New Sellers

Jacket by adhesif.

And PrettyRaccoon has been around for a while, but newish nontheless:

New Sellers

Coat by Leanimal

New sellers

Dress by lachique.

New Seller, srbdesigns.

New Clothing Stores

Dress by hissyfitoly

Some other newbies:
HealingHeart

The forum

When considering on the Etsy forum the sort of policies [shipping, returns, emailing] you want to follow in your store, I really recommend seeing if the seller offering advice has any experience. Like, have they sold anything?

A New Clothier

I had a blog for about two weeks that I attempted to keep updated with new sellers.... impossible. But heck, I'll just throw one in once and a while.

Here is a freshly stocked store, roselabiche.

Dedicated to Bonnie

This list is dedicated to Katsai, who in due time will earn her spot on Top Clothing Sellers. In the meantime:

Top Scratch sellers:
treehouse28 650
DanielleDIY 619
izziebsboutique 371
papaya 271
lorimarsha (?) 242
stinkyloulou 224
dyno 196
momomadeit 192
TheMachineStops 156
thimblescratch 117
wildewear 115
poppyswickedgarden 113
seworiginal 105
fromthefigtree 104
NiceFace 103
tegonia123 75
desirapesta 70
RunzwithScissors 67
katsai 63
Tenlittlefingers 59
Paperdollfashion 39
finnbiskit 32
VenniCaprice 23
avocadoface 20
Ritzyknits 19

Searching thru Your Sold Items

Wanna know something crazy? I wanted to use a picture from an old listing. Real old. I didn't want to have to dig thru my sold items until I found it. So, I thought to myself, what if I just search for the item on Google. And I found it immediately. Pretty sweet.

To be specific, I searched for my username and the item name.

Etsy Clothing Top Sellers

*Under construction*

Incomplete list of some stores that sell a lot of clothing.

Etsy's top clothing sellers:

CircularAccessories 1,900
Ahpeele 964
supastarr 920
mamamonkey 903
muttsywonder 894
Treehouse28 650
DanielleDIY 619
KiWiCuties 602
limescreen 571
tinaseamonster 493
maryink 398
aorta 392
izziebsboutique 377
BondGirl 374
stevester 356
heyamo 296
snowconecollective 291
roslynscloset 282
MoxieMadness 279
papaya 271
hopedespair 260
lorimarsha 242
vital 207
dyno 196
LookForFiddleheads 192
momomadeit 195
1AEON 187
citizenjane 173
pinkdixie 171
ruffeoheartslilsnoty 158
TheMachineStops 156
Wildewear 144
juror2 126
bunny 122
thimblescratch 117
poppyswickedgarden 112
PoisonAppleShirts 105
fromthefigtree 103
niceface 103
seworiginal 103


Crafterbynite 94
Thaidreams 90
Basho 84
tegonia123 73
Swoon 79
desirapesta 70
TenLittleFingers 59
LazerBeanz 58
Victrola35 54
LeBouton 55
Katsai 45
flutter 40
jenclaire 35

How is being a clothing seller defined? By me and my secret formula. LOL

Being hearted

It's been a long time since I have looked at how many people heart me. I actually know how long it's been since I've looked. 5 months. Tangent: I know this because I keep a selling+sewing diary. Very helpful I may add. Anyway, holy crap. 1,011 people heart me. That's nuts. And I also noted that just about half of all my total sales have been carried out in the past 6 months. A testimony to Etsy's growth, I would say.

So my advice to those who keep a close eye on their hearts: let's not think about it too hard, k? your time would be better spent not worrying about it :D

Not Handmade

It makes me so sad when I see resellers remain on Etsy for long periods of time. I flag, I flag, I flag, and for some reason these people are given the benefit of a doubt. They have nothing written in their bio. They don't claim to make anything. Their items don't look handmade. They are listing from very suspicious countries. Their clothing has obvious creases and wrinkles. That does not happen on freshly sewn clothing [even if you use wrinkled fabric, the wrinkles won't align on new seams].

Very discouraging.

