Friday, October 28, 2016

Shop updates - are you missing out?

Etsy's Shop Updates have been around since the end of 2015. How have they worked for you?
It seems that a lot of sellers don’t take full advantage of this great tool. Do many still lack mobile devices? Or is it because sellers don’t see the point? 
NYC skyline golden sunrise

 Why should we do shop updates?

Shop updates in my mind take the place of treasuries. (Admittedly, they are not as much fun.) Shop updates appear on the front page, increasing the exposure of our shop. We can upload photos of our items and other associated pictures and market our shop. It's a golden opportunity to show our creativity, and make a connection with the followers of our shop. 
Shop Updates appear on our Home Page
Shop Updates can be viewed in two prominent spots: 

1. On our Home Page. 
2. Next to our About Page.

Between our reviews and About Page.
Brass Bowl grasshopper photo bombThey represent our shop, our brand. Shop Updates can build trust as to the authenticity or our shop, our love for vintage, our seriousness as a vintage seller.
We all have the opportunity to tell our shop’s story on a day-by-day basis. Isn’t that better than just once? At the same time, we can share our Shop Updates on some social media channels. It is a mini-blog, a form of shop promotion.
You will see shop updates from a shop if you:
Trinket dish in grass with flower petals1.      Favorited the shop.
2.      Favorited an item from the shop.
3.      Bought something from the shop.
4.      Own the shop.
If you're at all active browsing on Etsy, you will have updates coming through your feed. If you don't like a particular shop's updates, just shut them off (three little dots in one corner).

In my shop, I notice that featured items have a higher rate of selling. Other sellers feel the same. Perhaps our shops get a little bump up when we post. Or perhaps it is just the extra exposure our item receives.

How to post an update

You must have a mobile device that runs on iOS or Android. The alternative is to load an Android emulator on your PC (something like BlueStacks).
1.      Open "Sell on Etsy" app on your smartphone or tablet.
2.      Select "Shop Updates" in the menu (top left corner).
3.      Push the blue bar that appears across the bottom.
4.      “Take photo” or “choose existing photo.”
5.      Pinch and zoom. You can tweak your photo. (You will want to do any major editing before this step.) Select “next” in the top right corner.
6.      Tap the photo is the spot where you would like the orange Etsy tag to show.
7.      Select the item from your shop that you wish to promote. (Occasionally there are issues with this step. I have had to delete and reload the Sell On Etsy app a few times because this step failed to work.)
8.      Adjust the tag placement if necessary.
9.      Type a sentence or two that addresses “What is happening in this photo?” Be brief and upbeat.
10.   Push the blue bar, “Share on Etsy” which publishes it.
11.   A screen gives you the option to share your post on social media pages (Facebook, email, SMS and "Copy"). 
It's all done. Wasn’t that quick and easy?

Shop Update Visibility
Shop Updates show up on your feed from shops you have favorited or bought from. They are also part of our shop’s front page. Shop Updates are positioned between your reviews and About Page.
On your feed, you can hide certain updates, or all updates from a certain shop. (I do that if a shop just posts the same pic of their item that is on the listing or I don’t like their stuff, or if they just post too many updates in a row.) Look for three dots on the bottom right corner of the update you want to hide.

Ideas for Updates
Etsy is a venue designed for creative enterprises. It can seem daunting to come up with ideas for vintage shops. See dozens of ideas for vintage sellers here

How Often?

screenshot of view sources within Etsy
Etsy Traffic (right column)
Some sellers post updates rarely, less than once per month. How often do you want to appear in the feed of interested shoppers? I’ve seen a shop post four updates right in a row (Too annoying. I just deleted it.)
Some shop owners object to seeing their own updates in their feed. However, Etsy is letting us see how our updates fit into the rhythm of the feed. How often does your Shop Update feed refresh? I’ve read that once every 2-3 days is a goal to try. I actually aim for once per day, but sometimes miss.
screenshot of selling patterns
Shop Overview Dashboard. Look for patterns.
It may seem like common sense, but I recommend placing your Etsy tag as close to the item as possible or even on it. We wouldn’t want our featured item to be removed from the photo during any cropping.

