Why is iCraft not taking off?

[thefinickystitcher]

I think the look of iCraft is really nice and everything about it seems like it should do really well. It is very easy to list items and the pricing is also great. But...
It just seems like its kind of a ghost town to me, I really don't understand why it's not taking off. People seem to open their shops and then disappear. I clicked the 'creators' tab above and there is 35 pages of sellers but I checked when they were last updated and I believe it was only the first six pages that have been updated this year. Even the message boards, I check daily to see whats new and sometimes there is only one new comment out of all the categories.

I'm not trying to put blame and I don't know what the solution would be, I'm just curious. There are similar sites out there that are not nearly as attractive in any way as this one yet they are getting more traffic. Does anyone have any ideas?  

[GalleriaLinda]

I hear what you are saying, finickysticher...think about this - iCraft is one of the few venues that takes handmade only.

The busiest sites I see are ones that take handmade, vintage, and commercial supplies. The commercial supplies category is a huge, busy category because you can get items for low dollar, need them to create, and therefore that category provides more volume more quickly and brings in traffic for those venues. That expanded traffic from those 3 segments helps an online venue mature more quickly. But, the traffic is disjointed in what they are looking for - diluted, you might say. iCraft is extremely focused on a niche market - hands-on designers and artists.

Since I sell handmade, I would much rather have steady traffic of buyers that are looking specifically for handmade. At least I know that those who are here browsing are looking for handmade items that I do provide and not for something I cannot provide, such as vintage or commercial supplies.

I agree that it is disconcerting that shops don't update. I think a lot of that is just not knowing how to "work" a shop. Many creators just decide to sell what they make because they have too much of their product laying around, but don't have knowledge in the online process that keeps their shops in the best light.

iCraft is still young in "online business years." It takes 3-5 years for a business to really take off.

I would love for the forum to be more active. By comparison, the Etsy forum was slow those first years too but I look forward to when the iCraft forum is hard to keep up with! It will get there.

By the way, I have been more successful on iCraft than other venues - I think because it brings in targeted buyers who appreciate and look for real handmade items.

[thefinickystitcher]

First, thank you GalleriaLinda for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it : )

I never thought about the fact that other similar sites also have the supply and vintage sellers to bring in more traffic. That is also one of things that attracted me to iCraft because the focus is just on handmade so I guess less traffic is the trade-off to that benefit. I agree with you that having a steady flow of traffic looking exclusively for handmade items is a benefit to all of us.

I wonder what can be done to help those with shops know the importance of keeping their shops up to date. I am fairly new, just a few months, to online selling so I don't have much to offer in advice. What I have learned has been from busier forums or articles that other sellers have written. I haven't had much opportunity to look around iCraft to see if what is offered to help new sellers, articles etc. I will make a point to do that in the next few days though.

As I said in my first post, I like everything about iCraft so I really hope that it does start to pick up. I need to have patience, thanks again ; )

[Zs Knees]

I'm new to on-line selling too, and I think my expectations have been too high.

I was feeling pretty discouraged, until I opened a shop on another site (I don't know, is it a faux pas to name other sites?). No one is even Looking at my stuff there!

So I guess what I'm saying is, unfortunately, it could be worse!:)

[GalleriaLinda]

Even those of us who have been selling online for a few years are feeling the pinch these days.

Everyone has to go find their own traffic, even if the venue provides a certain amount of traffic. I think this is the one thing that new sellers don't realize, but in reality, it is the shop owner's responsibility.

It takes a lot of effort to drive people to your shop. Locally, hand out business cards, participate in craft shows, have trunk shows, talk it up, post on bulletin boards in stores, post on CraigsList.org for free classifieds, etc...

Ways sellers do that is to "be seen" online by posting in appropriate forums, online advertising, start a blog and promote the blog, taking advantage of call outs for blog profile features, join and participate in appropriate handmade networking, such as Plumdrop, ByHand.me, IndieSpotting, IndiePublic and many more, twitter, facebook, etc...

You might enjoy my blog that is targeted to you - the online seller that needs more business direction. http://IndieCEO.blogspot.com. On the left side is a blog roll for online business - check out those blogs too.

