Indie Seller Tips - Refreshing Your Shop

I've been looking around at some shops lately and I see that for the past 4 years some of you have been selling the exact same merchandise. Many of you have improved and changed. But it's a very competitive market out there. If you're selling the same thing as you had in the past, or you're selling the same thing as 1000 other shops, why should people come to yours.

I've also found that my felt flowers, no matter how lovely, do not sell well on Artfire. I am going to revise my offerings at akaCINDERS. I will still have a limited flower section, but I just can't live off of the very few customers I have that love them. This is busy season, so I need to focus on other things, and work on it later.







I have focused heavily on PoppysGardenGate, which is my bread and butter. I have added several new items this year and it's paying off. Some I dreaded adding, but turns out they weren't so bad and fairly easy to make, like the new purse that is doing very well after only two short weeks online.

 I've added bow ties, and I'll be adding men's neckties soon. Not looking forward to that one either. I have even started to design my own fabrics on Spoonflower and I will continue to make more original fabrics as soon as I have free time.


I'm trying to be competitive, and it's working. I'm looking for trends and meeting buyers needs. That's what we need to do.


 Be flexible, even if you're old and set in your ways. If you're not satisfied with how your business is doing, take a good long look at it. Take a look at your competition. Is there anything you can do to make your business successful?

Biz Buzz - Big fish in a Little Sea or Little Fish in a Big Sea

There is a new seller site that opened this week. It's called Groove Press and not that anyone is selling there yet, but for some reason I really liked the vibe so I am setting up a shop there.

Since I have opened the shop, I have been on the front page constantly, because there are so few sellers. I have sold on eBay, Etsy, Artfire and the bomb (not in a good way) site Zibbet, and I have never received so much attention. Although my Etsy Treasuries and Artfire Collections have been on the Front Page, and I have been in the Etsy Finds and Artfire Collection of the Day, I still have not had the constant exposure that I am having on Groove Press.

Of course no one knows about Groove Press yet, so no one is really buying from them. But there was a time when no one knew about Etsy either. I just have a gut feeling about this site. I think they are moving in the right direction.

Groove Press is not fully functional yet either, there are quite a few little glitches so I've had to write them every day to help point out some of the problems. Their customer service at this time, is fantastic. they auto respond immediately and I get a real response within the day. Of course they don't have a lot of people to respond to right now.

So because I have been trying to help them with little things they might have overlooked, they have promised to make me a featured seller soon. So here is my question, is it better to be a Big Fish in a Little Sea, getting a lot of exposure on a little noticed site, or be a Little Fish in a Big Sea like Etsy or eBay and get very little to no Front Page time and be almost invisible?