The Etsy Summer Slump is Coming. How to Spruce up your Etsy Shop. eRank LIVE

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[00:00:31]>> Hello.

[00:00:33]Happy Thursday. Uh yeah, let's see. I always feel this is like this is our wind down to the weekend. Now >> it's the start of it. It's like after after Q&A I just have the Friday bean and then we get to enjoy the weekend.

[00:00:49]We're almost there, guys.

[00:00:51]Nearly done it. Yeah. Um, yeah. I hope everyone's having a good week. By the looks of it, they'd be saying from sunny North Carolina. And I know Europe's having a heat wave as well. So, I hope everyone's having a an awesome time or keeping cool as they can or whatever else. Yeah, >> it's pretty warm here. It's uh it's heating up and it's been rainy so everything is super muggy right now.

[00:01:17]>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm likely to become a a shiny mess by the end of the stream because I had this room all open, windows open, fans on and everything.

[00:01:27]And now I've had to put the lights on and shut all the windows. So, I'm suffering for you guys. So, we want likes, we want comments, we want love cuz cuz I'm suffering heat and I'm Scottish. It's not allowed.

[00:01:40]>> Like, like the video uh to say thank you to Pam for her sacrifices today.

[00:01:47]Happy Thursday, guys. Um, so summer is the time, well, I would like to say spring and summer are the times when we see the most posts in like Etsy forums, Facebook groups where people say, "Is it slow or is it just me?" And it's not just you. Um, we experienced this every single year to the point where I started calling it the summer slump and it kind of caught on a couple years ago and now everybody just calls it the summer slump and then all the new sellers, you know, when they start posting in groups and saying, "My Etsy traffic died right after the holidays. I don't know what happened."

[00:02:32]Of course, of course it did. There's no giftable holidays in the summer.

[00:02:38]>> Yep. It's it's a tough time. And if you're in any of the groups or forums or anything, yeah, just don't roll your eyes too hard at all the millions of questions. I think No, I'm pretty sure some people post that just in the hope that they get some extra eyeballs on their shop. It doesn't help you in any way, but um yeah, some people it's just a desperation. and they're like, "Well, if I post this, then people will at least look at my shop and tell me I'm rubbish or something." So, >> right, it they I think that they just want I don't think that they want to be told that things on Etsy are just slow.

[00:03:19]It's almost like they're hoping to hear that like something is specifically wrong with their shop so they can go and fix it >> and then maybe their traffic will come back. when in reality, I mean, we have to think about a lot of different factors this year in particular, spring and summer are always slow, but especially here in the US, and I know that there are quite a few countries that have been affected by, you know, rising gas prices, rising cost of living, if, god forbid, you live near where a data center is being built because electricity costs are going up as well. So, people just don't have as much money to spend. And that stacked on top of what is always a slow season. You know, sometimes you just have to look at the world around you and put two and two it together and say, "Man, I'm not spending a lot of money personally on trinkets and knickknacks." So maybe my customers aren't either. But that doesn't mean that every industry is suffering. I've actually seen a lot of people say that they're having like their best month ever on Etsy. Um, Etsy's gross merchandise sales >> went up uh 5.5%.

[00:04:30]So, that's great. That's the money that we as sellers are making. And using E-Rank's new ShopBuzz website, you can also compare Etsy, Amazon, and eBay. And last, you know, few months, March, and April, things were kind of tanking as as they usually do. But we're starting to see just this very slight, just oh so very slight little uptick. You see that little bit? It doesn't look like much, guys, but for this time of the year, we never see that >> with nothing happening. That's pretty good. I just hit Amazon because Amazon's so much ahead of everybody that it hides the >> sort of squishies down the scale so we can't really see it. But that is >> Amazon on its own though. Isolate it on its completely by itself where it's not competing alongside the others. And you can kind of see I mean there's a little slight dip right now on Amazon for the most part. It's it's an identical line.

[00:05:36]>> Yeah. And usually we would see this line having kept going down the way to like where my pointer is. It would be somewhere around here. So that's that's pretty good change really. It means people are buying things and yeah Etsy, Amazon and eBay well Etsy and eBay are more likely to be people buying things that are gifts or things that they don't necessarily need. Amazon fair. That's just buying buying everything that could people buy toilet roll on Amazon a lot.

[00:06:15]So >> things things they have to have. But Etsy published >> something I really have liked some of the things that um have happened with the new CEO. They they just did a really cool summer spring and summer trend report which I'm going to be covering on the Friday Bean tomorrow. But they also were talking about um rather than you know Etsy being just about milestones, they're talking about ministones where you know people are celebrating things like bad you know getting out of a bad relationship or um getting a new pet or you moving into a dorm. So, they're talking about, you know, not like the major milestones like getting married because obviously things like that will always have a good market, but they're starting to see these little tiny life events take off on Etsy. And they're encouraging sellers to think about not just the big things like getting married and birthdays and major holidays, but also, you know, smaller milestone moments that you could potentially build products around.

[00:07:24]Whether that be, you know, something fun or even maybe, you know, the loss of a pet or loss of a loved one, memorial based products. So, um, yeah, many mini stones, micro mini stones, micro stones.

[00:07:37]>> Yeah, I think, >> um, it was last year or the year before that Pinterest brought this up to start with. It was in its Pinterest predicts a couple of years ago. Um, and yeah, it's a really cool thing because that's like as well, we've we've talked forever like if you're doing like planning out your work and everything where sometimes you do your checklists and you do you tick off the big thing, sometimes it's just a little dopamine boost of ticking off the we thing and rewarding yourself for the we things. So, rewarding your friends for the we things.