It takes a couple of years for an online seller like you and me to really become steady, not unlike a real store.

Read everything you can find about selling online. The Etsy forum is a great place to learn because there are many seasoned handmade online sellers there -- remember, Etsy is almost 4 years into online business and is maturing and you see that they are facing huge restructuring and transitions. It is all a part of the business growth.

I know I have seen articles on iCraft about running your shop but I could not find them. It would be good for Admin to put links to those articles on the side of our account page!

Best of luck to you both and hang in there.
iCraft will get there too.

[Loopy4ewe]

I love iCraft too! It's easy to upload new items, love that I can sell in cdn dollars. and of course the fees are pretty reasonable. Especailly once people start crashing down the doors to come shopping here!

I'm looking forward to the day it picks up.

If you want the forums to get busier - start posting more topics:) Promote the site. iCraft has been promoting themselves but we also need to promote too.

There are a few changes I'd love to see. I'd love to be able to browse stuff that's been listed recently without having to select a category. And I'd love to be able to select favorite shops that I can easily go back and look at (without bookmarking with my browser) and even select favorite items that I would consider buying in the future.

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

I'd love to be able to browse stuff that's been listed recently without having to select a category.

This you can do Loopy.  When you go to Browse products, just don't select a category, click on the Search button instead.  It works for me.

I would like to be able to save shops or items too.  If it can be done currently, I haven't figured it out yet.

[Zs Knees]

I wanted to put in another vote for being able to choose favorite shops/items!

And thank you, GalleriaLinda, for your tips and advice. Self-promotion, marketing... not my fortes... But right now I just need to find more hours in the night to make things in the first place!

It'll all happen, I'm thinking positively.

[Loopy4ewe]

Thanks Jewlery Without Borders!

I will have to give it a try

[thefinickystitcher]

Thanks everyone for your input, these are all good ideas.

I also posted in the "Website site suggestions etc.' section of the message boards and mentioned maybe iCraft sending out a newsletter weekly or even monthly to sellers. I think not only would it remind sellers to update their exhibits but inform them of changes like the recent price drop. It might also be a place to post article links that might help a seller learn about online selling.
I looked around iCraft and found very little help for people new to selling online. Any opinions on this?

I know it is our responsibility to bring our own customers in to our exhibits but I think the whole site reflects on all of us. Every attempt has to be made to keep the site moving forward instead of appearing stagnant to people browsing. Us all posting in the forums more often, as Loopy4ewe suggested, is a great start.

Keep the ideas coming, I thnk we all want iCraft to get going : )

[swiekysiggies]

Hi everyone!  I do what I can to promote iCraft.  It's a beautiful site, and I am a bit surprised it's not more popular, but sometimes small is nice.  I put ads on my blog, and Twitter about it.  I like the ease of access here and the fact that you can add a listing all on one page.  Word-of-mouth advertising is very powerful, I guess we all just have to brag about iCraft!  :lol:

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I think the main reason is that it is new.  We need to drive the traffic.

I know my shop has been mostly neglected because I only have time to focus efforts in one place at a time.  It's personal tax filing season in Canada and I'm a Chartered Accountant.  It doesn't make sense for me to buy a plan in April when I won't have time to list anything.

I'm going to buy a plan in May and start listing and promoting and building my presence here at that time.  I really like being able to price in Canadian dollars too!  So I plan on pushing this site more!

But... I have a valid excuse until April 30!!

[swiekysiggies]

You mentioned that it is tax time in Canada, well also in the US.  It could be wishful thinking to assume that maybe Americans are waiting for their returns to spend some money.  You never know!  But promoting the site in whatever ways we all can is the best form of advertising.  

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Very true - and your tax deadline is earlier than ours.  By not being able to list more in April, I may be missing out on a lot of American buyers ready to spend their refunds!

Oh well, I can't win them all... sigh.

(But if any of you can beef up your stores, now is a good time!)

[ficklefaerie]

I am one of the deglectfull ones on icraft....

