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How to Manage Your First Sale in Your Etsy Shop

I mean for sale. I don't know if they still send this out, but I thought this was super cute, like the they they send out like, Hey, congratulations. You're like a real seller now, and it's really, really great. So you know, you d like you're happy dancing you, and you kind of have to manage where that sale is going to go. So here is my suggestion on a little bit of a workflow for handling that sale. Um, go directly to your orders. Annual. It'll pop up, it will pop up your your order listing. And what I like to do is go directly to the receipt, because that's where all of your connections to that customer going to be. So this is the entire invoice form. This is the custom order details. This is where, um were either You will describe what it is that that the order is going to be about, or there also be a notes to cellar section, where they will describe what they need special for that for their order so you can converse eight directly with them by clicking on that button, and this will...

automatically be filled out for you so they'll know exactly what this conversation pertains to. And you can just add in your little you know, Thank you. And you're awesome. And I think you're the best thing ever. And here's what's gonna happen now. And in my conversations with my customers, I like to say, especially for my custom made things. I will say, you know, thank you very much for your order to confirm. And I list out all of the details in a very clear list. This is the size. This is the sentiment. This is the finish you wanted. This is how fast we're gonna ship it. And I say, if all of that looks great, then I'll be in the studio whenever I'm gonna be in the studio and I'm going Teoh plan on shipping it on this day or next week, Something like that. As a customer, that's everything I need to know. I didn't want to know. Did you get it? Do you get my order? Does it mean something to you? And are you going to take care of it for me? So I really recommend that you can communicate with your buyers in this way just to confirm that their money got to the right place. Okay, you can print out your invoices. I like to include the invoice in the box there. Many times when I bought things on Etc. And, um, it just kind of comes with a piece of tissue paper and some shoved in it, and it's a little disappointing. You know, I I want a little more business sense around it. I think so. If you include your invoice, it will be very clear. This is what you ordered. You know, this is who it came from, and all of that stuff you can print out a gift receipt. So in that confirmation email, you can ask, you know, do you need a gift? Do you prefer a gift receipt? Or I can include your normally include my invoice in your order. So if this is going to be shipped directly to the recipient of the gift than they might want to specify a gift receipt, if you accept direct check out through etc. Then you get to print out labels directly from etc. Yea, I know you don't have to go to U S, P s or wherever, um, to print out your label. Um, it's super easy to do it. There is a little section there that you can. It's just a little message. I mean, I really like that the SC shops are set up for really actively communicating with your customer s. So this message is all about Hey, you're shipping is ready. Your order is ready. It's being shipped right now. Um, this is this is how long it's going to take all of that really good stuff and you get to print out. It's just right on your printer. Um, you can You can use those little sticky labels if you want to buy some of those sticky labels. Or you could just use regular printer paper and tape it right onto the box. Um, super, Super easy. I really like shipping. And then finally packaging your shipment, Um, again, I've when I've gotten some pieces on Etsy and I've had kind of disappointing presentations at a No, there's there's something about it, you know, this personal thing that we have between being a maker and somebody purchasing that, you know, specific item from us, that makes it a little more personal. So I want Teoh kind of want to see something with a little more effort especially, You know, you're expecting some crafty handmade stuff, right? So, um, just a little bit, you know, it doesn't have to be much. It could be. It could be a box. It could be a tag. It could be, you know, just neatly wrapping the tissue paper around it, a little ribbon on it. You know something? You know, something to be made by hand. And this person I found on Flicker I love buying things from Etsy. They always come in such pretty packaging, you know? So it's like it's a really good idea to sort of uphold that that sort of aesthetic, this handmade carrying personal one on one aesthetic can. Oh, I think that's actually how did that happen? Okay, so So really, it's there's a lot. There's definitely a lot going into setting up in Etsy shop and making sure that you have all of the information on there. But just take it one piece at a time when chunk at a time, and you don't have to have it all together before you open your shop. You really, really don't, um, it's okay to start a shop with two listings like Ariel did. We were