Juggling

I started a non-Etsy job two weeks ago. I thought that I would still have a lot of sewing time, and I think I do, but I... don't spend it sewing. I spend it making lattes and relaxing after work. Where does the time go?

So I have had to consider with new variables what my lead time is. It's hard because I don't really know. It stressed me out that I was getting so far behind in orders that I inactivated all my listing that weren't ready-made. And then oddly enough, I sold a ton of them [ready ones]. Weird. Maybe because my shop is smaller, or more interesting, or more not arm warmers? Haha.

It really did help me to unstress [or "stress down" as my non-native English-speaking boyfriend would say]. But now I'm spending more time convoing and arranging custom items. It is reassuring to hear that a lot of people aren't in a big hurry to for me to finish. Coincedence?

Ok, no great selling tips here, just reality.

Internationalizing Your Store

Have some downtime? Think about how to "internationalize" your store. At a minimum, I offer shipping to Canada, the UK, and Australia [I am American]. Most int'l buyers realize that New Zealand's rate is the same as Australia and that Germany is the same as the UK and so forth. Save yourself time by using Etsy's shipping profiles for items you sell frequently and bookmark the USPS calculator to estimate charges.

I also suggest providing cm and inches for measurements. If discussing measurements, use cm and kilograms NOT inches, pounds, and ounces when convoing with anyone non-american. If you are selling clothing, it is important for you to specify that your size is a US, UK, Euro, Japan or whatever else. They are all different and your buyer may not even think about it when they are looking! Wouldn't they be disappointed to recieve your dress in the mail after doublechecking the size and it doesn't fit. As a tangent, this is why I put actual measurements as well.

And finally, concerning language. Simplifying and clarifying your descriptions will be good hospitality to int'l shoppers. Be aware that some of our English phrases get very cryptic when translated directly. You may not be understood when you abbreviate, misspell and use acronyms. When reviewing your shop, think about how you would fare reading a similar description in a language that is not your first. Would you want it simpler?

Consider dialects. British English is different from American English. You really need to look into what similar items are being called and desribed elsewhere. Vests, jumpers, badges, fibre!

I have had many shoppers ask questions about items that show that they are struggling with English. I am not even sure if they understand my responses. Be sure to demonstrate a willingness to re-explain. Be straightforward.

Don't assume that people who don't understand English great aren't on Etsy looking for items. They are!

Some quick pointers:

• use "because" not "cause" or "cuz" or "cos"
• use "want to" not "wanna"
• use " I don't know" not "dunno"
• do not use "ttyl", "jlk", "LOL", "PM" and other computer jargon phrases when convoing

Profits after fees

Everyone on Etsy has at least these variables that cut into their profit margin:

• Etsy listing fee: .20
• Etsy commission: 3.5% of item sale price [not shipping]
• PayPal fee: .30 + 2.9% of total reciept [item+shipping]*

And I must add, not everyone pays by paypal. But seriously... almost everyone does.

For a $1.50 item, the actual recieved money will be .89. Wow. That's only 59% of the sale price. So make sure your low ticket items are worth it!

Banned

Woah. Reckon.etsy.com was actually removed? Sweet.

I guess it's nice to know that there is a line that can be crossed as far as crappy service [or fraud, if you will].

Variable Total Tutorial

I made a tutorial that is for rookie PayPal users. In the future, I hope to link to this page in some of my listings that have variable prices. Like if I would charge an extra 5 dollars to add straps, then I would say "price with straps" and "link here for how to pay that different amount." There are other uses for the page, or paying this way. I mention a few on the page. OK, here it is:

Variable Total PayPal Payment Tutorial

Anyway, it would be nice if buyers would do that so I don't have to send invoices. You know?

Etsy Admin Jared's view on copying

Just FYI, I came across this comment to a thread about copying. Check out Jared's response:

"If you want my personal opinion, I embrace it.

