The 20 cent strategy for getting your handmade jewelry pieces noticed on Etsy.com:
Yesterday I wrote about a popular trend to do with polymer clay bird pendant jewelry. Today I would like to talk more about how to use Etsy to conduct online research for your hand made jewelery making business.
Plus I thought it would be fun to show another of my ‘Little Green Bird’ pendants in a completely different style than the one in yesterday’s post! You might have noticed that the handle from the silver spoon in yesterday’s polymer clay pendant was used as the bail for today’s bird jewelry piece. Resourceful Eh?!
So anyway… I have been speaking quite a bit about Etsy.com lately because I feel it is an excellent research tool for the jewelry artist. Perhaps you have looked at Etsy in this way before.
Sure you can buy and sell handmade jewellery, beads, pendants and other artistic goods on etsy. But I’m not sure how many jewelry artisans have thought to use it as a research tool for their jewelry business. Even if you never plan to sell online, the information you can gather there is very useful!
For example you can search for sales price information like I did in this post: Pricing Jewelery Focal Beads on Etsy
You can also discover funky trends like I did in yesterday’s post. Or, find out if you should consider adding polymer clay beads and pendants to your already successful jewelry business, like many artisans have done already!
Today at the etsy site, I gathered a bunch of interesting facts and figures I’d like to share with you! For example, did you know that out of their 590,898 jewelry listings, that 24,341 are for Polymer Clay Jewelry? And the prices of those poly clay listings range from a $900 beaded polymer clay necklace to a 20 cent pair of Fimo earrings?
Or did you know that over half of those polymer clay jewelry listings are for pendants? Do you see a trend there? Those pendants range in price from $450 to 20 cents?
And about those 20 cent items! Who can afford to sell at 20 cents when the listing fee is 20 cents + a 3.5% sales fee on top of that? Turns out, lots of people!!
Those 20 cent listings are called a ‘Pay-It-Forward’ (PIF) item. Let me explain how this works.
You see, shoppers can view listings on Etsy in several different ways… High-to-Low-Price; Low-to-High-Price; Recently-Listed; and Least-Recently-Listed.
If there are 12,707 listings for polymer clay pendants, your pieces could get ‘lost in the pile’ if you don’t think creatively. A strategy that some Etsier’s use to get seen, is to post a 20 cent loss leader item that will show at the top of a lowest price sort.
When buyers click on these 20 cent listings, they also get to see everything else that this seller is offering. They ‘come into their store’ so to speak. Really when you think about it, 20 cents is not a bad price to pay for some business exposure!
Buyers are usually only allowed to buy 1 ‘Pay it Forward’ (PIF) item from a seller. This loss leader strategy is referred to as doing a good deed, and buyers are asked to ‘Pay it Forward’ by doing someone else a good deed in return.
I think a few sellers have done a similar thing by overpricing an item to get visibility at the beginning of a High-to-Low search listing sort. However, this strategy can backfire and tarnish your reputation very quickly if the item is obviously not worth the price it was listed for.
Hopefully you can that Etsy offers lots of opportunities to conduct online market research for your jewellery business. In the past, this type of research was much harder to do because everything was offline. You had to attend a lot of craft fairs, take lots of notes, and do lots of guessing.
The quick online research I did yesterday and today on Etsy, provided some good indications that my bird necklace pendant ideas will probably be well received! Did this article give you any ideas for your jewelry business? There’s a comments section below where you can share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.
Cindy,
I really like the way you used the colors on this pendant! Very attractive.
Although I do polymer clay projects just for fun and to give away, the statistics were interesting.
Thank you MJ! Searching around on Etsy can give you some inspiration too… even if you never plan to sell your things! Don’t be surprised though if you are wearing something that you made and someone wants to buy it off you. It has happened to me several times!
Cindy’s previous blog post..Polymer Clay Bird Pendent Jewelry
The spoon handle bail is totally wicked!! I love that idea.
