Handmade Community
Handmade Community
No sales
Hello, I am doing try to please all my customers and following Amazon's rules yet I am not getting any sales. This is such a terrible position to be in because I have expenses to cover. I also advertise yet no sales. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing a similar situation.
4 replies
Seller_7UdI0hVdHh441
yes, last year around April or so is when I noticed sales disappearing and I choked it up to its just not a buying season. I had hoped it would pick up at Christmas time which is generally my busiest time of year and that didn’t really happen. Sure I had more sales then I did during the Summer but my usual Christmas season I make more in one day that I made in a month During this past Christmas. It was a crazy difference and 2023 is about 70% down sales wise than all my other years on here. Even my first year when Handmade first opened I had more sales than I did in 2023. Things have changed and I don’t know why. I never had to run sales or ads and I have been and it’s doing basically nothing for me, just wasting my money at this point. I’ve done everything I possibly can and nothing seems to work. I do know that the search being automatically set to “featured” has been a big issue as it’s causing random items to show up that aren’t even related to the search all because they are paid ads or best sellers. There is no sort by “relevancy” anymore, it has been gone and needs to be put back. In short, you are not the only one experiencing the lack of sales. This is a known issue across forums and social media outlets and sellers are complaining left and right. Sucks, but at least you aren’t the only one. This is my full time job so I need something to change for the good.
Seller_978BRPuJCfrrS
Hi @Seller_PLoLYOEcibF06 and @Seller_7UdI0hVdHh441 Fellow handmade seller here. I can without a doubt say Amazon isn't "discontinuing" the Handmade department. If anything, with Etsy's recent layoffs and stock prices dropping, they're working even harder to zero in on the handmade market.
That said, Amazon is a totally different beast than Etsy! We are a top 2% seller on Etsy, but between their fees, joke of a support team, and blind ads platform where you can only set a budget and trust the results.... we started looking for other sales channels. Even on Etsy's best day, they only get a small fraction of the traffic Amazon receives. So it's worth giving Amazon a real shot.
I've had a seller account for years, but didn't start officially putting up listings on Amazon until summer of last year. Sales were virtually non-existent at first. I was maybe getting one or two orders per week. As we started getting closer to the holidays, sales did pick up a bit, but it wasn't anywhere close enough to rival our sales on Etsy.
In preparation for the holiday season, I finally hopped on Seller University and just starting reading through their tips and tutorials. I also reached out and was paired with an Amazon rep for individualized help through bi-weekly or monthly calls. I'll drop a few of the most important tips I learned here, but I'd definitely recommend scouring Seller University, attending the webinars, and reaching out for a biz support rep if you're serious about cultivating your brand here....
1) FBA, FBA, FBA.... People come to Amazon for fast, Prime shipping. A lot of people, myself included, will literally go search for another brand if I don't see Prime delivery next to it. Also, if your ad spend includes non-FBA, seller-fulfilled items, you're basically wasting your money. The CPC is going to be a lot higher and even with those clicks, the minute they see the estimated delivery date, you've lost them.
2) Brand registry... Trademarking your brand opens up a whole new world of opportunities for ads, placement, and even the product display page itself. You can start a trademark filing for like $500 bucks total online. The official trademark does take time to process (like months or even years of back and forth), but you only need to FILE to register with Amazon. Once you've filed online and submitted a brand registry app with Amazon, it's about 2-4 weeks to have it reflected in your seller account.
3) Product pictures.... Unlike with Etsy customers, Amazon shoppers don't read. Period. Most of them shop solely off of the picture, reviews, and like the first sentence or two of the description. I've found out Amazon has certain programs that you can sign up to (or be invited to if your biz shows promise) where they will cover new product pictures for a few of your bestsellers. Otherwise, hire someone on Fiverr, send them your top sellers, and get them professionally done.
4) Optimize those listings! You may want to go down a YouTube rabbit hole for tips and tricks on this. If you have the the time (and a bunch of dummy emails), you can sign up for several free trials with Jungle Scout, Helium, SEMRush, Sellerise, and other platforms for keyword and listing research. I pay $40/mo for Sellerise, which has been invaluable. But in the early, less-profitable days, I just kept signing up for free trials until I could get all of my listings up to par.
Hope this helps! I know it's a lot. But we're maybe 9 months in since officially moving to Amazon and we're up to around $1k a day in sales. We expected things to slump off after the holiday season but we've actually grown month over month. As of now, we have ALL of our inventory as FBA and we use Amazon MCF to fulfill our Etsy orders, meaning we never have to box an individual order ever again. In addition to our sales skyrocketing, we're saving countless hours of labor not having to pack, box, tape, and ship everything ourselves. On Etsy, we charge an extra fee for customization for when we do have to.
Best of luck!!!
