Every Etsy shop owner knows that triggering pity in your customers is more important than the price or quality of your product. Skip tricky emotions like pride and your entrepreneurial spirit and make sure customers feel just bad enough to buy your product. Here’s how to knock your crafts down a peg to kick your sales up a notch:
Damage Some Merchandise
No one expects you to get every little craft right in the beginning of your new business. Real friends are there for you with their support – and wallets – in that rough patch when your miniature faerie clay pots are still a little sticky. That doesn’t mean they pay less than full price!
Play The “Support Small Business” Card
Faceless corporations have millions of laborers in factories to make their products – yet you manage to papier-mâché
Pick a Sad Muse
Every artist gets asked the “What’s your inspiration?” question a million times. Add a muse to your artist statement like Emily Dickinson or your dead spouse to inspire the cash cow of charity.
Donate to Cancer or Something More Unique
Customers will buy anything when the proceeds go to a good cause. Make sure some small percentage of your profits goes toward a grotesque disease.
Countdown to Your Store Shutdown
Make sure customers know that even one craft purchase will save you from shuttering the business for another six months. Add a counter to your homepage to add a sense of urgency. Then bump up the price for each craft by 600%.
Remember, no one can price-check with tears in her eyes! With luck and sympathy you’ll be out of the red by Q3.