[00:08:13]Yeah. And yeah, I'm sure it was Pinterest and they were like talking about the mini stones with kids like with your kids as well. It's not just the first birthday or the first step or anything. It's like every little little step because hey, we need to sell we need something to cheer ourselves up for. So yeah. And I I'd actually just um yesterday I was scrolling on Instagram and scrolled past a real of a woman talking about like how the era of only having parties for like birthdays and holidays is over and how it's important to start throwing parties for little, you know, the little things. giving yourself an excuse to have a gathering and have a party. And I'm seeing more and more of that. Like I've I've started doing um I have a friend who comes over and we do crafts together. Like little gatherings. Think about like craft nights with with the girls getting together. It's not about, you know, where back a couple years ago it's like get all the friends together and go out to a bar or something. Well, things are expensive now. People are going to still spend some money, but how can they spend money in a way that's more efficient and equally as f fun? So maybe they decide to have cocktail night at home and you know, everybody comes to the house and does something fun. So there's always ways to look at where the world is and how it's changing and how people are adapting.

[00:09:50]And it it's not that they're not spending money, it's just they're spending money a little bit differently.

[00:09:55]Um, I've got a video that's coming out on Tuesday that I just scripted where I predict that we're gonna see a very interesting shift this year. And, you know, I even say in the video like this is just my prediction. like I don't just based on what I'm seeing, but based on you know those traffic patterns that uh Pam just showed between Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, the 5.5% increase in GMS on Etsy, and the fact that if you go to E-rank right now and type in the keyword Halloween, you'll notice that not only does it have a trending in search badge, it's being searched significantly more right now than it was this time last year, and it has a high conversion badge, which means that people are buying Halloween stuff. And what I think is going to happen this year as we approach the holiday season is that, you know, when people have a little bit more money to spend, they can do all their Christmas shopping, say in, you know, November and bust it all out. But this year, I kind of predict that we're going to see that shopping start around August. And I have a bunch of sources.

[00:10:59]I'll have to you guys will just have to watch the video because obviously I can't remember all these articles and sources. But there were a bunch of studies done and surveys and basically um you know asking people when they plan to start shopping like for the holiday season and a lot of people said last year uh in 2025 that they plan to start their holiday shopping in August. So that, you know, rather than buying everything at once and completely blowing their whole paycheck on Christmas items, maybe instead they get a little bit in August, a little bit in September, a little bit in October, a little bit in November, and they build up those gifts over a couple months, so it's not as straining. So, um, that I I really do predict that we're going to see people start gift shopping super early this year. That's that's the spoiler, but that's the whole topic of my video for Tuesday.

[00:11:52]I think so. I actually wanted to go back around to what you were saying about like the the mini events and things because I I had a thought where you're saying people aren't going out drinking and doing what we used to do. And I think many of us have found is that quite often your friends need help to know how to socialize when you don't go to a pub. Like getting people together is hard. So creating events to help people like crafting kits or you know ideas for events to get people together is actually a really helpful thing. And I think certainly a few of the the kids who came out of the 2020s and are now adults and don't even have that sort of culture of knowing what you're supposed to do with your friends, you know, knowing how to go out or and hang out with people. So yeah, it's a super cool idea to think of. I mean, Fatty Pancakes is saying get together for a crafting event like soap making and you might have to do the drinking afterwards. But yeah, I think again it's a cool time for helping people with guided activities cuz we're rubbish. We we don't know what to do. Like I think we all need socialization classes like the dogs or something.

[00:13:12]>> I mean that's really a whole shop in itself. like if you're trying to maybe you're in that industry or you're thinking about starting a new Etsy shop or you're trying to you know maybe pivot directions. Um I spent a lot of time because you know I'm personally thinking about summer. We're not going to be going out nearly as much as we have in past years just because things are super expensive right now. Um so I was trying to think of things that like little parties and stuff that I could do at home with my friend group. And I was sitting last night looking through all those different reels getting ideas. But how cool would it be for, you know, somebody who sells things like little bundles and party supplies or or things like that or who wants to start that kind of business to go through the exact same videos that I watched about like party ideas at home, craft night ideas, and then you, you know, do all the research into the types of craft nights and things that people are doing in groups, but you just create packages that supply all the stuff so they don't have to source those things themselves.

[00:14:10]I saw one um it was now obviously you can't brand it based on any movies or anything like that but they were kits for if you're watching you know a certain genre of movie and it comes with like everything like that you need like if you're doing like a murder mystery it had like little games and fun stuff and little photo shoot props so that you could you know take funny selfies with your friends. There's just there's so much possibility there. And it kind of >> it kind of reminds me of the same types of products that were doing well during COVID, just a little bit different because the gathering aspect is still taking place, but it's just like less out and more in the house. And do you know that would be a kind of shop that you could run that would help your own social life as well because you've got to test all these products by inviting all your friends over and you can use that inviting all your friends over as your photo shoots for your shop and also your reels for social and everything. Um and people people love to watch people just playing games and doing things. Um, one of my friends is big into the Dungeons and Dragons thing and since the 2020, um, she got I don't know much about this, so if I'm using wrong terminology, I'm sorry, but she got um she was leading some dungeon master. She was leading um her own games and things.

[00:15:40]And then um she's been invited to events now like we had horror con and the the city and stuff and she was running her own tables there and there was a little a little troop of people that literally they're they're like a group of comedians that are on stage. They run a Dungeons and Dragons game between themselves and people just pay money to watch them play it cuz they're so fun.

[00:16:02]And she got invited in and she she now is up on stage with them as well. So yeah, people all these kind of games.

[00:16:09]They'll even just watch people play games if you're interesting enough.

