I'm excited to introduce a new column and a new contributor to you here today, Shannon Riffe from Make It and Rifferaff! Shannon has been an Etsy member for over 3 years and has a wealth of support and knowledge on what it takes to run a successful shop there. She'll be stopping by once a month with some Etsy specific marketing tips and selling advice, so if there are any particular topics you'd be interested in her covering here in the future, please let us know in the comments below! Now, here's Shannon to say hello!
Hi Modish Biz Tips Readers and thanks to Jena for having me here!
A few words in the way of introduction: My name is Shannon Riffe, I have a little creative business called Rifferaff where I make soap and screenprinted papers and I write about my craft-business adventures at my blog, Make It.
I’ve been an Etsy member since March 3, 2006 and have participated since that time as both a shopper and a buyer. I’m here to write exclusively on the topic of using Etsy for your business. I don’t present myself here as an expert on the topic, just someone who, like you, is currently running an Etsy shop and is interested in making it the best it can be.
Why Etsy? Well, I’m willing to bet at least 80% of the readers of this blog have an Etsy shop. The ease of set-up, and high visibility of the site, coupled with the low costs and low risks associated with trying it out, makes it essentially the go-to site for small home-based creative businesses. Etsy is exploding with so many new members that it’s hard to believe the site has only been around since June 18, 2005.
What’s not hard to believe is that Etsy has, truly, revolutionized the retail landscape. Many of the tried and true rules for starting a brick and mortar store or a wholesale line are completely irrelevant in the face of Etsy.
Even the tried and true rules for online commerce have been flipped upside down. Terminology such as “relist,” “front page,” “feedback,” “hearts,” “storque,” and “treasury,” may be meaningless to the owner of a brick and mortar store, or a vendor at a trade show, but they’re integral features of operating a successful Etsy shop.
Etsy has made the barrier to entry so low that a lot of people with no previous experience are starting small businesses. But we’re learning as we go, through trial and error, blogs like this, and through the great, supportive online community.
Did you know Etsy sold $12 million dollars worth of inventory and logged over 502 million page views in-way-with-shannon-riffe the month of March alone? The site has the advantage of giving you a space of your own while also generating its own traffic and drawing in large numbers of visitors.
Despite the recession, Etsy continues to grow while established retail giants go out of business. By circumventing the old retail model and putting the power directly in the hands of the creator, the only thing keeping you from being a success is your own desire to put in the time and effort with your product and learn how to use the site to your best advantage.
The goal of this column will be to talk about my own experiences on Etsy – the highlights and the failures – and also address topics you’re interested in that are specifically related to running an online shop through Etsy.
I hope we get an active comments section going in future posts so people will share their own personal experiences or add their own two cents regarding the column topic. As I mentioned earlier, this is new terrain for all of us, and we all benefit from the more voices that contribute.
I have plenty of topics in mind for future posts but I also want to
know: What aspects of successful selling on Etsy would you like to
learn more about?
Shannon Riffe has written Make It, a blog about
building a craft business, since 2006. She is currently based in Ann
Arbor, MI and makes handmade soap with screenprinted paper wrappers for
her business, Rifferaff
