New Website

Over the weekend I worked on getting my site up and running. I have tried this before, but fell short when I needed to list my items for sale using Weebly. While Weebly is a good site, and does have a shopping cart set up, it just fell short for me.

So over the weekend I looked long and hard on apps that would allow me to import or even use my Etsy listings on my site. While I could not find any apps to import my store directly into my website, I did find a website builder which uses your Etsy store (or Big Cartel) to build your shop page. Plus it is hooked directly to Etsy's checkout page.

There are some distinct advantages of this:

1. Less Distractions for Customers
Yep, it is true. While on Etsy all it takes is a quick click and there they go, right out of your store. It is sad, but a true fact of Etsy. It is so easy for a customer to stumble out of your store and right into someone else's shopping cart. With this new site, only my work is displayed, so no stumbling into someone else's shop.

2. Better Branding.
On Etsy, the main brand is Etsy. It is everywhere, and my brand is secondary, even in my shop. On my personal page, it is my brand. In fact the only time you are seeing Etsy orange, is when you go to check out.

3. Brand Recognition
Lets face it, when you sell on Etsy ultimately you know your customers will refer other to Etsy to find their latest purchase. It goes something like this:
"Where did you find that amazing bracelet?"
"Oh, I bought it on Etsy"
And off the friend goes to find the same bracelet that you sold. But they get caught up in Etsy and probably never even see your shop.

With my own site, the conversation changes to "I bought it from Eluna Jewelry. She has a great online store at www.elunajewelry.com

Since my new site also incorporates my Etsy store without all the trappings of Etsy, I get the best of both worlds. Etsy takes care of the shopping cart, and order management. Everything is in one place when it comes time to do accounting and inventory. By having this store to send customers to though, they will not wander off into the wild orange Etsy but stay put in my store. Plus they will better remember my brand. And I still get the searches and sales directly from Etsy!

It is the best of both worlds!

Ok so if you are interested in doing this yourself, leave a comment and I will tell you how I did it.