Sunday, January 22, 2012

Out with the old and in with the new!

This weeks featured artist on etsy was the last straw for me! the featured proudly professed how she is inspired by the resourcefulness of people who don't have money while she sells her 45$ panties and High Priced lingerie. I am not certain if these are rich people with no money, but as an actual person with no money I buy my cotton panties in a bag for 12$ for 5 pairs.....if I splurge on fancies it's 5 for 20$.

A few weeks ago I came across http://www.luulla.com/  My supply store gets alot of hassle from etsy so I decided to start moving it over to luulla and see what happens, all I got was helpful staff, who diligently moved each one of my listings over and uploaded them all manually (MANUALLY!!!!) all 176 of them pictures and all.

Tommy told me it would take a few days. Once they were done he told me and I had a look and wow....perfection. It is nice to be able to put my shop in someones hands and trust all will go well.... I was happy with the 6 months of free service, I never dreamed the was a company that would do all this.

I am now gunning for a spot for me and the boy. The feeling of luula is light, their staff cares and even helps promote ALL shops....not the most artsy fartsy one with the best pics and  overpriced pieces of folded paper.

Do I hate etsy....of course not...but I am tiring of their system. My supply shop is harassed alot for really what boils up to nonsense.....while overseas resellers RUIN the market with mass produced "handmade" goods simply because they sell so much more, and raise etsy's profit higher they seem to slip under the radar. I recently  had a friend have to send in pictures of her making all her items because it was thought perhaps they were not handmade when this shop owner was clearly a handmade shop....the hassle they gave here was truly undeserved, and sooner or later it will happen to all of us. The traffic and sales from etsy can't be argued, but if I have to read on more feature artist and their bullsht story i might vomit some handmade puke!

I am PRAYING that luulla takes off. Perhaps if etsy could realize that without it's sellers they would have no paycheck or site, eat a little humble pie and try to help out the underdogs (like those of us who have  made less than 20$ this entire month) perhaps we wouldn't have our panties in a bunch ready to jump ship to those that simply treat us properly....like artist, people and part of something greater!

Thanks luulla!!! I wish you, and us sellers all the success in the world. Keep treating us well and we'll tell the world about you....value us as artist and people and we'll return the favor in sales and word of mouth!

4 comments:

  1. I too buy my panties 5 in a bag unless if course there having buy 5 get 2 free, gotta love hanes, lol!,
    And will be checking out luula, thanks

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  2. I agree that Etsy is going the way of MySpace or any other has-been tech innovator. They took the bul by the horns and have been so amazing for so many, but they are making big mistakes with their whoooooole business model these days.

    Let me give an example: I had a hand knit spa cloth and handmade cold process soap packaged in a little basket with a pumice stone. Etsy took my listing down and came after me saying I didn't make the pumice stone so I can't sell that. But if I were to order a cheap charm and order a chain and put the chain on the charm that would qualify as handmade. They are so busy trying to enforce rules, they haven't bothered to see if the rules make any sense. I was Etsy's biggest fan for a long time. But the way they have been treating sellers lately is a shame. I am not sure if it will be Luula, but I am sure that something will replace Etsy. The one thing they still have going for them is visibility. They were the first BIG handmade market, so a lot of shoppers don't know about artfire.com, luula.com, handmadeology.com, bigcartel.com, zibbet.com and so on. There are a lot of companies trying to gain on Etsy...and I am rooting for each and every one of them. Etsy is not a monopoly...but they are behaving as such. I am keeping my Etsy shop for its traffic...but I have diversified and am selling on all the other venues as well to see who is best. I will no longer be advertising or promoting my Etsy shop...I will be pushing for sales especially on my http://mdesignboutique.bigcartel.com/ site. My success on Etsy has made me a target of their "integrity team" and I'm sick of it. I will be curious to see if there are any class action law suits in the future for lost income that Etsy has caused sellers like the one you mentioned in your article. Two weeks before Christmas they shut her shop down with no warning and had the nerve to tell her they needed her recipes in addition to over 500 photos of her making her soap. What a load of you-know-what.

    Great post. Thanks for your insights!

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    Replies
    1. thanks for your post. I appreciate you guys weighing in and all the support we show for eachother...thanks for supporting my blog! I just had to vent! I have tried artfire and don't like it. bigcartel is ok, handmadeology pulled some BS on me and a guy named Tim who works there blatently lied to me after I paid 80$ for an ad...so I am sticking to luulla for now.

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