I work full time out of my studio. My preference would be to sell online
only as it suits my lifestyle however putting all my eggs in one basket
makes me nervous, so I wholesale, keep work with galleries, do a couple 2
maybe 3 craft shows a year and occasionally teach or do community art to
keep me in the loop but yes I do make a good amount from my Etsy account
more before they became a traded stock but still worth the effort,
currently 80%+ comes from my Etsy account.
As for hours, its all over the place. Some weeks I might slack and work on
the house or garden and other weeks I might work 80 hours depending on the
work load. I would say that in general I spend 40 a week mostly in the
studio. When its slow I try to take time to take new photos, make
listings, and build stock parts. My Etsy account is stocked with about 200
pieces of which most are stock photos of reproducible work that I would
hope people would describe as well made classics. I do occasionally post
one of a kinds and limited editions which take time to sell but they do.
I have sold work from $20 to $3000 on Etsy, however I would say my best
selling price point is $100 for Etsy and in the galleries. I think the
hardest part of sales in any environment is figuring out the right price.
I see a lot of people on Etsy selling their work at wholesale prices and
transitioning to retail pricing seems to be where a lot of the problem
lays.
Things I like about Etsy include that they make it easy to set up your shop
and donāt charge a monthly fee to maintain your shop. They come with a
built in audience, reduced shipping rates and other stuff like analytics
that I like.
Things that I don"t like about Etsy include a lot of shops reselling items
found on Alibaba as handmade, sometimes I have a hard time looking at the
shops with poorly made and supper hipster items in it, also I feel like
becoming a publicly traded company hurt them and their artists.
One more thing I like about Etsy is that they donāt judge your workā¦ It
goes to one of the items I didnāt like above, but if you enjoy making
multiple lines of work or are transitioning between ideas Etys lets you
show it all and test it out. Lots of places seem to really not like it
when your body of work is to different from itself, Etsy doesnāt care you
can show it all. I do like that.
If you have specific questions that I didnāt answer just let me know.
I find that searching āMetalsmith Jewelryā on Etsy returns nice results and shopsā¦more one of a kind, handmade, versus commodity and assembled itemsā¦
then, sometimes, I will check off the filters: āhandmadeā, and "over $100ā¦or type in a price range, like $500 to $2500ā¦
Wow! Orchid and itās citizens so rock.
Thanks for everyone who is chiming in on this. I will be teaching a class soon on the Business of Jewelry. Though I have an extensive and wide ranging background in jewelry making and selling I have never used Etsy and I want to be able to speak intelligently about it.
For all of you out thereā¦As I am gathering info for the class, what topics would all yāall be most interested in having covered in a class on the biz of jewelry?
Thanks fellow Orchidians.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
-Jo
I absolutely agree! I have had a shop on Etsy since 2007. The past couple of years I have taken a hit because of the economy. I love the community. Most people coming to shop there realize they might pay a little more, but they believe it is worth it to get a OOAK or custom item. The cost is minimal and you get international exposure!
Another great shopping search phrase to find unique things on Etsy is to type in 'OOAK jewelry", or OOAK necklace, etcā¦or āOne of a Kind Jewelryā, etcā¦
I will often filter āhandmadeā versus vintageā¦although I love vintage as well!
and over $100
and maybe addā¦sterling silverā¦or goldā¦to narrow things downā¦
Oh Todd! So sorry to see your name at the bottom of this letter. Thank you for sharing, however. I havenāt registered a trademark yet, nor any of the pieces Iāve made for the very reason you mentioned above. I donāt have the money to pursue a legal case anyway. I can see why you did with such a hot seller and fairly large specific market.
I have sold on Etsy for over 7 years and my experience has been pretty good. Because I use unusual stones, artifacts and fossils, so far I have not been copied. It would be hard to copy the things I do. In any case it has been a good venue for me even though I am high endā¦I seem to attract the people who like unusual pieces from all over the world. I donāt sell huge amounts, but quite enough to make it well worth using the venue.