I am a bit discouraged with the copying on etsy....every single categry is getting overloaded with the same thing, just different sellers. Maybe moving to icraft and promoting more will help to really kick things into high gear!\

Etsy was once in the same spot...slow and look where they are now!

[thefinickystitcher]

Maybe give iCraft another chance ficklefaerie. I see you have already made sales so it may be worth it for you.

I know what you mean about Etsy, although I am making a few sales there it does take a lot of promoting to be seen and the fees can get a  bit high from listing, renewing & fees when things sell as well.

I am keeping my Etsy shop but also trying to promote iCraft so hopefully it does take off. I haven't made any sales here yet but I will give it more time and see how it goes.

Good luck with what ever you decide to do : )

[iCraft Admin]

Hi GalleriaLinda,

Great point about 3 streams of traffic from handmade, vintage and supplies. We were struggling from the beginning with the idea of including “Supplies” category. There is definitely a benefit of having “Supplies” as Creators need them to create products and they drive considerable amount of traffic.

One of the ideas we had originally is to have a separate section on the site beside “Handmade Products” called “Supplies”, so buyers would never see those products showcased or listed side by side, but still have access to supplies if they need them.

This is something we’d like to get your opinion about. Would you see this as a benefit if we’ve added “Supplies” section to the site or not?
Thanks!

[PinKixx]

I don't know if it'd help me if iCraft has supplies. Handmade supplies maybe. Then again sometimes it's hard to tell if it's handmade by the seller or not. It's definitely tougher to advertise a site with "handmade" only though. I wish I have some good idea to advertise icraft to people because it seems like the site is losing its audience/customers. Tough, tough, tough...

[GalleriaLinda]

iCraft is getting more recognized, I think. They are a part of byhand.me (in drop down boxes) and included in other places alongside Etsy.

I have had several (many?) people ask me on Twitter about icraft when I post a link to my items.

Just did an iCraft "showcase" of iCraft artisans on byhand.me - look!
http://www.byhand.me/component/option,com_content/Itemid,73/id,6826/task,view/ (this is a way to get the site known too is to do these showcases of iCraft things only and title it with the iCraft name....)

About adding supplies -- I am torn. On the one hand I would hate to see supplies here becuase the site is so clean, artistic, and professional looking for products. It looks exclusive, high-end.

However, if supplies were here and put in another area totally, that could be a compromise. But if supplies were never promoted or featured, I think supply sellers would not like that.

In the big picture, for me, I would like keeping it handmade items - only because it is more exclusive and can be known as "THE place to go for quality handmade."

I really hate wading through supplies and vintage and having it all mixed up - just my opinion (and I sell vintage but I just put it on another site) - and, I don't know all the issues that admin faces with the decisions for the site.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi GalleriaLinda,

We are torn about adding supplies too. The biggest draw is the additional traffic that supplies could bring. However, our original idea was to keep the site clean and focused on handmade.
We thought that would be an attractive point for true artists and crafters.
From what we’ve seen so far not that many people are concerned with what products are sold alongside their creations when it comes to choosing a venue.
I see same people use everything from etsy to 1000markets to ecrater.com and keep switching them based on what gives them more views and sales.

Anyway,  if we ever decided to add supplies to the site, we'd definitely separate them from handmade products and feature products from both groups separately.

Since this decision will have an impact on all existing members, I hope more Creators will participate in this discussion and give us their thoughts on this topic. Thanks!

[GalleriaLinda]

My thought about adding supplies to bring in traffic is that, sure, WE may purchase supplies (sellers) to make our things, but the traffic that comes here FOR supplies are making their own stuff too, so only a small portion of those are really good potential customers to purchase our current finished goods.

In the big picture, is it worth iCraft's branding and up-coming reputation to add supplies? (I am NOT knocking suppiers - we all need them). That is a rhetorical question.

Right now I have heard positive comments about how iCraft is like an art exhibit.

I have a customer that loves to shop iCraft and hates to look through my artfire shop. Fair enough! She loves the ambiance of iCraft and wants to shop only here for her handmade items. We need to clone her!!

How about sending a membership-wide email about this with a link to this thread for people to weigh in?

