How to start sellling

[IndoHome]

I have already put up some products on my account and connected a paypal account. How and when can I start selling?

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

How new is your store? Have you done any promoting for your store? It doesn't appear that your store has been indexed by Bing or Google yet which I've heard can take up to 6 weeks. It also appears that your store hasn't been indexed by Google Shopping yet either. Most of our sales come from links in the major search engines and it doesn't appear that you are there yet to be found by the buying public.

I would strongly suggest you upload something with the name of your store in the "YOUR LOGO" space. Look at your store as a customer and it looks incomplete, like opening a physical store with no sign out front.

You only have a small number of items listed which is going to give you a much lower chance of attracting a buying customer.

You don't have any information on your Terms or FAQ pages and useless information on your contact page. No where do you address the shipping time from China to the USA which may be a real issue for some of your customers. They need to know they are not going to receive their item in 3 - 5 working days which is the expectation unless otherwise stated.

Are you able to ship Cash on Delivery from China? You are offering that service and it is very expensive and risky to use that service here in the USA.

[SammysSupplies]

Hi and welcome to eCrater, many of your pictures are too small, they should be 800px or more, smaller ones will be listed after items the right size. Also there should a listing for each item that comes in different colors. Buyers don't like having to play email tag to buy an item. Also you should expand your titles and description. Good luck selling here!

[viewfinders]

I think Indohome is using a US based drop shipper. It would explain the too small photos and the free US shipping but not shipping to Hong Kong and appears to be accepting Stripe.

Indohome if you are shipping from the US you should make that clear.

[MoonwishesStore]

As your items are not on hold, that means you ARE selling. Well maybe you haven't had any sales, but your store is open for people to buy from. Are you going to have your UK and Australia stores open as well? If not, you need to close them.

I agree with the others, You need a store name as your log instead of something saying 'your logo' which makes you look like a seller that isn't going to stay around for long. You also need your terms page filled out.

You also need more information in your descriptions. While you are allowed 100 characters in your titles, one title is simply 'Foot Angel' a total of 10 characters and then your description is: 'Anti-fatigue compression Foot Sleeve'. Where is important information like what size it is? What degree of compression? I know from the compression stocking I buy there are different degrees and it depends highly on the person's foot problem what they need. What color are they? What are they made of and how do you clean them? And yet again what size. If these are a 'one size fits all' either someone with small feet won't get much in the way of compression or someone with big feet are going to feel like they have a tourniquet on their feet.

I suspect that your titles and descriptions differ depending on the catalog that you are getting the information from. Do you even have these in your possession so that you can look at them and describe them? Do you have any idea how most American's feel about "As seen on TV!' products?

Anyhow welcome, but to make sales, you have a lot of work ahead of you to stand out from all the other sellers selling the exact same thing you are. I checked just your table mate product and there are many up for sale on the internet and from reputable stores here in the US. How do you plan to make yours stand out? How do you plan to promote your store? Did you do google attributes including UPC codes when listing?

Selling on line can keep a person busy all day and it is not easy or a quick way to make a fortune.

[elpereles]

Does somebody watch the Shark Tank TV show?

Because some days ago. I watched part of an episode. Interesting concept. It isn't just participate to be or get the 1rst, 2nd or 3rd prize. You tells/show your business idea to investors. And they invest or give you loans for your business.

So a watch the following case. A Federal Agent appeared with an interesting idea and even patented to deal with the loose ties. He made some little sales. He had a nice speech. Everything was fine until the investors ask how much time he spend in his business. He answer with a "Right now. I don't have time for it because I have a great job." The investors just said no to the deal. Their answer a serious potential business must run/work 24/7 and yours not even runs like a hobby.

So getting to the point. I read a blablabla in the About Us, but I saw a lack of FAQs, Terms, good photos, tittles, and descriptions.

How you can start sales? At least showing a serious store to the level you said you have in the About US. Also get in mind, in sites like eCrater you must promote your stuff because many of the traffic is from organic search engines.

[MoonwishesStore]

So very correct Elperles.

I got a catalog in the mail the other day and was flipping through it while waiting for toast and it has some of the same products in it as these guys are selling. Why would I want to buy them from China? For a site that supposedly has several executive types or at least one 'highly experienced retailer' I would think the store would look better. Also interesting that they have started stores 'even in China'. Okay does that mean they didn't even start to sell locally first?

[artinsilk]

eCrater new look is a wonderful improvement. I would love to make my shop here a success but I do not know how.

I just am flabbergasted about the fact that I have had only 1 sale on eCrater in several months.

I am so busy sewing, painting and hand dyeing my silks that I have not been able to do the social media thingy. That could be my problem and I do not know which social media would help for eCrater.

Also, I wonder if the complete stop of sales is related to the fact that my artinsilk domain name is redirected to my eCrater shop, making links to categories and titles way too long. Any thoughts on that?

Thank you for your advice.

[lastade-designs]

@ artinsilk, I think your silks are lovely and priced very reasonable. You should definitely be pinning your listings to a Pinterest board and have a Facebook page for your store. I think that if you don't have a lot of inventory you have to be creative in promoting.

