Vintage buyers: are yours collectors, trend setters or thrifty?

If you are a vintage seller, you already have a defined target market. Etsy defines it for you by limiting "vintage" to items over 20 years old. Plus, not everyone wants to buy pre-owned merchandise.

So we just limited our target market by, say, 50%. Every vintage seller is a niche seller. That was easy!

Within vintage there are at least three types of buyers:

Know your target market

• collectors
• trendy shoppers
• thrifty shoppers

Who are your buyers?

• What motivates them to buy? 
• How does your shop appeal to those motivations?

Consider the buyers who come to Etsy and browse vintage shops... They want to buy something. Sometimes they will buy something they had no idea that they wanted until they saw it. 

What made them decide to buy? You need to crack the code.

Great product selection helps, but it is not the only factor.

Sellers need to identify why some items sell well. Harness that information and use it to sell more stuff.

Pinpoint your most effective listing style

Separate yourself from the products you sell... just consider the listings themselves. Not the "what" is being sold but "how" it sold. What is it about the listing's style and makeup that buyers are responding to?

Consider the details of some listings that sold right away. Look at a few items that were barely in your shop before they sold.

Ask yourself some questions about the makeup of each listing.

Wording & listing setup

• Keywords. Check for keywords common to the titles or descriptions of your best-selling listings.
• What was the opening sentence in the first paragraph? 
• Description: how did you "talk" to your customers?
• Were listings more effective if  you gave some history of the item? 
• Were listings more effective if you suggested ways to use the item? 
• Where in the listing did measurements appear?



Collectors are unique buyers

• How did you manage the "attributes" fields on the listing creation page?

Photos

• How many photos did you use in your best selling listings? 
• What backgrounds did those photos have? 
• Were the images staged to show the item in use with props, or were the photos focused on the product alone?

Here is more information from Etsy about taking effective product photos.

Are you styling photos?

Target buyer

• Consider what you know about who bought the items (age, location).
• Was the item a gift?
• Look at their Etsy profile. Can you see preferences in their favorites?
• Was the buyer a collector, trendy or thrifty? Does the same listing style appeal to all three?

After gathering this data, analyze it. What made the listing effective?

Now, go make more listings like that.

Keywords: develop and use a purchase phrase list

Etsy search is all about keywords and key phrases. 

Many sellers still try to draw buyers with general phrases. Phrases with a lot of competition like "[holiday] gift" "vintage gift" and "silver necklace" have thousands of search results on Etsy. There is no need to be concerned with placing highly in broad searches.

Instead sellers need to concentrate on long-tail keywords. These are browse-phrase keywords and purchase-phrase keywords. These are words, specific phrases, that a customer types in to the search bar when they are ready to search for something and buy.

Use specific keywords that say what the item is. Select terms that tell people what the item actually is in different ways. Use terminology that your target customer would use.

Advice is out there to have at least 100 relevant keywords available. Have terms at your fingertips for any product genre or type you might sell. If have 2 or more types or genres of products on Etsy, consider having 100 keywords to use for each one.

That might seem like a lot, but it is not.

How to brainstorm for more keywords

Other sellers can help out with this. Check out listings on Etsy or other venues. What keywords are they using? Check out their sold items. Titles are at the top of course. Tags can be found at the bottom of any listing page. (Recently those disappeared for some sellers, so changes could be afoot there.)

Follow a blog, like Apartment Therapy. Note terms that they use to describe items, trends and styles. Their readers will also be searching using those keywords.

Here is another method of market research.

Read magazines for keyword ideas

Try magazines for keyword research

Try magazines for keywords. Magazines that are of interest to your target audience. You will not necessarily be reading the magazine, but rather the advertisements.

Magazines devote teams of staff dedicated to using proper keywords in their ads... key words that cause viewers to want to buy the product! Those marketing people have done their keyword research. Why not apply it in your own shop?

Note the terms used for products in magazine ads. These writers must be on-trend with their use of key words.

If you could, which vintage magazine sums up your customer base? Use it to harvest new terms to attract buyers.

There is no need to subscribe... look at them at your library, or supermarket check-out. (You might even stay there until they kick you out.)

Make a keyword list

Once you have keywords, make a list. (Here is a sample for vintage shops.) Keep that list handy to use when you compose listings.

While writing your listing text, keep an eye on your keyword list. Your goal is to use important keywords in a natural, conversational way. 

Be sure to write your first paragraph for your target buyer, not for a machine. The more you understand about your buyers, the better you will be able to write for them.

Happy vintage selling!

Fun market research to improve your vintage online selling

Cozy up with your favorite device

Many of us realize that we need to do market research in order to improve our business. Yet, how exactly is it done?

There is an easy way. It is as simple as taking your favorite device and browsing the internet. Sound fun? It is! Why not give it a try?

(First, make a cup of your favorite beverage. Sit back and relax.)

Choose an item for sale

1. Choose an item that is currently in your shop, available for sale. Look over your product. Think about its overall use and who you think would be the person to purchase it. (No stress - this is just to get your mind warmed up.) Linger a bit, noting the color, size, texture, where it is to be used, how it might be displayed.

2. Next, go online, using Google, Bing and even other search engines. Search for a similar product as a shopper would. (No, you are not looking for yours. However you may very well find it during this process.)

Your goal is to see all the places, the venues, that show up for similar products. Example: you are selling a vintage fish brooch. Search for "fish brooch." Observe the array of ads, shops, pictures and locations. Enjoy the process... browse. Click some sites that look interesting.

3. Next search images. What appears? Select the links and observe how similar products are being sold. Read the product descriptions. Look at the pictures. How are the items being used? How are the similar items staged in their photos?

Who is your target market?

4. Find blogs that feature similar items. Read the posts (and even comments).

5. Browse Pinterest. Find some magazines. Locate similar products that are pinned and featured. What is being said? How is it being said?

6. Sip some beverage. Mull over your observations.

**There, that was fun!**

From all this shopping (I mean research) you should be able to identify some patterns about buyers:

• approximate age
• gender
• occupation
• home or office styles
• trends (like colors, textures and patterns)
• related products of interest
• location (USA, Europe, etc.)
• income level
• families? individuals?
• even personality, attitudes, behavior

Now you can see who your customer is. 

What else do they love, use or collect? (What other items could you be selling to them?)

Note any clues for improving your listings. What terms are used that could help sell your items? What vocabulary style(s) do you see?

(Perhaps your research will even reveal a new selling venue to try.)

How is your pricing?

Think about the photos you have viewed that show a similar item in use. Can you show your product in the same setting?

Do you see room for improvement in your product (if you make it)? How about your photography? Staging? Item descriptions? Pricing? Title and tag keyword phrases?

Use the information you have gleaned. Select a listing that is not performing well in your shop. Make some changes based on your new observations. It could lead to sales!

This fun process can be repeated of course. The more different kinds of items you offer for sale, the more types of items you should check in this way.

Research one item. Meditate on your findings. Make some changes. Evaluate the results. Lather, rinse repeat for more items in your shop. Your sales should improve.

Go ahead, try it. You might like it.

Thanks for joining me in the online selling journey.

Need more information? Here are 30 ways to improve your Etsy sales. Here are some more ideas if your shop sales are tanking.