The Stars are back. . .

For many years my etsy shop had a continual 5 star rating, even in slow times or shut-downs when the reviews "aged" the stars were still visible, that is until this year.  Etsy changes things all the time, sometimes without much notice or fanfare, so I was a little shocked and a bit annoyed when my stars literally Vanished after all these years. 😕 I mean they have changed colors before but for 7 years they were always there, I earned those stars and then Bam! gone. 

I asked around and did some research and apparently etsy changed this like a year ago. I never saw an announcement of this change but buried in a handbook article it lays out the review system and there is a date on the article, so I guess this is how it works now. 😏 If ever all your reviews are at or over the 1 year old mark your shop's stars will disappear all together, they used to just be grey not gone. I really did not like the look of there being no stars it makes it look as if the shop is brand new or really bad, either way not a good look. Lucky for me the Labor Day sale was productive and with the fresh orders came fresh reviews and magically my stars came back. 😇 I know it seems like a silly thing to think about, but a review history is often an important factor for buyer's confidence so having those 5 stars at the top of the shop can be key for conversions.  

 

So welcome back my pointy little friends it's nice to see you again up there where you belong. 😎 

Sometimes 1 is all it takes. . .

I know we all want to be seen, we want to know we are being seen, many of us obsess over "views" in our shops be they etsy or goimagine or elsewhere. Afterall, you can't make sales if your products are never "seen" right? 

While it is at its core true that people cannot buy what they cannot find it is also true that it only takes 1 view to make a sale sometimes. 

RainbowMaille is not my first trip on the business merry-go-round, and I've been working on it for 7+ years so one would think I already know the above truth, but it's easy to forget. It's also easy to be sad, bothered, disappointed when we feel like we're not being seen, but that is why sometimes life has to remind you. 😅

Behind on my books. . .

Yeah, I'm going to admit that in the move process and temporary shutdown I have not kept up with my bookkeeping.  😏  

I just pulled out my notebook to catch up and record monthly website fees and found my last entry was back in March. 😅 

Good thing RainbowMaille's books are simple and most of those months of being closed it's just a couple of fees, so this shouldn't take me too long to "fix" and catch-up.  😉

Although, a recent etsy order did highlight their most recent fee increase that I had mostly forgotten was going to happen. I mean, of course, I got the notification, but I was closed and moving so it kinda skipped to the back of my brain.  However, seeing it in print and practice was like "oh snap" 😦 I'm probably going to have to raise prices.  Order total paid $56 and change, but after etsy's fees and payment processing fees and buying the postage and removing the taxes collected I only get $43 and change.  So yeah, I need to adjust my shipping charges too between postal rate increases and etsy's increased % coming off the top it no longer covers packaging materials like bubble mailers, tape, ink, paper, etc.,   

I know a lot of crafters, artists, and small business owners have a hard time pricing our items and many of us do not raise prices as much or as often as we probably should.  So, consider this a PSA of sorts in this time of "inflation" and increasing supply costs and increasing postage and increasing fees, check your books and make sure you are still making the $ you wanted/intended.  😇😎

Grief is a process. . .

 Grief is a process and I'm still processing. . .

I am working through working on my grief, but I'm not sure I'm making any progress really. 😔 I am still sad every day. I still think about calling Kat almost every day hence the daily sad when I have to face all over again that she is gone. 😭 

I am trying to work on other things too, like re-activating listings in the online shops and setting up my studio.  I have made some progress on the studio, art on the shelves, chainmaille inventoried and loaded on displays, supplies in bins, my easel is unboxed and standing ready.  I haven't created anything in the new studio yet, but I did hem some curtains and do some other household crafty-ness for the moving-in and decorating.  

Sad setback. . .

I have not posted in a month because I've been through a personal loss.  My best friend of 15+ years passed away and it has been hard. 

I am sad, it has been weeks and I still cry almost daily.  

I miss her, I find myself wanting to call her almost daily.

I have made some limited progress on setting up the workshop, and I have activated some of my listings but there is still so much to do.  Ironically, in spite of the minimal listings available and my complete lack of social media skills lately, I got an order through goimagine a couple of days after re-activating listings.  It was a bit tricky trying to pack it up for shipping. . .what with the I can't find my postal scale. . .my printer was still packed and didn't want to print when I set it up. 

Typical etsy. . .

It is really not hard to understand why over the years so many sellers and small business owners have become so disillusioned with etsy. 😒

In my experience, which has been the last 7-ish years, their customer service basically sucks.  I sometimes wonder if they even read the problems people try to present before they check a box and send off some generic reply that never addresses the problem.  Perhaps all first replies are a bots and automated or perhaps they outsourced their customer service to non-native english speakers, I don't know but what I do know is that they have never in my 7 years actually solved an issue in less than 5 email exchanges. 😔  

So here I sit in my new house, beginning the great unpacking, planning to re-open the online shops when I come across an issue with my etsy.  See back in December last year they did a special "shop camp" thing where if you followed the steps and did certain things you got 200 free listing credits.  It was pretty easy, re-do some listings, update photos, add a few videos and bingo! 200 free listing credits. 👍  Of course, I completed the steps and took those credits, and due to the way etsy works and the length of time listings are good I still had a pile of listing credits when I had to shut down for the move.  I knew the move was coming and I had been reducing the number of listings on etsy as I was transitioning to goimagine (which I like a lot more than etsy anyway).  At the point that I deactivated all my listings for the move I had over 90 listing credits left and had planned to use those to re-open.  However, when I logged in and went to my listing manager to re-activate things the credits were gone and etsy charged me.  😣 

I wrote into customer service and got a lame reply about how auto-renew works 😒(duh) and that auto-renew still takes your money while in "vacation mode" 😑 (also duh) and that the credits must have just been used up while I was shut down. 😠 Nothing quite like assuming your customers are morons you can take total advantage of.  So to clarify I replied and told them they were completely wrong, first none of my listings have ever been set to auto-renew (I'm a control freak and have always had them set to manual). Second, I never put my shop in "vacation mode" because I know it can cause many glitches, I manually deactivated all my listings and wrote a notice in my announcement section. Finally etsy listings are good for 4 months but I was only closed for 2 (April and May) and those monthly statements do not show the use of any of my credits and if things had renewed then they would not all be expired now.  😏 

I went back through all my monthly statements since being issued the credits and counted how many of them I had actually used and when so that I could add that to the customer service exchange even though etsy's customer service should be able to see that info themselves in my account.  I have replied 3 times to provide info and screenshots and point out that the info they gave me was not correct and . . . crickets.  That's right no response now. . . also no magically re-appearing credits . . .yet. 

In the meantime, many items have been relisted on the goimagine shop because it works better and is easy, just select the listings, click activate and save, no listing fees, no hassles. 💗

https://goimagine.com/rainbowmaille/ 

P.S.  It took all week but someone at Etsy finally restored my listing credits (probably because I threatened to not activate listings or re-open my shop until they did). 

Maybe next month. . .

I have picked a house and we are in the process of buying it, of course buying a house is not exactly an overnight thing so it will still be a little bit before the business is back open. 😏   

When I posted that the business would take a selling hiatus while we relocate I really had not intended for it to be this long nor had I intended for it to be a near total social media blackout. But if I'm honest it's been kind of nice not having to worry about what to post. Also I've found it's kind of depressing to scroll through my facebook or instagram feeds and see all the cool stuff that other people are making while all my stuff is in storage and I can't make anything. 😔 I see someone else's cool new chain bits or painting and all I want to do is try it. . . can I make that pattern? can I pull of that art technique?  Not to be overly dramatic but it's almost like part of me is missing or maybe it's just FOMO (fear of missing out).