Peony Lane Designs

How to Earn a Five Star Etsy Rating

October 25, 2020

Want to learn How to Earn a Five Star Etsy Rating? To be honest the bar for customer service is so low that it’s really not that difficult to earn a five star rating on Etsy. Here are a few of my favorite tips to earn a five start review!

How to Earn A Five Star Etsy Rating

Ship Quickly

One of the biggest complaints I see about Etsy sellers is how long it takes for sellers to ship. I know. I know! If selling on Etsy is not your primary job and your busy with family and your life then getting an Etsy sale can drop lower on your priority scale. I list my shipping time as 2-3 days on most orders. I shoot to actually get every order out within 24 hrs. If I can’t get the order out in 24 hrs. for whatever reason them I make sure I don’t exceed the time I promised.

People are used to the speed of Amazon so not shipping as quick as you can will knock a star or two off your rating.

Be Honest

What ever you are listing handmade or vintage be honest about the quality of what you are listing. In the vintage world if you’re listing something with damage it’s not unusual, but if you can the damage a flea bite, it better be a flea bite and not a gouge. Be as honest as you possible can. Do not try to mislead them into thinking the item is better than it actually is.

Customers who feel like they’ve been cheated or lied to will not give you a five star rating.

Respond to Questions

If a customer sends you a question. Answer them. That seems like a no brainer but it wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t a problem. Some sellers I’ve talked to have nothing but complaining to do about the emails they receive.

To me if a customer reaches out by email they are genuinely interested in buying the product I’m offering, so why would I not be happy to answer the question?

Remember the Golden Rule & Be Extra Golden

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do you want to do business with someone who is a pain in the behind? So why would anyone else?

Be nice. It’s that simple. Be nice. It’s not that hard. Even when you’re saying no to a customer request you can still say it in a nice way.

Ask for a Shop Review

Most customers will only leave feedback if they’re unhappy. That’s why you see so many negative reviews online. They just need to let out their anger about a bad transaction. Most people who

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are happy with their order go on with their lives without a second thought to you or your shop.

So you have to ask. In every order I include hand written not that ends with, “If you’re happy with your order I am grateful for a shop review.” I’m sure that’s why I have more positive ratings than negative ratings on my Etsy shop.

Like I said the bar for customer service is really low out there. If you follow these tips it should help you bring your ratings up. If you are looking for more information on promoting your Etsy shop this holiday season, don’t forget to check out promoting your Etsy shop on and offline!

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Many blessings to you all!

100 Etsy Listings In 24 Hours

September 12, 2020

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Oh boy! We are looking squarely in the face of Q4 (the 4th quarter of the year). In retail that is your money making quarter. In some years I’ve made double or triple what I’ve made in the first three quarters of the year combined (don’t be too impressed those were really lean years). My point is retailers always prime themselves getting there stores ready for the avalanche of sales (hopefully) in Q4. I always set up more Etsy listings in Q4 than any other time.

I am primarily a retailer after all since I have both an online store and a brick and mortar store to feed during this time.

Enter my 24 hour Etsy Listings challenge!

My Etsy shop is usually at about 200 products at any given time. A respectable number for sure, but this year I wanted to take my store to a higher level. I wanted to get another hundred or more listings up onto my Etsy site.

That’s a lot of work. But hey, customers can’t buy what’s not listed right!

I wanted to get all the listing done quickly and efficiently, so I concocted the brilliant idea of a 24 hour challenge. Well, to be fair YouTube creators have been doing this 24 hr challenge for awhile but they weren’t really doing anything in their 24 hrs. Those challenges were silly like spending 24 hours in my office or 24 hours in my pool. Really kids?

There’s no way I wanted to participate in something that required me to be prune-ee for 24 hours, but being to hyper productive and getting my work done. I’m in!

So I lined up 100 items I wanted to get listed on my Etsy site for Q4 and decided that Labor day weekend was my time for the 24 hour challenge.

The young-uns who participate in the 24 hour challenge stay awake for the full 24 hours straight. I on the other hand need my sleeps so my 24 hour challenge included an 8 hour break to sleep.

How It Went

I decided the best way to proceed would be to bulk my processes. Instead of taking a photo and then listing that item, which is my typical process, all photos would be taken first. So I set out the first day with my light box and a hope that I could get 1,000 photos (10 for each listing) could be completed in the first 8 hours.