[00:16:15]>> Yeah, absolutely. It's kind of it's kind of like watching, you know, let's players who play video games. It's just a different medium for that for different interest groups. Um, I saw another really fantastic idea for a um for a I mean I kind of party but for you know people who are crafty basically you make as many of one thing as people who are invited. So for example if you have 12 friends come over everybody makes 12 identical things. So, Pam, you might make 12 little corgi butt bookmarks and I make, you know, maybe 12 identical little skeleton key necklaces or whatever, but everybody brings over 12 things and then you set it up like a little market and you go around with your little bag and you get one of each little item that everybody made. And I don't know, I just think that I think that the crafty culture right now in particular, it's almost like an even split where we've got like the AI culture, but then I also think that there's a group of people that are so sick of the AI culture. I'm seeing so much more value in handmade and people talking about it and Etsy's been talking about it a lot. It's even big box stores. I know that like places like Target are selling things that look handmade. Um, I constantly see people in craft groups, you know, posting crocheted things that they saw at Target and it's clearly like made by a machine.

[00:17:45]But that just kind of tells us that the overall styles and aesthetics of that very handmade um almost like that boho 90s kind of grungy thrown together or that very whimsical fun like suncatchers in the window type aesthetic from the time. It's all coming back. Um, and I think that it's it's just a balance of, you know, the modern technology and people trying to escape from the modern technology and reverting back to things that are that they can enjoy, you know, at home, things to to make them feel good, things to give them that nostalgia. So, and I saw a lot of that in the Etsy trend report that I'll be covering >> tomorrow as well.

[00:18:34]Yeah, I think the the sort of buying the commerce world is as polaroid polarized as like the whole world just seems to be one or the other thing >> and that's the same. It's like over massively AI or massively against AI and all handmade and things. Um, so it's it's super interesting like when you're talking to people and some people are are like, "No, everybody loves AI. this is the greatest thing on earth. It's like, no, that's cuz you're down the rabbit hole of that algorithm. You know, we only see one side or the other. But definitely, yeah. Um, if you hand make things, now is the time to absolutely show that things are handmade cuz people really, really want to see it. It's something that's been spoke about for ages. Um, since we've been able to since the industrial revolution when we've been able to mechanize creating things, some, you know, people have always said, "Oh, well, that's that's the end for potters.

[00:19:39]Potters will never be able to make things cuz you can have a machine make thousands of plates and things." But what was always said, I remember being taught that at school. What's loved about things made by hand is you have the fingerprint of the artist and you've got to think like that. If you're making things, have the fingerprint of of yourself on it in some way or another.

[00:20:01]Show how you're making it. But also this this is not as saying if you're not hand if you're using the AI tools or something, you're just aiming for a different market. um and you're putting yourself in a different place and different algorithms will be picking you up but at the same time how do you stand out against everybody else as well you know even show your your hand print in the AI stuff show what you are doing to add you to it so that people know why they have to buy from you because it's something that they can't do themselves >> I like to think of it like this with Pam's uh pottery example If I had, thankfully I have a mug on my desk. I always have a mug on my desk, a Pokemon mug. But if I had, you know, several mugs, we'll say, you know, we'll say like this is a pod mug, for example, and let's say that I had a a mug with like AI art on it. And then I had a mug that was handmade in a kil, you know, like Pam said, you could see the artist's fingerprint and the signature.

[00:21:09]and I had these three mugs laying, you know, sitting on a shelf and the shelf fell and all three mugs broke. Which one would I be most upset about breaking?

[00:21:18]Well, only one of those mugs is going to be difficult to replace. So, that's where I feel like we really need to think when it comes to our own products, especially when it comes to pricing power and and things like that. you know, when it comes to the thing that is hard to replace. Like, if I drop this Pokemon mug on the ground, like, I'm gonna be sad. I love this mug, but at the same time, I can find another one.

[00:21:42]No big deal. I've got some mugs upstairs that some of my students have made and sent me, and I would be heartbroken if something happened to those mugs. Um, and because of that, I'm willing to pay a lot of money for a product like that because it's not just about, you know, what it's made from. It's about the emotional connection that I have to it because I know how much time went into creating it. Whereas somebody, you know, yeah, somebody put a lot of time into probably designing this mug, but at the same time, I can go and order something identical to it again. Um, and because of that, you know, unfortunately, pricing power is going to be a little bit lower. And I think that a lot of people, they just don't really think realistically about that. And the same thing happens with um those pottery creators way undercharging for their for their products because they don't think about the emotional connection that somebody's going to have to their products.

[00:22:37]>> Yeah, we see that all the time. People are saying, "Oh, I'm not making enough money to cover all of this, but I can't put my prices up." And you so can. And it works both ways, like the emotional connection, but also if your prices are too low, you're not attracting the buyers that have the emotional connection to it as well. It's a weird one. It's one that I learned very much at the start of my my journey as it were. Um, I was I was at a craft fair and I had I had priced my items far too low because I had no confidence in myself. like I I think I it would have been working out as giving myself a wage of a dollar an hour or less. It was it was not a sensible amount of money. And this kid dragged his mom over to my store to be like, "Look, look, look at these." And handed him one of my dogs.

[00:23:31]And she picked it up by like a back paw and she looked at it and she was like, "5 for that?" And just dropped it. And at that very moment, I just looked and I was like, I didn't say it. I should have done, but I was like, I don't want you owning that. I don't want something that took me all that time for you. If you bought it and it fell off a shelf, you wouldn't care. I want like the first things that I made for some of my friends. They went out and they were buying like covers to make sure it was protected and stuff. I was like, well, you know, that took me time. That's really I I want I I don't need rich people to buy it, but I need people who will at least value it as much as the time it took me to make it. So, I don't need to sell 10 of them. I can sell one of them to somebody that'll value it as much. So, yeah, it's a totally different way of thinking, but you're not competing against the Pokemon mug. So, you don't have to price like the Pokemon mug.

