AdornmentCraft

Ellia of greenbean baby art has taken the time to write up her recommendations for finding success with an Etsy shop - and they’re very informative (thanks Ellia!). I posted briefly on this topic not long ago, but from the perspective of someone who has no experience, yet, selling there. I plan to open an Etsy shop once I get most of the work for my new books completed, which should be within a few months.

I still have my own stand-alone e-commerce site, which I will keep - but with Etsy’s seemingly reasonable fee structure, and its hightened degree of popularity over the past couple of years, I think it makes sense to open up there.

I’ll keep a log of my experiences, and we’ll see how it goes!

It’s that time of year again - Halstead Bead is preparing to accept entries for its business development grant competition for bridge jewelry. The winner will receive “$6,000 in cash and merchandise” and some nice free publicity.

Entrants are evaluated largely on their business skills, not their artistry alone. In addition to having a strong business plan, to participate you must:

• be a student or professional jewelry designer
• intend to pursue a full-time career in bridge jewelry design
• intend to develop a branded line of bridge jewelry for resale
• intent to sell your branded line at a regional or national level
• have started your bridge jewelry business after January 1, 2005
• not have ever been convicted of a felony, and
• be a United States citizen.

Applications must be postmarked between April 15, 2008, and June 17, 2008. The winner will be notified in August.

Click here to print out the full application and here to read the FAQs, which begin with a definition of bridge jewelry.

Rena Klingenberg of Home Jewelry Business Success Tips has announced the release of her latest ebook, Secrets of a Handcrafted Jewelry Shopping Service.

Her previous ebook, Ultimate Guide to Your Profitable Jewelry Booth, has been very popular with artisans who are trying to get started selling at shows - or just to improve their show experience. (You can read my review here).

The new ebook (115 pages) describes how you can break into the niche market of offering a jewelry shopping service. In her July 18 newsletter, Rena explains:

I first stumbled onto the “jewelry shopping service” approach to marketing my handcrafted jewelry a few years ago….

Personal shopping services are a growing trend in all kinds of market niches. Typically a personal shopper helps clients determine what they should buy, or finds the perfect gifts for customers to give. Personal shoppers tend to specialize in a particular area of expertise, where they know a certain market and its suppliers inside and out.

Here’s why I think this approach sounds really interesting. If you’re a serious jewelry artisan/businessperson already, then you know the value of your skills and knowledge - but it can be difficult to effectively communicate that value to potential customers, especially retail customers.

If you transform your business into something offering a service like this, customers can see, understand, and experience what you have to offer. They’re actually hiring you, personally, to help them.

This reminds me of the idea of having a personal stylist (which I think would be very cool). Celebrities with lots of money hire stylists to help them define their look - to find them clothing and accessories, help them decide what to do with their hair, etc.

There’s something about it that seems really luxurious. If you can offer a little “bite” of similar services to customers . . . . it sounds kind of enticing, doesn’t it?

I haven’t read the new ebook, but if you have, consider posting a comment on what you think of it - and whether you plan to try this approach.

If you don’t have a copy but would like one, be aware that Rena is offering a special bonus to everyone who picks it up by July 30 (this coming Monday). She describes it as a 10-page report on creating successful marketing brochures for your jewelry shopping business, to keep you from having to come up with some entirely from scratch.

The ebook is available for purchase and download here for $29.00.

This has been an ongoing topic of discussion among jewelry artisans since the inception of the increasingly-popular Etsy.com, where anyone can set up an ecommerce shop and offer their handmade wares for sale online.

When you visit the Etsy home page, you’ll immediately notice that there are some high-quality, very artistic items listed there (see “Hand-picked items”.) There are also many lower-quality, “novice” level items, though most of them have very low asking prices.

As usual, the Jewelry category is the most saturated of them all. This means more than increased “competition” in the strict sense. It also means that your jewelry listings can be lost in the shuffle more easily (or diluted), resulting in less exposure.

Overall, it seems that Etsy is worthwhile for many jewelry crafters, although it’s certainly no panacea. I do plan to set up a storefront there myself . . . if time ever permits! In the meantime, here are summaries of some of the feedback I’ve received about Etsy from various sources over the past year.

• The listing fees and sales commissions are refreshingly affordable, and the integration with PayPal makes it easy to accept payments.

• Some artists have acquired new wholesale accounts from buyers who found them on Etsy, but many more have not.

• Very few jewelry artists report “high” sales volume using Etsy for their jewelry, although some have success selling “supplies” there (like beads and findings).

• The only reliable way to drive traffic to your Etsy site is through self-promotion; merely having an Etsy storefront typically is not enough.

• For some artists, most or all of their Etsy customers are other Etsy sellers.

• Sellers who participate in the Etsy “community” through its forums usually have more sales (because of their exposure to other sellers who are also customers); but in recent months, negative and unprofessional conduct in some of the forums has driven members away.

• Etsy shops seems to be doing relatively well with their Google rankings.

I’ll post on this topic again as I learn more about the Etsy experience for jewelry crafters. In the meantime, I hope these thoughts help you decide whether it might be right for you.

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