Seller_baTiMKADeMGZF
Yes, my store also drop the sales on this 2 month
No sales
Hello, I am doing try to please all my customers and following Amazon's rules yet I am not getting any sales. This is such a terrible position to be in because I have expenses to cover. I also advertise yet no sales. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing a similar situation.
Hello, I am doing try to please all my customers and following Amazon's rules yet I am not getting any sales. This is such a terrible position to be in because I have expenses to cover. I also advertise yet no sales. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing a similar situation.
4 replies
4 replies
Seller_7UdI0hVdHh441
yes, last year around April or so is when I noticed sales disappearing and I choked it up to its just not a buying season. I had hoped it would pick up at Christmas time which is generally my busiest time of year and that didn’t really happen. Sure I had more sales then I did during the Summer but my usual Christmas season I make more in one day that I made in a month During this past Christmas. It was a crazy difference and 2023 is about 70% down sales wise than all my other years on here. Even my first year when Handmade first opened I had more sales than I did in 2023. Things have changed and I don’t know why. I never had to run sales or ads and I have been and it’s doing basically nothing for me, just wasting my money at this point. I’ve done everything I possibly can and nothing seems to work. I do know that the search being automatically set to “featured” has been a big issue as it’s causing random items to show up that aren’t even related to the search all because they are paid ads or best sellers. There is no sort by “relevancy” anymore, it has been gone and needs to be put back. In short, you are not the only one experiencing the lack of sales. This is a known issue across forums and social media outlets and sellers are complaining left and right. Sucks, but at least you aren’t the only one. This is my full time job so I need something to change for the good.
Seller_978BRPuJCfrrS
Hi @Seller_PLoLYOEcibF06 and @Seller_7UdI0hVdHh441 Fellow handmade seller here. I can without a doubt say Amazon isn't "discontinuing" the Handmade department. If anything, with Etsy's recent layoffs and stock prices dropping, they're working even harder to zero in on the handmade market.
That said, Amazon is a totally different beast than Etsy! We are a top 2% seller on Etsy, but between their fees, joke of a support team, and blind ads platform where you can only set a budget and trust the results.... we started looking for other sales channels. Even on Etsy's best day, they only get a small fraction of the traffic Amazon receives. So it's worth giving Amazon a real shot.
I've had a seller account for years, but didn't start officially putting up listings on Amazon until summer of last year. Sales were virtually non-existent at first. I was maybe getting one or two orders per week. As we started getting closer to the holidays, sales did pick up a bit, but it wasn't anywhere close enough to rival our sales on Etsy.
In preparation for the holiday season, I finally hopped on Seller University and just starting reading through their tips and tutorials. I also reached out and was paired with an Amazon rep for individualized help through bi-weekly or monthly calls. I'll drop a few of the most important tips I learned here, but I'd definitely recommend scouring Seller University, attending the webinars, and reaching out for a biz support rep if you're serious about cultivating your brand here....
1) FBA, FBA, FBA.... People come to Amazon for fast, Prime shipping. A lot of people, myself included, will literally go search for another brand if I don't see Prime delivery next to it. Also, if your ad spend includes non-FBA, seller-fulfilled items, you're basically wasting your money. The CPC is going to be a lot higher and even with those clicks, the minute they see the estimated delivery date, you've lost them.
2) Brand registry... Trademarking your brand opens up a whole new world of opportunities for ads, placement, and even the product display page itself. You can start a trademark filing for like $500 bucks total online. The official trademark does take time to process (like months or even years of back and forth), but you only need to FILE to register with Amazon. Once you've filed online and submitted a brand registry app with Amazon, it's about 2-4 weeks to have it reflected in your seller account.
3) Product pictures.... Unlike with Etsy customers, Amazon shoppers don't read. Period. Most of them shop solely off of the picture, reviews, and like the first sentence or two of the description. I've found out Amazon has certain programs that you can sign up to (or be invited to if your biz shows promise) where they will cover new product pictures for a few of your bestsellers. Otherwise, hire someone on Fiverr, send them your top sellers, and get them professionally done.
4) Optimize those listings! You may want to go down a YouTube rabbit hole for tips and tricks on this. If you have the the time (and a bunch of dummy emails), you can sign up for several free trials with Jungle Scout, Helium, SEMRush, Sellerise, and other platforms for keyword and listing research. I pay $40/mo for Sellerise, which has been invaluable. But in the early, less-profitable days, I just kept signing up for free trials until I could get all of my listings up to par.
Hope this helps! I know it's a lot. But we're maybe 9 months in since officially moving to Amazon and we're up to around $1k a day in sales. We expected things to slump off after the holiday season but we've actually grown month over month. As of now, we have ALL of our inventory as FBA and we use Amazon MCF to fulfill our Etsy orders, meaning we never have to box an individual order ever again. In addition to our sales skyrocketing, we're saving countless hours of labor not having to pack, box, tape, and ship everything ourselves. On Etsy, we charge an extra fee for customization for when we do have to.