Photos went fairly smooth and I completed all of them in under 8 hours so yay! I will say I may never recover from the smell of all the Goo Gone I had to use to remove all the price tag adhesive.

Then it was the “work” part. For me loading an Etsy listing is pure drudgery. It’s the “work” part of my job. Sitting at a computer loading a database is not fun. Still I had 16 hours and I felt confident that I could make it work

So optimistic in the beginning. Until my computer shut down. Twice.

No problem! I had the same photos on my phone on my phone just in case.

Then the app crashed three time. UGH!

Then my internet went down.

Oh lord why?!

Eventually, all the issues were overcome and I was posting like a champ. By the end of the first day (16 hours into my experiment) I had photographed all the piece and listed 41 of them.

The Last 8 Hours

The second day was grueling. I was so bored. I had the television on the whole time but I was still bored. The last day my internet was running very slow. If you watch the daily vlog below you’ll see the listing’s spooling while I was trying to upload.

In the end I reached 91 total listings when I hit the 24 hour mark. I did finish the full 100 that evening so my shop is in a better position. While I was posting three sales came through which was great and traffic to my Etsy store increased those two days and has stayed higher than my traffic was last year at this time.

If I was ever to something like this again, and I probably will next year around Q4, I will break the 24 hours into 3 days. 8 hours each day just so I can mitigate any boredom.

It was worth all the time to have my shop better positioned for the holiday season. Sales are already increasing. I keep reading Etsy’s trend reports to see if I have items that fit the searches that are trending.

What are your plans for positioning your shop for Q4? How are you preparing for the holiday shopping rush? Comment below and let me know! If you haven’t yet checked out my post on promoting your Etsy shop on and offline click here!

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Many blessings to you all!

Pricing Vintage for Resale

July 21, 2020

Pricing vintage for resale is a little different from the other pricing models you’ll find that have a nifty little calculator that plug in hours, costs and bingo-bango you have a magic price! It’s a little more complicated than that.

I know, I looked everywhere for a way to figure out what I should charge for my vintage items. The truth is a standard pricing model doesn’t exist. We are in a very unique business. Our business depends HEAVILY on what the market says is popular. 10 years ago you could pick up ironstone for pennies because no one was really looking for it. Now ironstone is at a premium because everyone wants it.

Pricing vintage for resale is an ever moving target. So let’s talk about how hit the bullseye!

Research is Key

Don’t groan at me. This is the job and there are no short cuts.

You have to know what’s selling now. If you’ve been in the game awhile; you can already see trends. You saw the shift to MCM at the same time I did and you saw the new interest in the 70’s & 80’s.

If you’re new to the game then you have to start watching trends. Etsy puts out a trend page every year letting sellers know which trends are on the up swing. You don’t have to sell vintage on Etsy to get this information though. Just do a quick search for Etsy Vintage Trends and you’ll find it.

Whatever your vintage niche is it’s a good idea to do a search for current trends.

Obviously, items that are trending command a higher price than items that are not trending.

Why the Pricing Calculator Doesn’t Work

Most standard pricing calculators will tell you that you need to take the cost you paid for a product, then add what you want your gross margin to be. So let’s do an example of one of the pieces I picked up.

Snow White’s Dopey iridescent Vintage Childs Bowl - Disneyana — Snow White’s Dopey iridescent Vintage Childs Bowl – DisneyanaSnow White’s Dopey iridescent Vintage Childs Bowl – Disneyana

This is an 1949 iridescent child’s bowl with Dopey on it. So this falls into several vintage categories (as you can see by my listing details). Children’s china. Collectible Disneyana. Iridescent china. All very desirable.

I bought this on the last day of an estate sale for I believe 60% off the estate listing price. The discount doesn’t matter. What matters is I paid $1.00 for this bowl. So if we take the standard pricing model you find online it looks like this:

$1.00 at a 75% mark up = $4.00 for a profit of $3.00

Really?

That’s not going to work. Not for something this rare.

Let’s look at a model that some vintage sellers think will get them closer to an accurate price.

