Honest Critique Request

[mrsimpulsive]

Hello, my name is Angela, and I was a very successful seller before I came back in 2010. I was able to have my own eBay store and sustain a consistent income from selling here. I went through some life changes and took some years off.

I returned to the platform to sell some of my handmade jewelry just recently. I always knew how to assemble a good listing, take good pictures, and share my listings. Even though I am sharing my listings on Facebook, X, Pinterest, and Instagram as well as other platforms, I'm not getting any views. 

How can I improve my pictures to urge a prospective buyer to click? Please let me know your very first impression as you peruse my listings. Thank you for your help. 

[kensgiftshop · Accepted solution]

On your photos, I'd do a few good close ups to show better details.

Add handmade in your titles.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Your listings are probably not the reason for your sales deficit. What you are listing probably is.

Threads looking for help with poor sales levels are very frequently started by jewelry sellers. There are too many sellers and too many listings in that category.

To further complicate matters, there is more competition from other sites for strung beads. Etsy, Handmade by Amazon, and Michaels Makersplace come to mind immediately.

[12345jamesstamps]

They are rather simple pieces...but I might redirect them as children pieces and maybe make them smaller for girls and such. Pieces for children you might get a bigger audience of the older crowd(grandparents and aunts) who have money to spend on the kids. I would hit the market for little girls and maybe girls in high school.

Adult women won't buy these for themselves. Any little charms(4 on them) you can add for a bracelet ?

Could be cool birthday gifts for little girls. Maybe "Michael"s" store sells charms.

We have a big Japanese Store where anything from Japan they sell there...a cool place if you can find one by you...its called "Daiso" in San Francisco...and I am embarrassed to admit there is so much there I want to buy.

[dhbookds]

Couple of suggestions.......

As said jewelry is hard because there is so much of it.......and it's hard to find good search terms...

Since you make it, I'd consider making it "themed".....Specific Charms, "I love Yorkies", pugs, cats, parrots, goth........Cleveland (lol)...anything that can get into a search.........

Research popular colors........use dramatic colors........pink might be big now, because of Barbie.....red/white/blue with the elections coming up........

You have a number of items with Crosses........add Christian to the titles.

Don't fill out the Item specifics if they don't don't apply to the item........Filling so many with no/unknown or the like makes the listing overwhelming and discouraging to read.........the ebay advice is to leave them blank if not applicable....and they won't show up. 

just some ideas......

[mrsimpulsive]

Sounds great! I'm getting to work right now. 

[mrsimpulsive]

I tried Etsy, but the fees eat up any profit. I try to keep my prices a little lower because it's difficult to sell in this market. I think that I have enough inventory to apply for Amazon Handmade. Now Michael's is one that I have to look into. Thank you for the heads up.

[mrsimpulsive]

I've been studying and this really makes sense. I noticed that the STR is much higher than my existing listings. I'm very grateful for the advice. Thank you so much 👍😊

[mrsimpulsive]

I truly appreciate the help. It's so difficult to try and focus my mind these days. Here's a picture of some friends. Thank you.

[a_c_green]

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@mrsimpulsive wrote:

How can I improve my pictures to urge a prospective buyer to click? Please let me know your very first impression as you peruse my listings. Thank you for your help. 

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@mrsimpulsive : I think your photos are clear enough to show the item. You might want to consider using a tape measure or small ruler in one or two photos to show the scale of what you're selling.

I see lines of AI description as well (the overuse of "must-have" in every instance is a giveaway), which don't contribute anything except word salad and errors (e.g. a stretch bead bracelet is described as having a tie closure); you might want to remove that.

A lot of your Item Specifics settings seem to be incorrect. For example, your "Beaded Hook Earrings Handmade Dangle Coastal Blue" listing states that your Main Stone Color is blue, when in fact the only glass piece in the earrings is clear, and the Item Diameter is listed as 1 millimeter (perhaps 1 centimeter was intended?), and incorrect Item Specifics can lead to an AI description that will be equally wrong.

It's a great timesaver to use one of your existing listings as a Sell Similar start for another listing, but you still need to walk through each and every Item Specific value to be sure that it will be correct for the new item. (Leave irrelevant Item Specifics blank or delete old values as needed.)

Finally, I see auction listings with 99¢ as your starting price. That's way too low if you factor in your time spent listing, photographing, packing and shipping, plus it gives an air of cheapness to the item that it does not deserve. I would strongly recommend going to a Fixed Price listing for what you would like to fetch for the item, but if you want to at least test the waters with an auction listing that might get competitive bidding, you should still set your opening price to what you would accept if you only ever get one bid for it, and then every bid after that is gravy. Good luck.

[johnsrocknfarm]

Hi Angela, just felt like leaving my two cents. From my perspective your pictures look great and listings do as well. Promoting is a option that brings more views and from my research it does make a difference to do so in jewelry as I suspect the shear amount of listings on EBay for that type of item is a lot and effects the view percentage. Like you i just stepped back into being a seller and once a top rated seller a few years ago. Few things have changed over the last few years. But the ability to watch the stores traffic is a big plus which I strongly urge. Lovely craftsmanship on your jewelry . Best of luck 

[dollocity]

I agree. I think her pictures are fine- her jewelry cute- and her prices reasonable.  Good luck Mrsimpulsive!!!

I got a sneakin suspicion you're not doing anything wrong.  This is just the way it is these days.. LOL

if you figure it out please let me know.😊

[evry1nositswindy]

Here is one of your titles: 

Get ready to slay your accessory game with our trendy bracelet! Adjustable Wire

When I go to the search bar, I wouldn't key in any of those words.  Describe it:  Multi-colored bead adjustable bracelet with cross charm  

[gloryglorygifts]

Welcome back!  You have some really pretty items! The wire wrap bracelets are so nice! 

A few thoughts, as someone that also makes religious jewelry and prayer beads, take some nice, close up pictures of your items!  Use a consistent background that really showcases them too.  I would also say diversify the beads that you use to make them really interesting pieces.  You can get some great beads, charms and so much more at Fire Mountain, and best yet, the more that you buy, the cheaper the prices. Most definitely tell people that you make them and they are made in the U.S. in the titles!!  I think that you may be pricing some of them a little low, like your earrings. $2.50? That's way too low.  Reconsider your prices and the amount of time and materials that you put into them and the fees that ebay will be charging you!!! Last, remove all the unknowns from your listing specs. You don't need them.

I hope I'm not making your head spin. Keep at the social marketing sharing. It does eventually pay off. I wish you every success!! 

[chapeau-noir]

I'll only speak to your photos - but they could really use some improving. Many are over-exposed, and for beaded jewellery just laying something flat isn't really going to showcase it very well. I think your items would really pop if presented more effectively as they're creative and well done.

I would suggest a few simple, inexpensive props (I'm glad to see you don't use your hands) - a hand mannequin and a necklace mannequin (not one of those velvet prop things) to show the natural flow of your pieces.  You can use other household objects, too - a white coffee cup, a small wooden block, etc., for draping.

Try to work on clarity and exposure in your photos. I knew jewellery is tough to photo - I think it's one of the hardest things, but put your creativity to use here.

Also, someone upthread said it "women don't buy" the type of jewellery you sell. I can assure you, we most certainly do, but expanding your offerings to include kids is a great idea - you may use different materials for kids, but I see women wearing strung beads all the time.