Book Print Sales Update!
I hope you are having an enjoyable summer, my kids are home for the holidays now and we have a family vacation planned for late August.
Traditionally I have taken a break from listing my book plate prints on ebay during the quiet summer months but this year I decided to maintain my listings on both ebay and Etsy and I have some interesting sales stats to report.
Sales on ebay are slow which is typical for this time of the year – however, the sales from my Etsy shop are showing no signs of slowing down at all!
My Etsy sales have averaged around 1 sale per day in May and June and July has started in a similar vein.
Read on to discover a couple of the things I have been doing to boost my sales.
‘Thank you’ notes
One of the techniques I am having success with is ‘thank you’ notes.
I have written a thank you note which I print onto quality, parchment type paper and include with all of my Etsy orders.
You can see the text of my note here;
click on the image to open it in a new window
The note is designed to do 3 things;
* Thank the buyer for their order
* Encourage the buyer to leave a review
* Encourage the buyer to visit my shop again and make additional purchases
I personalize the note by hand writing the buyer’s name at the top, hand signing it and I also add an expiry date which is 30 days after their initial purchase.
Limiting the availability of the offer with an expiry date is very important because it adds a sense of urgency and is much more likely to be used.
Search Ads
Recently I began testing Etsy’s Search Ads.
Search Ads are paid advertising spots that promote your items at the top of the search results when buyers search for keywords that match your items, you can read a detailed explanation of how they work here https://www.etsy.com/search-ads
You select your weekly budget and you are only charged when a searcher clicks on your item.
It is early days yet but so far I am pleased with my results;
click on the image to open it in a new window
The left hand figure is the amount I have spent so far, the impressions are the number of times my items have been displayed in search results. The revenue figure is quoted in Euros (my home currency) and is equal to $70 at time of writing.
Search Ads are very easy to set up, you simply choose your maximum weekly budget and whether you want to promote some or all of your items and Etsy chooses the keywords based on your item titles and tags.
If you have an established Etsy shop with a good number of items listed then I recommend you give Search Ads a try, if you have yet to take the plunge and open your Etsy shop then what are you waiting for?
There is no monthly fee to pay and Etsy’s transaction fees work out 80% cheaper than ebay’s!
PLUS, if you open your shop through my link you can list your first 40 items free!
>List For FREE on Etsy! <
Your comments, questions and ideas are very welcome – do you have any sales boosting tips that you’d like to share?
Talk soon!
.
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Hi i know I could look but can you sell through amazon if so how does it compare
I was considering buying a larger than A4
Coffee table book last night but then wondered how i would scan pictures as I only have an A4 Scanner
There are book plate prints listed for sale on Amazon. I haven’t sold on Amazon myself so I can’t give you any sales stats.
A basic home scanner will cope with 99% of book sizes, try a local print shop for anything bigger – they usually make a small charge per scan.
Good Idea
Very good advice. I am getting ready to start listing prints. I have been buying books with prints in them for about a month. I have about 250 different types of prints. I think I am going to list them on Etsy to start after reading your article. I do not have a website. Should I get a website? Thank you, David
Best of luck with your Etsy shop, David!
The main challenge of trying to sell anything from your own website is getting enough traffic to the site. You can have a beautiful site offering amazing products at great prices but without traffic you won’t make any sales.
This is why sales platforms like eBay, Etsy and Amazon are so valuable to small traders – they are a magnet for buyers looking for stuff.
It is much easier (and cheaper) to take your stuff to where the people are already gathered than to try to drive the people to your stuff.
A blog type site displaying items from your Etsy shop and maybe linked to your FB page is a useful add on to your Etsy/eBay/Amazon presence but isn’t something I’d recommend you worry about as a beginner.
Thank you for responding to my question about getting a website. Respectfully, David.
Hi Stuart,
Good post there mate. Good idea with the thank you note. I always send a letter thanking the customer and as you mention hand write their names etc. I haven’t listed on etsy for a long time, mind you didn’t list enough items. I have some vintage prints left which I could list I guess. What’s your opinion on selling reproduction prints? Do you think it’s an idea. I suppose I won’t know unless I give it a go. Enjoy your vacation in August. Will talk soon.
Regards
Donald
I haven’t researched reproduction prints on Etsy so I can’t offer any thoughts on this subject, Donald
It is easy enough to check if there is a demand for repro prints by searching for similar items then checking out the seller’s sales – I recommend you do this before spending time and money listing
Hi Stuart
Glad you doing so well selling on Etsy and many thanks for the great tips.
Must admit keep putting off opening shop on there. I had better get cracking.
Dont suppose you are going to write a guide about selling on Etsy?
Would be great to have one to study that is written from the prostective of a Uk seller
Gill
Funny you should ask about a guide to selling on Etsy, Gill – I’m working on one at the moment!
The thing to bear in mind with Etsy is that 99% of the buyers are in the US – so your listings need to be written with this in mind – mat not mount, color not colour etc.
Hi Stuart
Sorry I did not reply straight away.
Really happy to hear you working on Etsy guide will be first to buy.
Just checked out your shop and your prints look beautiful.
Happy Sales to all.
Gill
Thank you for sharing your notice to your customers with your readers. Putting an expiration date on coupons or discounts is a great tip!
Hi Stuart
Very interesting , But I am wondering how many items you have listed,on Ebay , and Etsy.
Or what would you recommend as a reasonable number of listings to aim for in this niche
I thought you lived in NE of England
Hi Ian
I was born and brought up in NW England (Liverpool) but now live in Ireland.
Currently I have just over 100 items listed on both Etsy and eBay. There isn’t really an optimum number of listings to aim for as it very much depends on the amount of time you have available. Obviously, the more you list the more you will sell.
My advice is to focus on Etsy which is where the bulk of my sales are coming from and aim to get multiple listings up for each section in your shop. The majority of my buyers buy more than one item (often four, five and more at a time) so you need to give them plenty of choice.