[00:24:34]>> Exactly. Exactly. And uh Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, no, Wednesday on the E-Rank channel, I actually am currently working on a video about um the profit calculator because I noticed in one of my little handydandy SEO tools, apparently that's something that people have been searching for a lot on YouTube. So, I'm going to be breaking that down because I think that that's one of the underrated tools that not a lot of people know that we have over at E-Rank. And one of the most important like things that you calculate in that tool is how much if if you were paying yourself for per hour for your time, what would your hourly rate be? And I think a lot of people don't include an hourly rate into their product creation.

[00:25:26]And that's insane. we should all still, you know, pay ourselves a little bit.

[00:25:30]You're not just covering supplies.

[00:25:32]You're covering the time that it took for you to learn what you're creating. I mean, Pam didn't just wake up one day and expertly needlefelt a dog, you know?

[00:25:43]She she had to practice until she actually knew what she was doing to the point where it looked like a dog. and then probably even more to be able to be able to replicate somebody's photo of their dog and make, you know, a perfect version. And I I just see so many people who they just assume like, oh, is as long as it covers the cost, you know, and that's not only is that a disservice to you, but it's also a disservice to your industry as well, because at that point, you know, the perceptive value of pieces like that. I mean, if somebody came into the market and started selling, like Pam said, you know, $5 needlefelted dogs, I mean, they might get a bunch of orders and they might even take a bunch of customers away from some of the more, you know, bigger, more established needle felting artists, but they're really doing a disservice to both the industry and themselves because then they end up with a lot of work that they have to do and very little gain from it. So, >> yeah, it ends up you end up hating it.

[00:26:49]Um, I think I I think many of us I I've had a couple of items I've said this before that I I sold they were selling really well, but with with some things there is a limit to what you're going to charge. And for me, it just wasn't worth it. Like, I would much prefer to make something else. So, sometimes you have to do that. But I was just just thinking there is, you know, while we're we we weren't meant to be talking about pricing, but rabbit holes were going down. Um, one thing I see a lot is knitts and and other things where you're making things and you're saying, "Well, I'm against," and there's nothing wrong with it. You're against people like my my mom has always sat in front of the telly and knitted. It's, you know, it's her mental health is just, you know, that that's her fidget toy is knitting.

[00:27:43]So, she probably doesn't charge as much.

[00:27:46]You know, there's plenty of people who don't charge as much as someone who needed to make a living from it. And that's fine. It does make it more difficult for you if you want to make a living from it. But there's things you can do. If if the cap on what you're doing is a little bit lower, then you've just got to look into things like what can you do to add more value to what you're doing, which is things that something like knitting and things is getting better quality materials. Don't necessarily you don't if you're wanting to make a good business out of your Etsy knitting, don't necessarily buy the cheapest wool or yarn and try and do it that way. Go up a good few levels in quality and make some luxury things. Then you'll sell less of them, but you'll make a better profit and you'll feel you'll feel better and they'll be more valued again for the time.

[00:28:47]Oh, Nicole, know your worth and add tax.

[00:28:51]>> Yes, >> absolutely. That's the biggest mistake my mom had with her her big crochet boyfriend dolls. You know, she was making these big perfect boyfriends nude and they were very expensive and she was making the ones that she wanted to make.

[00:29:07]And I mean, she was making money on them. I I don't think she she was charging about $500 for them, but I still think that she could have been charging more. But I told her, I said, "You know, a lot of people have taken interest in just buying the man bits by themselves." I said, "You could do them in all different colors and sizes and shapes and make some rainbow and you know, and she she just didn't want she was like, "Ah, you know, that those would only take me a few minutes to do, but you know, and she just she didn't want to do it." But because of that over time, I mean, it just burned her out. So, and and it's okay to not make, you know, it's okay to not make things that you don't want to make. You know, that's fine. But you also have to be realistic. And I think that the reason that my mom quit doing what she was doing was it just it burned her out so quickly where she was only making money when she completed a doll and one doll took her forever and then she'd get that money and then it was immediately oh got to start on another doll >> and I think that she missed out on a lot of those quick wins.

[00:30:16]>> Yeah, that's definitely a tricky one.

[00:30:18]That's interesting because it's actually something different but something we talk we're talking about in the Facebook group. someone was posting their their shop and it was um wall art but it was like hammered bronze pictures absolutely beautiful and you know thought they were so cool but obviously you have to charge a lot for them and um I I see this with a lot of lot of artists they do the big piece and they're looking to sell that but sometimes if if you can what what those are is that those kind of things are your hero piece. And the same for your mom. That would be the hero piece that drives all the views. That's the social media engagement. But then you would come to a shop and you would just have the anatomically interesting bits. Um and be like, I can't afford a whole man, but I'll get >> I'll get this.

[00:31:12]>> I can't get a whole perfect boyfriend, so I'll just get I'll just get the certain part. Yeah. And that was my thought. Um Yeah. I and and Nicole had said, I think a lot of people think low prices mean more sales, but it often leads to lower quality customers and burnout. And I mean, even as a coach, um I can speak from experience. I have my coaching program that's $1,000 and I have fantastic students who opt in for that program, but you know, I do every once in a while do lowerc cost events and boot camps. And I mean, I've even talked to Pam about how occasionally we get difficult, difficult customers come into the boot camp at the lower price point.

[00:31:59]Um, just because you attract a different type of customer. And it's not that they're bad, you know, it's not it's not that, but I think that when someone purchases something at a higher price, they automatically are someone who really really wants that thing. they are really invested in the idea of that thing like a $500 big giant naked perfect boyfriend doll, you know, they they obviously someone sees that and they know, oh, I need that. That is for me. Like, no questions asked. I'm going to buy that. And I think that, you know, a lot of sellers, they want to compete at the bottom of the barrel without the understanding that not only are they going to have to put in more work because they might be making more sales, but the customers that you're going to be dealing with are not usually the ones that you're going to want to continue dealing with in the future.

