So you've made this great website, your getting a lot of visitors but no sales and your wondering what gives?
First you need to make sure your website shopping cart is working properly so test it thoroughly!If your not using a shopping cart and are only accepting orders offline you have no business selling online at all!You must have a shopping cart so people can buy from you online. It is also important to have a professional looking website, if you are using a free web host>>leave now! and go get yourself a professional website. http://www.lillyscraftmall.com Offers very affordable hosting , they have a storebuilder system you can use and when your store is done you get free advertising in their craft mall all for less than $10 bucks a month!They have some very talented ladies, I buy from there a lot.
Second you need to look over your product pictures and ask yourself: Are they high quality pictures? Would you buy your own item? Do they show enough detail? This is the only thing the customer has to go on when they are deciding to buy or not so it better be a high quality picture!
If your pictures are not the problem then maybe it is your items?
Perhaps your selling an item that sold very well 5 years ago? It might be time to make some changes to your inventory. I suggest doing some research online , you can start at: www.ebay.com Do a few searches in their handcrafted items category. What sells well at shows is not necessarily what sells well online.
For example if you sell handbags do a search for handbags within that category and see what items have bids on them. Only look for items with bids.You can also do an advance search to see what has sold in the last month in your category.
I am not suggesting you steal someone's design at all but maybe you can craft something similar? The idea is to keep up on current craft trends, if your constantly adding new products to your craft store the visitors will keep coming back to see what you have!
The majority of people looking for handmade items are NOT looking on ebay they are using search engines, however ebay's audience is very diverse and it can give you an idea of what the current crafting trends are.
With handcrafted items people want something Unique not something they can get at Walmart for half the price.Pay very close attention to custom orders they are a wonderful way to generate new ideas for your product line.
Keep your monthly website cost down ( Under $15) and it will enable you to stay in business longer or until you find your nitche! It's not going to happen overnight but if you keep at it and stay on top of your products things will eventually pick up!
I Wish you much success!!
Kate Shoemaker
http://www.look-up-anything.com
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