RJGOriginals Updates

Just a few quick updates to get you through the rest of the Halloween pre-season with our shop RJGOriginals.

1. International shipping (not US/Canada) on all tombstones ends tomorrow. I will pull those options from all listings by Wednesday.
2. All tombstone listings come down 1 October. Order by 30 September now to avoid being shut out till 2012.
3. All Halloween-specific merchandise will lose international (not US/Canada) shipping on 1 October.
4. All Halloween-specific merchandise comes down 10 October. Anything that could fit in a more horror vein year round gets re-categorized. Everything else is gone till 2012.
5. That also means that the coupon code "SAVEHALLOWEEN," which gets you 15% off of your order, expires 10 October. It's good on everything in the shop.
6. We will be adding crocheted hats to the shop by the end of the month. We are waiting on our local beauty supplier to get another shipment of foam wig heads in so we can photograph them in a professional manner. They're awesome. I want to steal them all for myself.

That is all.

Planning for the Rest of the Year

Do you have your Halloween merchandise up in your Etsy store yet? No? Might as well forget about it now. By the time you make it, photograph it, and list it, people will be afraid of not getting their merchandise in time for the happiest time of the year. If you can be real quick about it, get the stuff up by Friday. Then you have a fighting chance at some sales.

What you should be looking at is Thanksgiving (if you do seasonal decor). What homey, earthy, turkey-minded things can you list in your store? Can you do place mats, napkin rings, centerpieces, dinnerware, or small decor for the holiday? Good. Get that done and list it by October to get a jump on the other Etsy sellers.

Everyone should be thinking about the holiday gift giving season. If you do Christmas decorations, get them up by the end of October. Make sure you categorize them as Christmas for the occasion option. Same with decorations for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa if you design for those.

More importantly, you need to take a good look at your shop. What items are you selling or about to sell that could be sold as gifts? Are they for men, women, children? Who is the target audience? Go through your listings and start to change out the Recipient category for the appropriate target. Onesies for boys are intended for baby boys; silk ties are intended for adult males; handmade teddy bears are perfect for all children; handmade diaries are great for teenage girls. You just need to look at what you have and think about who would want it.

The point of this is to optimize your search results. Much like tagging for relevancy, you want to optimize for the intended recipient for gift giving seasons. You don't have to do it for all of your listings. Chances are, if the person likes your line of pens for unisex adults, they'll click on your shop and see what else you have. You want to do everything you can to make sure that your items are the first things a potential buyer sees. Think about where you see your finished product or vintage item going and target it appropriately.

Then, by the end of the year, you better be listing your Valentine's Day merchandise and planning any year end/year beginning sales events.