Image: MrsEliotBooks
Folksy is continuing to improve with the aim of being the best platform for designer makers to sell handmade work and supplies. As part of the improvements next week (sometime during the week of the 30th April 2012) we’ll be launching a significant change to Folksy which will affect how you list and manage stock as well as the ‘value’ of your listings and also the cost to you of listing and selling. We’re calling this New Listings and it’s an improvement on what already exists in the market.
The existing / old system
- The old system which is being replaced had listings expire after six months.
- You could add up to 5 items to a listing.
- If you wanted to add any items to that listing after the expiry date you couldn’t.
- You lost the “Google juice” that those URLs had built up from any marketing work you had done.
- You paid 20p (+VAT) for the listing and 5% commission (+VAT) on sale price.
What we wanted to improve
Link Value. It didn’t seem right that URLs should expire and lose their link value or “Google juice”, all those links that builds up over time which are used to determine your search rankings and which you’ve worked hard for. It also didn’t seem right that old listings were being ranked more highly in Google than recent, live listings.
Stock Management. We also found that many designer-makers using Folksy were wanting to amend their stock quickly – for example when selling offline. You also wanted to make items unavailable to buy when you were taking stock to craft fairs. So we’ve made it simple for you to change items from “active” to “inactive” and vice versa.
The new listings
- Each listing you make will have a permanent URL (web address) which you can re-stock – keeping valuable “Google juice”.
- You can add or reduce the number of items in a listing at any time until it expires. You will only be charged for any additional items you include in the listing.
- Listings last for 4 months at which point you can “renew” for another 4 months (maintaining the URL)
- You can add up to 100 items in a listing.
- You can make your listing “inactive” for any period during your listing period and “re-activate” it when you like – helping you to manage stock when you are, for example, exhibiting at craft fairs.
- The cost of a listing is now tied to the number of items. Each item listed costs 15p (+VAT). If you list 3 items it will cost you 45p (+VAT). The commission fee will rise from 5% to 6% (+VAT) on sales.
Improved dashboard
As part of this release we’ve improved the dashboard. We’ve brought the existing information you need to manage your stock to the forefront:
Pricing change
Pro Seller
Help with the new listings
We’ve designed it to be super-simple to use and be consistent with other functionality on the site. To help you familiarise yourself with the new listings we’ll also make available a screencast talking you through it.
36 comments
I am very new to Folksy and literally had my first sale today. The price increase I find concerning. I understand that we all pay for a listing but what sort of advertising ect do we, as customers of yours get in return? Why the price increase when so many are struggling for sales? The main reason I for one, chose Folksy (over Etsy) was the price. On the ‘up’ side, well done on the dashboard and other changes, it really does look like a very positive step forward. However, there are still lots of people that cant find there way around Folksy to shop, non crafty people, which inlight of an increase, really should be addressed.
Zoe Roberts
Hi Zoe,
The price change is marginal and needed to help us fund growth and continued improvements of the sort you mention. Ambient discovery and directed browsing in particular are areas we’re improving.
Congratulations on your first sale BTW :)
This sounds quite positive to me. A shorter listing time will keep stock moving through more quickly. I presume that current listings will stay for the full 6 months. I particularly like the active/inactive bit- saves shutting the shop if some things are at a craft fair etc.
Looking forward to using it!
Thanks for your positive comment Louisa :)
Yep, current listings will expire after 6 months and any new listings after the release is pushed live, will be for 4 months. We’ll make this clear when you are listing anything new.
Goodness, you’ve been busy. I LOVE the new look dashboard, it’s going make selling so much easier. Thank you.
Look forward to the next stage. As Zoe mentioned above (and that came to light in the forum this week from a Folksy buyer), perhaps sorting out of the search function would be something worth while to zoom to the top of the “things to do” list.
Hi
Please can you clarify why it states under point six of new listings:
The cost of a listing is now tied to the number of items. Each item listed costs 15p (+VAT). If you list 3 items it will cost you 45p (+VAT). The commission fee will rise from 5% to 6% (+VAT) on sales.
but later under pricing change it states:
The price of listing and commission is changing slightly. If you choose to sell one handmade item at £10 and this sells, then the cost would be 15p and 6% sales commission which is 75p (+VAT) compared to the price at the moment which would be 20p + 5% sales commission which is 70p (+VAT).
So does the VAT come in one lump sum at the end like it states under ‘pricing change’ or with both listing and selling which it states under ‘new listings’?
Thanks
Hi, VAT is calculated on the final bill at the end of each month but is made up from the VAT in each line item in the bill i.e. listing fee and any commission.
Hi – I’m a little unclear about the details of adding extra items to a listing. If I have a listing with 1 item then 2 months pass and I want to add another item – do I pay 15p (plus VAT) for the second item but only get the remaining 2 months listing time?
Also, when you say “It’s also worth stating that if the item doesn’t sell you don’t pay the 1% increase in commission.”, – can you clarify please that we don’t pay ANY commission if something doesn’t sell.
