Wednesday 22 June 2011

A strategy to increase Etsy views

I said in my most recent blog that I was going to come up with a strategy to try and increase my views in the US; as given that 70% of people using Etsy are from the US and Canada it was reasonable to think that views from there should well exceed those that my shop gets from the UK.

I decided to take a 4 pronged approach to this.

The 1st approach was targeted at the US and Canada market. I knew that views on items increased dramatically when an item was renewed and so I decided that I needed to pick a prime time for renewing my items. A time when lots of people from the US and Canada would be using Etsy. I did a bit of research and found out that 80% of the US and Canada people were from eastern and central areas  (this equates to 57% of Etsy).  It is thought that in general people browse Etsy mostly in the evenings  from early evening to midnight , peaking between 8:00pm and 10:00pm. Those people that are on a mission to buy will do this mid morning between 9:00am and 1:00pm.  Further  research told me that eastern and central US  were 5 and 6 hours behind UK time. So if I could coordinate some listings around their peak time of browsing and shopping then in theory  I should have some wonderful viewing stats. 

I spent a week from the 8th June re-listing 3 items during the late evenings between 10:00pm and 1:00am, hitting US and Canada from early evening onwards.  I can honestly report that I did NOT see the usually increase in views after I re-listed any item. It was like my new listings were invisible to the US and Canada market. I soon gave up on this.

My 2nd approach was to try and get to the bottom of why my re-listed items seem to not exist in the US and Canada. I have been involved in numerous forum threads on Etsy trying to understand this. I’m hoping this strategy of getting involved and trying to get Etsy to understand that their software changes might be causing this, will pay off. 

My 3rd approach was targeted at everyone that uses Etsy. I decided that my photographs were the key thing for people to decide whether they even liked my item never mind wanted to buy it.  I watched Etsy videos on how to take good photos and the kind of photos that need to be included on each listing. I’m not saying that I have followed their advice to the letter but I’m sure my photographs have improved. I have purchased a mannequin to display my scarves and I have taken “situation” photographs to try and show the accessory off.  In a few weeks time I plan to use my daughters rented property to display some of my homeware items. Her house is full of white walls , dark wooden floors and great big beams , ideal for photo shoots.


And here is some other useful info





 Here are some of my before and after photo's. Look how the scraves look llike scarves now.





And then some of my "situation" photos - I call them "abandonment"






My 4th approach was to somehow get UK people to know about Etsy , come to the site and buy from us.  More of that in my next blog posting.

5 comments:

  1. Keep on truckin' Fem!

    Carrie

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  2. Great research! I have also thought about listing during midnight and even waking up at 2-4 a.m. to do it. Now I don't know if I bother.. Thanks for sharing :)

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  3. Oh, and I see a nice improvement in pictures. You had good ones before, but the mannequin shows the scarfs so much better. Good job!

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  4. Good insight there. Really look forward to next post as its a flippin mystery to me where all thos buyers are lurking.

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