Hashtags

Using hashtags in our shop updates may improve our post if we plan to publish it across certain social media channels.


Edit or delete later


Sometimes it is necessary to edit or delete a shop update after posting it. To do that, open the Sell on Etsy app. Select the post. Your options appear when you tap the three dots in the top right corner display: delete, edit caption, move tag or share.

Stats

Shop update stats show up in two places:
2. Shop overview dashboard. Hold your cursor over days/months(/even hours). Below the chart it will tell you how many shop updates within that period.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Stats 9 - How Etsy counts social media

Tumblr Twitter Instagram Facebook

This post is an effort to clear up a cloudy area of Etsy's stats. How are seller stats counted when traffic comes into our Etsy shop via social media?

On Etsy, social media use can be counted in two ways:


  • The exact social media. (These would be Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and likely others.)
Let's say that someone uses the web browser version of Instagram. If they click through to your shop, then it will show as traffic from Instagram.com.

On the other hand, perhaps they use the Instagram app. If they click through to view your shop in a browser or the Etsy app, then it shows more generically, as "direct traffic." That’s because the apps can't pass click-through referral data from one app to another.

From Etsy Admin: similarly, “a direct traffic shop stat can occur when clicking a link from a mobile social media app like Facebook or Twitter. Phone apps often do not pass referrer information. Additionally, this can also occur when going to a non-secure (http) site from a link on a secure (https) site, as the secure site won’t pass a referrer to the non-secure site. For instance, if someone clicks a link on example.com to go to example2.com, the analytics for example2.com will show the session as direct. Etsy links are generally https.”

“If you’d like to track all of the clicks from your social posts, I would suggest using a link shortener like bitly (bitly.com) to shorten links to your listings. This way, you’ll be able to look up those numbers at a later date with more clarity. Hope that helps! – Jessica”


I use shortened links from https://goo.gl/ in my blog posts so I can track any traffic better. It seems to work well. It tells you how many times the unique link has been used, which is nice.

Is it brighter?


I hope you have enjoyed delving into Etsy's stats. Stay tuned for more posts on how to better sell on Etsy.

Monday, October 24, 2016

Stats 8 - Why isn't my item selling?

Why isn't my item selling? My shop feels stagnant! Have you ever felt that way?

A very basic analysis of our stats can help. Let's use this powerful tool from Etsy to improve our poorest performing listings.

Etsy listing issues? Stats to the rescue!


Scroll down until you’re looking at a listing with a very small amount of traffic. Click on it to open a Listing Page View that offers a breakdown of traffic for that specific listing. Here's how to do that.

Stats to the Rescue!
Ask yourself the following questions about the listing:

1. Is the first photo of high quality?

2. Does it have a powerful title? Be sure it has keywords and phrases that buyers will use when searching. Keep the most important search terms at the beginning of the listing to maximize their importance in search.

3. Am I making the most of my tags? Use all 13 tag slots. Use a blend of multiple-word phrases repeated from your title and description. Use terms that buyers will use to search for this item.

4. Is there market demand for the item? Are similar items selling online?

5. How is my pricing compared to similar available items?

Here is Etsy's tutorial on the subject.


Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Stats 7 – Conversion rate & dollars per order

We have been considering Etsy's powerful stats. How can we use them to improve our shops?

Conversion Rate


That’s our views-to-sales ratio. For that, we need to pull up a longer period of time, like 6 months or a year. Calculate the number and then compare it with another similar amount of time. Look for trends in that data.

As an example, here are figures from my shop. During a recent 12-month period, I had 73,730 views and 450 orders. That’s 163 views per order. Last calendar year, my ratio was 145 views per order.

Which is better? Less views per order. (Think about it: one view per order is much better than thousands of views before someone buys.)

The $64,000 question is, why? In my case, I have an idea. I had increased my views by my team activities, which was skewing my statistics in that direction. I’m OK with that.