The Hand Made Model

Some vintage sellers decide on what their hourly rate should be for locating vintage items, and then factor in their “supply” costs or what it cost them to purchase the items and the cost of listing the items and the cost of shipping (if they’re planning to offer free shipping). Let’s say I want to pay myself $50 per hour. So for the bowl above it would look like this:

$1 + $50 + .20 Listing fee + $10 (shipping) = $61.20

This is good right? It sure looks better.

Here’s my problem with this model. That bowl is extremely rare. Do an image search for it and see how many you find. At the time of writing this there’s one. Mine.

So extremely rare and very collectible. There should be more than a $50 profit on this piece.

So How Do You Price Vintage for Resale?

You can always check for comparable items. If you know the manufacturer you can usually do a search to find other pieces listed for sale. There will usually be a large range of prices if the item is fairly common. You want to be sure the price you’re listing is right because some of those prices will be way too high and others will be way too low. Here are two resources to help you know if your price is in the Goldilocks zone.

Replacements Ltd – If you’re look to find the value of a piece of china this is n excellent resource. They are a etailer that specializes in in replacement pieces of china, flatware, and crystal. They even buy patterns if you want to sell to them. You can get a good idea of what a piece is worth if they have item in stock. They even have a pattern identification program that can help you learn what you have.
WorthPoint – This is an unbeatable resource! They can show you the price of recently sold items from jewelry to furniture and everything in between. This is a paid service ($199.99 annually) but there is a free 7-Day trial so you can see if you like it. What I like about it is it will show you the actual price the market will pay.

Decide The Value

The last resource is your own brain. For items like the one I listed above, there is no resource that I could find for this bowl. When you find something that is so unique that you can find a comparable item you have to use your best, educated guess.

That’s what sellers do and sometimes you might have to wrestle with the part of your brain that says, “but you only paid $1 for that”. That part of your brain that tries to make you feel guilty and wants you to put a lower price on the item. If you’re using your educated information to decide the price then you have nothing to feel guilty about. You are entitled to make a living.

Don’t undervalue what you do. There are plenty of people who are looking for what you have who don’t want to put in the time or effort to go hunt for those items themselves. They want the convenience of being able to find a treasure and click “Buy Now”.

They are paying you for that convenience.

If you are getting serious about selling vintage items and if you’ve made it this far then I know you are, read my other posts on Etsy selling.

Some links above are affiliate links.

There is no extra charge to you for buying through these links. I earn a small commission which helps support this blog. I am so grateful to anyone who chooses to purchase through my links!

Where Can I Buy Vintage Decor Online? 18 Fabulous Resources!

June 23, 2020

If you’re a vintage lover looking for where to buy vintage decor online you have come to the right place! There are so many resources online and there is a place for every price point. So if you’re looking for a bargain they are here.

18 Fabulous Vintage Sources!

I know I’m going to regret sharing some of these with you because they sell in an auction format so my competition will for items will be going up. One of them I know I will regret is the Goodwill’s online shopping site. Yes, you read it right and I’m not talking about their Bluebox program everyone is drooling over. Goodwill sells fantastic vintage and antique items online in an ebay style bidding format. Their website is clunky and difficult to navigate at times but you can score a huge bargain!

Poshmark – Yes, Poshmark sells vintage home decor and clothing! I know I was surprised too but this site has a large

Vintage Majolica Pitcher — Majolica Found on Poshmark

community of sellers so what’s on offer can change from day to day. If you sign up with my code SVCASE you will get $10 from Poshmark to use on your purchases.

Mercari – Mercari is like ebay in that it’s private sellers. They have a wide variety different vintage. I spotted an amazing Coca-Cola stained glass hanging lamp listed for only $30.

Etsy – Full disclosure I sell on Etsy. They have a large selection of home vintage home decor from all eras. It’s a must stop for your online shopping trip.

One Kings Lane – This is the place to shop for fine antiques. They carry everything from Danish modern to antique

Vintage Pagoda Jewlery Box — Found on One Kings Lane Pagoda Style Jewelry Box

apothecary chests. They have high style and quality. And if you want to save a little money while you’re there don’t forget to login to your Rakuten account first to get 1.5% cash back on your purchase. If you’re new to Rakuten and you sign up through this link you’ll earn $10 back on your first purchase over $25 too. Score!