Carole
It is some funny timing to see this show up. After several years of playing around with online stores and whatnot, Iām officially making the shift back to wholesale this year. I had originally sold in galleries and stores, but as time moved on and the efforts of wholesale crept up while the margins moved down (along with wanting more time with my young kids), I thought it would be better to go the online route. After messing around with it for several years, I have decided that it just isnāt worth the hassle. As others observed, this may not be an issue for more inexpensive goods ($25-500 range or so), but it would seem that as soon as you go above around the $500 mark, sales drop-off dramatically. Iād love to hear anyone elseās take on this, but my experience and interaction with clients/customers has been that a lot of jewelry is just too personal to purchase online. Itās one thing to take a chance on a $250 ring, but no matter how many pictures or videos you have, thereās no substitute for seeing $3000 item in person and this becomes even stronger when you get into artsy-style stuff. Itās different when you are doing basic designs that are more generic in nature (main-stream jewelry, standard engagement rings, etc.), but as soon as you get off the beaten path in your designs, thereās nothing for the customer to reference in their experience. Theyāve likely been multiple jewelry stores and can easily envision how that platinum ring with diamond pave`looks in person, but that more āartsyā design. . .? Theyāve got no frame of reference and have to rely solely on the pictures/videos and thatās just asking too much when spending that kind of money. Sure, there are outliers, but by-and-large, theyāre about as rare as hens teeth.
The one exception to this is if you are also in-stores yourself yet still have an online presence. When I first started, I was wholesale only, then I added in a retail website, then I eventually stopped wholesaling all over the course of probably 10 years. It was when I stopped wholesaling that sales really dried up and I believe it was because no one could see my work first-hand anymore and there was a lack of confidence in buying online. It lends a certain amount of validity to your site if you can show you are in brick-and-mortar stores. People are still skeptical about making large, unique purchases online from moderately-obscure sites like your average independent jeweler. Having a physical retail presence I think gives the customer a lot of confidence that youāre not some fly-by-night outfit thatās going to leave them high and dry once theyāve made a purchase.
Anyway, thatās may basic take on it. Now to head back to the bench to begin revamping my line and ironing out all the details in wholesaling again. Oh how Iām NOT looking forward to contacting stores and galleries and such again. . .
Hi Erich - here are a few of my own comments on this. Obviously only one personās opinion
Our primary business (CustomMade.com) makes fully custom jewelry, and we are 100% online and growing very quickly. You are correct that it is very challenging, but I donāt think itās impossible. It does require very good systems, people, processes, and marketing materials to do it, and those cannot be developed quickly and easily. In fact, we purchased back the CustomMade website specifically to build this business.
Our average order size is a lot higher than this, and while it does require a great deal of back and forth and a lot of imagery/sketching/CAD work, it is workable. Howeverā¦ we are truly 100% custom. Everything is actually made from scratch for you, whether your piece is $300 or $3,000. I do agree though, that selling commodity product gets VERY challenging. People today want a purchasing experience, not just a product.
Fascinating! Thanks for the insight. I took a preliminary look at the site to see exactly what/how it is presented and the nature of the business. Itās a beautiful design layout youāve developed and definitely looks like youāve managed to create an āexperienceā as you mentioned. . . or at least, as much as one could expect when not in person. Congratulations!
On a side note, you mentioned everything being made by scratch even if the piece is $300 dollars. Perhaps Iām just naive (or I charge too much ), but I canāt conceive how much of anything custom can be done for such a small amount. I mean, Iāve done that before, but itās never been worth it since the design/communication time alone pretty much eats up a good portion of the balance much less materials and fabrication labor. In fact, I can remember working for a jeweler in my hometown who said he wouldnāt even bother to pick up a wax (his euphemism for touching any custom work) for less than $700.
He was the cheapest one in town at the time. . .and that was over 20 years ago! Iām always fascinated to hear such differences that can exist around the country like this.
Thanks again for sharing that information. As I mentioned, itās fascinating stuff!
I sell at least 95% of my stuff at a local market. Iām there every week so have built up a following. About 4 months ago I decided to try Etsy. Yesterday I went to Etsy and did a search for my shop. It took me to other shops which make jewelry similar to mine, but not a single piece of my jewelry came up. As a part of Etsyās rules you can not put anything on Etsy which draws people away from Etsy. Well, fair should be fair. Etsy shouldnāt be taking people away from my Etsy shop. Remember, I searched specifically for my shop. In the four months Iāve been with Etsy Iāve sold a small 5% of my sales on Etsy.
), but I canāt conceive how much of anything custom can be done for such a small amount. I mean, Iāve done that before, but itās never been worth it since the design/communication time alone pretty much eats up a good portion of the balance much less materials and fabrication labor. In fact, I can remember working for a jeweler in my hometown who said he wouldnāt even bother to pick up a wax (his euphemism for touching any custom work) for less than $700.
We use systems and software to make things very efficient, so we can do custom at a price point others cannot.