I freely make my work available at every level possible (http://www.complexification.net/gallery). I understand that nothing I create is truly novel. I believe in the collective human consciousness. I believe art wants to be free. I find happiness in giving it away. This philosophy has brought me great rewards. Like Earl says, karma. ;)"

Um... what? I find this response very naive and idealistic. It completely ignores the reality that some people are willing to rip off the creativity of others in order to personally profit. How is anyone supposed to make a living selling on Etsy (the stated goal of Etsy) when others are ripping off their ideas?

Sorry to rain on your Etsy parade. This pisses me off.

Spam

Update: The Wiki now uses Captcha, so this problem is solved.

As I write, the EtsyWiki is getting spam posted on it at the rate of one every 3 minutes. I never saw this as a problem on the wiki before. I'm not on the wiki all the time, actually I am rarey there, so I wonder if this is just a coincendence that I would notice it, or if this is a common problem that commonly gets cleaned up.

I alerted two Etsy admins personally by convo, but didn't recieve any responses or see any reaction on the wiki. Funny thing is, I know one of them was online because they had posted on the forums in the last 15 minutes. I also started a forum post about it, but I wouldn't expect a prompt response from a forum thread ever.

Yes, I realize it is a Sunday, but... if a guy is working on the forum anyway, couldn't he do something about it?

Big Sellers

This is the old list. New list here.

Also, the Etsy wiki is doing a great job of keeping the top sellers up-to-date. And you can add you and your friends there without my intervention! So, please find http://www.etsywiki.com/index.php?title=Top_Sellers to post to. I will keep here those that haven't quite made it to the "official list" yet.

PreciousPups 900
kitsandcaboodles 900
botanicalbird 900
soapstore 900
jennaappleton 900
vintagethisretrothat 800
DanielleDIY 800
pegasussoaps 800
projectgrabbag 800
blacksheepdesigns 800
LillyQueen 800
castleman 700
akaisilks 700
ficklefaerie 700
mLee 700
veryvintage 700
lachapina 700
creativedesignz 600
limescreen 600
dlkdesigns 600
ingero 600
ChezMichelle 600
MissPurl 600
MLouIsPink 600
vintagethisretrothat 600
doubledippedsweets 600
MeMaColdProcessSoaps 600
Spiderbite 600
odannysgirl 600
paperplanet 500
jewelrybytara 500
amberalexander 500
glittersniffer 500

Views and Hearts
How is it possible that an item I listed can get 137 views [and counting] in one day, and yet no one hearts it? Maybe everyone HATES it! Ha.

Update: Still a bazillion views [229], and just one heart. I wonder if I will ever have such a small proportion of views to hearts ever again.

Makes me paranoid that someone keeps viewing it to copy it or something. That would explain why it's not hearted. But it still could be that people hate it and they click for a good laugh. :P

This Blog

Just in case you were wondering, I do not promote this blog. I'm not trying to get an audience here. I just like writing about selling on Etsy. So don't expect much. I'll write when I can.

Who knows

Birds

Last week I woke up at 5.30 AM because birds were screaming their heads of in the bushes outside my window. So I got up and banged on my window [directly nearby]. They did not fly away or shut up. So I sat there... so tired.... and then I put on my bathrobe and went outside and actually banged on the bushes with my hands. Uff da. I was reminded of that when I saw this print by badbird.etsy.com:



He/she wrote the funniest thing in the description, "This bird has had it up to here with you people!".

The Forum
I finally learned today [I'm a slow learner] that people just do not read anything you write, even as the thread starter. Therefore, you have to say something in as little space as possible. You may not even be understood then. I also learned that [some] people just will not read anything on a thread. NOTHING. It's so frustrating. Especially when threads get so long because people with nothing to say, say that fact. Ha.

Do most internet forums have recently posted to threads pop to the top? I think it sometimes irritates me. Like if someone starts a thoughtful, or good discussion Q, it gets bumped out by the seventeenth "Wow! Postage rates are sooooo huge" thread. And then no one can even participate in a good thread.. because they never know it's there.

Stats
Clothing items: 16,369
Jewelry items: 153,636
Art items: 58,316

clothing is the size of %10.6 of jewelry

Myself
I did a forum search today on myself. It was pretty nice. Everyone said nice things about me. I even had some people start threads in my honor! Wow! That makes me pretty warm and fuzzy inside.

