Postage from South Africa, your cheapest options

Postage from South Africa always seems astronomically high, and it's tough to try compete with US based Etsy sellers. On top of that the people behind the counter at the South Africa Post Office (SAPO) don't offer advice on how to lower your costs.

My first revelation was that if you use an envelope sized 353 x 250 mm with a maximum thickness of 30mm and are posting something weighing up to 300g - it will only cost R30.65, but make sure they use the 'large letter' category. (This is in comparison to R23.30 per 100g (or part there of) for a small parcel - a saving of R39.25!)

My latest revelation was that PostNet could be cheaper - their Global Mail product uses DHL to the border, and then local postal services to your customer. Their pricing is also per gram (not per 100g) which made me suspect they would work out cheaper, but after creating a quick Excel sheet, I found out not:

weight	SAPO	PN (UK)	PN (USA)	PN (EU)	PN (Else)
300	30.65	118.2	120.9	122.4	132.6
350	93.2	137.9	141.05	142.8	154.7
400	93.2	157.6	161.2	163.2	176.8
450	116.5	177.3	181.35	183.6	198.9
500	116.5	197	201.5	204	221
550	139.8	216.7	221.65	224.4	243.1
600	139.8	236.4	241.8	244.8	265.2
650	163.1	256.1	261.95	265.2	287.3
700	163.1	275.8	282.1	285.6	309.4
750	186.4	295.5	302.25	306	331.5
800	186.4	315.2	322.4	326.4	353.6
850	209.7	334.9	342.55	346.8	375.7
900	209.7	354.6	362.7	367.2	397.8
950	233	374.3	382.85	387.6	419.9
1000	233	394	403	408	442

Note: weight in grams, prices in rands (ZAR).

The real question now is, will your customer think you are weird if you send lots of small 300g parcels? It is undoubtably the cheapest, but I guess more separate pieces means more chance of them getting lost. Hmmmm

Advice from the Etsy forums

From the Etsy success newsletter (which I blogged about before) - 20 questions your buyers are asking - advice on how to make those item descriptions perfect.

Attention to detail

I love buying stuff from Etsy - there is often something extra thrown in and the sellers generally have spent some time on the small details, which makes it perfect for present buying (especially when your friends are posting distance away).

These are the things I have appreciated
- something small and free (stuff from the shop, magnet)
- business card (to keep in touch)
- Etsy receipt (just printed out from the site)
- nice packaging (recyclable envelope, paper tissue, handmade jewelry bags)
- personal note

I must admit that I didn't spend much time on making the parcel but I almost always sent something small along.

Optimise your Etsy shop

I have subscribed for the Etsy Success newsletter and today I read an interesting article by stellaloella about optimising your Etsy shop for searching. If the acronym SEO means nothing to you, the article tells you how to help people find your site when they search in Google (or another search engine such as Yahoo) and how to control the summary text they see in the search results.

The highlights

• choose your shop title wisely - this is part of the heading when your shop appears in a search result
• the first 1-2 sentences in your shop announcement is the search result summary, so it's best to start off with a description of what you sell (use lots of important keywords)
• your shop sections are now also important keywords used to help direct people to your shop (and of course item tags).

Etsy success PDF book

Thanks to the Modish Biz Tips blog, here is a free Etsy PDF book "Secrets of savy Etsy Sellers" compiled by On the Dot Creations. I learnt something - when selling clothes, take photos of side and back views.

Pricing on Etsy

The art of pricing is always tough thing to get right. If you are priced too low people will think your stuff is inferior (this is the internet where people can't touch and feel) and if you are too high that is obviously an immediate turn-off.

Shipping can also be something that stops people buying, but they do understand if you are honest about how much it costs (packaging and shipping costs) and tell them why you are charging more than the shop next door (FedEx, special packaging, etc).

This is how I do it.

First work out your costs - include materials and then your time (e.g. going to the shops, listing the item, photographing) and don't forget about Etsy and Paypal fees.

Then search for similar items and see what they are selling for - remember to look and see if the shop has actually made any sales at that price.

