A Renewing Experiment....
November 23, 2009 | By
So you're a seller of handmade, supplies or vintage, right? So, perhaps you sell on Etsy and Artfire, or just one, or a little bit of everywhere. Well, I have been quite busy in my life lately with kids, home, shops, etc and decided to do a little experiment to see if RENEWING on Etsy really brings in sales.
My plan was this: Renew the SAME item at different times of the day only one time. I could also renew something if it was about to expire, or if I had something brand new to list. Other than that, no renewing. I could also RELIST if something sold. I would do this for 30 days and see what happened. I've read blogs before stating this was the best thing ever and it increased their sales. I've also read blogs that said they lost money.
So I chose my Chalk Cloth bag. No one on Etsy sells one quite like mine (that I've found in searches). I chose ONE single print (it comes in a variety of prints), the construction truck lining, to renew.
I have kept track of date, time renewed, hearts, views and if it sold. Here's where we're at so far.
On 10/25/09 my item titled, "The ORIGINAL Chalk Cloth Travel Bag, Construction Truck Lining, UNIQUE GIFT--Now with PACK OF CHALK" was #1 when you searched Etsy for "chalk cloth bag", had 123 views and 0 hearts. Never sold. (Another print version of that bag has sold once before.)
On 11/1/09 it had 161 views, 1 heart, never sold and still ranked #1 in Etsy search of "chalk cloth bag".
Ironically, on Google.com on 11/1, after one week of renewing, when you search "Chalk Cloth Bag" most of the listings are mine--either my Artfire listings for the same items, or my DIY kit listings, or even my blog EXPLAINING this experiment when I started it. But the actual listing for the Construction Truck Lined Chalk Cloth Bag? Not on the first page. Or second. Or third.
Now, I should point out that when I started renewing something else happened...I seemed to make more sales in general. BUT, I have multiple shops on multiple venues. If I ONLY look at this etsy shop, www.mamaslittlemonkeys.etsy.com, I sold two items for roughly 38 dollars value. I did make sales in my other shops, but I cannot really prove those sales were directly linked to this renewing. I can't really prove THESE sales are really related to the renewing either, but it's a good chance. Ironically, the things I sold are completely not related to chalk cloth!!
So the numbers remain to be crunched and we have 3 more weeks of this experiment. But at .20 a pop, am I really going to make a profit even if I sell just one chalk cloth bag? I also add new items when I get those, so how does that affect the renewing and also that adds up to your final price.
So we shall see, I'll keep taking notes and report back next week to see where we are in The Great Renewal Experiment!
Question Mark Photo from:artjewelryforyou
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