talking on break. You had two listings and you sold your 1st 1 And yeah, I was I was shocked. I just kind of I had to come. I had shown my stuff to some people and they said, Oh, just open your store like, Why not? And I was like, Why don't we have to? And they're like, just do it So I mean, so I do have an Etsy store, but I have not done most of the things that you talked about today. So I'm proof positive. You can, like, set up your store in the fastest, worst way possible and not fill out any of the information. And somebody might buy your stuff in two days. Definitely happen. I mean again, it's not guaranteed, but it's definitely, you know, you know, they say that's it's better to do it than to think about doing it, you know? So just just do it one step at a time, and we'll, you know, we'll get through it. So we have lots time for questions, questions thing. So what's the best way to encourage customers to leave reviews. I want to contact customers, follow ups about their purchase, but I'm not sure how long toe wait before contacting them. Yeah. Yeah, that's a tricky one. Um, as a customer myself, I I don't really like it when somebody asks me specifically to leave them a review. Um, I want my reviews to be kind of organic, kind of from the cellar. They're so happy with what? The service they receive, the product they got from me that they're just compelled to to leave leaves and feedback. Um, you can maybe in your confirmation email or in your follow up email to them Just say, you know, thank you very much. I will, actually, you know, I'll be honest. I have a couple times said when the transaction went really, really well and I knew they were gonna leave Good feedback. I would say, Um, you know, hey, so thank you so much. You were awesome toe work with no pressure, absolutely no pressure. But if you want to leave a review, that would help me out a lot. But really no pressure. It's OK if you don't want to do it, and sometimes they will. Sometimes they won't. But just making sure that they know that you're not like, Hey, I'm gonna bug you every week if you don't do it, you know, because yeah, that's not cool either. Yeah. Awesome. Um, question about photography and selling photography do have to put so I'll just read the question. If you have photography that's printed on canvas or other mediums, you have to post to the printer. Is, um, the manufacturer application that you have through through your shop. You have to fill that out. Um, and what it is is you're telling, etc. The specific person who is doing the job for you. But no one else is going to know the specific information. They will just say, um, printing house located in wherever. Something like that would be very, very general. So, you know, if you have, like, a trade secret kind of place that you that you work with, um, you know, don't worry about the world finding out about it. They just need to know that you're not literally sitting there printing out canvases at home because that's kind of the expectation with it with the exclusively handmade things. So, um, yeah, So you have to You have to fill it out. But, you know, it's just information. Yeah, Yeah. We're showing the thing with the photo And like, the slider bar to zoom in and out to, like, sort of Is that just for the thumbnail? It's just for the first picture. Click on the picture to, like, Enlarge. It will show the whole picture. That's thank you. Thank you for asking that. Very cool. Like you could kind of, like, zoom it in for the thumbnail and then, yeah, because creatures are very small. So, you know, you can have, like, a wonderfully kind of composed photo, but to zoom in on the actual component that's gonna make them click on it. That's really, really helpful. And it does only happen for that first thumbnail, and when they open it, it will have the full picture. Yeah. Thank you. Awesome. Um, so this question got 11 votes. Announcing where you will be at a craft show is also forbidden question marks. So can you. So you mentioned that already? Yeah. You can say what craft shows you're gonna be at. Yeah, that's he actually has a system in place for that. So earlier in the segments there was a section where you can check a box that says List the shows that you're going to be at Ondo when you have that checked You can actually, Yeah, I don't I don't have a slide of it. But there there is a place Click around on all the links again on your admin page and you'll find it probably in the tabs or something. Um, of places that you can announce where your next craft show is going to be and etc. Actually has a separate page that lists all of the craft shows in a particular area. So, you know, like, I actually did a search for Seattle area and they were, like, 10 events that were happening like today, and I thought, Oh, okay. I'm gonna go to my class instead. But, yeah, it's really it's really a great thing. So, um yeah, and you know, that kind of relates to the idea of what about what happens to your inventory when you're at a show and etc. Has an Etsy reader. Now it's a credit card reader. How like a square, You know, PayPal reader. And you can use that at a show and it will automatically take that listing off of your shop when you sell it in person. Yeah, it's really very cool. So if you do a lot of shows and you have a lot of inventory that would be shown at both places, you know you might want to check into the etc reader. Um, otherwise you want Teoh. It's called deactivating. Deactivate your listing of the pieces that you're going to take out of your shop and have at your physical show. That way, you don't run the risk of selling something online while you're at the show and risk disappointing somebody. So we're trying to take it off real time as you sell stuff. Yeah, sometimes there isn't time. