Bizz Buzz - Trends

Why are Trends important and What is Trend Forecasting? To make your product more desirable, you need to be up to date with current trend themes and colors. If you know what colors and themes will be on trend, you can design in advance. No repainting to match what's on your site's front page. It's kind of like if you knew that Harvest Gold refrigerator would be out of fashion, you might have just bought the white one.

Those of us that sell on Art sites like Etsy or Artfire know that our sites will keep us up to date with the latest trends, but where do they get their information? There are so many resources you can use to get this information, unfortunately, many have very expensive memberships. But there is some free information you can get.

I might also add that many of the trends today are started by you. Yes you! The trend forecasters are now looking to art sites like Etsy and Big Cartel to see what colors and themes are popular. These colors and themes will then go into the general marketplace. One of the many disadvantages of selling online is that your ideas are very easily "borrowed".

Here are some great places to get information. The Trend Curve, is one of the most watched publications in the home furnishing industry. Michelle Lamb is either truly amazing, does her homework well, or as many in the industry suspect, a self prophesier. In other words, she is so popular that people believe her and create the trends that she predicts. Either way, she is a voice that is wise to listen too.

Where do color trends come from? There is another group called the Color Marketing Group. They are a team of hand approved professional Designers and Color specialists that work together to forecast color trends. Members are from industries like home furnishing, automotive, paint companies and even Pantone. They not only forecast what colors will be in fashion several years before they are even available, but also suggest those funky names for them.

And speaking of Pantone. You can get some color forecasts from them directly too. Look, there's a free color forecast for Spring 2012. There are TONS of Pantone products available, but here is a page of Trend Forecasts

Because much of trend information is for industry, it can be difficult to get your hands on at a reasonable price. Reading the trend forecasts on your selling site and others is a great way to get that information. Another great way is to have a membership in organizations that fit your category. Some have information and are more reasonable than industry groups. Many also have student or junior memberships, just check out their sites to make sure that they DO have the trend information you want.

IDS or Interior Design Society has great info and an annual affiliate membership at $175
IDSA or Industrial Designer Society of America is for Product designers, and has several levels of  membership, but most annual profession fees are $375
American Craft Council does not have a wonderful site full of trend forecasts, but what they do have is a Membership that is $40 to $50, with library of resources, a wonderful Craft magazine (American Craft), great benefits and show resources.

There are just too many great associations for me to list especially with international and individual country. Just do as search of association in your industry and do a little trend forecast research.

Bizz Buzz - Relevancy of Adtuitive

“…I found out it is not what happens, it is how you tell it and who does the telling.” 
― Nancy Willard

I promised to give you all the information I could find on all the Etsy changes and what the heck relevancy does Adtuitive have. Because I have been permabanned (like permamuted, but with a blocked IP address, and yes they really did) from Etsy I can only give you information and links I have found on the internet, but I'll do what I can. 


You, of course can find all the information Etsy has to share about relevancy (slim to none), but what do others have to say about it? I love ecommercebytes.com because they have the latest info on all top seller sites. Here is a Great post on the Why of relevancy Etsy Pulls Trigger on Relevancy Search


There are so many tips on relevancy that I just can't list them all here. EVERYTHINGETSY has some good ones. Here are more great tips from Brittany's Best. You can search Etsy Relevancy for more great tips.


I can tell you though, that relevancy is pretty direct, logical and intuitive. ARTFIRE uses it, and it took me some time to get the Etsy brianwash out and us it. For instance, go to Bing or Google shopping and search Black Eyed Susan Jewelry. Look at what you find. It's my necklace at Artfire. 


Relevancy is simple. Look at what you are selling, It's not a Midnight Amanda Parabola. who the hell is going to look for that? Etsy Trend colors terms will only get you other sellers (but might get you in Treasuries or Finds. I guess Etsy is going to have to watch what they preach if they want  peapod to only pull up pea pods and not every shade of light green.


I also found that although Handmade Jewelry or Sterling Silver may be the most searched terms via Google Analytics, there is too much competition for that out there. You would get better results from Blue Stone or Orange Flowered Hat. If it's a shoe, call it a shoe, but whatever you do don't use the term RED HAT, because you'll get saturated with competition for that Red Hat society, unless that's what you're selling.


So what does all this have to do with Adtuitive? Here is what EcommerceBytes has to say about that. Etsy is not divulging much information on it's Adtuitive information, other than that they have hired 5 "Etsy simpatico Geeks" to work on it and probably integrate with their "Showcase". 


As relevancy trumps recency in search results, the money they were making from your frequent $.20 relisting fees will be vanishing like the popularity of the moustache festooned mugs. And as Google and Bing shopping search results don't bring outsiders to Etsy, I would venture to guess that the new Adtuitive in combination with Etsy Showcase will. Hold on to your wallets guys, Etsy is not through raping you yet. So enjoy the break while you can, because while you are all struggling to get found, I'm picking up sales like mad at my Artfire shop.