How are you going to prepare your business for the holiday rush? Some Valuable TIPS!

[Serena Lee Pena]

If you have an Etsy store like me, it's essential to prepare for the holiday season to make the most of the potential sales and possible future returning customers.

Although the holidays do provide an opportunity for shop owners to make up for slow sales that occurred all year, for the unprepared online store owner the holiday season can be a disaster, rather than a profitable success. Being unprepared for increased sales, having slow shipping times and out of stock items will most likely annihilate your holiday sales profits and probably your sales for the new year. Adding new products, advertising more aggressively, and multiple listing of your products will not help you if you are unable to handle the increased sales.

Before I do anything else, I would consider whether or not my Etsy store carries the items people tend to purchase as gifts. Shoppers typically purchase clothing, jewelry, toys or electronics, especially unique ones, as gifts. Either way, it's pertinent to evaluate what is needed in order to ultimately maximize holiday sales revenues. Lucky for us Etsy Shops, most of us do indeed sell these items, so this is in our favor.

FIRST:

I would want to have help. Get a family member or friend to assist with production, paperwork, listing, advertising, accounting, sales promotions, or handling orders. I've learned that I can't do all that myself and keep my sanity! If you want more sales, you have to make sure you have the ability and help to handle such increased volume.

SECOND:

I make sure to have enough items in stock. I typically pre-make everything, but if I do get a special custom order, I am diligent to inform the customer the time it will take to create and ship the item to them. I ALWAYS overestimate this time to insure customer satisfaction every time. Underestimating such time will not only irritate your customer, but it will also stress you out and even possibly lower the customer's persuasion of your business and you DON'T want that!

THIRD:

I always order packaging early. Why wait? I just go to the USPS website and order plenty of boxes and envelopes. Take an inventory of what you will need such as bubble wrap (or packing peanuts), and order it four weeks in advance. It's important to know the shipping date deadlines, too. You don't want to be floundering around for a last minute box or packing because you failed to order in enough advance time!

FOURTH:

I would also suggest that a newbie join groups, forums, referral sites and free advertising platforms and interact with other sellers. The best way to learn about online selling, as with anything in life, is to talk to others who have experience. You will save valuable time and money by learning from the mistakes of others. This is why I offer this free advertising platform called Free Craft Marketing Network. I also encourage the rest of our members to refer other artisans and crafters to join to benefit from these free resources.


Plus there are some other great sites like these below:

http://IndiePublic.com Free Artisan Networking

http://craftster.org Free Crafter Networking

http://craftbuddy.com Free Artist/Crafter Networking

http://EtsyBloggers.com Free Etsian Network with neato Blogosphere!

http://www.myspace.com Free Social Networking

http://crafting.gotop100.com/index.php Free Craft Network

http://www.craftsolutions.com/ Free Craft Network & Newsletter

http://www.twitter.com Free Mini Blogging and Networking

http://www.ning.com/ Free Networking with other Artisans and Anyone else

http://Yahoo360.com Free Networking

LAST:
MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING!! I've managed to advertise and market virtually FREE of cost with the help of FREE Brochure Making Software, Free Business Card Making Software, Free Photo Editing Software, Free Inventory Tracking Software, Free SEO software and Free Entrepreneur Tips and Articles.
It is crucial to know your SEO basics if you have a shop with Etsy or have your own website (if not, try http://eCrater.com for a FREE e-Commerce store of your own with NO LISTING OR COMMISSION fees AND is backed by Google Shopping).

SOME TARGETED SITES TO ADVERTISE ON FOR FREE:

http://www.url.biz/Arts/Crafts/ Free Craft Advertising

http://www.inetgiant.com/ Free Advertising

http://www.oldevillagedepot.com/plug_board.html Free Primitive Crafts Advertising

http://Kijiji.com

http://LinkReferral.com Free Link Sharing!


http://RingSurf.com Free Advertising for Etsy Sellers!

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Although it doesn't happen overnight, with these FREE tools, I have significantly increased my sales volume, especially during the HOLIDAYS, throughout the years and so can you, so long as you are steadfast and consistent in your marketing campaign.

Have a question? Leave one in my comment box. I LOVE feedback and I LOVE to help others!