I went to a networking meeting the other day as an 'advisor' to people on setting up online shops through a local craft group I belong to. I gave some advice which I hope was well received!
Rachel Johns was also there as an advisor and gave us some very good advice about Etsy, Facebook and Twitter.
Rachel has recently turned her Etsy shop back to US$ as she had noticed a dramatic drop in her sales when she had changed it to GB£. I changed my shop to GB£ when the announcement came out from Etsy that you could choose your own currency. I've also noticed a downshift in the number of sales I am getting through Etsy but put it down to the recession etc. Anyway I have changed my
Etsy shop back to US$ to see how it goes. If it doesn't work out then I can always change it back again. It will be a bit more work for me as I will have to check the exchange rate fairly regularly but not too much and if the benefits are good then I won't mind at all! Rachel also pointed out that as Etsy is an American site, most buyers go to it geared up for spending in dollars. People in America expect it and if anyone from elsewhere in the world is going to Etsy then they will be willing to buy in dollars anyway.
Matt also pointed out that most people in the UK have a rough idea of what a US$ is worth against the £ and I'm pretty sure that his logic applies to most other countries in the world. However, he pointed out that many people in America won't know what a dollar is worth against a pound, a euro or an Australian dollar. Another valid point!
Rachel also talked a bit about automatic updates to Facebook and Twitter. I am an avid
Twitter user but I used not to use Facebook at all - maybe once a month. I do have a business page alongside my personal page but it wasn't being updated. So I set up automatic feed from my two shops so that when I listed something new, a post would automatically go to
Facebook. It worked for a while and did the job of making sure that my Facebook page ticked over. And it did just that, ticked over - nothing more. Rachel said that she got a lot more response on Twitter when she added a link to her blog herself rather than as an automatic update and I must admit that I have found the same on Facebook. So the automatic updates have gone from my Facebook pages - any updates from now on will be typed with my own fair fingers :)
If you have an Etsy shop I would love to know if you sell in your own currency or in US$ and what your experiences have been. Also any Facebook or Twitter stories are welcome too :)
8 comments:
I will find it interesting to know if this change back does affect your sales. I changed my currency to euro on the first of october last year and yes, I did have less sales then the previous year and also thought it was the currency change. But then, I kind of heard a general 'less sales' scream from other sellers so I wasn't really worried.
Still wondering if it has to do with the currency exchange or not.Customers can set their account into dollars right? And then the euro's will get automatically updated so it shouldn't really be a problem I think/hope.
Please do keep us updated on your experience - interesting.
I'm hesitant to change back as it does make my bookkeeping so much easier...
I didn't change mine because of the reasons you stated, I have to keep on top of the exchange rate though. Sale have drop for me but I think the that is because the yen is so strong at the moment, buying from Japan isn't a bargain especially because of the shipping.
as for twitter & FB I have the auto thing set up, I try and write a really post on FB once a day or at least every second day but I often forget! and twitter is usually my downtime, I see it more as a time to meet and connect with lovely like minded peeps like yourself!
As I mentioned on twitter - I keep my Etsy shop in dollars as I would say, about 90% of my buyers are from the USA. Like you say - most UK people are very familiar with £/$ conversion rates, whereas people in the US more often than not have no idea about what a £ is worth and I think it would put them off. I find the rate really does not shift by more than a few pence either way so you are not losing out by selling in dollars :)
That's really interesting I have mine set up at GB£ I might experiment and change over to USA$ and see if it makes a difference.
As for the social networks - I tend to do both have automatic updates and handwritten updates.
Really interesting read thank you.
Anita
I have 4 Etsy shops and have them all set to £ -- but it makes more sense for me
My main shop is edibles - and I only send to UK addresses, so selling in £ is most logical.
In my next busiest shop - baking supplies -- most of my customers were in the UK, so again most logical to sell in £. I still get the occasional international customer
My other 2 shops, Craft and destash/vintage are not busy enough to see a real pattern of buyers - but I changed them over for consistency. Again I still get international buyers.
But even if you set your currency as £, Americans will see a converted price in $ on each listing -- so it shouldn't realy be a deterrant that you have your prices in your own currency
Just to put the cat amongst the pigeons, I have actually had more sales since I changed to £. Not sure if that helps at all! And I always have different tweets and Facebook posts because I have different audiences for both, so it seems better to do them separately! Hope this helps!x
Interesting - I came here after wondering on facebook if I should change to ££. I'm thinking I'm probably better off staying with $$$, most of my customers are American or other international, and my UK buyers seem happy enough paying in $$. I know that people can still view in their own currency, but I really dislike "odd" prices - you know, when you've set it to an exact number of pounds but it translates as $32.56 or something silly like that.
Thanks for the info! I just came across it as I was chatting with Heather as to stay with the £ or move to $$'s. I'll have to try and see if it makes any difference. Time for a bit of thinking! Great blog! Jay
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