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Yesterday, I talked about custom or personalized products versus ready made products in your Silhouette Cameo or Cricut business. If you mainly sell ready made products and you love using social media, the Etsy Shop Restock Model might be good for you.
What is the Etsy Shop Restock Model?
The concept is simple: you do not keep your Etsy shop full of products all the time. Instead, you leave your products in draft mode or utilize the vacation settings on Etsy. During the time your products on Etsy are inactive, you promote the products on social media. Your ultimate goal is to sell out of products on your restock day.
A More Thorough Example of an Etsy Shop Restock
Today is January 7th. Let’s pretend I plan a shop restock for February 1st.
- From January 7th until January 31st, I create products and list them in draft mode or use the Etsy vacation mode. (When you list products in your Etsy shop while in vacation mode, they become drafts and will go live once you take your shop off of vacation mode.)
- When making products, I use social media to post sneak peeks of the process of creating them, the finished product, and constantly remind my followers of the date and time of my Etsy Shop Restock.
- After all products are sold or after a day, I place my Etsy listings back into draft status or place my shop back into vacation mode.
- Last, I package and ship my products and schedule the next shop restock.
A Few More Thoughts on Etsy Shop Restocks
- If you really like making custom products, you can offer a few custom listings. After the shop restock, you contact the customers that bought custom listings to get details about their order.
- You can have as many or as few items as you’d like in your restock. Additionally, you can have as many shop restocks as you wish. I’ve seen everything from once a month restocks to two times per week.
- This is a great way to sell on Etsy for someone that works full time and only wants to be a part time Etsy seller, those who would rather spend more time creating and less time on the business aspect, sellers that are too busy to keep up with the demand, and those who love building their social media following.
- Shop restocks are popular on Instagram. One of the best examples of Shop restocks I’ve seen is Nicole from @jellybirdsigns. If you are interested in using a Shop restock model, browse her feed.
- Don’t forget that you can schedule your social media on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram to help get the word out about your restock.
What do you think of the Etsy shop restock model? Is this something that you will try in your Silhouette or Cricut business? Let me know in the comments.
Since 2015, Christine Schinagl has been helping crafters start and run craft businesses through her blog, Cutting for Business. As a Silhouette and Cricut crafter herself, she has a unique take on what works and what doesn’t work in the craft business world. She also enjoys teaching other crafters how to create digital SVG designs, available through the Design with Me series.
Katen Kroupa
Thursday 20th of October 2016
I like the idea of doing this possibly for a holiday launch. Interesting model.
Christine
Monday 24th of October 2016
Sounds like a good plan!