Well, that was some week.
A busy time preparing for our very first market stall at the weekend (more on that later), capping off what has been an intense period of making for Shelley (all the while learning very much as we go on the things which need to be done right on the marketing and selling side of things).
By early November, we had our Etsy shop and website published and all we needed now was some sales. Imagine our delight and surprise on the 11th of November when we made our very first sale! We had pledged to commemorate this momentous achievement by having a celebratory prosecco - so I nipped out and brought a bottle home and we were going to video us popping the cork, either to use as content or just for our own digital memories, unfortunately the excitement got to us and we somehow managed to stop recording BEFORE the cork had popped! 🤦♂️. We had a laugh about it and quickly forgot about it - after all, we now had a funny story to share with you all which was - and this is important to us - completely genuine and authentic!
Our Instagram following started slowly growing and after someone shared our profile with their own followers, we received a nice boost to our subscribers and - as a result - we had made another sale! So within a week of our Etsy shop going live, we had already made two sales, so we were absolutely delighted, it really validated the decision to launch this business and it showed that a market for the product definitely exists.
Our sales on Etsy thus far have been encouraging which has been invaluable, as I am learning that building prominence for the website with Google is a game of patience that requires constant finessing. I am working to enhance and improve the website to give it as much support as possible to improve its search engine ranking and to unlock our products to a much wider audience.
So whilst all of that was going on (and still is), Shelley and I needed to start planning for our very first market visit, at Killearn Country Market, in the small Stirlingshire village of Killearn, in the Campsie Fells.
We decided to try to increase our database of e-mail addresses for our mailing list and decided to run a giveaway at the market where we would give one lucky participant an Amazon gift voucher.
We arrived and set up our table in the village hall on Saturday morning, and we couldn't have been happier with how it looked for our very first attempt.
I wish this could be the part where I told you we had the most incredible day, but the reality is that we didn't sell a single thing. To say we were disappointed is an understatement, but we aren't going to let it discourage us. We had lots of people come past our stall and tell us how lovely our frames and notice boards were, which was flattering, just that no-one was seriously considering buying anything. There were several other stallholders who also didn't sell anything, and we think it is a combination of the location (and therefore customers) who really were only looking for small value items (i.e. £30 and under), the fact that there was a Santa's Grotto (so lots of parents bringing their kids to see Santa and then just having a cursory look through the market before leaving) and the fact that footfall was down due to Storm Darragh and people being in Edinburgh or Glasgow doing Christmas shopping in those major cities.
It was still a valuable experience as we got to meet some lovely stall holders and learn about their experiences and get some useful tips and suggestions. We believe that the markets we have applied for in 2025 (in St Andrews and Edinburgh) will be far more closely aligned to our target audience than this market was, which to some extent was primarily intended to be a live test run to hone our skills for next year. We already had some notions as how we improve our stall for next time and therefore it was a useful opportunity to grow our learning.
We are going to focus now on growing the reach of our social media channels, our Etsy shop and our website. I have also managed to get us accepted as a partner on Not On The High Street (and our shop there should be published before the end of this week) so maximising sales opportunities is our primary focus for the next few weeks.
Shelley has conceived a new collection which we plan to launch in February (so look out for us starting the campaign around this launch very soon) and we also plan to use these next few weeks to map out our strategy for 2025 as a whole, as we have been swept away in the phase of building up stock levels and getting website and social media accounts up and running from scratch, so we now have a chance to seize back control and drive these things (rather than them driving us).
Thanks for reading and please remember to like, share and subscribe - also, I urge you all to check out our giveaway on Instagram whereby if you follow us, like our picture and tag at least one person (preferably someone who doesn't follow us at present) you will be in with a chance of winning a £50 Amazon e-gift card in time for the Boxing Day sales!
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