It's YART SALE Time!

It's time for the 2nd annual Etsy "YART SALE" again and there has been quite a bit of talk about it (and plenty of questions from some of our newer members) in our team thread. Having participated in last year's "Yart Sale", I thought I might offer some good points on preparing your shop for a successful sale.

What is a "YART SALE"? That's simple. It is like a yard sale but for your art and crafts. It's a YART SALE!

I found out about it last year, decided to participate and I can say that I really did see an increase in both traffic & sales for the week. Not to mention that I gained a few long term/repeat customers from it as well. I was excited to find out that it was yart time again and decided to start early. I have already sold twelve yart items from my shop! There is a good bit of preparation for the sale but, the time and effort you put in will pay off. It's also a terrific way to destash and clean up your crafting space. There are plenty of customers out there specifically looking for your yart items so jump in and have a great sale!

Preparing for a YART SALE - BASICS:

• Create a YART SALE section in your shop. This will group all yart items together and make them easier for customers to find & shop.

• Edit YART item listings in your shop. Another way to make these items easy for customers to find and shop. I recommend adding "YART" or "YART SALE" in the listing title and in item tags. People actually do etsy searches for "YART".

• Adjust your price and shipping (if you decide to offer a discounted ship rate). Remember you are trying to entice the buyer. Customers love to feel like they are getting an extra special deal on items that would normally cost much more. Sometimes even a small discount on shipping can be the icing on the cake and a deciding factor in whether or not items will be leaving your shop through a sale.

• Add info about your Yart Sale and specials in your shop announcement. Let the buyer know what you have to offer (ex. types of items, discount percentage, shipping discounts, etc.)

• Create a special YART SALE banner and/or avatar. I don't do this one because I think adding YART into the item titles and tags are fine, but plenty of sellers do and it is just another good way to advertise the fact that you are participating in the yart sale. I think it works really well for those of you who like to visit the treasuries and forums a good bit.

• ADVERTISE! Be sure to add a blog post or several throughout the week on your personal/shop blog. Post about daily deals you are running, have a contest or giveaway, just talk about it. You may be surprised at how many people look at your blog and head over to your shop to see what you have going on.

• HAVE FUN WITH IT! Just have fun. Be creative with your sale. I think you'll find that once those sales start rolling in, you will try to find more and more items to add to your sale section. HAPPY YARTING:)

The OFFICIAL Yart sale dates are Wednesday, June 10th - Sunday, June 14th. I don't think four days is long enough which is why I started early,lol.

YART SALE LINKS:

• STORQUE ARTICLES
• ETSY FORUM POSTS