Best of luck!!!
Seller_baTiMKADeMGZF
Yes, my store also drop the sales on this 2 month
Seller_7UdI0hVdHh441
yes, last year around April or so is when I noticed sales disappearing and I choked it up to its just not a buying season. I had hoped it would pick up at Christmas time which is generally my busiest time of year and that didn’t really happen. Sure I had more sales then I did during the Summer but my usual Christmas season I make more in one day that I made in a month During this past Christmas. It was a crazy difference and 2023 is about 70% down sales wise than all my other years on here. Even my first year when Handmade first opened I had more sales than I did in 2023. Things have changed and I don’t know why. I never had to run sales or ads and I have been and it’s doing basically nothing for me, just wasting my money at this point. I’ve done everything I possibly can and nothing seems to work. I do know that the search being automatically set to “featured” has been a big issue as it’s causing random items to show up that aren’t even related to the search all because they are paid ads or best sellers. There is no sort by “relevancy” anymore, it has been gone and needs to be put back. In short, you are not the only one experiencing the lack of sales. This is a known issue across forums and social media outlets and sellers are complaining left and right. Sucks, but at least you aren’t the only one. This is my full time job so I need something to change for the good.
Seller_7UdI0hVdHh441
yes, last year around April or so is when I noticed sales disappearing and I choked it up to its just not a buying season. I had hoped it would pick up at Christmas time which is generally my busiest time of year and that didn’t really happen. Sure I had more sales then I did during the Summer but my usual Christmas season I make more in one day that I made in a month During this past Christmas. It was a crazy difference and 2023 is about 70% down sales wise than all my other years on here. Even my first year when Handmade first opened I had more sales than I did in 2023. Things have changed and I don’t know why. I never had to run sales or ads and I have been and it’s doing basically nothing for me, just wasting my money at this point. I’ve done everything I possibly can and nothing seems to work. I do know that the search being automatically set to “featured” has been a big issue as it’s causing random items to show up that aren’t even related to the search all because they are paid ads or best sellers. There is no sort by “relevancy” anymore, it has been gone and needs to be put back. In short, you are not the only one experiencing the lack of sales. This is a known issue across forums and social media outlets and sellers are complaining left and right. Sucks, but at least you aren’t the only one. This is my full time job so I need something to change for the good.
Seller_978BRPuJCfrrS
Hi @Seller_PLoLYOEcibF06 and @Seller_7UdI0hVdHh441 Fellow handmade seller here. I can without a doubt say Amazon isn't "discontinuing" the Handmade department. If anything, with Etsy's recent layoffs and stock prices dropping, they're working even harder to zero in on the handmade market.
That said, Amazon is a totally different beast than Etsy! We are a top 2% seller on Etsy, but between their fees, joke of a support team, and blind ads platform where you can only set a budget and trust the results.... we started looking for other sales channels. Even on Etsy's best day, they only get a small fraction of the traffic Amazon receives. So it's worth giving Amazon a real shot.
I've had a seller account for years, but didn't start officially putting up listings on Amazon until summer of last year. Sales were virtually non-existent at first. I was maybe getting one or two orders per week. As we started getting closer to the holidays, sales did pick up a bit, but it wasn't anywhere close enough to rival our sales on Etsy.
In preparation for the holiday season, I finally hopped on Seller University and just starting reading through their tips and tutorials. I also reached out and was paired with an Amazon rep for individualized help through bi-weekly or monthly calls. I'll drop a few of the most important tips I learned here, but I'd definitely recommend scouring Seller University, attending the webinars, and reaching out for a biz support rep if you're serious about cultivating your brand here....
1) FBA, FBA, FBA.... People come to Amazon for fast, Prime shipping. A lot of people, myself included, will literally go search for another brand if I don't see Prime delivery next to it. Also, if your ad spend includes non-FBA, seller-fulfilled items, you're basically wasting your money. The CPC is going to be a lot higher and even with those clicks, the minute they see the estimated delivery date, you've lost them.
2) Brand registry... Trademarking your brand opens up a whole new world of opportunities for ads, placement, and even the product display page itself. You can start a trademark filing for like $500 bucks total online. The official trademark does take time to process (like months or even years of back and forth), but you only need to FILE to register with Amazon. Once you've filed online and submitted a brand registry app with Amazon, it's about 2-4 weeks to have it reflected in your seller account.
