I still have the letter

So, I promised some time ago that I would write about my experience being featured seller. This promises to be dry, long, and filled with numbers, and is really geared to all of my lovely friends who also sell on Etsy. Sorry to everyone else.

One dark summer evening (unfortunately right before attempting to go to bed) I received this convo:

 

I mostly read the first line: “We think your work is awesome, and would like to make you the Featured Seller on ….”

At that point, my already sleepy brain shorted out, frizzled, and then proceeded to not let me sleep for the rest of the night. I had been selling since January of that year, and didn’t really feel prepared or deserving of it at all.

I had three months to get ready. And very little guidance on what to expect for items at my price points. I stalked other featured sellers, did lots of reading, and tried to get some idea of what I was in for, but information was difficult to come by.

So here is what I did:

1) I got better pictures (THANK YOU KRISTIN).  I’ve seen other sellers do the same thing right before being featured, and it was a good move. It’s all that they used in the interview.

2) I created more price points. Up to that point, my lowest priced item was a $70 shirt. I introduced accessories, and had items that were $15, $35, $50, etc. These sold like crazy.

3) I hoarded like the crazy old lady down the street who owns 50 years of National Geographics, and isn’t exactly sure where in her house the cat crawled off to die. Seriously. I posted next to nothing all summer, and accumulated numerous copies of all of my designs. By the time the Featured Seller came through, I had approximately three copies of each size of each design, plus extra of what I thought would be more popular.

And here is what happened. 

Before all of this, on a normal day (granted I was posting very little) I would receive between six and sixteen hearts. The blips of 41 or 30 were when I got front page features. That actually happened a lot the week before the feature because I started posting items like a crazy person. I went from having about 20 items in my shop to 60 or 70.

Part way through the first day as featured seller, I had 720 new shop hearts and counting. You’ll note the enormous amounts of hearts on the items too. The ones with the most hearts are the ones that were either in the actual write up, or I had them featured on my page so that were seen by everyone. HINT: rotate your featured items so they get equal love.

These are the final numbers: 

It started noon Friday, and went through until noon Monday. The numbers actually got cut off on this chart because they were so high. Day 1 and Day 2 had over 120,000 page views. Craftopolis actually stopped working for me during this. I couldn’t load information after the first day until AFTER the feature was over.

I really can’t tell you how much work it was. I was packaging and e-mailing literally the entire three days, and I barely slept. I was prepared for the selling, but I was not ready for the volumes of convos that I received. Tons of them were asking for custom work, wholesale, or just general question about the items and fit, but just as many were from well-wishers and new fans. I got so many truly incredible e-mails from people. I am constantly amazed by the number of wonderful, supporting artists out there who ‘get’ what I am doing, and who really feel like they connect to me. Hooray for finding out that I’m not as insane as I thought!

Or at least that I’m not alone in my insanity.

But what you are really here for is the sales numbers. Correct?

June: 18 sales
July: 14 sales
August: 72 sales (53 happened during the feature)
September: 45 sales

It’s not the hundreds of sales that I’ve heard can happen, but even with my new price points, my average item price is much higher than some of the other sellers whose experiences I’ve read about. My average sale was about $80 during those three days. In total, I made approximately $4,700 in sales. I like to look at it this way:  During the three days of being featured seller, I sold almost the same amount as in the previous three MONTHS.

That makes me feel accomplished.

Oh, and funny story: I thought my interview was due three days later than it actually was. Luckily I re-read the e-mail from Adam to see if I had missed anything, and got it turned in slightly before midnight that day. Go me.  Anyway, I hope that is helpful to someone out there. I know I could have used it. If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask. I will do my best to help!

 

Comments

[Amanda]

SO amazing!! I am so proud of you, Minkie :) LOVE your clothes, and wear them all the time, so I was super thrilled to see you as a Featured Seller! Hope I can get there someday! :) xoxo

[Marion]

Good story. I think it is indeed very helpful to other featured sellers in the future to read about your experience, to know what they can expect and be prepared :)
I'm really glad your fabulous work has become more known this way, you deserve it!

[amy]

Wow, those are some inspiring numbers. You totally deserve it, you have a fantastic collection and are so creative. Thanks for sharing!

[waterrose]

Thanks for the information...very insightful. Seems like it is a double edge sword, but it's good to know they give you months to prepare then days (as I've heard from others).

[Sandra]

Hi Minkie,

Thanks for sharing. What a great an exciting time that must have been for you. Congrats on the successes that you had then and now. This was very informative and hopefully sometime in the future we can compare notes.

Sandra

[The Magic Onions]

Wow... excellent!! Thank you so much for sharing... I've always wondered.
Blessings and magic,
Donni - Fairyfolk

[Roxana]

Thank you Minkie. I always wondered how the featured seller thing on Etsy all worked and you've gone into everything in such great detail!
Now...if I could just figure out the secret to becoming one....

[Katy]

I think you should be featured again!
xo, Katy

[Abigail]

i am one of those new fans and loved reading this post! wonderful information even if we're not preparing to be featured (but it never hurts to be ready ;) ) thanks for writing about your experience and congrats again!!

[Raul]

You are amazing Minkie! Go Go Go! Also, I am working on the ads right now!

[margot]

great write up, Minkie! you did a good job of tracking it all, and it's so generous of you to post it all here ;). i had to giggle about the convos, too. congratulations on your feature. your work is beautiful and your photos are creative and nicely done!

[Swan]

Cool to read. I was a featured seller closer to the beginning of etsy and things weren't quite the same. And all my items then were around $175-$200. But sales came from it and general attention from everywhere. There was no Craftopolis then! So funny, it wasn't even that long ago.