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, ideally, you'll be really busy in your boots so you won't have time to kind of dink around and you're etc App. Um but yeah, awesome. So why etc over Instagram? I see a lot of crafters selling their creations on instagram now Well etc. Is kind of a shop. It's a it's a virtual storefront within the larger building of etc. Of course, but it's it's a virtual storefront, and it has the ability to showcase your work in context. And you know, Instagram is great for promoting that. It's great for promoting your individual things, Um and honestly, if if Instagram works for you and the the way that you want to build your business, totally go for it like there's no nobody that says you have to have a Nazi shop, you know? I mean, I definitely wouldn't tell you that, because having an Etsy shop again, it's a lot of work, and it is. It's a small business. It is something that, you know you really have to spend a lot of time doing. So you know, if selling things on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or something like that really, really works for the way that your business is structured right now, focus on that. I mean, focus on what works. Really? Yeah, awesome. So we're getting a couple questions about whether or not you need a business license to sell stuff on etc. And how to go about getting a business license. And that's obviously different in different states, right? But yeah, you need a business license to sell on Etsy and have Okay, what's your recommended? Technically, you don't need a business license to start an Etsy shop, because etc to has no responsibility over how you're running your business. However, it is really, really smart to have a business license for many reasons. Um, one. If you have a license, you're going to take your business a lot more seriously because you actually applied for it and it's on a list somewhere. And so you're going to take the steps to make this a real business. Also, if you have a business license, you can get a reseller permit through your state, and you can buy your materials at wholesale prices, which are normally ah, third to 1/2 off of the regular retail that you would get in any store so you can buy your supplies in in quantity at a lower price. Therefore, making your profit margin much, much larger. Um, and really, it's It's just really it's just good business sense, you know, again, I want to just impress again. This is a small business, and it's something that, um, that you are going to grow with over time. And, you know, I I've consulted with a lot of people who kind of didn't have their license at first, and then they end up having to scramble to get all of their licensing in place because they have this opportunity to do a really big craft show. But they require, say, the business licenses and, you know, so they have to kind of scramble. So, you know, in most cases, I think that most states the business license are free or low cost anyway. So, um, you know, I think it's worth it to definitely check it out. And I think every state has, you know, a licensing kind of information on the site. So you can It's pretty easily found. Yeah, awesome. Eso Can you collect the customers email so that you can market to them via you're email campaigns? Um, when you get an order, you do have their direct email address. Um, you want to be careful about spam, you know, it's that. I mean, I think that's what the concern is here. But you can collect the emails into a list, and you can say have a link that goes toe a form, um, like on male chimp or something. And they can fill it out to accept information from your shop. If they choose to, I would I wouldn't necessarily automatically put them on a list, cause that's kind of not good practice, but definitely give them the opportunity to do it if you want, so you can convert them, you know, with a follow up saying, you know, Hey, it was great working with you. Please click here and, um, join my mailing list and I'll send you more information about sales and more new stuff. Yeah, Yeah, very cool. So I want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to see your social media stuff. Um, so talk about that. Yeah. So on my creative arts consulting site, there's a There's a link to hehe newsletter on eso. If you sign up for that, I'm putting together a bunch of the material and lists and links and information that I couldn't fit into the presentation today. So if you sign it for that, I'll send you a link to get that information online. You can follow me on Facebook, instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and also on etc. At. I'm a kid stuff. I also have a personal blawg. I'm a key stuff dot com that they can read, too, if they want Teoh