[00:32:53]Yeah, that actually reminds me like I don't do courses for this very reason because I'm awful at pricing things and for a while I was doing a $20 helping people out with a listing and didn't take me long to realize that was not sustainable for me because and I totally understand even then for some people $20 is a big investment and they wanted a lot from me. Um but the continual back and forth was not good value for me basically.

[00:33:31]>> Right. Yeah. And if you think about it in terms of your time and how much you know you would pay yourself again per hour, you've got to think about that even as an Etsy seller when it comes to how much you have to communicate back and forth with a customer. If you're only charging $20 for a custom order, but you have to message them a hundred times to figure out exactly how they want it. And no, I don't like it like that. No, change it.

[00:33:56]Make it this way. I'm not happy with this part. You know, those are all things that at a high price point, sure.

[00:34:01]If if if someone's paying us couple thousand dollars for a custom item and they want it to be perfect, understandable. If they only paid 20 bucks for it, you you have to set some some boundaries. I even encourage people who do custom orders to have, you know, up to one revision, for example, where you actually say, I am willing to revise it one time, but after that, you know, you if you're only buying a $20 thing or a lowcost thing, there's there's a limit to how much we can go back and forth because then it just turns into way bigger of a task than what you originally were planning to sell and it cuts into your time.

[00:34:43]I keep meaning to implement that one because I found it's really funny and weird with custom things is I'll get one person who will come back to me and the tone of their message is really not all that nice. It's like, "No, no, this is terrible. This is wrong and this is wrong and this is wrong." And it actually turns out they only want a couple of little changes and they're fine, but my back's up and everything.

[00:35:11]But oh, sometimes you'll get people say, "Oh, that's so great. That's wonderful.

[00:35:16]I just want this little tiny thing." And you do that little tiny thing.

[00:35:19]Fantastic. Now, how about this little >> I would have preferred it if you'd have told me all the little tiny things.

[00:35:27]>> One more thing. One more thing.

[00:35:29]>> Yeah. Like, no.

[00:35:33]>> And it's so hard to communicate that with people. I'm just I think that that most of us, especially if we're artistic, we also are highly empathetic.

[00:35:41]And you know, it's hard for us to say no. It's like today we had a guy knock on our door and we've we've had when the weather warms up, people knock on our door all the time to power wash our driveway, to trim our trees, to you know, and it's just constant all day long because it's nice outside and we live in a nice little neighborhood. And um today a guy with a power washer knocked on the door and Mark opened the door, didn't even open the the glass dorm door. He went, "Sorry, man. We're not interested." And just closed the door. And the guy was standing like like he looked so insulted. But you know I there I'm I I cannot empathize with how Mark handled that because my brain just I would have stood there awkwardly and listen to his whole sales pitch before I said we actually have a power washer so we could do it ourselves. We just haven't. You know what I mean? So, but I think that we all need to respect ourselves enough to figure out what our boundaries are and what we're comfortable with and not be afraid to state them. And um as much as I, you know, am not a fan of AI, if you've got to use like AI to craft it out for you so that you don't say what you're really thinking in your brain to be extra nice, then do that. But >> well, get a mark.

[00:36:59]>> Get a mark. Yeah, I I would before you even said that, I was thinking that would be a good to get someone to hire your comm to do your communications and then you said that I was like, "Yep, get a mark. Get someone to just be do do this the correct answer cuz he did the absolute right thing there."

[00:37:20]>> Yeah. Oh, they make you feel like you're their new toy to design what uh when you do custom work. Yeah. like you they I think that they assume that you are 100% living for them in that moment. Well, you know, we're always the customer is always right. like we're always we're we're kind of trained to that but that start I feel like that culture doesn't translate over to places like Etsy because we are the artists and it's almost it's almost like if somebody like walked into your home and started disrespecting you in your house. It's like no this is my business. This is my shop. These are my products. These are my rules. You have entered my space and now you have to follow the protocol here. Doesn't matter how you've experienced other Etsy sellers, those are their houses. But this is my house and in my house we have certain rules.

[00:38:20]And you don't have to be mean about it.

[00:38:22]You know, I don't recommend. For example, Pam and I have audited shops where there have been like listing photos that say, "I absolutely do not accept returns." Like, don't do that.

[00:38:33]That's scary. you know, that's gonna that's gonna scare them off even if you don't accept returns. Like, you don't need to that's not how you let them know. Um, but at the same time, you should have that respect for yourself.

[00:38:45]And that's, you know, I know that we we said we were going to talk about sprucing up your Etsy shop. That's what everybody should go do this weekend is go through your FAQs, audit your policies. If there's anything that customers need to know before they place an order, make a nice little graphic image to go in your listing photo with, you know, bullet points. One, two, three, you know, do this, do this, do this. You know, if it's if it's a custom item, I need this, I need this information, and I need you to message me within 24 hours for cancellations >> if because by then I'll have already started on it. and where you can lead with the posit, you know, do it a positive way rather than leading with the negatives like I don't accept returns or or whatever else. Well, um, you know, that's not something that I I say, but um, with with my my custom things, obviously I can't accept returns and I can't accept cancellations when I've worked on things, but I don't say that the I try and allay people's fears rather by saying, "Here is what's going to happen. I'm going to send you the picture so that you can give me the feedback so I can make the changes so we make sure everything so you're happy before I send it out. So you're saying here's the things and you're going to be happy.

[00:40:10]It's not you tough you're you're going to be unhappy basically pulling out that no returns accepted or whatever. And I know people do that because they've had nightmare customers, but you've got to not go into your next customer thinking they're going to be a nightmare cuz you go in all the defensive on that. Your customers had a nightmare seller before you. They're coming in all guns blazing as well. It's not a nice experience.

