) for meeting different levels of sales goals.  And you know what?  Man, did I hustle for those sweatshirts.  I was one of the top sellers.

 

The highly coveted trend of the 80s - The Champion sweatshirt 

Before that, I sold everything from beach towels to greeting cards.  Granted, I had the "cute little kid is at my door, how do I make her go away" thing going for me which tends to rack up sales.  But I believe that what really helped me be successful is the fact that I had a goal to meet (a prize) and I was willing to hustle for it, tucking away my shyness for the good of the goal.

I was pondering this the other day after reading an article about the importance of setting sales goals.  In comparison to the sales experiences of my more youthful days, it dawned on me that I'm not using a similar approach in my business.  I do track my sales very carefully, but I don't often look at the total (usually once a year when doing taxes) and I only have one lumpy goal for the year (and no prizes!).

I decided that I'm going to set a sales goal for each month and I'm going to write that in a spreadsheet.  As I make sales, I will deduct it from the goal and track my progress in real time.  I think this is going to be a good way for me to associate directly what I do every day with the outcome of meeting a tangible goal.

If you already do this, then I want to hear more about your sales goal awesomeness -  please share your experiences and wisdom in the comments below.

If not, join me!  Set a sales goal today.  Think about all the ways you can make that sales goal happen.  Even determine what your "prize" or reward to yourself  will be upon meeting your goal.

If you happen to be a jewelry designer, Flourish and Thrive Academy is going to start a free "20 Sales in 20 Days Challenge" today (9/30).  Acclaimed jewelry designer Tracy Matthews and her marketing guru partner Robin Kramer are going to share a multitude of ideas/tips/tricks for getting more sales.  You can go here to join:  Flourish andThrive: 20 Sales in 20 Days Challenge

Happy Selling!