The past week has been spent on several different tasks, like adding a few new listings/items to my ETSY shop, experimenting further with new titles and tags, and deciding on some sale pricing for the upcoming ETSY Christmas In July promotion, which is an annual event. Participation in this is strictly optional, but it appears that most sellers do get involved to varying degrees. I decided to reduce the price of my earrings by 20% for the month of July in hopes that the additional buyer traffic, normally generated by Christmas In July, will be attracted to these sale prices, and then perhaps start looking at the other products in my shop. Being a newbie, I have no idea what the reaction will be to these lower prices, but I guess one way to learn is through trial and error. Ask me in a month if it was a success or not.
Something that has been occupying much of my thinking lately is the style, or type, of jewelry that I want to offer going forward. From all that I read, supported by my own research and experience, handmade jewelry is a very crowded space on ETSY, with by far the most sellers of any category of products. Since you are, therefore, competing with very large numbers of jewelry sellers, you need to have some specialty or style that you can be identified with, and that will separate you from the masses. I believe that inexpensive to moderately priced beaded bracelets, necklaces and earrings dominates the jewelry landscape. If you have a nice, well made green beaded bracelet, with a reasonable price, you are only competing with 58,000 other green beaded bracelets (that is based on an actual search I just did) and your chances of getting found are somewhere between slim and none. So in my opinion, green beaded bracelets is not something you want to feature in your shop, regardless of the price.
My thinking at the moment is to begin shifting away from most things beaded, and move almost exclusively into Sterling Silver chain necklaces, with some bracelets, featuring high end 92.5% Sterling Silver chains, clasps, charms and pendants. I believe it will also be desirable to offer buyers a lower cost option of silver plated chains and clasps, while maintaining the higher quality charms and pendants. Later on I will probably add gold chains and charms as well. I will initially try to concentrate my pendants into a few select materials such as rubies, turquoise or other semi precious natural stones. Finally, I am planning to offer a line of Sterling Silver jewelry for the bride-to-be and her wedding party, featuring primarily white Swarovski pearl crystals and/or freshwater pearls. I believe that this shift in emphasis and specialty will go a long way towards helping me carve out a little niche within the jewelry market, and over time will allow me to build a base of customers who like my style, feel comfortable with my quality and pricing, and will continue to buy from someone they know and trust.
As I sit here outlining my future plans for Jim Davis Designs, the thought crosses my mind that I am laying out a blueprint for some of my competitors to follow, and maybe I should just quietly implement these ideas without telling the world. But then I am realistic enough not to think that the whole world reads this little blog of mine. Plus, even if someone from ETSY decides to copy my thinking, I don't think it will make all that much difference in the overall scheme of things. The original intention of this blog was to provide a place for me to chronicle my jewelry making activities, and talk about successes and failures. If nothing else it will be good therapy for me, and if some others enjoy reading about my comings and goings, then so much the better.
So ends the post for today. I hope that you will stop by my ETSY shop from time to time to see what is new and, now that you know about my clandestine future plans, to see how I am progressing. Take care and happy shopping.
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