When do people start buying for the Holiday Season? There is no simple answer to that. Hobby Lobby and other supply stores leave some of their Christmas items up all year. There are even Christmas stores that keep their doors open all year long. I started working on my Christmas Ornaments, pictured above, in August and plan to have them up for sale next week. After that, I plan to leave them up all year long.
It is a good idea to use one of your 10 shop sections on Etsy for Holiday and Seasonal items. It is a little easier on ArtFire because they allow many more shop sections. I think it is worth it to keep the items up all year, even if it will cost you $0.80 a year on Etsy. It is free to keep your listing up on ArtFire all year long.
The rest of the Holidays, other than Christmas, should also be left up all year. There are plenty of people out there that decorate for Halloween all year long, believe me, I know a few. You just never know what people are going to buy. People may stumble onto your item in May and bookmark it to buy it in November.
Leaving items up all year long will help to prepare you for any and all Holidays. It will give you a bit of a head start on everyone else, too. Etsy sent out a newsletter that was a preview of Christmas and that will get customers started to get into the Holiday spirit and just maybe get into the buying spirit!
I also leave a few items up year-round. I am still posting fall and Halloween items, but am beginning to work on my Christmas stock. My plan is to have at least 20 items online by October 1st and to continue to add to them through the holidays.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to have a Holiday section. I recently added one and moved my stock around.
Love reading your articles! Thanks for writing them. :-)
I started leaving my holiday items all year long about two years ago. And that's when I discovered that people buy Christmas ornaments in June. I don't get it, but I always get a little mid-summer rush on ornaments. Maybe the heat has people longing for snowflakes or something.
ReplyDeleteAm trying out some holiday novelties this year; am creating them to try out locally at a charity bazaar at the end of September, and then will list them on Etsy. See how it goes. Most of toys though are "all year round" varieties, and I write about them at www.ColdhamCuddliescalling.blogspot.com (the shop is www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com). Please call round: we'd love to see you and all comments (and followers) are most welcome!
ReplyDeletemY ETSY SHOP HAS SOME GREAT GIFTS TO BUY AND I HAVE CHRISTMAS STUFF
ReplyDeletepotterybynoelle has some great gifts to buy
ReplyDeletehttp://www.etsy.com/shop/potterybynoelle
I don't really do "seasonal" items, because they tend to be seasonal because of their nature, however, I think what you say here is a great idea! Maybe I should make seasonal items to just leave in the shop and get people thinking...;-)
ReplyDeleteYou've mentioned having both an Artfire and an Esty shop - do you find it is twice as much work to market both? Or are there some synergies? Are there any differences when you market shops in different venues?
ReplyDeleteAsteropeBC, Etsy and ArtFire are two very different venues. They both have their positives and negatives. It is a lot of work to have both shops since I have over 170 items in my Etsy shop and over 100 items in my ArtFire shop. ArtFire does have a flat fee and that is nice. List as much as you want and sell as much as you can for one fee. If you decide you want an ArtFire shop click the link to the right that says "Sell Without Fees, Create Without Limits..." and you and I both will get one month free. That is another benefit to ArtFire, they have a decent referral program. Also, buyers do not have to have an account to buy on ArtFire which is nice.
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