Post

Christmas was a busy time in the Red Bird shops, and I sometimes felt like I spent most of my time in the HUGE post office queue - which made it all the more gutting when I found out that at least 3 of my lovingly handmade jewellery packages had gone AWOL. I felt terrible - especially knowing that they were gifts and I was disappointing not only my customer, but the intended recipient too.

Grrrr it's just so frustrating! I wish I could hand deliver everything.

One of the parcels was off to the US - where the increased security measures are adding WEEKS onto the delivery times.

But even within the UK there were problems. Luckily the items that went astray were things I could re-make, and I had the supplies available. So when it was clear after a few weeks that they really weren't going to turn up I re-made them, re-packaged them and re-sent them! Not ideal given the cost of silver at the moment.

The worst thing is relying on a service, and not being able to do anything about it. Selling online means I have to post items - a courier service just isn't cost effective. And I know that customers need to know their purchase is going to get there. The Royal Mail themselves sent me a document showing research that demonstrated that -

• Successful delivery of goods is a key driver to repeat purchase.

• A poor delivery experience can be a barrier to using a retailer in the future and can generate negative word-of-mouth feedback.

Great - thanks for that Royal Mail - you're the one who is letting me down!!

After doing a fair bit of thinking, and researching, I have come to the conclusion that the only thing I can do is to send all of my items by registered post. Whilst this doesn't make them get to my customers any sooner, it does mean that they are slightly more trackable, and hopefully if they go astray they can possibly (but not always) be located.

This is now my default postal option in the shops, although I haven't increased the postal prices on existing listings in the shop. I think it will be an extra cost I have to accept, and will add these costs in as new items are listed. However, I know that for some people recorded delivery is really inconvenient - for example if you are out all day - in these cases do email me, and we can sort something else out.

I am also offering Special Delivery for those extra special parcels, which should enable next day delivery (where the item is not made to order!). Fingers crossed the post seems to be back to normal now, and is delivering on time - but I'm not taking any chances!

Listing clubs

So did the April listing challenge pay off? Is it really worth the effort of listing each day?

The short answer has to be......

(pendant by chinacherie)

yes....

definitely....

..... well for me, anyway.

So here are my stats:

(ceramic stat pendant by Surly)

For my etsy shop:
Etsy - sales up from 4 items up to 8 sales of 10 items
Visits, up 100%
Page views - up 115%
Pages per visit up 7%
Time on the site up 21%

 
And for my Folksy shop

(which excludes the beginning of the months for comparison as I was featured on a website and got LOADS of traffic for a day or two at the beginning of March!)

Sales up from 1 to 8
Visits, up 124%
page views - up 182%
Pages per visit up 25%
Time on the site up 65%

(plate spinner print by beckykazana)

So a nice busy month for me, with a sale on average every other day. Well worth the gruelling listing regime. It is difficult to list everyday, but it certainly helps bring visitors into the site.

However, it's not been the same for everyone I know some on the challenge got similar results, such as FairlyGirly, andAccidentalVix but for others the sales just weren't increasing.

 Traffic print by Ruka Ruka

It seems to me that I was just getting more traffic - which eventually resulted in more sales. So I thought it would be useful to look at where the views came from. For both shops direct traffic  and search engine traffic were up significantly. But the bulk is still referring sites as it always has been e.g. other people featuring me on their blogs, site forums and also twitter. I know for a fact that at least a third of my sales, and possibly more have come via twitter, so I'll be looking into all the ins and outs of tweeting and report back soon.

In the meantime I just need to get some more things made so I can try and list most days as it seems to be the way forward!!