[00:40:39]However, if they are being a pain, there is no better feeling in the world than cancelelling a customer. Just >> and fire them. They can be fired.

[00:40:54]>> Exactly. That is such I've not done it very often, but when you do it, it's just like, oh, look at all that stress float away. That's wonderful. Yeah.

[00:41:04]>> I used to uh I had another person who made keys.

[00:41:09]um who, you know, didn't exactly copy what I was doing, but very clearly was a little like their photos were just like mine and their designs were very close to mine and like everything that they did, the way that they worded their marketing, everything was very close to mine. So when I would have a customer that had like a ridiculous request or I knew I wasn't going to be able to make them happy, I would always say, "Oh, unfortunately right now I can't accommodate your request, but I have another seller that makes similar keys and you're going to love them. Here's their shop. Tell them tell them Stara sent you."

[00:41:51]We were good on each like we we had talked in the past like they this person had tried they they had communicated with me enough to like say is it okay if I you know am in this space and like you know and I have some students who make keys now that do awesome like you can tell that they've kind of picked up where I've left off and I don't mind at all like it's not I don't run that business anymore y'all can do what you want but when when someone was like blatant ly copying things that I did. It was very frustrating. So that was my little subtle way of sticking it to them.

[00:42:28]>> Wrong for that.

[00:42:29]>> Yeah, you just reminded me there like another that's like an example of what I did when people came around to the door that I didn't want to deal with. Um we had a I suppose you have it there as well. Um but Jehovah's Witnesses here and there's no shade to Jehovah's Witnesses. It's part of their religion that they're supposed to witness and go and talk to people, but they would always come out with the littlest, tiniest babies on the coldest, horriblest weather to hit that empathy thing. And it was really hard to send them away. But my dad was a minister and my dad really liked talking about religion. So when they came to the door, I'll be like, "No, you want to come back when my dad's here and just send them away." And that there's no fe there's no fear in the eyes like someone when they come up and they go we'd like would you like to talk about Jesus and dad would be like yes yes I do like what do we do now okay yeah so either a mark or or just have a have a my dad some someone else who can deal with it and and do the deal with a difficult customer who loves it.

[00:43:40]Yeah. We've we've decided because we have a lot of Jehovah Jehovah's Witnesses come up to the door as well.

[00:43:46]Never with a baby. That's very odd. I've never seen that.

[00:43:50]>> And you probably don't get the rain like we do. They wait until the weather's awful and then just stand there looking so pitiful. Like >> we uh we we want to get a sign that basically says that we're nudists and they can knock on the door, but no saying what they'll see if they do.

[00:44:12]strong alter ego.

[00:44:15]But anyway guys, um so on the note of, you know, preparing your shop, I like to see summer as prep time and I like to think of it as the kids are out of school and now that means that it's time for us to go to school. So all the things that you've put off, what better time to do them than when traffic is slow. And I mean thankfully like Pam and I are creating videos every single week here covering different e-rank tools so that you guys can learn them and um figure them out and you know get a better grasp on your SEO. But it's not just about Etsy. It could be about your social media marketing. It could be about you know maybe reading books, better customer communication. I have tons of book recommendations if you guys ever need them um on you know various topics. I actually have a list of like the top books that I think every business owner should read sometime in their business journey. Um, but we should treat our summers as the time when we go to school and where things are quiet in our shops because one of the things that I'm really trying to like tell my sellers right now in my community is that those sellers that you see that report like, "Oh, my great Q4 sales and I had a big, you know, Black Friday sale."

[00:45:33]I feel like people see that and they assume that those sales just like hit when Q4 hit and that's not how it is.

[00:45:43]The sellers that do really well in Q4, they started prepping for Q4 in the spring and summer before Q4. They started preparing now. These quiet times are those little pockets of opportunity that everyone should be taking advantage of because these are the times when while it's quiet, you're not going to mess anything up when the traffic's already slow. You're not going to mess anything up by experimenting with some new branding to see if you like it. Or, you know, if you want to test out a new photo style to see, you know, what which two in my AB split test gets the most engagement from customers. It's a great time to test and experiment. That way, by the time those holiday shoppers come in, you actually have an idea of how you want to proceed moving forward, how you want to plan, and hopefully you have a better grasp on, you know, what works for you. And I think that so many people, they just, nobody wants to think about Christmas right now. I certainly don't. But sometimes you just got to do it. And you got to turn on some Christmas songs when it's a million degrees outside and you have to think about Christmas time. And if you've got to turn on some Christmas movies to do it, sucks. But you got to do what you got to do.

[00:47:02]>> There you go.

[00:47:03]>> Suzanne's already designing and has sold Halloween stuff.

[00:47:07]>> I love it.

[00:47:08]>> I mean, hey, if if you're doing that like for the people that plan completely ahead, wonderful. And it it is the right thing to do for your shop for getting your backdrops, your photography stuff to your branding for your shop. January, February, March, good time to buy all of that stuff because it's been sold off cheap. And then you've got that prepared to be able to do your photography in just now. Um when you have to pretend that it's really cold and take the pictures just now. Yeah. But thinking ahead because Yeah. your your Christmas sales are starting to be built just now.

[00:47:47]People who have a great January, it's happening because of what their quarter three and quarter 4 did and then they're building. You're always building on the momentum. It's the whole pushing a snowball up the hill. You've got to keep on pushing and got to be keeping thinking ahead and stuff. You also have got to be thinking of your brakes as well. This is also a good time to take a break. I'm totally not thinking about the fact that I've got another holiday booked in a in a few weeks, about four weeks time. Um, and actually I yesterday I noted Don't tell anyone at E-rank, but cuz we're in the heat wave in the UK.

