Should you have one Etsy shop or two Etsy shops?
You might be in a situation where you're wondering if you should split your Etsy
shop into two different ones because you have different ideas or products and
you're wondering if they all belong in the same shop or you might have different
shops and you're wondering if you should fuse them together.
Whatever your situation is, I really think this video is going to help.
Let's dive in.
Hi, I'm Deb and I'm the founder of Tizzit.co,
a membership community for makers and handmade shop owners just like yourself.
So when is it a good idea to have two shops rather than one?
Well,
there are two reasons why you could consider having two shops rather than one.
Before I dive into this, I almost forgot to tell you guys,
I do have a free decision tree.
It's a free download that you can get if you click the link below this video and
that will help you figure out - using a quiz - what you should do in your
specific situation. It's a cool little resource,
I hope you'll enjoy it - the link is just below. So,
why should you have two shops rather than one? Well,
the first reason is you have too many different item types in your shop.
That means that if, for example,
you're selling jewelry but you also have some ceramics and you also sell some
digital prints and you're considering adding something else again to the mix.
That starts really diluting your brand positioning and it will really affect
your conversion rate,
meaning that people getting into your shop are just going to get confused -
"What is this about?" That affects your sales because people don't trust the
shop and the quality of what you're doing simply because you're not specialized
enough. So that is the first reason to have two shops.
If you're making things that are really different:
different item types with different handmade skills,
then I would recommend separating that. With that said,
the second reason to have two shops - and that's going to sound like it doesn't
work because it's a bit of the opposite,
which is you have the same type of items, but
they have a different style,
different aesthetics that would really appeal to two very different types of
ideal customers. Then it makes sense to separate them as well.
I'd like to share with you an example of one of my Tizzit HQ members.
Her name is Jackie. She's a fabulous human.
She's from South Australia and she makes jewelry and so the item type - there's
only one, it's not like she's selling a bunch of different stuff.
She makes jewelry, but she does have two different shops.
The first one is called "Jackie's little shop" and she mostly sells LGBTQIAP (I
hope I said that right) jewelry sets and she gives 10% of her profit from that
shop back to an organization called Hutt Street Center that helps homeless
people in her area.
That appeals to one specific type of ideal customer so when she started wanting
to create a different type of jewelry, she realized, "Hey,
this doesn't really work with what I'm selling in this shop currently" because
the new idea that she had was to create a brand of eco conscious
jewelry made with cork material.
That new shop is called "1703 by Jackie" and this time she picked "1% for the
planet" to give profit back to because yes, Jackie, is that awesome.
But my point here is that sometimes even if you're selling the same type of
item, if the aesthetics, the style,
the different customer it's appealing to are different,
then you're better off splitting that into two different stores.
Now let's look at reasons why it could be a good idea to have just one shop.
The first thing that comes to mind is if you're new to Etsy - I
wouldn't recommend you overwhelm yourself with starting two shops.
There's a lot that goes into growing a shop and I do think that it is best to
have just one as you'll be more efficient and more productive,
especially if you can't commit to working full time on that new Etsypreneurship
of yours. You would be more efficient and productive, focusing just on one shop,
getting it off the ground,
and then considering adding a second one into the equation.
The second reason is if you don't have enough items.
If you're thinking about opening a new shop, but when you really think about it,
you only have like four, five,
six products that you're thinking of selling there and it's just because you
have this creative genius moment and you're thinking, "Whoa,
I want to make this now!" it might not be worthy enough of a new shop just yet.
The third reason, which is kind of like the first one,
which was if you're new to Etsy, don't do that to yourself.
This one is similar,
but it applies to you even if you've been on Etsy for a long time.
If you've been on Etsy for a long time, you know what it takes to grow a shop,
maintain a shop, do all the admin work, all the creation,
all the taking the pictures, listing all the products and everything else.
I do think that unless you really have the space,
and I mean mental space, but also the time,
it might just be a little bit too much to have two shops at a time.
That's a personal decision though. Speaking of the decisions, how do you decide?
Well, first off, don't forget the freebie just below this video,
which is a decision tree / quiz to help you decide for your specific situation
what is my best suggestion.
Other than that,
sometimes there are some good reasons to have two shops:
different market, different customers, different aesthetics,
but that doesn't always mean that you should have two different shops.
I think that's an important distinction because the workload does come into the
equation of, you know, "yeah, maybe I should have two shops,
but really can I?" So the rule is to have a consistent branded shop that appeals
to the same customers, period. Whatever you decide, that is the golden rule.
That could mean having two shops or it could mean cleaning up the shop that you
currently have of items that don't really belong with the rest of your shop.
So how do you decide?
It mostly is going to depend on where you're at on your handmade business
journey, your level of experience and the resources in time,
and money that you have available.
So take the quiz - go and download this decision tree just below the video and
answer those four question inside of that download to really understand what's
the best for you. I hope this helped! I would love to know:
do you have one shop? Are you considering opening a new one?
Do you maybe already have two shops? Let me know in the comments below.
I would love to take the conversation there. If you enjoy this video,
make sure to like it, share it with your friends and subscribe to my channel.
I come up with a new video every Tuesday,
always with the goal to help you start and grow a successful and profitable
handmade shop. Until next time, bye bye!