Conversion rate is taken into consideration for search ranking. We should aimfor a lower ratio of hearts and views to sales to bump up our items in Etsy and Google searches. (Of course, this is only one aspect of our shop that Etsy's search algorithm uses to determine ranking. Ranking is defined as where our items fall on the search pages.)

Put another way, if you play a lot of games which raise your hearts/clicks and favorites, but the items don't sell, your ratio of clicks to sales is different than if you don't. They are saying that Etsy's search algorithm favorsitems that sell with minimal clicks.

conversion rate dollars per order
69279 views/354 orders = 195 views/order ... $5386.22/354 orders = $15.22/order

Dollars per Order


I have been working at selling fewer high-dollar items. That is less work than selling more low-dollar items. Am I making progress?

To determine this number, I divided my total revenue for a period of time by the number of orders for that same period. In my case, the last 12 months was $18.46 per order, compared with $16.31 per order last calendar year. That’s an improvement. The numbers are moving in the right direction for my own shop goal.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Stats 6 - What do our statistics tell us?

(Please note that the illustrations show Etsy's "old" stats."

Now that we have examined our shop stats in detail, what are they telling us?
Etsy seller screen shot
Here are eight points for starters.

1. Lots of views? If a particular keyword or key phrase is bringing you a lot of views, make sure it is being used in all applicable tags and titles.

2. No views? If some keywords never appear in your shop stats (or are at the very bottom), these tags aren't bringing you views. Replace them with other words or phrases.

etsy seller screenshot low stats3. Are your efforts in social media bringing in results? (Instagram and other social media stats are not 100% tracked. Try publishing a coupon code for your IG followers and see if anyone bites.)

4. Is your social media traffic so high that it brings in more traffic than Etsy itself? (Check the top of the left-hand column for overall traffic.). That can mean that you are ready for your own standalone website!

5. Often I can tell what will sell soon because of increased views and favorites. Can you source (or make) more of the items?

Time for some research
6. Is a site you don’t recognize driving traffic to your shop? Google it. Consider sending a thank-you message. Offer to send them your newsletter. If it is a blog, find out who the audience is. Are you marketing to that audience?

7. "Search" should be in one the top three spots in Etsy traffic sources. If not, you need to optimize your shop for Etsy search.

Etsy seller shop screen shot8. An item sells well. What key words are bringing in your buyers? What are your primary traffic sources for the item? Could you use this information to improve other listings? Could this data help you better market other items in your shop?

DISCLAIMER: I am not a statistical expert by any means. I am sure that there are probably a few errors in this tutorial. Please keep this in mind when following the indicated steps. 

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Stats secret: unlocking individual item listing data

(Etsy has changed many aspects of stats recently. Thank you for noting that some of the features covered here may have changed.)

Here is a secret about your Etsy stats. Many sellers don't realize that Etsy also provides stats for each individual item. This can be valuable information. I'll give you all of the tools to unlock them!

To access your individual item stats, open an item. There is a "Bars" button right above the picture. Select "today" (or the day you are interested in) for the time. Select the "Views" tab. You can also see search terms used to find this item during the date range you selected.

Individual listing stats include include the following:

screenshot from vintagemaineia
Push the "bars" button to view
    • Graph of a listing's views 
    • Favorites (hearts) from each traffic source 
    • Views (clicks) from each traffic source 
    • Keywords that brought shoppers to the listing
    how to read hourly graph


    How did the buyer find our item?


    This feature is especially handy if you sell an item and wish to know how your buyer found the item. Check your individual stats for that item on the day that it sold. How many sets of keywords are there? Was there one keyword (or key phrase) used on the hour that the item sold? Then you know definitively.

    Monitor team clicking games


    Individual stats can also help monitor clicking team games. This only works if you don't have too much clicking data to muddy the waters (i.e. promote an item in only one place).