Sometimes when people say they want to buy vintage decor online they mean they want the vintage look. They don’t really care if it’s truly a vintage piece. If you’re looking for the Midcentury look and don’t want to have to hunt around for clean vintage pieces AllModern.com is the place for you to find MCM look furniture.

Of course if you’re looking for the real thing hit up Chairish.com! Recently spotted an 1960’s stacked bamboo sofa that is to die for! They have amazing quality pieces.

Everything But The House is touted at an estate auction site. Prices can go high but sometimes you get lucky. Shipping is a concern though. Their rates always seem high to me on shipping so make sure you get the estimated shipping cost BEFORE you commit to a bid.

If you want to find a local bargain sign up for K-Bids auctions! You can find incredible local vintage auctions that you can pick up if you win so you don’t have to worry about the pesky shipping costs.

RubyLane.com – One of the best parts of RubyLane.com is it’s not an auctions site. You can click buy and the item is yours and shipping on most items is FREE!

1stDibs.com is popular with designers and the prices reflect that fact. I recently spotted Dorothy Draper Style Coral Red Commode.

JaysonHome.com – Again, another designer favorite but they offer 2% cashback with Rakuten which at their prices can add up. Don’t forget to use my sign up link HERE and get your $10 sign up bonus!

Connecticut Country Antiques offers early American Antiques. Don’t miss their old painted items. Best part – layaway is offered! So when you find that perfect piece that’s a little out of reach right now you can make payments until it’s yours!

Linda Rosen Antiques – Another shop that offers layaway! Incredible authentic antiques. Recently spotted a large boot trade sign that I was drooling over! Wish I had found that one.

Rehab Vintage – Most of the pieces on this site have been refurbished but in a good way.

Omero Home – Is one I just like to browse and drool over. Antiques from all over the world. I wish I could have all of them in my own home.

The Good Mod – Full of MCM to love here! They also have quirky things like a barrel sauna and a meeting dome?

Of course any list of vintage shops wouldn’t be complete without eBay. It’s the original and largest. It’s also the one that has the most scams and reproductions so be careful!

If you’re want to incorporate vintage into your home decor any of these online resources can help you. I keep a clients hunt list so if there’s something special that you’re looking for and can’t seem to find reach out to me. I would be happy hunt for you!

Sell On Etsy – All Your Questions Answered

June 15, 2020

You’re ready to sell on Etsy! Congratulations! Thousands of other had the same thought and took no action, but not you! That my friend makes you special. You are a going to make things happen!

Making the decision to go into business for yourself can sometimes be stressful and there’s a lot of uncertainty about what to do. Who do you talk to? If you’re like most people who don’t have a cadre of Entrepreneurs that you can turn to with all your questions.

No worries! I’ve got your back.

I’ve been selling on Etsy for awhile now. I started to sell on Etsy in 2016 and quickly fell flat on my face, but I dusted myself off, learned from my mistakes and now according to my eRank stats I’ve sold more than 83% of the other shops on Etsy. Now, I’m here to share with you what I’ve learned. Check out the 5 Things I Wish I’d known Before I started my Etsy Shop here!

Why did I choose Etsy

Why choose this platform over another to sell? For me it was simple, they have a built in audience looking for what I’m selling. There are plenty of other selling platforms out there so you will have to weigh your options and decide for yourself if this is best for you. For me the price and audience was right.

How do beginners sell on Etsy?

So let’s assume you are an absolute beginner and build from there. There are a few things to take into consideration before you open your shop.

Time will be a huge factor in running your Etsy shop so you want to get your ducks in a row to maximize the time you have available to created products, create listings, promote, pack and ship your Etsy products.

I’m going to assume you already know what you’re going to sell. Etsy only allows two categories for selling 1) Handmade which is their largest market share and 2) vintage which is the category I fall into.

If you’re selling handmade you will have to figure out if you want to created products and list them for sale or if you want to take custom orders which you create after someone places an order. Personally, I would make and then sell because I would be stressed out if an order came in and my daughter got sick or some other life issue got in the way of completing the order on time, but your tolerance is your own so you have to make this decision.

Either way you need to be ready to get your inventory packed and out the door as soon as possible.

If you’re selling vintage you need to be sure you have enough inventory to keep your shop active. Also make sure you know what you have to sell. I’ve seen many listings with inaccurate descriptions.