3) Product pictures.... Unlike with Etsy customers, Amazon shoppers don't read. Period. Most of them shop solely off of the picture, reviews, and like the first sentence or two of the description. I've found out Amazon has certain programs that you can sign up to (or be invited to if your biz shows promise) where they will cover new product pictures for a few of your bestsellers. Otherwise, hire someone on Fiverr, send them your top sellers, and get them professionally done.
4) Optimize those listings! You may want to go down a YouTube rabbit hole for tips and tricks on this. If you have the the time (and a bunch of dummy emails), you can sign up for several free trials with Jungle Scout, Helium, SEMRush, Sellerise, and other platforms for keyword and listing research. I pay $40/mo for Sellerise, which has been invaluable. But in the early, less-profitable days, I just kept signing up for free trials until I could get all of my listings up to par.
Hope this helps! I know it's a lot. But we're maybe 9 months in since officially moving to Amazon and we're up to around $1k a day in sales. We expected things to slump off after the holiday season but we've actually grown month over month. As of now, we have ALL of our inventory as FBA and we use Amazon MCF to fulfill our Etsy orders, meaning we never have to box an individual order ever again. In addition to our sales skyrocketing, we're saving countless hours of labor not having to pack, box, tape, and ship everything ourselves. On Etsy, we charge an extra fee for customization for when we do have to.
Best of luck!!!
Seller_978BRPuJCfrrS
Hi @Seller_PLoLYOEcibF06 and @Seller_7UdI0hVdHh441 Fellow handmade seller here. I can without a doubt say Amazon isn't "discontinuing" the Handmade department. If anything, with Etsy's recent layoffs and stock prices dropping, they're working even harder to zero in on the handmade market.
That said, Amazon is a totally different beast than Etsy! We are a top 2% seller on Etsy, but between their fees, joke of a support team, and blind ads platform where you can only set a budget and trust the results.... we started looking for other sales channels. Even on Etsy's best day, they only get a small fraction of the traffic Amazon receives. So it's worth giving Amazon a real shot.
I've had a seller account for years, but didn't start officially putting up listings on Amazon until summer of last year. Sales were virtually non-existent at first. I was maybe getting one or two orders per week. As we started getting closer to the holidays, sales did pick up a bit, but it wasn't anywhere close enough to rival our sales on Etsy.
In preparation for the holiday season, I finally hopped on Seller University and just starting reading through their tips and tutorials. I also reached out and was paired with an Amazon rep for individualized help through bi-weekly or monthly calls. I'll drop a few of the most important tips I learned here, but I'd definitely recommend scouring Seller University, attending the webinars, and reaching out for a biz support rep if you're serious about cultivating your brand here....
1) FBA, FBA, FBA.... People come to Amazon for fast, Prime shipping. A lot of people, myself included, will literally go search for another brand if I don't see Prime delivery next to it. Also, if your ad spend includes non-FBA, seller-fulfilled items, you're basically wasting your money. The CPC is going to be a lot higher and even with those clicks, the minute they see the estimated delivery date, you've lost them.
2) Brand registry... Trademarking your brand opens up a whole new world of opportunities for ads, placement, and even the product display page itself. You can start a trademark filing for like $500 bucks total online. The official trademark does take time to process (like months or even years of back and forth), but you only need to FILE to register with Amazon. Once you've filed online and submitted a brand registry app with Amazon, it's about 2-4 weeks to have it reflected in your seller account.
3) Product pictures.... Unlike with Etsy customers, Amazon shoppers don't read. Period. Most of them shop solely off of the picture, reviews, and like the first sentence or two of the description. I've found out Amazon has certain programs that you can sign up to (or be invited to if your biz shows promise) where they will cover new product pictures for a few of your bestsellers. Otherwise, hire someone on Fiverr, send them your top sellers, and get them professionally done.
4) Optimize those listings! You may want to go down a YouTube rabbit hole for tips and tricks on this. If you have the the time (and a bunch of dummy emails), you can sign up for several free trials with Jungle Scout, Helium, SEMRush, Sellerise, and other platforms for keyword and listing research. I pay $40/mo for Sellerise, which has been invaluable. But in the early, less-profitable days, I just kept signing up for free trials until I could get all of my listings up to par.
Hope this helps! I know it's a lot. But we're maybe 9 months in since officially moving to Amazon and we're up to around $1k a day in sales. We expected things to slump off after the holiday season but we've actually grown month over month. As of now, we have ALL of our inventory as FBA and we use Amazon MCF to fulfill our Etsy orders, meaning we never have to box an individual order ever again. In addition to our sales skyrocketing, we're saving countless hours of labor not having to pack, box, tape, and ship everything ourselves. On Etsy, we charge an extra fee for customization for when we do have to.
Best of luck!!!
Seller_baTiMKADeMGZF
Yes, my store also drop the sales on this 2 month
Seller_baTiMKADeMGZF
Yes, my store also drop the sales on this 2 month
