Posts Tagged ‘cyber Monday’

Cyber Monday is Here!

It’s Cyber Monday!

Everything in our Etsy store is one sale. 50% off ALL marbled fabrics and ribbons. 20% off all artwork. Here’s a sampling, and there’s lots more!

Any questions, just shoot us an email. We also do special orders……and gift baskets….just ask us!

Thinking about the Shopping Surge….

CYBER MONDAY – 50% off all fabrics, 20% off all artwork in our Etsy shop.

Cyber Monday is tomorrow, and I think I am ready…Etsy is loaded with fabrics, and I have a few more art pieces to get listed this evening. In the meantime, my mind is going to the last couple of days and what I am learning about trying to take advantage of this gift-buying weekend. I did a blog post for Handmadeology about getting ready, but it never made it up in time, so here’s what I was thinking about preparing for Black Friday and ensuing Madness:

Get Ready –

1. Send a newsletter, even if you haven’t sent one at all, or it’s early for your next newsletter. Ours is going out a week early, several days before Thanksgiving with the holiday specials. We did this – haven’t checked stats yet because I’m waiting for the end of Cyber Monday. The sales pitch for all three sales was at the bottom of a pretty newsy newsletter….maybe it needs to be on the top, but I feel uncomfortable with that.

2. Decide on your specials. Internet marketing shows folks love deep discounts and/or free shipping. This latter is usually the easiest for us, but be sure to specify if it is continental US or some other limited range. Black Friday was 20% off anything on the website, plus spend $40 and receive a free pattern. Saturday was free domestic shipping off the website. Nothing Sunday, but I will change that for next year, as that’s what I saw a lot of retailers doing. Sunday will be 50% off any fabrics on Etsy, and 20% off artwork on Etsy. Have not seen a spike in visits.

3. Have products ready for shipping. Check for : care codes, package supplies, postage scale (we finally bought ours today), custom slips, tracking slips, padded envelopes – anything you can think of that you will need for shipping. Think about various combinations of items you could sell and be prepared. All of this is set. We do carry-over from other events, and we pretty much have this down.

4. Check website, blog, Etsy store, Redbubble – any place you have product to sell. Are the sites ready? Prices set? Postage listed? Pictures up? Any descriptions need to be changed? Discounts added? Interesting comment from a website visitor – why no pictures by the samplers? I added a rationale about two years ago, but now I think I need to come up with something that closes the sale.

Get Set –

1.  Make sure your Friday and Monday are available for taking online orders. Printer ink? Paper? Not a problem – ready to go for tomorrow.

2. Consider sending a brief reminder newsletter on Friday morning reminding your subscribers about the sales. Consider doing the same reminder for Monday. Been using Promotesy to send out reminders on Sunday for Monday. Need to think about “how much is too much.”

3. Have blog posts ready to go announcing your sales Run one on Thursday evening, and then run one Sunday night for Cyber Monday. Did this for Thursday and Friday, and this is the one for Sunday night. Cyber Monday is already to go.

4. Have something on your website announcing your sales. Have a link directly to your products to make shopping easier. Did this (for the first time) on the front page of the website, with links.

Go –

1. Send confirmations of orders and give customers an estimated shipping time. Done.

2. Send out a brief email when you ship to let buyers know their package is on the way. Thank them again. Done.

3. Wrap carefully. Check Paypal for confirmed addresses, and if not confirmed, email to be sure the address is correct. Done.

4. Consider giving a small percentage of your profits to a nonprofit for the holiday. eQuilter has done that successfully – over one million dollars donated. We’ll be way under that, but it’s a very good feeling. Once we know a total, the check is going to Tucson’s Ben’s Bells, a nonprofit representing kindness.

CYBER MONDAY – 50% off all fabrics, 20% off all artwork in our Etsy shop.

Getting Ready for SALES!

So for the first time in MANY years, we are actually ready for the holiday shopping season. Newsletter went out Sunday, sales are planned, website has had a significant makeover, and the Etsy store is stocked. So here’s what’s coming…….

Black Friday Special

For your shopping pleasure, you will find everything on our website at 20% off. Good on Friday, November 23, until 11:59 PM. Spend $40.00 and receive our Table Runner Pattern FREE! After your order clears, we will email you the PDF of the pattern. Our website page is here. Orders placed will take two weeks to complete.

Small Business Saturday Special

Free shipping in the continental United States on everything on our website, including art work. Support Small Business Saturday! Our website page is here. Orders placed will take two weeks to complete.

Cyber Monday Special

One day only, CYBER MONDAY, 50% off fabric pieces in our Etsy Store . 20% off all artwork. Good until Monday, November 26, at 11:59 PM.

Monday Marketing – Cyber Monday

 

   Yeah, I know….Cyber Monday was last week….and therein lies my problem.

Getting ready/surviving/marketing the holiday shopping season.

For the last four years or so, we have hardly had anything on line for  November and December, and thus have totally missed the holiday shopping season. This year we have been consistent all year, with hardly missing a week on Ebay and getting the Etsy store up and functioning. We’ve sold gift baskets so far leading up to Thanksgiving, which more than tripled what we’ve brought in for the shopping season in the past. But we have a long way to go……

I am not a big shopper, but I will confess to seeing a deal on Cyber Monday and buying – a real deal on a couple of ebooks on machine quilting designs, which I’ve been drooling over for a while. But I still can’t get excited about revving up holiday shopping.

Is it the commercialism of the holidays, and I subconsciously don’t want to take part? Probably a good chunk. Is it ’cause I’m getting older and want to spend my time on things I really like to do? Again, probably. I am trying to get pieces of passive income going on the website, so I don’t have to do so much work during certain times of the year.

This year it became Cyber Week, much to my dismay. I feel like I should have had something going, but I haven’t had the time – well, to be honest I didn’t make the time. Perhaps next year when we have consciously worked on the newsletter…..but it still is a  cunundrum an issue. Within it are questions about lack of product/pictures on the website; selling from the blog; hyping in the newsletter. It’s interesting in that I do a weekly blog post on marketing, and here is an area I can’t seem to get my head around.

Oh, well, a full year to be thinking about it…I’ll be happy just to get the newsletter up and going……..and make art.

 

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