Does your Etsy business or your Etsy store slow down in the summer months? The majority of Etsy stores experience a significant slow down in sales (not in traffic) over the summer months. But this year, you are canceling that summer slump – yep – summer slump … Cancelled!
The Holiday Rush
Do you know why it’s called the holiday rush? It’s because everyone is rushing around trying to get it all done … hence, the “holiday rush.” The same is true for most Etsy stores in the “etsy business world.” Things are slow in the summer, pick up around August, and by October, the “holiday rush” has begun. So as most Etsy sellers do when the summer season slows, they stop putting effort and energy into their Etsy stores. This year, you’re going to change all that … what follows are some of my best tips to help you get through the “summer slump” and beat the “holiday rush” all at once.
What To Do in the Summer
So why are you canceling your summer slump? Because if you don’t, the holiday rush will leave you frazzled and ready to rip your hair out. Trust me, I know the feeling …
Friday night dinner party … Saturday night hosting a family meal … Church on Sunday and a nap if you’re lucky … Back to work on Monday … More sales … Come home … Make dinner … Another sale … Sit down to Etsy … Too Tired ………. I’ll worry about it tomorrow.
Yep, I know what that feels like. And then summer comes and it’s your turn to relax, spend time with the kids, take a vacation from … well from everything. So your listings expire and you haphazardly renew them, not changing anything (which is wrong by the way).
So here’s what you’re going to do: you’re going to sit down and plan your holiday season NOW (yes it is early). You’re going to do this because you will find (if you’re like most Etsy stores) that with the slowing of sales you now have more time to work on your designs, market yourself, plan sales, get social media followers. And … here’s the best thing … you can do it in as little as an hour a day (see this post to learn how)!
The key is to work a little bit every day in order to accomplish big results.
Get In Your Studio This Summer
You do need a plan and a way to work a little bit every day. You will be more productive if you work in little amounts every day as opposed to cramming everything into a long 10 hour work day. Plus, you will be happier because you will fill your “creative need” but also be able to work ahead of yourself.
You need a plan of how you are going to work. Maybe daily studio time won’t work for you, that’s okay, but make a plan. My studio is a gorgeous polymer clay studio … but it’s in the basement and has only 2 glass block windows and no air conditioning. So my summer plan is to get in the studio in the morning, not in the afternoons / evenings like during the cooler months. But this will also allow time for me to enjoy the sun, gardening, and other “normal” summer afternoon activities.
Fill Your Etsy Store
Take these warm summer months and work on making new inventory to fill your Etsy store for the 4th of July, Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and yep … Christmas.
What Else Can You Do?
- Work on new designs
- New concepts for marketing
- Devise new social media strategies
- Start something new
- Work on evergreen content for you blog
- Do keyword searches
- Make new contacts in your field
- Join a new Etsy team to help inspire you
Don’t let this summer catch you being lazy. Take time to enjoy life and the warm summer months, but also work ahead to save yourself stress and heartache during the “holiday rush.”
Thanks for joining me today. Join me next week to Build Your Brand on Etsy & experience success.
Katie,
I came to know you from your FREE E book on Branding and now I am hooked. You have some awesome posts here.
It’s a great idea to think about the Holidays from now on and have a concrete plan and like you said in one of your post that you can always deactivate the items that you want to take to Craft Fair selling.
I am having hard time organizing my time with blogging, learning about online marketing and making new jewelry.
Then I also think to organize my Etsy store revising and retaking photos and so on. But the key thing is a to do list, like you said that makes sense and take little steps at a time. Thanks, Katie and I love your Parker:)
Dita from http://www.alankarshilpa.blogspot.com.
Thanks for joining me Dita! I’m glad to have you. I’m already working on some Christmas designs for this year. Keeping your Etsy store looking and feeling “fresh” is challenging and time consuming. I’m glad to hear that you’re still making a good effort with it though!
Thank you for this great post!
I’m planning on a major overhaul for my Etsy store, thinking about opening a few others to get all the things I make more organized like clay, gourds, dragons etc all together so it won’t all be crammed into one store and give it a really disheveled look (and feel).
I really need to do your suggested ‘keyword searches’ and try to figure out why some things have 20 views and others have only 3 when they have the same keywords in the description/title.
You mention “Work on evergreen content for you blog” but I’m not really sure what you mean with that?
For the summer I’m planning to make a lot so I can steadily stock my store(s) and am already working on Halloween and Christmas things, something I’ve not done before LOL It feels weird to work on Christmassy things when it is so hot here 😉 but it does make sense.
We used to go to shows so I would work towards those, but don’t have those anymore so I would really love for my Etsy store to get going and take off. Been looking at eBay too, but that is just too fickle for me… It’s all still rather new for me, having a store instead of shows, and I still need to do a lot of work but, hopefully, eventually I’ll get there 🙂
I love your Etsy related posts, they help me a great deal 🙂
Hey Astrid – I love that you check-in here and tell me what’s going on in your world. I also love that you come ladled with questions for me to answer. You are awesome. “Evergreen” content is content that is ALWAYS relevant to your blog, regardless of time or season. Tutorials are a good example, they are always relevant, someone is always looking for them. Make sense? Let me know.
You always have such great advice. I’ve been working on inventory since the “holiday rush” and I’ve found that the more you put in your shop and remain active the better.
There is always someone looking for what you have. It’s just a matter of whether they can find you or not. And if you continue stocking your shop you have a better chance of them finding you. Great post!
Thank you! I’m so glad to have you joining me today!