Also, make sure you have boxes, envelopes, bubble wrap, packing tape of a sufficient size for what you are selling. Believe it or not people forget that when they list a 2 foot long art deco lamp that they will need to have a box to ship it in once a buyer click the button.

Once you’re prepped and you know what you’re selling and how then it’s time to open your shop.

Naming Your Etsy Shop

First thing you need to do is think of a name for your Etsy shop. If you’re thinking No problem! I have a local business and my name is (FILL IN THE BLANK). You might be disappointed to learn that someone already has your business name on Etsy. I know I was!

There are 2.5 million shops on Etsy, so unless your store name is something super unique, it’s probably been taken. Do an Etsy shop search for your name and see what comes up. You might have to tweak the name of your shop so you can get a shop name close to your business name. For instance Peony Lane was already take on Etsy so I had to go with PLaneDesigns. It was until someone asked why I named my shop Plane Designs did I realize my mistake. That’s something I have to cope with but you will think through your name better than I did.

Setting Up A Brand New Shop

To set up a brand new Etsy shop you need to use a computer or request the desktop site on your table or phone. I know I wish I could do it on an app to but all times after that you can use the app. If you haven’t yet set up your shop click this link and get started. Follow the steps they will walk you through. You will need to have your bank account information ready in order to set up a shop.

How Much Does it cost to sell on Etsy

Let’s get right to the money! To post a listing it costs 20 cents. Yep. Not bad! But they also charge 3% plus 25 cents when an items sells.

WAIT! That’s not it. If you allow Etsy to do off-site advertise for you they will charges you 15% of each sale they bring you, but you can opt out of this.

What’s the Difference between a shop title and a Shop Name?

Good questions! A shop title is a quick description of what you do. It appears under you shop name. For instance mine is Peony Lane Designs Unique & Interesting Vintage. You do not have to repeat your shop name but remember my shop name doesn’t have my business name so I repeated it. You want to give a visitor an idea of what your shop is about. High Quality Handmade (Fill in the Blank), Treasure from the past, Wood Placement and Cutting Boards – You get what I’m saying here.

How do I Make An Etsy Shop Announcement? What Should I Put in My Etsy Shop Announcement

A shop announcement appears at the top of your shop and tells people what’s happening in your shop. I let people know when I’m acquiring new product and when I’m not. I will let them know if any policies have changed, etc. anything you think they should know or might be interested in knowing. Or you can just say hi I’m glad you’re here.

How Do I write and Etsy Product Description?

Okay, now we’re into the meat and potatoes of a shop. When you fill our item listing you want repeat your key product description as our first like. The reason is Etsy doesn’t scan the description for key words to rank but Google does!

After that you want to add all relevant information about the product. Call out anything the customer should be aware of like defects (I’m thinking of vintage here), sizing, etc.

I fully believe you want to interject a little personality into your description. That’s up to you though. You can keep it to the point if you wish.

Lastly I always call out any policies buyers need to be aware of such as No Returns. Anything you want to be sure to call the buyers attention to before they click the buy button.

Do I need to have all 10 photos?

Yes! Use every inch of space that Etsy provides. That means tags, photos, materials, occasions – fill in every section as thoroughly as you can. Including your shop policies! Don’t skimp at all.

Take photos from every angle on a piece. Top, bottom and all the sides. I even include measurement photos in mine to give the buyer a good idea of what they’re getting.

How do I get more traffic to my Etsy Shop

When you sell on Etsy you need to do shop promotion. That doesn’t mean you have to spend money on advertisements. You should however make sure you create Pinterest Pins (I get a ton of traffic from Pinterest) and share your new listings on your social media.

Use relevant hashtags and make sure your listings are optimized for search engine optimization (SEO) – Read my post about Etsy SEO HERE. I have a post on promoting your Etsy shop on and offline HERE if you want more information on generating more traffic.

One of best methods I know for driving traffic is posting every day. I posted every day for a month if you’re interested in the results you can watch the video below. Also don’t miss my post on how to earn a 5 star Etsy rating!

I wish you all luck as you get ready to sell on Etsy and I hope your shop blows up and out paces mine! If there is any questions you still have comment down below and I’ll see what I can do about answering it.

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