So. It's been a good 3 weeks since I've been inside a Joann's or Michael's. Usually, I'm in those places one to two times a week for this and that.
Last night I get a special request from a customer, but I don't have the finding they need (a very large metal ring), so I head to Joann's after work knowing they had many styles of plain Jane key chains, clasps, etc. What do I find? I find a jewelry 'findings' department that has been completely ransacked and one entire wall of an aisle is nothing but pre-made jewelry!
Say what? Apparently this new findings/jewelry maker called "hildie & jo" is now giving Blue Moon a run for their money. The real shocker, though, is that they are peddling pre-made items. Hair bands, bracelets, rings, necklaces, you name it. Like they are some Forever 21 store!
Now, I know there are a lot of crafts people who like using the pre-made pendants and what-not, and that is perfectly fine. But, finished pre-made jewelry and hair decorations in a store where they are supposed to be selling you the items so that you can make your own? What the heck Joann's? To make matters worse, the bags of earring posts, ear wires, butterfly backs for posts, key chains, pin/brooch backs, head pins, are all gone. Yes, they do still have the Blue Moon selection of these, but not the Joann's brand of these items, which I relied on for some of my items and which was sold in larger quantities. :(
I also noticed hildie & jo being mixed into the Blue Moon section. So, if you have some findings that you always get made by Blue Moon, run, don't walk to your local Joann's and stock up while you still can! Blue Moon will probably disappear next.
Look, I still whine about the loss of the Plaid brand of jewelry findings, which were superior to what you are offered nowadays...
And this on top of them almost completely phasing out all of their Swarovski crystals. Oh, that reminds me, the only Swarovski crystals they still had were white, light siam, black, and light blue in the flatbacks and still a great selection of biconal crystals. Well, guess what? Those are gone now too! Again, what in the heck are you thinking Joann's?????
I don't believe there is much left at Joanns' for me. Maybe some of the beads and some wire, but that is all there is.
In swoops Michael's, to deliver a knock-out punch to Joann's. Not only does Michael's still sell all of the jewelry findings, but they recently increased their bead section. And, they have greatly expanded their offerings in the Swarovski crystal department. I went gaga there about six weeks ago dropping nearly $200 on all of their newest offerings. Then, today, I take a gander and they have added even more! Super-tiny sets of crystals in the 105 quantity range. These are used for nail art, but I like using them on my shrinky dink creations.
So, yeah, Michael's it is for me.
Monday, August 21, 2017
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Selling Your Masterpieces Online
Where to begin? Today there are so many different places for a maker to sell their wares. I did not go 'live' until almost three years ago. Up until that time, I had stuck to selling to people I knew or acquaintances or theirs. This pretty much equaled making a few bucks here and there...sometimes.
Of course my first online shop was on Etsy. My store, Faux Show Art, opened in September 2014. In the first 48 hours, I made a sale! I was hooked! and thus began my addiction to selling my stuff online! This also meant having very little personal time outside of work because all I did was design, make and market my items. Seriously, even today, I spend as much time out of work on my tiny side-business as I do at my regular day job! For me, it's not just the money as I don't depend on sales to pay my bills. It's about the enjoyment of making and spending time at a hobby I love.
If you are planning on selling whatever you create online, you need to have a plan. There are zillions of places you can build a store, zillions of places to get advice, and zillions of places that will charge you money for both. But it doesn't have to be that way. It pays to shop around, start small, and map out your course. Read and learn all you can about social media and marketing through it.
Most online selling venues offer a free 14 day trial period. Use these 14 days to their fullest ! Remember though, if you sign up, be prepared to dig in and really give them a try. I learned the hard way by signing up for a few only to sit back and let the trial period expire. Take notes on your experience at each, and then decide which one is the one for you.
If you are a seller who does not dabble in any computer intensive stuff, venues like Shopify and Volusion may not be the best answer. They do require that you be somewhat computer savvy. If you have a wordpress blog, you know what I'm talking about. You get a template, but you need to know enough to manipulate it and make additions and subtractions to tailor it to your needs. Sometimes you need to include applets and even lines of code into specific areas of your store's template. You also need to be able to build images for your store in the correct proportions in order to fill the image boxes, etc. For a person who is not familiar with it, it can be overwhelming and you can end up with a hot mess on your hands. These places DO offer help, but sometimes there is a price tag with it depending on how much help you need. Venues like Etsy, Aftcra and ArtFire are good for those who do not have tons of time or computer experience to get a store up and running. You can even go to places like Canva to set up a store banner for free and in the right proportions for your store.
