Welcome to iCraft, Gypsy! I've always found the fusion between elegance and grunge in steampunk art fascinating.
So, how about you? What stuff are you working on?
How are things working out for you all? Do you get many sales? Is there a good amount of activity with your stores?
I've been sporadically on the site (e.g. every few months) for a few years. I create greeting cards on the side to relax my brain from my full-time, professional career that requires a lot of technical thinking. So, I teach card-making classes first-and-foremost with family and friends. Those designs become items for sale in my shop. My classes cover the cost of supplies and raise funds for animal charity.
Most of my creative time goes into classes and I barely keep up with cards for my personal use. Hence, new listings go up slowly from me, so I fully expect sales to follow even more slowly. Not sure what the ratio of new listings to sales is these days. (Once upon a time, I tracked that stuff.) I try to rotate seasonal stock, but I don't always get there in time. The lead time required to think ahead of the seasons is surprising.
I believe all retail outlets should consider "burst sales". Find out what's going on or trending and then figure out where your product fits in that context and sell that angle. For example, off the top of my head:
- Everything 80's is in right now for fashion. Take cues from that for accessories, colours, patterns
- Nautical is in
Hmmm... maybe we should start a thread on this! (Will do that next.)
As for what I'm working on? More like, what I *wish* I was working on. Currently, I've been experimenting with more free-form inky backgrounds, interactive cards, and stencilling techniques. I often make containers (paper bags and boxes) for gift packaging, but I don't list that stuff because the shipping is stupid expensive. I would only list them if I could make a good quantity to sell as a packaged set. I really want to make more card sets or collections, but I'm not a "mass produce" thinker - except when I make a bunch of the same design for classes, but then they are all used up and I'm all burnt out on that design.
What do you have in the works?