There’s a beauty to strangers that I can’t really explain. Don’t get me wrong, when your best customers are your best friends, it’s great to know they love your product just as much as you love your product and, as handmade entrepreneurs, that support means the world to us. When a customer is a complete stranger, however, there is this excitement that I find hard to put into words. I think the first customers are always that first circle of support, your family, your friends, your partners/significant others, and their families and friends. When it’s a stranger, there’s this feeling of it expanding, past your inner circle, even past your local area.
There’s nothing like finding out that a fairy house ornament is being sent across the country. Acorn Tops is now in PA! OH YEAH! And through an online source like etsy, it tends to save money. 20 cents per listing versus the money for travel, money for a place to stay, money for the booth fee and whatever other cost would go into a show in PA. That being said, online sales present something of a challenge.
First, is getting people to even look at your online store. You don’t have sales if you don’t have views. An online store means an online presence. Social media is an essential for views and while you might save on money, there is often a struggle between making the product to sell and keeping up active social media accounts. The old adage is right, time is money in this biz. This is not to say that keeping up active social media accounts is a waste of time. This is just to say it can be difficult to figure out how best to structure your time.
There’s nothing like finding out that a fairy house ornament is being sent across the country. Acorn Tops is now in PA! OH YEAH! And through an online source like etsy, it tends to save money. 20 cents per listing versus the money for travel, money for a place to stay, money for the booth fee and whatever other cost would go into a show in PA. That being said, online sales present something of a challenge.
First, is getting people to even look at your online store. You don’t have sales if you don’t have views. An online store means an online presence. Social media is an essential for views and while you might save on money, there is often a struggle between making the product to sell and keeping up active social media accounts. The old adage is right, time is money in this biz. This is not to say that keeping up active social media accounts is a waste of time. This is just to say it can be difficult to figure out how best to structure your time.
Social media accounts are important for your online store, not only because it’s a way for those strangers to find it, but also because here is where you get that social interaction that is so essential to the handmade small business. Online you do not get the same opportunities you would have in a booth at a boutique. You do not get the face-to-face interactions. Online you have a limited time window to grab their attention and often in 140 characters or less. On top of this, you are competing with the latest cat video and a picture of someone’s dinner and which Kardashian did what. You do not get the chance to greet a captive audience walking by your beautiful display and draw them in with a cleverly crafted spiel. It’s a very different way to sell. And while a picture is worth a thousand words, it’s never the same thing as seeing the product in person. Reading a description is not the same as being told the story behind it in person.
While an online presence is beneficial for your shop, it also opens up a whole new list of endless questions about this customer who is a stranger. Where did they hear about the store? How did they find the product? What made them want to buy that product? What was it that made them take that next step from a simple view or like or heart or reblog or repin to actually hit the buy button? These are questions that are sometimes answered when you meet face to face and yet are rarely answered when facing a computer screen. Where you get tears from customers for your work with charity and you receive stories and dive into discussions of favorite books and the why and when and how and what, often times the only thing you receive from online are numbers and statistics. While this can tell you which social media account gave you the most views, what most people seem drawn to, the words some people searched to find it, it does not answer most of the questions and it never tells you about that one stranger.
If this most recent sale of mine on Etsy is like the others, I might never know what the customer thinks of them. I will never know if they're going to hang on a tree or be given to a friend. Though, this time I asked for a review, which is a big accomplishment for me because I always feel so funny asking. We’ll see. I’ll be content with guessing. Because a stranger bought my product and Acorn Tops is now in PA and that is pretty freaking exciting!
While an online presence is beneficial for your shop, it also opens up a whole new list of endless questions about this customer who is a stranger. Where did they hear about the store? How did they find the product? What made them want to buy that product? What was it that made them take that next step from a simple view or like or heart or reblog or repin to actually hit the buy button? These are questions that are sometimes answered when you meet face to face and yet are rarely answered when facing a computer screen. Where you get tears from customers for your work with charity and you receive stories and dive into discussions of favorite books and the why and when and how and what, often times the only thing you receive from online are numbers and statistics. While this can tell you which social media account gave you the most views, what most people seem drawn to, the words some people searched to find it, it does not answer most of the questions and it never tells you about that one stranger.
If this most recent sale of mine on Etsy is like the others, I might never know what the customer thinks of them. I will never know if they're going to hang on a tree or be given to a friend. Though, this time I asked for a review, which is a big accomplishment for me because I always feel so funny asking. We’ll see. I’ll be content with guessing. Because a stranger bought my product and Acorn Tops is now in PA and that is pretty freaking exciting!
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