Thank you. Shaz
Hi Shaz,
Correct, commission is only on sales. If you want to increase the amount of items during the listing you would pay 15p per item. For example, if you knew you were going to get some extra visitors due to some PR you could increase the number of items in a listing from say 2 to 6 (providing you had the stock) and this would cost you an additional 4 * 15p = 60p. If the listing only had say, 2 weeks to run you may choose to renew the listing and then pay 6 * 15p = 90p but you would then have 4 months before the listing expired. A lot depends on how long until expiry is left and how many items are currently in the listing as to what is the optimal choice.
You need to introduce promotional codes – PLEASE!! It’s the one thing Etsy have up on folksy… But I’m so glad that I can have more than 5 and that I can update – some items of mine like my deathly hallows earrings I make again and again but I have to pay another listing fee after every 5 I sell, very expensive as my best sellin product.
Hi,
We’re introducing Sale functionality soon, which acts similarly to discount codes (just without the codes!) and will be available on individual items or a range of your items.
Looking forward to the new improvements.
Any plans to offer buyers different postage options?
Hi Lorraine,
We’ll be bringing in postal “zones” which should make listing simpler and encourage people to sell internationally. If you have suggestions for what you want to see please share them via the “help and support” link on Folksy where people can vote on their favourite ideas.
These changes sound good especially the ability to make you listing active/inactive.
I was going to close my shop but I shall hang on to see how this improves things.
However, when are you going to change the AWFUL kitsch name. Come on Folksy – would you buy anything from a site called Folksy?? I wouldn’t!
Hey, the name is popular with most people. Is it kitsch? It seems to resonate with lots of buyers, which is important and I’m not sure people think about what it means so much as just know it’s where to buy cool handmade work.
The name to me conjures up third rate church hall sales, old women in baggy fitting jumpers, badly made items, cheap, gingham, kitsch, gone off cakes; basically everything that I would avoid. I certainly doesn’t conjure up images of contemporary, fashionable and trendy items.
I am 4 member of active beading groups on Facebook and I know I’m not the only one to think this. Maybe you should test the water by asking what people think of it.
It’s been around for a while in terms of describing a style of art – “from the people” – but to be honest a name is what you make of it. Brands work hard to make sure the connotations are positive and we’ll continue to do that.
Ouch…I’m going to have to seriously review my sales strategy now.
I set up mainly to supply B&M shops with small low-ish value items wholesale in smnall quantities which works in this economic climate. But I’ve always loved the idea of Folksy and have sold a few bits on here. Theoretically, selling at retail price here should make me significantly more money.
That only works with the current system of 5 items in the listing. The commission and listing fees are fine if you sell higher value items but my hair clips don’t work at all on this basis. 15p + VAT is 42% of my bobby pins. That’s only 8% less than what the boutiques are taking which is crazy. They have prime retail rent, advertising, packaging and staff, theft overheads etc etc to pay at a much higher rate per item than Folksy. Plus they are paying upfront for stock and working hard to sell it.
I will probably stick with selling the more elaborate individual headpieaces I’m working on here as the percentages work better. But I’m struggling to see a good business reason to continue – I understand that I need to push my own visitors here but that takes time (which is a cost like any other for a small business), money for advertising (online & real world).
You need to make it a lot easier to promote (with blog feeds such as Etsy Mini etc), work harder at promoting the site and sellers ( I live in Sheffield and can’t understand why you have so little presence in your local press which should be easy to generate) and networking on this site is still appalling (business is definately generated by forums etc and it’s still impossible to keep track of threads which is inexcusable these days).
As most business people, I see networking and marketing as an important and necessary overhead – but at these percentages your site doesn’t stack up for anything other than higher cost items.
Hi Vanessa,
Thanks for the comment. The price changes are felt more when you sell lower priced items, but if you sell in volume then the Pro Seller account may work for you. We’ll come back nearer the time with the details for that. In regards to making it easier for people to market their work then *yes* we’re on with that. It’s really important. Facebook is particularly key, as is Pinterest (growing fast) but blogs can play their part too (although they are less significant as referrer traffic). The local press have picked up on us in the past but we prefer to focus on a broader reach – as our audience are UK and world-wide and often the effort that goes into a regional story is the same as for a national one. But we’re really proud of where we’re from and we’re gong to be doing one or two things locally to show that.
Fair enough – thanks for the reply. I’ll see how it goes over the next few months.
Congratulations on these improvements, Folksy!
I’m looking forward SO MUCH to the dashboard being easier to use, so listing and managing my stock will be simpler and quicker.
Susan x
Thanks Susan. We’re really excited too :)
So just to clarify, no more listing 5 items with the one listing price, it is PER item, for example, 5x15p = 75p for 5 items + VAT
Hi Debbie,
You will be able to list up to 100 items in one listing with each item costing 15p (+VAT). So if you listed 3 items in your listing this would cost 45p (+VAT). The listing is just the length of time the item(s) are visible for before they become inactive. Our screencast next week should help clarify the functionality.
