Questions from Hawaii

[Sand Gems Hawaii]

Aloha,

I just joined.  This site seems well organized and professional, but I have no idea whether people actually make sales.  Please, I'd like to hear from people who do well from this site, especially jewelry people.  My wife and I make sand jewelry, mostly pendants on the North Shore of Oahu.  We  sell in Waikiki in the hotels and in a few gift shops.  This is our first attempt to step away from Hawaii.  If you have any questions about Hawaii, please feel free to ask.

Mahalo (Thank You)

Michael Cohen

[PillowThrowDecor]

Aloha Michael,

Wow... sounds like we should arrange for me to fly in for the winter to be your personal sales coach

Yes sales are made here. You can check on each person's profile on how many listings they have and how many sales. A lot of us make sales because people have seen our items online and made contact with us directly to have something custom made.  Fortunately, because icraftgifts.com has no selling fees, it allows buyer and sellers to transact off the site whereas most other selling venues don't allow it because of "fee-avoidance".

Anyways... making sales will happen but like anywhere else you have to promote promote promote.

When you have some time snoop through our Bootcamp forum threads.  there are many of us sellers that hang out together in this 28 day program that gets you and your shop ready and in contact with buyers.

It is a little quieter in the summer right now but will pick up again in September.  You can always review some of the bootcamp assignments and fall into step with them.

My quick 25 cent tip tonight is to get on twitter. We all help each other build our followers. Followers build views and the more views the more likely you will make a sale.

Icraft is a relatively new site but has beautiful product and very talented artisans.  The fact that it is handmade only has a huge influence on the appearance of professionalism and attracts quality buyers.

If you ever need help wander in on the forum here and post a question Maybe you'll find the right answer or the bit of info that you were looking for already written about.

Let me know if ever I can be of help or just need a quick answer, email me.  I am relatively new to icraft also but  I'm pretty passionate about making my store and icraftgifts.com a place where buyers come to first!:)

Cheers and good luck.

Christine
https://icraftgifts.com/pillowthrowdecor

[Sand Gems Hawaii]

Aloha Christine,

Thank you for your reply.  Sounds encouraging. I did sign up for Twitter the other day.  How exactly does it work?  How do people find you on Twitter?  I'm not a great communicator but I'll give it a try.  What kind of stuff turns people on to buying from you?  In Hawaii it's always been the tradition to have local crafters selling in the lobby of hotels.  I'm one of the fortunate ones to be there, so for me, I've never had to drum up business.  Customers pass by and buy if they like what they see.  Now, this method of selling is quite different.  I have to find ways to make the customers come to me.  We  have been quite successful selling our products because no one else has anything like it.  No competition.   But I'm tired of driving to Waikiki, it's over an hour's drive one way and the price of gas here is out of sight.   I live way out in the country side and I'd like to stay there.  Anyway, you've been very helpful. THank you.  Definitely you should come and visit us if you every come here.  We live in a most beautiful place up on a mountain overlooking the ocean.

Aloha,

Michael

[PillowThrowDecor]

One day you will wake up and I, my husband and 6 grandkids will be standing at your front door with our pool toys in hand.  LOL.. I have been fortunate to travel to Hawaii on business several times over the years... I love it

Anyways a good resource for Twitter information and all kinds of good stuff is at this forum link https://icraftgifts.com/forum/b19/marketing-and-amp-advertising/. GalleriaLinda is our main writer on Business and marketing and she has some really good information.  There is a ton of info on the net about viral marketing but one of the problems (I have) is there's often too much. I am a high information nerdy type so I always read everything... gobs and gobs of stuff a lot of it not relevant so a lot of time is wasted.  Look on our site first.  tons of good ideas and info.

Find followers?... easy peasy.  Follow me and a lot of the other Bootcampers or twitter address are  posted too.  Here's mine


http://twitter.com/pillowthrowdeco

https://icraftgifts.com/pillowthrowdecor
20-50 people a day.  Don't follow everyone.. email me directly through my store if you have more questions.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Welcome to iCraft!

Your jewellry is quite lovely.  I really like this one:
https://icraftgifts.com/handmade/16809/blue-peacock-sand-pendant.php

If you have been having success in the lobbies, analyze what is successful about it.  What kind of demographic buy your items.  Why do you think they buy it?  Is it the uniqueness?  Or is it something about the island and the whole romantic idea of carefree breezes and being surrounded by beauty (in other words, should selling an "idea" be your key to promotion?)

Visit the marketing forum.  GalleriaLinda has some great posts about target marketing and promotion, etc. and some links to resources.

Cheers,
Lisa.