Spoon handle as the bail…clever clever clever! I love the look that you get with that!! You should do a tut on how to use all bits and pieces of the spoon for your jewelry. I love the colors on this bird pendant too…wow! It’s almost like you tie-dyed the clay!
Is Etsy a US only site,what I mean is would I find it usefull over here in the UK? not a lot of point if prices are in $ as exchange rates change daily.
Andrea, anyone from anywhere in the world can buy or sell on Etsy but the prices are all listed in US funds. So, since you are in the UK, using Etsy to figure out pricing could be more of a hassle than what it’s worth.
However, there is a comparable site out of Europe called Dawanda.com. They have an English site, German site and I think French. The pricing is in Euros which would be way more helpful for you.
Cindy Lietz’s last blog post..Storage ideas for Fimo, Premo and Sculpey Polymer Clay
Stephanie: Thank you!! I love the look of the spoon bail too! I do plan to do a course on using vintage silverware to make pendants, so stay tuned!
You’re right… the way the colors look like tie-dye! I usually go with something bright with this cane but thought I would experiment with a darker look this time.
Can you see the flower petals from one of my flower canes in the background? From the photo you can’t really tell but they are Pearl and they have a hint of sparkle, like dew on the petals.
Cindy Lietz’s last blog post..Fimo, Premo, Sculpey Clay Storage Ideas | Baking Polymer Clay Oven
This post was really interesting. I’ve participated in a PIF treasury on ETSY, but I never thought of listing PIF items on a regular basis as a marketing strategy. I might have to try that. I’m going to have to read more of your blog posts and learn some things. Thanks for sharing. :)
Thank you Kelley! It is great to have you here!
Cindy Lietz’s last blog post..Choosing a Polymer Clay Baking Oven
Hi Cindy; Can you tell me more about spoon art? I saw some with poly-resin with stuff in the resin and it was made into a necklace. I hope I’m describing it right. I’m unable to find it again on a web site. Can you help? I’m still trying to get unboard. (do you like that word?) Thanks for your help. Dave
Hi Dave! I haven’t seen anyone put resin in a spoon before but that sounds like a cool idea! Could even make tiny sculpted things out of polymer clay in the spoons bowl and fill the rest of the way with the resin, which would also be cool.
As far as how I do it, I first cut off the handle with a hacksaw, file the edges and bend the remaining handle into a bail. Then I fill the bowl of the spoon with clay and lay slices of cane on top. Then it is baked and glued into the spoon, then sanded and buffed.
Since this idea has so many steps I will be making it into a mini-course in video as soon as I can. Many have already asked, it is just a matter of fitting it in.
I did write an article about the process if you would like to read more. Click the link by my name to go straight there.
Hi Cindy, I am trying to find a similar site to yours for resin jewelery techniques. BTW, I love your site.
Hi Robyn – glad you “love” my site… music to my ears :)
I don’t really know of a site like mine to point you to for resin jewelry. But I did find a great resin pendant tutorial on YouTube (see below). Maybe you could Google this fellow and he may be able to help you or at least point you in the right direction.
The other thing to do if you have not already, is type in the keyword “resin” in the search box at the very top of this page. By doing this you will find several reference links where resins have been discussed in other articles at this blog.
NEW PHOTOS JUST ADDED:
Hello to Everyone,
Some new Spotlight project pictures that relate to the topic of this page (Selling Polymer Clay Beads), have just been added in another post. They were submitted by Melinda Herron. The link by my name will take you to where you can see them, along with a bit of a write up. Hopefully they will inspire you to achieve great things with your own polymer clay projects.
I adore the little birdy pendant! So very cute, I need to make a cane like that! Well, at least I know how to make the bail, because Cindy has made a video tutorial on how to make Silver Spoon Bails for Jewelry.
You can also just use the handle, like in this pendant. The link will take you to a video preview of the tutorial, as well as comments and feedback on it from members. There are discussions about where to find spoons/cutlery, how to bend them, and some beautiful examples, as well. Check it out, if you haven’t already. And have fun!