The positive part of Etsy is the amount of referential help, and the little inside marketplace family feel to it. They are always adding new functionality and things to help you be a success, which I admire. The only drawback to these marketplaces, is you share the limelight with so many others. To be frank; I am a shrink plastic artist. It's my thing, I am absolutely addicted to it (can't imagine doing anything else I like as much). And I've done it for EVER! That being said, there are 1000's of other shrink plastic makers, the competition is fierce and sometimes ruthless, as I've learned. Also, they are ALL on Etsy, or Amazon, or ArtFire, vying for top spot and dying to be noticed and seen by buyers. Because of this, these marketplaces offer ad buys, either in Etsy or Google, that you can pay for to place ahead of others when buyers perform searches. This is how places like Etsy make a ton of extra money, and it can cost you dearly, especially if you are small-time, like me. Etsy even offers an outside storefront (your own domain name and address), that is connected to your Etsy store; it is called Etsy Pattern. In my opinion, it's kind of redundant and therefore, nonsense. However, since it's inception, they have made tweaks to it that make more sense. In the end, though, it costs a flat $15/month, my domain registry costs me $15/year, and it's just not different enough from my Etsy store. I have stuck with it for over a year and generated ONE sale. Yes, one sale. So for my annual output of $195, I made about $33. Not good.
This is what you get for paid ads within Etsy and Pattern:
I can pay from $1-$10/per day for in-Etsy ads. I can pay from $1-$10/day for Google Shop ads outside of Etsy on Google (although this is only offered if you have an Etsy Pattern site). You get to set your parameter of spending from $1/day to a maximum of $10/day. Now, these are charged to you by the number of 'clicks' you get. So, if on day one I got 8 clicks, the charge to me might be $0.79. The next day, if I only get 30 clicks, I might pay $3.00. You are shown, in Etsy stats, how much the clicks cost you and how much revenue was generated by those clicks. In truth, there have only been a couple of months where I've lost money on the in-Etsy ads. So it has paid off.
Wish I could say the same for Etsy Pattern.
Since Etsy has been my only online experience it is the only one I can talk about in depth. There have been lots of growing pains and many changes, some good, some bad. For me, Etsy lost a lot of their heart when they decided that it was okay for people to sell things manufactured by others. It completely did the opposite of what they were all about at their core when they first began. A marketplace for the handmade makers. Everything was handmade. Mass-produced 'handmade' sweatshop items were not welcome. Well, no more. Etsy has decided that their bottom line profit is more important and in doing so have completely alienated their base. Handmade crafters have left in droves.
Because of this I am out in the field, looking for other avenues apart from a sprawling marketplace where sadly, the small-time cottage-based hand-crafters are pitted against big business mass production. It kind of makes me wish I had taken the time to develop my own independent web-based shop a long time ago, free from any interference.
I'll finish by saying there is no perfect platform. There just isn't. What sets skyrocketing sales for one specialty, may have the opposite effect on another. It really is a game of trial and error. But there is one thing for sure.
NEVER put all of your eggs into one basket. Open your store in more than one venue, maybe even three.
Good luck!
Of course my first online shop was on Etsy. My store, Faux Show Art, opened in September 2014. In the first 48 hours, I made a sale! I was hooked! and thus began my addiction to selling my stuff online! This also meant having very little personal time outside of work because all I did was design, make and market my items. Seriously, even today, I spend as much time out of work on my tiny side-business as I do at my regular day job! For me, it's not just the money as I don't depend on sales to pay my bills. It's about the enjoyment of making and spending time at a hobby I love.
If you are planning on selling whatever you create online, you need to have a plan. There are zillions of places you can build a store, zillions of places to get advice, and zillions of places that will charge you money for both. But it doesn't have to be that way. It pays to shop around, start small, and map out your course. Read and learn all you can about social media and marketing through it.