[00:48:27]Yeah, don't listen cuz we're we're having a heat wave and I had no meetings or anything yesterday. I got up at 6:00 a.m. and did my work at 6:00 a.m. Called my mom. We went on a ferry to a to an island and played on the beach. Meant to come home and do some work earlier in the evening, but the the ferry the second last ferry coming home was full and we nearly didn't get off the island and time, but we did. We we got home.

[00:48:53]But yeah, and I feel so much better for just getting on and doing stuff. Like I could have sat at home in this sweltering heat and tried to do work and probably not done anything. Or I could have played hookie for an afternoon, paddled on the beach with my dog and just had a really good time and just come back more inspired to do things.

[00:49:15]Yeah. So it's >> out staring at your screen all day.

[00:49:18]>> Absolutely. Yep. So it's a good time for a break.

[00:49:24]Melissa, sorry I missed your question, but she said, "Can I create a form for customization and send it through Etsy messages?" Well, Etsy did just allow us to add lots of new personalization fields on our listing. So, if you haven't checked that out yet, it might have everything that you need. Um, so you mean like you have a listing that they buy and then after the purchase you send them a form that they can fill out and then send back to you? Is that is that what you mean?

[00:49:53]Yeah. So, let us know. That's that's what it was sounding like. And I would definitely check Etsy's new updates because you're allowed up to five um different things which can include images as well. People can upload photographs and things. So, definitely um yeah, definitely worth checking that out. Yes. To get more details. Yeah. Use the new customization fields. It's it's a really cool cool thing that Etsy's given us. So definitely use that.

[00:50:25]>> Yeah, I think that I don't think that there's any issue if you were sending a customiz like a PDF to them, but a I hate to say this, a lot of customers, maybe you send them a PDF and they open it and then they're like, "How do I fill this out on the computer?" You know what I mean? Like if I get a PDF like and I don't know, >> I know that I could probably take it into Canva and edit it, but a lot of people they're going to open it on their phone or they're not going to do like they might not know how to put their text onto that PDF and get it back to you. You know what I mean? So, there's a little bit of barrier to entry, especially if you're appealing to like a non- techsavvy audience or an older audience. I would just be wary of at least with Etsy, it's right there when they go to place their order and they can type it in right from the screen, you know.

[00:51:19]>> Yeah. And even just extra steps like I know I could take something to Canva.

[00:51:25]Can I be bothered to take something?

[00:51:29]You want to just be able to answer things easily. So, it does help having these steps, but also check what each you're saying with the new rules here because they're now not wanting us to have things like I know this is a digital item except you know these these things that we used to put in the personalizations before but we're not allowed to anymore. Probably whenever just ET never mentioned it before.

[00:51:55]today.

[00:51:56]>> Um, so since we only have a few more minutes, you know, Pam and I are always bec obviously preparing, you know, your shop in the summer, it's it's easy for us to say, "Hey, do this." But seeing it in practice is a little bit different than, you know, just knowing what you're supposed to do. If you guys have any suggestions for the summer for Q&As's that you would like to see, if you'd like to see, you know, uh, ideas for designing Etsy banners or we did we did do one about listing photos a few weeks ago already where I showed you guys how you can kind of make your own mockups and remove backgrounds and I took Pam's um little needlefelted dogs and put them in lots of cute little scenes. So, definitely check that one out. But aside from photos, if there are any other topics that you feel like maybe we could kind of work through a little summer series of things to do to spruce up.

[00:52:50]We're we're always looking for topics to cover.

[00:52:53]>> Absolutely. Yeah. Because Thursday sneaks up so quickly that sometimes I'm like, Stara, sorry I didn't give you any warning. Here's an idea.

[00:53:03]>> You know what? I never I I am always game to jump on and talk about anything and I usually don't know until last minute.

[00:53:12]Yeah. And oh, Susanna, where does Etsy say we can't put the info about the digital download in the personalization field? I can't remember, but I'll find out. You're in the Facebook group, aren't you? Um, relatively sure. I'll find out, but I know I saw it like two weeks ago. Um, and while while we're getting your your questions in and Stala's making a note, the mental note of what you're all asking for, the reason we're talking about the summer slump, we actually I should have mentioned this is our wonderful Jessica has created a little course for you all, for us all. Um the link to it is in the description of this the yeah the description of this video.

[00:53:56]But we've got this like our 10day challenge that we did at the start of the year that everybody loved. But this is just quick four days some of the things that you can be doing in your shop. So, talking first about niching down, analyzing your listings, finding the keywords, um your photos, your thumbnails, how to deal with your shop being on vacation. We just talked about taking a break. Um and then you get your little your little celebration at the end. Um, and I believe there's even a little graphic in there again cuz you guys loved our little graphic saying I'm doing the challenge and stuff and this one saying you've completed the challenge. Um, so if you share that on the social your socials um and tag rank, I'm sure that Jessica will will share them and you know put your shop if you let us know what shop it is. I'm sure Jessica will share to say ah so and so's completed our ch our challenge and stuff. So, just spruced up their shop for the summer. Um, >> a couple good suggestions. E-rank stats, running sales and discount strategy for the holidays. Um, Pat said, "I'd love to see a Q&A on product staging for photos." We kind of did that a little bit for the um the one where I remove the backgrounds in Canva. Um, that's a harder one to do live.

[00:55:25]That would be more in the vein of what Christina Nicole does over on her channel where she actually like sits with her phone and like shows you like how she stages product photos with a cell phone. So, I would definitely check out her channel. Let me know if you guys need the link.

[00:55:40]>> Um, >> yeah. Do you think she'd want to come on here and talk about that?

[00:55:45]>> Introduction. Yeah. Um, there were also a couple questions about the did Etsy send out any information about the new uh New York AI advertising.