    Open the item stats for the item in question for the day in question... See the graph? It tells you how many times and even what hour of the day that it was clicked. This gives you a good idea if people are clicking when they should.


    screenshot of hourly graph
    If I sold this item at 7 PM, what search words did my buyer likely use?

    See how to use your individual item stats to improve poor performing listings.

    Individual listing stats can be our "secret weapon" to learn details about how buyers find our listings. Don't neglect this powerful tool!


    Tuesday, October 11, 2016

    Stats 4 - use the power of top keywords

    Architectural salvage stats
    Etsy stats are a wealth of information
    What my stats show about my top keyword "Architectural Salvage."

    Top Keywords 


    That is a list of all of the search terms used to find your shop and items. The most popular are at the top.

    Click on one. (If you get the full list, it is acting up. Back out and redo it and it usually works the second time.) This page, called the “keyword landing page” shows on what page(s) that keyword (combination) landed.


    Above the chart are two drop-down menus. On the left, you will have a breakdown of search engines, including Etsy Search.

    Try a click in the right field, where the current keyword is. All of your keywords will appear in descending order. Also available is a search box where you can type in a keyword to check.


    Most Active Keywords


    There are two lists across the Most Active page: Pages Viewed (“clicks”) and Listing Favorites (hearts). Click on any of those items to see how your traffic for those items is coming in. Where is the traffic coming from? 

    What key words or phrases work to draw shoppers in?
    pages viewed listing favorites


    Analyze, or take a look at the top keywords and phrases. Put together a few promising combinations of words and weave them into your titles and tags. Your time spent will be rewarded!

    You may hear other sellers talking about "rankings." That refers to how highly our items fall on searches. If we find a keyword combination our customers use, that is a good thing. However, we need to realize that it it likely that lots of other shops have discovered this word combination. Try out similar word combinations to see if we can come up with a word combination that is even better.

    Monday, October 10, 2016

    Stats 3 - Right Column: Activity within Etsy

    Analyzing our Traffic from Inside Etsy

    Etsy tracks our traffic sources for us. The stats “bean counter” computer algorithms read code at the top of each landing page. It is nicely compiled it for us into the report at the top right of the stats page.

    My top traffic sources for a recent 30-day period from within Etsy:

    1. Search 1,382
    2. Your Shop 727
    3. Teams 498
    4. Your Listings 360
    5. Other 238
    6. Treasury 165
    7. Etsy Home Page 130
    8. Favorites 106
    9. Another Shop's Listing 59
    10. Your Profile 40
    11. Categories 29
    12. Your Shop Section 18
    13. Someone's Profile 14
    14. Conversations 13
    15. Search Inside Your Shop 12
    16. Your About Page 7
    17. Purchases 3
    18. Shop Updates 3
    19. Admirers 1
    20. Shop Search 1
    This is similar to the outside traffic sources. Just click on each traffic source to find out on what page the shopper landed.