Most online selling venues offer a free 14 day trial period. Use these 14 days to their fullest ! Remember though, if you sign up, be prepared to dig in and really give them a try. I learned the hard way by signing up for a few only to sit back and let the trial period expire. Take notes on your experience at each, and then decide which one is the one for you.
If you are a seller who does not dabble in any computer intensive stuff, venues like Shopify and Volusion may not be the best answer. They do require that you be somewhat computer savvy. If you have a wordpress blog, you know what I'm talking about. You get a template, but you need to know enough to manipulate it and make additions and subtractions to tailor it to your needs. Sometimes you need to include applets and even lines of code into specific areas of your store's template. You also need to be able to build images for your store in the correct proportions in order to fill the image boxes, etc. For a person who is not familiar with it, it can be overwhelming and you can end up with a hot mess on your hands. These places DO offer help, but sometimes there is a price tag with it depending on how much help you need. Venues like Etsy, Aftcra and ArtFire are good for those who do not have tons of time or computer experience to get a store up and running. You can even go to places like Canva to set up a store banner for free and in the right proportions for your store.
The positive part of Etsy is the amount of referential help, and the little inside marketplace family feel to it. They are always adding new functionality and things to help you be a success, which I admire. The only drawback to these marketplaces, is you share the limelight with so many others. To be frank; I am a shrink plastic artist. It's my thing, I am absolutely addicted to it (can't imagine doing anything else I like as much). And I've done it for EVER! That being said, there are 1000's of other shrink plastic makers, the competition is fierce and sometimes ruthless, as I've learned. Also, they are ALL on Etsy, or Amazon, or ArtFire, vying for top spot and dying to be noticed and seen by buyers. Because of this, these marketplaces offer ad buys, either in Etsy or Google, that you can pay for to place ahead of others when buyers perform searches. This is how places like Etsy make a ton of extra money, and it can cost you dearly, especially if you are small-time, like me. Etsy even offers an outside storefront (your own domain name and address), that is connected to your Etsy store; it is called Etsy Pattern. In my opinion, it's kind of redundant and therefore, nonsense. However, since it's inception, they have made tweaks to it that make more sense. In the end, though, it costs a flat $15/month, my domain registry costs me $15/year, and it's just not different enough from my Etsy store. I have stuck with it for over a year and generated ONE sale. Yes, one sale. So for my annual output of $195, I made about $33. Not good.
This is what you get for paid ads within Etsy and Pattern:
I can pay from $1-$10/per day for in-Etsy ads. I can pay from $1-$10/day for Google Shop ads outside of Etsy on Google (although this is only offered if you have an Etsy Pattern site). You get to set your parameter of spending from $1/day to a maximum of $10/day. Now, these are charged to you by the number of 'clicks' you get. So, if on day one I got 8 clicks, the charge to me might be $0.79. The next day, if I only get 30 clicks, I might pay $3.00. You are shown, in Etsy stats, how much the clicks cost you and how much revenue was generated by those clicks. In truth, there have only been a couple of months where I've lost money on the in-Etsy ads. So it has paid off.
Wish I could say the same for Etsy Pattern.
Since Etsy has been my only online experience it is the only one I can talk about in depth. There have been lots of growing pains and many changes, some good, some bad. For me, Etsy lost a lot of their heart when they decided that it was okay for people to sell things manufactured by others. It completely did the opposite of what they were all about at their core when they first began. A marketplace for the handmade makers. Everything was handmade. Mass-produced 'handmade' sweatshop items were not welcome. Well, no more. Etsy has decided that their bottom line profit is more important and in doing so have completely alienated their base. Handmade crafters have left in droves.
Because of this I am out in the field, looking for other avenues apart from a sprawling marketplace where sadly, the small-time cottage-based hand-crafters are pitted against big business mass production. It kind of makes me wish I had taken the time to develop my own independent web-based shop a long time ago, free from any interference.
I'll finish by saying there is no perfect platform. There just isn't. What sets skyrocketing sales for one specialty, may have the opposite effect on another. It really is a game of trial and error. But there is one thing for sure.
NEVER put all of your eggs into one basket. Open your store in more than one venue, maybe even three.
Good luck!
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