[00:55:57]>> I I see Stala did a lot of digging into this. I found out about this a couple of weeks ago and freaked.

[00:56:04]Stala's just put out a video about this.

[00:56:07]Etsy has not said a word about it yet.

[00:56:10]and they'll be the same as the rest of us that for those that have missed it, this is a new you New York law. I'd watch Stala's video on that if you haven't seen it. Um, but a new law that New York has brought out. So, that's to anyone who is going to be selling things that have a chance to sell in New York.

[00:56:33]But um and it's talking about it it's wanting to protect um creative people basically. Um and they're wanting you to state if you're using an AI performer.

[00:56:49]It's not very clear everything about the law yet. This is the problem. There's a lot of speculation, but at the same time, it's a lot of fines if we don't do it. So, you know, does does that mean if you sell rings and you're using an AI mockup for the tiny fraction of a hand, is that an AI performer? You know, all these things we have to figure out. And I I imagine Etsy's running about trying to figure it out as well. and they have been very good at letting us know when they know these things, but they're not consulted about new laws that come out anymore than the rest of us. So, I hope they'll tell us what they learn. But for now, it's up to us. And if you are using AI people, it's not AI mock-ups, it's AI people in your mockups or or things. Um, I would er on the side of caution and just say the model in my image was created with AI is probably >> the easiest until we know more.

[00:58:03]>> And everything that we know so far, everything that is confirmed is in the video. I did my best to answer questions below the video, but again, like Pam said, a lot of them are, "Well, what if I AI generate just the hand?" The answer is I don't know and no one does and I would rather be safe than sorry because the fines are very very high and I would prefer you know if I were you guys I wouldn't want to get charged for something as silly as AI generating a hand that a ring is on. And somebody asked oh well what if I AI generate myself and it's not you know a model it's just a more polished picture of me.

[00:58:37]Well I mean it doesn't say it just says if it's an AI generated person. So it doesn't matter even if it's you. I would assume that that would still be in >> AI generated person.

[00:58:50]>> Yeah, this is a difficult thing because I think a lot of people don't realize if you're using generative AI, the thing people are saying, "Oh, but I'm it's not changing my image. I'm just getting it to like photo edit." Unfortunately, that's not how AI works. Every new image it creates, it creates an entirely new image. Even if you just say just change the lighting or whatever, it's starting again from scratch. So, we don't know how New York's interpreting its laws, how it's going to crack down on them.

[00:59:25]So, we don't want like some people are going to get caught to show us how the law works. There's always this is how laws tend to work. We'd prefer it not to be used. Exactly. Yeah. we'd prefer it not to be you and we don't even know where they're going to be going after um probably bigger businesses, but Etsy is a good place to catch a lot of people.

[00:59:52]Basically, it's easier than like trolling websites of little individual sellers. They can find people on Etsy who are doing the wrong thing basically, >> right? And they and the law as it's written, it says that it's, you know, not just photos in your listing, but it says and and in advertising. So that could be if you AI generate someone, you know, wearing your t-shirt and they're, you know, twirling around or something like and you post it all over social media. Technically, as the law is written, I don't we don't know how it will be enforced or to what extent, but as of right now, that would also be included in there. So, it's probably best to just play it safe. I would rather see people play it safe and it nothing come of it than take a risk and you end up getting in big trouble.

[01:00:46]>> Yeah, I think this is a a takeaway that I took from this as well. This is just the beginning on regulations. Yeah. And this was bound to happen. We're at the beginning stages of this and governments, authorities and things like us are trying to understand what this all means. So likely laws will happen in the future.

[01:01:09]I'll be very surprised if the EU doesn't come out with something pretty quickly.

[01:01:14]>> Even the Pope just did the that big, you know, multi-page document about um the dangers of a I didn't personally read it, but I heard about it. and you know when when someone as big as the pope is talking about it, we can definitely be sure that uh it's going to put more eyes on the issues. So just at this point I'm I'm on the side of I don't if you if you use AI, you know, for your photos, it's whatever, you know, put make sure that you put the disclaimer, but if your whole business model is built 100% around AI, it it you have to be aware that there likely will be a lot of new laws and legislations popping up over the next few years. So just >> yeah, >> I wouldn't put e everything on AI. I wouldn't completely build your whole business around it.

[01:02:10]>> Yeah. And by the sounds of it, like this with this New York glow, they're not saying you can't do it. They're saying just tell us when you're doing it. And I think that's fair. It's like as a buyer, some people are for it, some people are against it, some people don't care. It gives them the choice to choose if if they're supporting that or not.

[01:02:33]>> Exactly. Exactly. And people should have the right to choose. Not everybody wants to support AI. There's moral objections to it. And we should, you know, we should it is if you if you don't have anything tied, then there's no reason, you know, as long as you're you are genuinely just using it to show how maybe a t-shirt fits somebody. Shouldn't be a big deal.

[01:02:58]Shouldn't be a big deal.

[01:02:59]>> Yeah.

[01:02:59]>> But >> yeah.

[01:03:00]>> Anyway, guys, thanks so much for hanging out. Uh Pam, we had two great suggestions about uh e-rank stats and running sales and discount strategies for the holidays. That one probably maybe a little later in towards the summer. Um but I went ahead and sent those to you. But guys, thanks for hanging out. And even if you're watching the replay, feel free to comment on this video and let us know if you have any good ideas for >> We read all the comments, so let us know.

[01:03:29]>> Yeah.

[01:03:30]>> All right, guys. Thanks so much for hanging out.

[01:03:32]>> See you.

[01:03:33]>> Bye.

[01:03:33]>> Bye.

[01:03:44]I dreamed of all the charts. I wanted sales to blow up. Remember long night crafting?

[01:03:53]No one clicking on my stuff. But I signed up for now. My shop's a rising star.