    Analysis of Each Traffic Source

    1. Search is at the top, the way we like it. My titles and tags are doing their thing. My shop is optimized for Etsy search.
    2. Your shop. Someone was exploring my shop and went from one page to another page within my shop. This happens when people browse your shop, a more common situation when a shop specializes and offers items targeted at one type of person. Personally, I am more of a selling generalist; however, with 500 items in my shop, I do specialize in some specific types of items.
    3.  Teams. I’m pretty active on teams, as you can see. This figure also reflects traffic from Etsy's forums.
    4. Your Listings. This is traffic from one listing to another listing in my shop. Most of mine are shop views. Perhaps someone found my item and then stopped to check out my shop. They could have gone from item to item browsing. Or, perhaps they came in from an image search to a sold item of mine and clicked one of the “You Might Be Interested In” listings from my shop. Or, someone clicked on a link in my listing linking them to similar items in my shop. All of these scenarios are part of item “discovery” on Etsy.
    5. Other. Etsy doesn’t tell us exactly what “other” refers to. Views came in from sources that Etsy does not track.  Possibly the site is new, or it could be one of thousands of smaller traffic sources that doesn't merit tracking yet. 
    6. Treasuries. These have been discontinued.
    7. Etsy Home Page. Traffic from any part of our Etsy “Home” page (the little gray house at the top of every page). It includes “You might like” “Handpicked” and “Recently listed.”
    8. Favorites. Traffic from someone else’s favorites. This is the “spider web” effect of our followers checking out our favorites and their followers seeing our items. This is also included in the “discovery” part of Etsy.
    9. Another shop’s listing. This is traffic from the “This item is unavailable” page.
    10. Your Profile. This includes people looking at items from your profile page. Most of mine led right back to my shop. This number is possibly skewed high for me because of team or forum activities.
    11. Categories. Clicks that originate from “Category” pages. Those are the new drop-down sub-sections used by buyers to hone in on exactly what they are seeking. To do well, we need to have great photos and use the best categories available.
    12. Your Shop Section. This is traffic from your Shop Sections. The more your shop specializes, the better.
    13. Someone’s Profile. This type of traffic occurs when someone sees your item on someone else’s profile. It is part of the “spider web” effect of followers’ favoriting our items and their followers clicking on them. Successful shops harness this! This is yet another part of Etsy’s unique “discovery” process.
    14. Conversations. Someone clicked on your shop or item from their conversation with you. Hit or miss. I don’t find this to be very significant.
    15. Search inside Your Shop. We like to see it when someone searches our shop.
    16. Your About Page. Traffic from there.
    17. Purchases. These are defined as “traffic from someone else's purchases page." We hope that past buyers are checking out our shop again. However, these are all views of my shop. I asked about this recently on the forums, and Admin currently says that this traffic is from “when a buyer completes a purchase,” “additional items on Etsy are shown.” If that is the case, wouldn’t it be my items and not my shop? I never heard anything more back from admin on this discrepancy.
    18. Shop Updates. Etsy tracks at least some of the clicks we receive from Shop Updates. I do a lot of them, but the return isn't impressive so far.
    19. Admirers. Traffic from an admirers page.
    20. Shop Search. Traffic from people who searched within my shop.
    NOTE: there is no way to know how well all the aspects of Etsy’s providing us stats is working. Take all stats with a grain of salt.

    More information from Etsy.

    Friday, October 7, 2016

    Stats 2 – Left Column: Overall Traffic into Etsy

    Analyzing our Stats: Overall Traffic

    We are looking at the left column on our stats page, That outlines our overall traffic into Etsy. Here is the first-page breakdown of my stats taken from a recent 30-day period:

    1. etsy.com 2,543 
      BQE traffic
    2. Etsy App 797
    3. Direct Traffic 237
    4. Google Shopping 181
    5. google.com 175
    6. pinterest.com 16
    7. google.co.uk 13 
    8. google.fr 11
    9. bing.com 10
    10. google.ca 10
    Figuring out each one is easy. Simply click on each "referring traffic source." That tells me where (on which item page) the shopper landed.

    1. & 2. Etsy is my highest ranking source. Next down is the app. This is common. The majority of my activity comes in from within Etsy itself. More details about these numbers are found in the column on the right side of the Stats page (covered in my next post).


    how are buyers finding my item
    3. Direct traffic. These stats are from people who are coming directly to me, mostly from outside Etsy. This traffic is a mix of sources, including those who:

    a) Bookmarked my shop
    b) Clicked a short link to one of my items
    c) Followed an e-mail link
    d) Used social media (sometimes)
    e) Typed my URL into their address bar

    4. Google Shopping hits are from paid ads that Etsy places on Google Shopping. I often look for my items here when testing searches on Google. There is a tab on Google Search at the top for Google Shopping. Here is more information fromEtsy.

    I have optimized my listings for this. GPLA (Google Shopping) wants clean, clear content. They have standards. Items cannot be suggestive “adult” items, copyrighted content, gambling, etc. It doesn’t allow “gimmicky use of words, numbers, letters, punctuation, or symbols such as FREE, f-r-e-e, and F₹€€!!” (In my case, I removed all but one exclamation point from each listing.) Google Shopping also does not allow watermarked photos.