[MoonwishesStore]

I just checked the original poster. Their store is open, but as far as I can tell they haven't carried out a single suggestion! Why waste people's time asking for help if they aren't going to take any? They are still holding at 26 products in the "as seen on TV" variety. Including a floor rug where 8 colors are shown and no mention whatsoever of the color names and what is available since they say only one is available. Haven't touched their store since 3-31-16 and still has 1 and 2 word titles.

So okay the thread is now about artnsilk and her lovely products and how to get them selling. Whether you want to take the time or not, you have to get into social media, but don't be like Lydia on Lydia's Italian Kitchen on PBS where she talks about the questions she gets on her social media but doesn't specify WHERE her site is. I looks like it is a marketing ploy by producers because I don't think she has a clue what social media is.

My suggestion is you need to be showing these on Pinterest first and foremost. They are something that you need to see to visualize to understand the product. I think I have actually pinned some of your items, but I've gotten a few thousand more followers since then. I would also try for a blog where you can write more about what you make, your 'muse' in making them, the process, etc. You don't have to post daily, I know I sure can't--although if I didn't spend time here, I might have the time. But try to be consistent. When you are done with a post, then pin that post, assuming it has a photo, to Pinterest, send it to FB if you have a FB page. I G+ everything as well with a comment that includes my url to my eCRATER store in the comment section. If you have a cell phone you can do Instagram as well. As a cell-phoneless person, that is a site I can't participate in and wouldn't you know my sewing machine company is running a quilt contest through Instagram alone!

If you have anyone at home that is savvy with computers and social media, rope them into helping, most especially a teenager that loves to show off how they are smarter than mom! Even husbands that know about computers can help with this. It is very hard to break away from the making to 'selling' part of business or the other way around. I'm at the point I have got to get into my sewing room more.

Currently it seems everywhere I go sellers are reporting that sales are down, but that doesn't mean you quit. It means you try to work harder and smarter. I think this is a bump in the road and Google is messing with us here at eCRATER. Other than an unpaid order, I haven't had an order since the 18th and I think it is because I have so many listings that I need to add the UPC to. I can not work 48 hour days, so I do what I can.

I love your items, and so am off to pin a few into my wedding, fashion accessories and gift category when I am done here.

[MoonwishesStore]

@Artnsilk -- When I got done pinning (I always get carried away) I went and checked and all your scarves that I pinned have already had repins. Thought you would want to know. If you don't understand, that means someone that was on Pinterest saw the pins of your things that I had pinned and they clicked on them to pin to a board of their own. Then their followers can see the scarves and pin them, and so on and so on and so on Hope it helps.

[artinsilk]

You are always so kind. I appreciate the exposure.

You really gave me a step by step recipe on how to figure it out and do it. I am really grateful about that. I am so overwhelmed by the whole social media stuff.

I have never tried Twitter, Pinterest, etc... I have a FB page and I have been very slow at learning how to use it. I read some people sell straight from their Facebook page...

You are all so nice to advise me. I am going to learn Pinterest asap and the other platforms.

I guess no artisan can get their business going normally online anymore, unless they do that.

It used to be so much easier...

[artinsilk]

Moonwishes I am happy that you have such a great amount of sales...

I am surprised that your ecrater is showing to look like mine used to look.
Did you decide to keep the old look instead of upgrading to the new look?

If so, I am curious to find out why you decided to keep it that way? Is it a marketing choice?

[MoonwishesStore]

I switched back as I hate the look of the 'new' way. And I hated the look of the new templates even more. I even after maybe an hour went back to the old admin as I hated the new one.

Maybe I am stick in the mud, but I actually like the look of the old store. It works for me. All the info is laid out cleanly and easy to see. I don't want customers coming to shop in my store again getting confused as to where the price went or the shipping, etc. The new admin page had too much white space and too much scrolling and all those seconds of scrolling add up for me into wasted hours.

I know the younger generation seems to like change for the sake of change. Me, if something is working and working well, why change it? It is like a store changing it's logo by a fraction. If I even notice, I'm, always like WHY? Don't they have something better to do with their time? Makes no sense to me, but then I don't have an MBA, so maybe I am missing something.

In my mind, and I certainly could be very wrong about this, most buyers want great selection, great customer service, and easy to use website/shopping cart. They don't care about big bright fonts, dancing elves or anything else. As someone that was on dial up for years, I also want a page that will load fast for them since I know how frustrating that can be to wait for one page to load only to find you need a different one. ECRATER has always been fast to load and buy from.

Obviously I can't compare my sales with the old template to the new one, but I sure don't think there is that big of a difference. Same reason after having a 5.9% marketplace fee, I went back to the straight 2.9% as I never saw an increase in sales, just an increase in fees. I've been selling on line for 14 years now on many different venues, and I am always surprised at the weird things sellers will do in the attempt to get more sales. The weirdest, IMHO, is to ask us here what problems we find with their store, we tell them and a year later they haven't done a single change and are still singing the 'woe is me' song due to lack of sales. Currently I'm at almost 4800 sales HERE, I don't know about some of the other sellers that try to help out newbies or those having trouble, but when we have offered advice at times the fight with us and basically tell us we don't know what we are talking about or that is their way of doing things, live with it -- such as those that write out their whole description in caps! But instead of taking responsibility for what they are doing, they blame poor sales on their store template. Or anything really that is out of their hands. I would be curious to know how many sellers sales actually improved after they switched over.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but to understand my choices, you kind of have to understand the thought process behind them.

[PegsBUTTONS]