"The Hump"
In my mind, I have this thing called "the hump". When a seller is over their hump, they have sold waaaaay more items than they will ever have listed. Like GemmaFactrix is definitely over the hump [41/2091]. It seems that lately there are a lot more people over their hump. That's good. Lots of sales. There is also a phenomenon that I call "dwindling." If a seller just can't keep up with demand, and sell everything except a scant few things, they dwindle. And dwindling is not a bad thing! StopsAndStarts is a dwindler. Her shop has dwindled ever since she took the Etsy job. I am definately not a dwindler, and I am definately over my hump.

Things that are not clothing... in the clothing section

I'm sure Im not the only one irritated at some peoples either complete lack of understanding of tags or their exploitation of more popular categories. So lets have a laugh about it. These are things I have seen in the clothing category, and keep in mind, there IS an accessories category!:

Menstral Pads
Hair ties
scarves
Neckties
Headbands
Belts
Socks

This entire shop is toooo cute: sockmonkeycards

Planning a Project
The one thing I despise about sewing is that you can't improvise as you go along. Not really. You *can* but... it will either take twice as long, or three times as long, or it will just suck. One just has to plan out everything ahead of time, or you just seam rip the whole time. I hate seam ripping. Passionately.

For example, today I made this bag. I started thinking way too late, maybe I should put a pocket in somewhere. Well... I would have to undo major seams to do that. Almost start over. But with *this* bag, it'll do fine without pockets because it's reversible and for shopping. And if one needed pockets for shopping, then they would be on plastic and paper bags, wouldn't they?

I'm not good at that plannin business. I *hate* planning projects. I guess it's kind of weird, but now that I think of it, I really just think of the things I do right before I start... of course, I'm generalizing tho.

Shipping
The postal service is starting to piss me off. I actually like the postal service more than most. I really like the people that work at my closest one. But.... I'm trying to not go to the PO every freaking day... so I want to figure the online shipping out [I should have done this a year ago]. It appears that the PO will not entertain the thought of printing shipping labels for first class. Just first class. Just the only thing I ship with every day. I suspect this isn't because they can't, but because it coerces people into buying priority. Well priority shipping on a 3 ounce parcel is stupid and that's what I do all the time. I would rather not charge an extra 2-3 dollars shipping for items that are only worth $10-20. It is my opinion that buyers figure shipping into the total cost. Therefore a dollar saved in shipping will either bring me more sales because my items are cheaper, or will give me more profit because I could raise my prices that much more just to be the same cost.

I know some people disagree with me, like Mr. UPS. He would think it's just totally normal to do priority, tracking, insurance, and delivery confirmation. And that "people want that". Do people really really want to sit at home and check how far their package traveled in a day? Do they also want to pay for that? Does it seem reasonable to insure something that I have never lost in the mail, and only costs $10 if it went MIA anyway? Shipping my way: 87 cents. Shipping his way: 4.60+1.65+.65=$6.90 So... you tell me...

Fabric + Drawing
Are there any good permanent pens [or something like a pen] that you can draw on fabric with. I know sharpies look good until you wash it. So that's not gonna work. I'd like to just draw stuff on clothing sometime.

Etsy Labs
I get the uneasy feeling sometimes that the Etsy Labs is trying to teach people how to become my competition. I wonder how the book binders felt when they taught everyone and anyone how to do book spines. Isn't it also kinda weird that Etsy sellers would go to Etsy labs and teach people how to do what they do? I mean, do you really want other people to know how to do your art/craft? They will just become your competitors.

And what is with them doing everything that I already thought of myself, but hadn't done yet :P I had written in my profile that I was pretty excited to be screening my own fabric, and now "customfabric" is a hot topic in the labs. I haven't even remotely started screening my own fabric, but now I feel I would be percieved as totally lame and unoriginal if I did. I've been demotivated. This pre-emptive business has happened more than one time. BTW, I do think it's all just a coincedence.