    How much Etsy traffic comes from Google?More info about the requirements of Google Shopping is here. Here is more information from Etsy about their new paid ads through Google.

    5. Google.com. In my case, all the hits are sold items. This tells me that all this traffic is likely a result of Google image searches. They are all uncommon items. It could be that someone wants to buy it and demand is still strong. Or other sellers are researching it because they have one to sell. There is no way to know which. Either way, each time a page was accessed, Etsy’s “This Item has Sold. You Might be Interested In” message appears, along with 8 of my current items. Free advertising is not a bad thing.


    how much etsy traffic comes from Pinterest?
    6. Pinterest.com. If you use it, that’s great. But anyone can pin your listings and bring in traffic. Make your listings more pin worthy by improving your photos. Those who pin items on Pinterest like clean backgrounds. Also, photos in portrait mode (longest top to bottom) display the best.

    7. & 8. Google.co.uk and Google.fr. These stats are random for me. They are from Google searches originating from the UK and France.

    9. Bing.com. This is another search engine besides Google.

    10. Google.ca. This stat showed up because someone from Canada took a peek in my shop. It is also likely a fairly random event.

    Etsy Mini. I am just starting to see numbers come in. I installed an Etsy Mini widget on my blogs just this week to direct traffic to my shop.

    Also in this column could be sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, blogs (yours and other people’s), Flickr, Pinterest and even Instagram. Here you can find the results of your social media efforts at bringing in shoppers. Results will also be here if you were featured by someone else in their social media. (How nice of them!) Here is more information on how stats for social media are counted.

    If you set up shortened links in any of your social media, I believe that they might show up here. If you don’t recognize something, Google it. Someone will have published something on it.

    Are we having fun yet?

    Etsy's tutorial is here. 

    See my next post in this series about Etsy Stats.

    Thursday, October 6, 2016

    Stats 1 – Introduction, Accessing & Dashboard

    Do you open your Etsy stats page every day? I do. Particularly revenue: how much have I sold this week? How does it compare to last week? Last month?

    However, stats can be much, much more.

    Etsy was not created to be just a sterile place to buy and sell. It was designed to be a vibrant marketplace to discover things that you didn’t even know you needed or wanted until you saw them. Etsy is a form of social media in that respect; social media where everything is for sale.

    Etsy Shop Stats provide insight into exactly how shoppers find our items: the keywords shoppers search with, the sites that link to our items, internal links… the many pathways to discovery, and hopefully purchases, in our shops.

    Stats are a powerful tool from Etsy if we harness their power. We do that by reading what our stats say and understanding their message. Savvy sellers use the information to make improvements to their shops, their listings, and even their social media.
    screenshot from VintageMaineiaviews favorites orders revenueT


    This series of blogs will help you unlock the power of Etsy stats for your shop.

    Accessing Your Stats

    1. Go to the top right corner of any Etsy page: Your Shop > Quick Links > Stats.
    2. Use the setting “Last 30 Days” for a broad view or even “Last 12 months” (if your shop is new).

    Shop Overview Dashboard

    This is the chart toward the top of the page. It shows data and graphs for views, favorites, orders, and revenue. There is a field just above the chart to set the date range. 

    Hold your mouse over the graph for different days (or months or hours). Find a time period with particularly high numbers. Then look at the area below the chart. It shows if items were listed, renewed or you released a shop update. This is a taste of the power of statistics: to determine if what we are doing with our shop actually shows results.

    pause mouse to see daily events
    Hold your mouse over a time period to see what events happened.


    Below this dashboard chart are two traffic columns: “overall” and “within Etsy.” We will discuss these next.

    Stats have been available on Etsy since early in 2012. How have they helped you manage your shop?

    More information on shop stats from Etsy is here.