Think about whether you would like to be on the cheap side and make more sales or rather be higher priced, better quality with fewer sales.

If you would prefer bulk sales, then offer a bulk discount and write that in your shop announcement.

Finally, I always say start high because you can always decrease your prices. Experiment - some people say .99c is a bad idea, while others say it works well for them.

Have fun!

Resources
Etsy fee calculator
Chris Parry's spreadsheet on pricing

South Africans are also creative and online

If you're living in South Africa and want to open an Etsy shop, there are a couple extra hurdles. South Africans can't open PayPal accounts and receive money (unless they have overseas bank accounts). So enter Setcom and 2CheckOut...

I haven't used Setcom, and 2Checkout is ok. Because Etsy isn't integrated with these payment solutions, only PayPal, you as a seller will have to generate links to direct people to sites where they can pay.

2Checkout has a "create invoice" page to send an email to your buyer, but you must first create your product and be careful with the weight, so that the shipping works out the same as on Etsy. There is a complicated weight set-up process, but once you have worked out your postage costs you should be fine. The other option (instead of the weight/shipping price table) is to just include the price of the weight into the Product in 2Checkout. The fees are ok - 5.5% + $0.49 per transaction (including shipping), $49 setup fee (obviously more expensive than PayPal, which is 3.9% + $0.30) but they do allow your customers to pay with their credit cards directly, and they don't need to sign-up. Downside: 2Checkout will only pay you in batches of $300 or $600, and you will probably get charged by your bank for an international deposit (Absa charges around R100 I believe).

I don't have personal experience with Setcom .. all I know at the moment is that other South Africans use it, like skinnylaminx, and are very successful. By looking at their site it seems like it is an alternative PayPal (so potential customers must sign-up) but the fees are quite high - 4.9% + R2.50 and then on withdrawal too - R8 (because I bet there are very few places you could use the cash, unlike PayPal).

I really think South Africa have stuff to offer the world, especially handmade stuff sold from the person who made it (a rare treat), so I hope other creative and crafty people are able to open their own stores despite all the extra complications. Actually I know they are - it's going to explode soon looking at the number of shops that have popped up since I started selling. A previous post on ZA Etsy shops.

Use the Etsy shop local flash app to browse active shops in your area (or in South Africa, Durban, Johannesburg, or Cape Town)

If you are starting a new shop, you might be interested in my experiences with promotion on Etsy, advice from buyers to sellers, or browse my other posts about Etsy.

Sorry, another Etsy related post

Handmade Marketing, a blog I recently came across, has lots of tips for people who sell handmade.. Subscribe to their feed here.

I found the post about How to Read [a] Google Analytics Report quite interesting and informative. I have set up analytics on this blog and my etsy shop and it's interesting (and kinda addictive) to watch the numbers roll by.

Lucky for me I have an in-house online marketing expert to explain bounce rate (how long people are on your site), visitor loyality (how often the same people return). I also find the referring sites (sites linking to you) interesting, and have discovered some new websites that way. When I was experimenting with listing at different times I used the numbers to figure out which were more effective.

Take note - the data is updated once a day, so don't check too frequently.

My experiences on Etsy promotion

I had a fun time selling on Etsy, and I learnt a lot. Hopefully I have another shop in the future and perhaps it might be useful to put my Etsy experiences on record. If you have anything to add, please do comment :)

This is how I improved my listings

• for popular categories - such as fabric I listed at specific times of the day (e.g. USA lunch and dinner time).
• I also staggered fabric listings over several days and different times to maximise exposure at the top of the search list.
  
• I continually tried to improve my photos so they were (mostly) clear, good quality and show all possible angles of the product. My biggest lessons were to avoid using the flash as it distorts the colour and use macro to get closeup.
  
