According to Etsy, I am 10 sales away from 100 sales. I know I have sold many more than 100 items, most of my custom orders are multiple items inside of one listing, but this is a little milestone to look forward to.
Thinking of inventory, I'm trying to figure out if I should put my shop on Vacation mode if I get accepted to these big craft shows. I'll find out if I make it to one or both of them in the next 3 weeks. So for three weeks it will be Etsy business as usual. But if I get accepted to the shows, I may have to close shop for a while to conserve inventory.
My concern is if I get accepted to both big shows that will be 4 days I will need to stay stocked. Since I have never done shows of this scale before I can't predict in advance what will sell and what won't. I want to have a good-sized inventory. I have 61 things listed online right now. I have another 40+/- things not yet listed. I'll be making a few more items out of supplies I already have. But I don't want to spend a lot of money on materials to bulk up inventory because that essentially eats up any profits I haven't even made yet! Heck, I don't even know if any of my products will sell! I could come out at a loss just paying the booth fees!
However...I don't want to have my shop closed for over a month and shut out my dear online customers. Especially it being so close to the gift-giving season and all. There's got to be a happy medium.
How do you crafty folk do it? How do you balance your shop and your craft show inventory?
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3 comments:
I haven't had my etsy shop very long (but until I started etsy, I was one of the old e-Bay people - from 2005 until present). I would leave my shop online open until they day before my show (I like local shows).
My first HUGE show was earlier this year. It started on Apr 29 or 30th... I closed my store on the day I had to go out and get my vendor tags/was shown my placement and reopenned my store 3 days after my show. That way, I felt my stuff was still able to be seen on-line, but since I was always a 2-3 sales per week person, I wouldn't lower my inventory too much and I didn't feel like I was giving up potential sales.
Sorry for the long response and I hope your big shows are a success!
Thank you Shore! Long responses are always appreciated. :)
I am also a 2-3 sales a week person. I guess I shouldn't fret too much. At least not yet - I haven't even been accepted to the shows yet! LOL!
I'm just going through scenarios in my head and trying to figure out potential problems before they happen. I over-think things. Bad habit of mine.
I appreciate you following me on my blog and I checked out your Etsy shop. I love your things. And I looks as though you do very well, I'm sure the shows will be a success for you. Good luck. I'm not to the point that you are in my little "business", so I will follow you to learn. Thanks.
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