How to Raise Your Prices and Keep Your Customers Happy
How can you raise prices without inciting customer pushback? Today we’ll tackle how to do it while keeping your customers happy.
It’s Always Christmas for the Ornament Girl
It’s Christmas all year round for The Ornament Girl, Staci Ann Lowry, who turned an old-fashioned hobby into a business creating handmade, no-sew, fabric-covered ornaments.
Recorded Webinar: How to Use Squarespace to Create a Unique and Effective Website for Your Craft Business
Are you looking for a website platform that doesn’t require any coding experience, yet allows you to create a polished, professional website in just a few minutes? Squarespace may be the perfect solution. Maybe you’re already a Squarespace user, but would love some tips and tricks to make your website really stand out and function […]
5 Lessons Learned from 5 Years of Indie Untangled
Indie Untangled: a site that lets dyers, designers, and makers pay to promote their latest shop updates, sales, patterns and special collaborations.
How to Deal with Customer Complaints After You’ve Made the Sale
In a perfect world, business would run smoothly. Customers would never leave negative feedback or attack a merchant for a perceived injustice. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect world. Sometimes you must take the good with the bad and adapt as situations arise. So how do you handle difficult and stressful situations? Are there ways to prevent misunderstandings and future problems?
What to Do When the Company You’re Working With Files for Bankruptcy
Navigating your way around a bankruptcy filing is tough, but it will be easier if you understand some basics about U.S. bankruptcy law.
Getting Set Up On Shopify: A Quick Start Guide
Shopify is a premier ecommerce platform and one that I recommend to many small businesses. Here are reasons I think you should set your shop up on Shopify, as well as some quick-start steps you can take right now.
Tips for Dealing with Difficult Customers
Customers are like snowflakes; no two are alike. Some are wonderful people that reinforce your belief in humanity while others make you question why you ever got out of bed. Thankfully, most customers fall somewhere in the middle and are pleasant, happy people. It’s important to recognize the potential high maintenance customers before you accept their orders and to be aware of potential business challenges you may face. So how do you spot different personalities?
Etsy Integrates with Shapeways for 3D Printing Services for Sellers
Etsy now integrates with 3D printing marketplace Shapeways, a top manufacturer and marketplace for 3D printed goods for small businesses. Shapeways offers over 40 materials and finishes and has offices in both the Netherlands and New York.
Recorded Webinar: Optimize Your Etsy Shop with Sarah Sewell
Anne LaFollette shares her expertise licensing your work in the surface design industry. Anne covers five key steps before you sign your first contract.
The Ins and Outs of Selling on Consignment
Partnerships between retail shops and indie makers can be fruitful and mutually supportive. Consignment can help craftspeople reach new customers, and offers a proving ground for makers interested in expanding into wholesale. Curious about what consignment means, and whether it’s a good fit for your business?
Make Your Products Shoppable on Instagram: A How-To Guide
You’ve probably seen posts on Instagram, they have a little shopping bag icon in the corner. That icon is a product tag and it indicates that this is a post in which you can tap on that icon and learn more about the product in the image. This is called Shopping on Instagram, and you can use it to feature your products through your organic posts and Stories.
PayPal’s Refund Policy No Longer Returns Fees to Sellers for Cancelled Sales
On April 7 PayPal released an update to its user agreement that changed how the company handles refunds. The new policy, which goes into effect on May 7, will significantly impact ecommerce sellers who use PayPal to process credit card transactions.
Cosplay Attracts a New Demographic to Sewing
Motivated by the desire to make their own costumes, cosplayers are buying sewing machines, patterns, fabrics and supplies and they’re taking classes to develop their sewing skills. The sewing industry is taking note, especially since cosplayers are typically between 18-39 years old, a market that retailers are desperate to reach.
Ecommerce Checklist: Make Sure Your Site Isn’t Missing Anything
Use our Ecommerce Checklist to make sure your site isn’t missing anything! Let us help you use all the tools available to bring and retain customers.
Etsy Offers 24 Hour Phone Support (At Last)
Etsy sellers have been persistently asking for phone support from the online marketplace for many years now, and yesterday their request was finally fulfilled. In an update to the Seller Handbook Etsy staff explained, “We’ve been working to make support on Etsy even better with a suite of new help tools so you can contact us when you need to get answers quickly. With our new phone support option, you’ll have a direct line to an Etsy support advisor.”
How to Help Etsy Customers Download Their Digital Files
Digital files are a popular product to sell on Etsy. They’re a terrific source of passive income, meaning you do the work to design and create the file once and then sell it infinitely, even while you sleep. Still, passive income is never really passive. Customers often need help and support, especially when it comes to figuring out how to download their digital file after purchase. Here are some helpful tips to make the process smoother for everyone.
The Fiber Festival: Is This Venue Right for Me?
The fiber festival is a unique and specific kind of yarn experience. Differing from a retreat or educational conference, a fiber festival has its roots in connecting small-scale fiber producers and makers to fiber enthusiasts who are looking for specialty products and to those who are curious about where yarn comes from.
Etsy Sellers, Here’s How to Protect Yourself from Random Withdrawals and Other Financial Mishaps
On Friday morning Etsy withdrew money from the bank accounts and credit cards of some sellers without their permission. The amounts of the withdrawals varied, but some were in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Here are ways Etsy sellers can protect themselves from financial mishaps like this in the future.
The Benefits of B-School for Big-Hearted Craft Entrepreneurs
Marie Forleo’s B-School is an 8-week online training course about business and marketing for multi-passionate, big-hearted craft entrepreneurs.