New Glassware

I'm always looking for new ways to expand on my existing lines. I feel that you don't have the recreate the wheel when adding new items to your shop. Looking at your existing lines can be just as beneficial. I recently added 3 new glassware items to my Wedding Section.

These Vegas Shot Glasses were a special request and I just love how they turned out! What a fun way to make your Vegas wedding, vacation or other celebration even more special!

These Personalized Mason Jars were also a special request. The bride had ordered wine glasses for the bridal party and wanted something special (and appropriate) for the flower girls and ring bearers. The mason jars are perfect!

 

My Personalized Beer Mugs have done really well for groomsman gifts. I recently had a groom with a special request for a more formal design. This fun design and monogram came together nicely and the groom couldn't have been happier.

I still have a couple new designs for flutes and more shot glasses that I hope to have listed soon as well. Keep your eyes open for more new designs!

Wedding Registries on Etsy

On Tuesday I talked about my mixed feelings about the new Wedding Categories on Etsy. I was glad to read that others had the same opinions I do. There are always pros and cons to any changes and I'm definitely not one against change, I just hope Etsy sees where their faults lie and fixes them.

One change I am pretty excited about is the new Wedding Registry! I'm both excited about this as a shop owner and a shopper! As a shop owner, it allows people to directly share our items with their friends and family...and tell them to buy them! As a shopper, I like that I can share some of my favorite items with the world, but I don't have to share them all.

I'll walk you through the process in case you haven't registered yet. Since I'm not actually getting married, I put in my birth date as the "wedding date". I thought maybe I could cheat and use the Registry as my Birthday Wish List :)

When you register, it takes you to a page that has a few categories to start choosing items from. This is the one thing I don't like about the Registry...it tries to select items for you! They give you a handful of categories and assume you want items from there. The nice thing is, there is a search bar at the bottom of the screen so you can choose the items that YOU want :)

Another cool feature is that every listing now has a Favorite Button and an Add to Registry Button. You don't have to worry about Etsy's silly categories that they choose for you because every listing you browse through has a registry button now!

Another awesome feature is that you can Add Notes to the items you add to your registry!!! I would love to be able to add notes to my Favorites, but this is the next best thing. You can tell your family and friends what you like about each item and why you chose it...gives it a very personal feel :)

Once you've added lots of awesome items to your Registry...you can then share it with the world! (or at least those you choose) You can email the link, share it on Facebook and even print cards!

I'm pretty excited about the new registries! And I hope Etsy sees this and adds Baby Shower Registries and (actual) Birthday Wishlists (so I don't have to cheat) :)

Have you made a Registry? What do you think so far?

New Etsy Wedding Categories

 Recently Etsy introduced some changes to the Wedding Category. I love the look of the first page, but have some mixed feelings about the rest. Here are my thoughts on the new category and I'd love to hear yours in the comments.

 

First Page:
I love the modern, chic look of the first page! It's so inviting and more appealing than the old standard page. I like that there is a lot to look at, yet it's not overwhelming.

Categories:

One thing I'm not thrilled about are the categories. They have several sub-categories lumped under one heading that used to be several separate categories. Take the Paper Goods Category for instance: They have Wedding Invitations and Guest Books lumped under this heading. What about my Wooden Invites and Guest Books? They're not made of paper. And I think this may be confusing for shoppers.

I also don't care for the layout of the listings anymore. They seem like a jumbled mess to me. I like to see items in organized rows that are easy to see and easy to come back to. And there aren't pages anymore. Just a button to push to see more items. And if your item isn't "relevant" it doesn't show up at the bottom of the list...it doesn't show up at all!

 

Kudos to the Support Staff:
Stemming from my comment above about "relevant" items, I contacted Etsy when my Wooden Guest Books weren't showing up anywhere in the New Guest Book Category. I had my items listed in the proper category, so why weren't they showing up! I got a pretty generic response the first go around, but after my second email, I got a very detailed response that was helpful and did help my guest books show up. I knew that the first three words of our titles were the most important, but I didn't realize that they had to have the exact wording in them to show up in the new categories! I changed some titles to including "Wedding Guest Book" in the first 3-4 words and that seemed to do the trick. I added "personalized" "wooden" or "custom" to a few listings just so they wouldn't all be the same and that still seemed to be okay. Thank you to Etsy Support for taking the time to point this out and answer my emails.

I'll be interested to see how the new Wedding Pages do and if they bring me more/less traffic. What are your thoughts on the new categories?