If supplies came to iCraft, I would not grumble, but it may change the identiy of iCraft a little. But having them in their own portal would help that too.

Unfortunatley, keeping it handmade only makes site growth a little slower, but hopefully steady. If quick growth is the objective, then adding another sector is warranted.

As a business, I also know that more shops equal more liquid capital to do more things for the site for us! :-)

Oy! Torn!

[GalleriaLinda]

I just read the GREAT interview on byhand.me. That is a fabulous outlet to get the message out to the targeted audience - more creators!

Regarding this "supplies consideration" discussion, this blurb in in the interview was timely for the context of the "supplies" topic.

~~~
"Q: As a new company, what advantages can icraftgifts.com offer over other competing venues that sell handmade products such as etsy?"

"A: As mentioned above, we only accept handmade products and we only deal with Art, Crafts and Fashion products.

We are probably one of a few places that focus on true Creators and make it our mission to showcase their talents....Because of that, you can generally find a higher quality of products on our site."

~~~

[iCraft Admin]

Thanks Linda! Yes, the interview on byhand.me is a great way to get the word out.
In case someone wonders which interview we are talking about, here is the link http://www.byhand.me/component/option,com_content/id,6950/task,view/

As for the Supplies business - we are not going to rush and make this decision quickly without proper consideration. We'll also wait for others to express their thoughts on this topic. So I suspect, it will be a while before we make that move.  :roll:

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I was drawn to iCraft for the handmade emphasis.  It seems that sellers buy the supplies and then list more art but all that keeps selling are supplies and the art/creations pile up.

I don't think "supply" traffic is the right kind of traffic for a site that is supposed to be about the creations.

Just my thoughts.

[Loopy4ewe]

I love supplies - but I would rather see Handmade supplies be the only supplies we see presented on iCraft. There are so many incredibly talented artisans that make handmade lampwork beads and buttons, beads made out of polyclay (or whatever it's called! sorry), beads made out of ceramics. And there are some pretty talented metal smiths who handmake findings as well, and let's not forget handspun or hand dyed yarn! I would welcome all of these hand made supplies, but I would rather not see commercially made supplies listed here.

My 2 cents

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Oh, I agree Loopy!  When I say "supplies", I am indeed referring to the commercial ones.  Resale stuff.  Handmade supplies are still "handmade" items in my mind.

[Brilliant Beads]

I also like the handmade aspect of iCraft!

There are a lot of online venues that have been "diluted" with thousands of commercial supplies, and it's a challenge for buyers to sift through to find unique, handmade items.

I just joined byhand.me and have been Kaboodling and tweeting about iCraft.

I would love to see more traffic, and a few sales....LOL.

[PillowThrowDecor]

I agree with you about more traffic which means we more sellers for more product which of course means more promotion.

Hey everyone reading this... what do you think about a Seller's Bootcamp?

I 've retired from another career but part of my professional background was sales training.  As independent business people it is all about accountability. This week I am a bad example as I had a plan to promote in a number of free ad sites and so on.  I do much better when I know there is a team of people marching along with me every day and are as committed as I am to doing assigned activities.

If I put the activity list together, and we all get ready to run with this by say next Monday, who's in this with me? Can we all email at least 5 other people, especially  the low to no sales or ones that haven't updated in awhile.  I can plan an activity list that will be a low or no cost program?

Let me know if you are in? I will start a new thread and we can start tracking people who are willing to commit to 21 day bootcamp where we will spend at least 30 minutes a day do our homework.

You can also email me directly at cskaley@uniserve.com.

Christine
PillowThrowDecor

[BeauMonde]

Hi everyone!
I thought I would join in on the discussion ~ I really, really like the fact that ICraft is handmade only and one of the very few sites for just handmade.

I have only been here a few months and I am very happy with the site functions, the easy listing and the fact that my new listings flash across the front page!!

Nothing wrong with supplies, I sell them myself on other sites and of course we all need supplies to make our creations. BUT, supplies seem to 'take over' on handmade sites and I really think it would dilute the message of only handmade here at ICraft.