Etsy Shop Update
I recently had a harsh wake-up call when I went over my etsy and ebay budget for products I sell in my stores. A while back I became a supplier for the Dolskin and Craft Velour fabric, and tallina's doll socks. I was so excited when I'd get several hundred dollars in sales, thinking I was making good money. Then I went over fees, shipping supply costs, etc. For a $5 item, I'd be making maybe 50 cents, at most. A $10 item might make me $1. Then etsy had a "free shipping guarantee” where orders of $35 and over had free shipping. So I might have a $50 order, making $5, then have to pay $10 in shipping, costing me $5.
The airtex stuffing actually cost me money to sell it! I had originally had it listed for $7.49 plus shipping, but many times people would take advantage of the Etsy free shipping for purchases over $35. Packing five bags of stuffing into one big box actually cost me about $35 because it was an oversized box. So I was receiving $37.45, then paid $35 shipping, plus the cost of goods and fees. So I decided to raise the price and offer free shipping all times for that listing. It was listed for $14.99 with free shipping, while shipping often costs over $6. The product and cost of my own bags and labels to package and ship, plus selling fees, was over $10. So even though I raised the price, I was still losing money. So I ended up changing the amount to 6oz instead of 12 oz rather than raising the price.
For the other items, I had to raise some prices and discontinue the free shipping. I have decided that the physical goods are not worth having in my store. They don't bring in enough money and they are time-consuming to package up for the small amount of money they bring in, if any.
It’s really sad when my customers are paying $15 including shipping, but I’m lucky if I see even $1 of that. Big companies that sell thousands of products a day can afford free shipping because they receive an enormous discount on shipping. When my husband worked for a company in the shipping department, he’d ship large boxes every day that would normally cost me or you $50-$100, but would only cost him $5 at most. I don’t receive that discount because I don’t ship enough packages to qualify.
I posted a poll asking people if they would buy directly from my website and only one person responded. So unfortunately, once the socks, fabric, elastic, and stuffing run out of stock, I might not be supplying anymore.