    Wednesday, October 5, 2016

    Shop updates - over 40 ideas for vintage Etsy sellers

    antique coin silver spoons Dicentra Eximia
    Still-life
    Etsy shop updates are like a mini-blog. They are an opportunity to market your items to potential buyers. The more updates you post, the more often you appear on the front-page feeds of those who like your shop. Also, you can share your updates to social media channels. They link back to your item, making it easy for shoppers to make a purchase from your shop.

    Etsy wants you to use images that aren't the same as our five listing images… What a great opportunity to showcase your brand. And exercise your creative side!

    Over 40 shop update ideas for vintage shops:
    San Marzano tomatoes from Maine
    In use in a seasonal way
    1. What is your inspiration? A barn shop? Grandma’s place? Your own collection? Show it.
    2. Post a pic of your vehicle full of new finds. Or as you unload them. Or as you clean them.
    3. Post a shot of an auction, sale or home where you pick your items.
    4. Show off new (or old) finds in an interesting group of color(s) or style(s).
    5. Showcase your photo booth or where you stage your items for photos. Did something unusual ever happen?
    6. Photograph your items stored in an interesting way. Try a wide angle.
    7. Demonstrate ideas for styling and/or using your items.
    8. Showcase your items for sale in or on other venues, like your shop or at a show.
    9. Simplest approach: "just listed is this great..."
    10. Take more item shots than you think you will need for listings. Use the extras for shop updates.
    11. Is your home decorated with items in the style that you sell? Can you artfully stage an item in your home and post that?
    12. Show an aspect of your life that might be interesting to others and relate to your vintage shop.
    13. Make artisticstill-life compositions of items for sale. Photograph and post them. Recombine items for sale.
    14. Stage your item in a seasonal setting. (This is my favorite.)
    15. Showcase your item in use.
    16. Where’s Waldo? Bring items on vacation and photograph them in interesting places. (I took some jewelry shots with a NYC skyline view while visiting.)
    17. Seasonal inspiration of items – fall scene with fall colored item, snow scene with a winter piece.
    18. Re-photograph shop items with a different background, on a rainy day, or in a different season.
    19. Show off your customer's photos of the item.
      shop update example using textured filter
      Shop Update photo using a rustic Filters app
    20. Item needed: place an Etsy tag on the spot where your item could be.
    21. For a vintage souvenir, feature a photo of the place it came from. 
    22. Showcase your partner, kids and/or pets with your items.
    23. Color match your items to something seasonal, especially seasonal Pantone colors. Or color match your items to each other.
    24. Show your packaging area.
    25. Post a picture of an item gift wrapped or ready for shipping.
    26. Show any extras you send.
    27. Offer those who have favorited your shop a “Thank You”coupon code. See how many use it.
    28. Reward previous customers with a coupon code. (How many use it?)
    29. Celebrate a certain number of sales, items in your shop or feedbacks with a coupon code.
    30. Compose a graphic shop announcement about your upcoming vacation (even a new baby!)
    31. Post a screen shot of your latest 5-star review.
    32. Post a link to your latest blog post or other SM activity.
    33. Post a screen shot of a newly stocked shop section.
      treasury style Etsy shop update
      Treasury-style update. I even repeated my photo!
    34. Highlight a picture of your item in a magazine, blog, movie or television presentation.
    35. Post a screen shot of your items on a Pinterest board, Facebook or Instagram post.
    36. Post a photo collage of related items in your shop.
    37. Use some special effects on a nice secondary listing photoThis works well for simple retro items.
    38. Tie an interesting photo with an item you have for sale
    39. If you are hankering for treasuries, make your own. Use a grid on Canva to feature your items all together. 
    40. Showcase a gorgeous close-up detail of a piece.
    41. Post a map (vintage, weather, etc.) with your location tagged.
    Additional points I keep in mind:
    Maine farm scene
    Seasonal color feature
    • Have a variety of photos available from which to choose
    • Have something brief to say about the item
    • Vary the look of your photos
    • Don't use the lead photo from the listing
    How do you do a shop update? That's the subject of another post.



    Maine raised garden in early spring
    Item staged in a different seasonal environment

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