Friday, October 31, 2008

First Etsy Sale


Still reeling from the great turnout at the holiday show on Saturday, I opened my email on Sunday morning to find that I had my first sale at etsy. I did a happy dance down the hall and gave my husband a high five. I have been listing my inventory slowly and working hard on promoting my shop. I wondered when/if a sale would happen. I realize it takes time and considered that maybe people don't want to be your first. (For example, at ebay I would hestiate to buy from a new seller) I was so excited when I saw the email. A pair of my holiday Christmas tree earrings sold. Woohoo!

Not long ago I made some purchases from etsy to see how the process works when you are a buyer. What I noticed is there wasn't a lot of communication. I didn't get a confirmation from the seller when I placed the order, when I paid for the order, etc. This was a good exercise because I realized how important it is to communicate with buyers. My first buyer may get tired of hearing from me, but I certainly plan to keep the lines of communcation open.

I was curious about how she found my shop. I am in KY and she is in PA. I asked her about it and she told me that she likes shopping with etsy and she had purchased some holiday earrings last year from a particular shop. Her friend wanted a pair like them and she went to the original artist and found the shop was no longer on etsy. She then did a search for "Swarovski crystal" and "Christmas tree" and found a bunch to look through. She told me that mine were the "nicest and a good buy." And because they had a green bead at the top and all the others were red, her friend liked those the best as green is her favorite color. I thought that was a cool story!

Part II

The buyer received her earrings on Wednesday and emailed to say she wanted a pair for herself too. So Wednesday night I made another pair, posted them and sold them. Thursday I shipped the second pair to her.

It reminds me of my friend Lisa. When we see something that we love, we buy it for each other. And then we buy one for ourselves too. I know if I love it, Lisa will love it too!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Kim!!! Your first etsy sale, how cool!! Congratulations! i've only had an etsy shop since July but i'm still so excited and thrilled when something sells!

Congratulations!

ChezChani said...

Beautiful pair of earrings, the only thing wrong with them is people might be inclined to only wear them around the holidays. Is that fair to the earrings? Do they not deserve better than being stuck in a dark jewelry box the rest of the year?

Dee Comer Godwin said...

Congratulations on your first Etsy sale, Kim! I wish you many more!

A very nice post on Etsy transactions. I, too, learned that communication is important with online transactions.

Have a wonderful day!
Dee

Expressions By Devin said...

Congrats on your first sale:0)Those earring are Amazing:0)

Unknown said...

Aw man, I'm only a few days late to comment! ...grin... I was pouncing away on etsy when your shop came across on the newly sold list, so I knew you'd sold some earrings! Congrats on the sale! And the following one too!

Carmen