• worked on the first image so it enticed people to click and view my listing. (take care that when your images are cropped into squares by Etsy, that the photo still looks ok (to solve this simply crop the image yourself into a square)
• I added short and fun descriptions (something you would say to a person if you were actually standing in a shop)
• and descriptions that tell told buyer stuff they can't see in the photos - dimensions, weight, smell, texture, history/background
• looked at descriptions of similar items to see if I had missed out anything - especially shops that are doing well. When I added some information about how I refund shipping and that I only ship single pieces of fabric I got more sales. These are things that people buying fabric find important.
• updated my featured items for my regulars so they could easily see when I had new stuff
• if an item wasn't being received well, then I would change the photos and the description and eventually you find out what works
• renewed items if I had nothing new to add
• Adding measurements in cm and inches

How I helped people find my shop

• blogged and blogged just about almost daily
• linked my blog to my shop (using the Etsy mini tool)
• commented on other peoples' blogs (especially if they had anything to do with african fabric. And this was fun for me)
• told my friends and family
• put up links on Facebook - using the My Stuff application. (Do this with any other social networking sites you use e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter)
• posted in the forum (mainly in the critiques and promotions sections). Look out for posts with subjects that are relevant (e.g. if you sell fabric please post here). If you start your own posts remember to use subjects that tell people exactly what you are posting about because then people who are interested are directed to you.
• found shops that sell similar stuff to me, or used African fabrics to make stuff and made them my favourite. This meant they noticed me and could become my customers or their customers could maybe spot me.

Tags are important because they are how you drive people to your products. They are the words people use when they search. These are my tips

• you should use all 14 if possible
• think about what people who would buy your product would search for
  
• think of words that mean the same thing (especially American vs English vocab)
• include materials, location (African), theme and main colours

I also learnt that showcase doesn't necessarily generate sales (you can buy a spot for $7) - renewing your items a couple times was recommended (I never managed to prove this). And it helps if you buy things on Etsy because you know what you look for in the shops you support and you can see what the experience is like on the other side.

Why I love Etsy so much and want all my friends to have their own shops

Every time I think of Etsy I get this warm and fuzzy feeling. It's like a happy home filled with people who are like me (like to make stuff), probably all female too. So the main attraction is the community, which is evident in the forums (and I do like forums). People here really want your shop to succeed and will offer free critiques (of your store), advice from successful sellers, loads of free tools (more to come in future posts), storque and reams of self help guides to making your shop a success. If you are selling handmade items this is the place to sell - people here appreciate good quality, uniqueness and don't mind to pay the true value (once you factor in a living hourly wage). Now whenever I come across someone making cool stuff I always recommend Etsy.

Here's one more handy source of information:
The Etsy Seller Handbook: All Our How-Tos about Selling

Tips from Etsy buyers

I stumbled upon a post 'What turns you away from Sellers' in the Etsy forum which gives a lot of insight into why people would buy from one shop and not from another. It's a 72 page (at my viewing) post, so I'm made a summary of the interesting and frequently repeated points. I found quite a few issues raised made me think twice about my shop so hopefully it also gives you some ideas on how to increase those sales.

Sellers they won't buy from:

1. have an empty profile
2. don't specify their location
3. are people who are nasty on the forums
4. do not reply timeously to requests for information
5. have poor or no communication - especially after sale email which some people said put them off repeat purchases (whoops I was guilty of this one)
6. don't buy from other Etsy sellers

Shops they won't support have:

1. no shop policies
2. policies containing negative language
3. policies that make it sound like the customer is the enemy
4. long shop announcements (so that you have to scroll to see images of what is for sale)
5. no sections (which makes it difficult to browse)
6. no international shipping listed (people don't want to send you an email to find out)
7. no recent sales or listings (they think they are inactive)
8. not enough items listed (doesn't look professional)

Products they won't buy have:

1. inflated shipping (with emphasis on prices they knew were too high vs stuff that cost a lot to ship - they wanted information why shipping is so expensive - e.g. includes insurance)
2. blurry photos
3. not enough photos
4. pictures of the product on someone else when you wouldn't want it pre-worn (like earrings or underwear)
5. pictures of the item on a dirty floor or next to a full ashtray
6. inaccurate tags
7. descriptions that are too short or too long (and contain useless information)
8. have bad spelling or grammar or use subjective adjectives (like gorgeous and beautiful) in the item descriptions
9. don't specify measurements (must be in cm and inches)