Thanks for giving more details of further releases – are you planning to summarise these changes in an email to all sellers as well, given that you are changing the T&Cs?
I have to say that I’m really concerned about the price increases. I did a comparison between what fees I will pay on Etsy this month, and what the Folksy fees would have been had I listed and sold the same amount under the new pricing structure. Folksy fees came out to nearly double what the Etsy fees are. That gave me quite a jolt.
I am also interested to know about your Pro account – I haven’t come across any selling platform (other than eBay shops) that charge both a monthly subscription fee AND listing fees/commission, albeit you say these will be at a reduced rate. What sort of reduction will you be offering? Given there will be a gap of about 3 months between rolling out the price increases at the end of the month (which will really hit us hard with the postal price increases too) and offering the Pro account, it seems that those who list high quantities will be hit pretty hard with fees. Although the ability to list up to 100 items per listing is there, I don’t know how many people will be happy to pay £18 for the privilege.
I have to be honest and say that I would have liked to have seen more improvements in the usability of the site and search function before seeing a price increase along the lines of what Folksy is proposing.
Hi Kirsten,
The improvements are already happening and listing is next. In terms of the Pro pricing – we’ll announce that in the near future. And, yes, an email announcement will go out next week ahead of the release.
I posted this in the forums, but it has played on my mind literally ALL night…
I crochet. It’s a relatively slow craft. I honestly don’t think I could make and shift 100 units of anything that I sell (in either of my shops) in a four-month period. Like many others, this isn’t my FT job and there just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to make on this scale. I can see how it might benefit supplies, but handmade? Really?
If I came across a shop selling crochet blankets all listed in their hundreds, I’m afraid I’d think ‘reseller’ and move on.
Wasn’t the old reasoning that listing in small quantities was some sort of guarantee that it was handmade by a real person rather than mass-manufactured by a machine? I’m sure there was something about this somewhere, but I can’t find it now…
I’d be interested in hearing what prompted this change of heart re:listing volume.
Hi Claire,
No-one is expecting you to shift 100 crochet blankets. The rationale for allowing up to 100 items in a listing is mainly to support Supplies sellers who shift a lot in bulk. We do also have some people selling handmade or designed work in batches of 20+ and this new upper limit may also help them. The limit is no guarantee of it being made by hand as people could have created multiple listings.
Hope this helps.
Hi James,
Thank you for replying. I wasn’t really thinking Folksy *expected* me to sell on his scale, I was really trying to highlight a point: this is a bit of a hollow feature for a huge number of handmade sellers.
Like I said, it’s great for supplies, and if other handmade peeps are selling on this scale: hurrah! But it does go against what Folksy have said in the past re:number of listings and I think it should have been explained a bit better, not least because Folksy used to have a handmade-based justification for the old listing limit.
I don’t feel like I’m expressing this very well, but I hope you and other people reading this catch my drift.
Looking forward to seeing how things go, as all my paintings are one off some of the changes won’t effect me and I don’t mind the rise in commission as compared to offline commission rates this is fair ……
Lets hope for more sales then James, more for me and more for you ;-)
Hazel
Hi,
I’m sure I’m missing something here. If I am correct, currently I can list 5 items in one listing for 20p plus selling commission of 5% (assuming the items sell) plus VAT.
From next week I can list those same 5 items for 75p in the same listing with commission at 6% plus VAT.
So in effect an increase of 55p per listing plus vat?
The additional 55p entitles me to 2 months less listing exposure, but gives me a link that will last forever. So the end result is that my additional fees are paying for the link.
And I can add items to the listing at 15p per item but they will only get listing exposure for the what is left on the original listing unless I choose to pay to relist the whole listing in which case I lose the time left on the original listing but all items will then have the same four months.
Sorry if I am being pedantic, just want to clarify in my mind what the charges are and how they will effect me. Given I have yet to get a sale on Folksy and I generally only make one of a kind pieces, this doesn’t have a huge bearing on me except for any of the personalised jewellery I make. But I can imagine it has quite a large impact on others who have had multiple items in a listing.
One of the reasons I hold back from listing lots and lots of my work on Folksy is because sales are slower and fees are higher than Etsy. While some of these changes are good news, I think the price increases are of concern. Like Kirsten says, this will make my Folksy fees double what my Etsy fees are if I sold the same things in a month.
Will it be visible to the public whether we are Pro Sellers or not?
Hi Aileen,
The Pro accounts will be badged and visible in a subtle way. The price changes will actually reduce listing fees for most people (who only list one at a time) and for bulk sellers the Pro account should provide a very competitive pricing structure.
I was just wondering whether you are considering letting people have more than one shop front under a single Pro Account?
Hi Sarah,
At the moment a pro account is designed to be tied to one account or “shop”. I’m not sure that it will be possible to add other shops/accounts to a Pro account as accounts have different emails addresses etc. We’ll look into how we could support this but at the moment it seems unlikely.
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