Why is iCraft not taking off?

[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.