Tuesday, September 14, 2010

What makes a best seller?

I often wonder what makes one item in a store sell better that another. What is the secret that makes a product into a best seller? If I knew the answer to that I would be rich and spending my time traveling around the world. But I do have a few ideas that are of course only based on my own personal experience.

Exposure - This is the obvious reason. Last year I had my filigree hoops featured in etsy's holiday gift guides and they received tons of daily views. As a result I sold many pairs of these. But since these earrings were one of my best sellers even before this extra attention I know this is not the only reason.

Pictures - when selling online, pictures are the basic thing that sells your item. I have several items that were not selling well and after improving their pictures, they suddenly became some of my most popular items in the store. It's amazing what a good picture can do.

Timing - If your item fits a specific need at the specific time it is needed, it will sell well. Of course you don't always know what that need is. A few years ago I made a ring with some birds parading on it. I sold only a few and stopped making them. Last year I re-made it and listed it in my store, It sold so much better. It turns out birds are "in" right now and the ring became very popular. Same design, different time and it made a huge difference.

I think you need a little bit of each of these factors to make a best seller. If you have the right product at the right time with a great set of pictures and a bit of exposure to display it to the world, success will come for sure. What do you think? any other ideas on what make an item succesful?

Here are some of my best selling items in the past and present:

                

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

New colorful personalized jewelry

It's been a while since my last post but I've been busy with good things - working on new collections and preparing for the coming holidays season.

I'm exited to share the first few items from my rainbowmetal new collection. I opened rainbowmetal a year ago and to be honest I have not been able to give it my full attention. Handling 2 stores is not an easy task. But my head is just filled with ideas and plans for this store that are just waiting for me to find the time to create them. So I finally did and I am very happy with the results, hope you like it as well.

The new collection is all about personalized jewelry, that is of course made of colorful metal. After all, if you are going for a personalized pendant with your favorite word, name etc., why not make it in your favorite color as well?

So here are a few samples, many more will follow soon. Enjoy and feel free to comment and share your thoughts.