Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Making Use of No Account Buying on Artfire

One of the first things that attracted me to Artfire was the no-account buying. I was trying to sell some items that geared to non-handmade market. I sold a few on Ebay but the fees they charged was more than I could handle. Etsy was too insular to actually reach this market.

I moved to Artfire in 2009 and after a few week I listed the board game pieces I was selling. This was a very niche market and mostly guys who weren't interested in joining a handmade site to buy.

My items were getting in search engines both organically and pushed to Google shopping. More and more I realized I was getting more sales from non-account buyers than anywhere else. When I was on Etsy, my largest amount of sales came from other sellers, not even those with just buyer accounts. On Artfire it is the opposite; in fact out of my 80 sales, only 21 were from account holders.

It's this freedom to connect directly with customers who aren't looking just for handmade or who don't know about Artfire that really makes it rock for me. You need to work a little harder to get those sales, good SEO is key to getting found and you need a product that fills someone's need. I've found a few well placed promotions (not necessarily ads) also are a big help.

The results pay for themselves. Every Artfire seller has this opportunity- basic and pro accounts. It's up to you to take advantage of it.

2 comments:

osovictoria said...

That is a good tip! And, you are so correct in saying that some people do like to sign up at a site before buying.

Ruth Sandra said...

I think this is a really good point.

Not having to join the site and so not being tracked on the site - in this wide-open Internet environment - may be a good selling point for some potential customers!!

Ruth
http://RSSDesignsInFiber.artfire.com