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Struggling to make that first sale?

  • By Clare
  • 3 May 2022
  • 45 Views

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You’ve signed up, set up your account, added your items for sale, sat back and waited for the orders to roll in…but they haven’t. We all know how disappointing it can be to put a lot of effort into something, be really excited about it only for nothing to happen. Here are 15 top tips to make sure that you don’t feel like giving up:

  • 01. Be patient. Give it time. Set realistic expectations.
  • 02. Talk to other madelocal sellers via the Facebook group. What advice can they offer?
  • 03. Be proactive. Tell everyone that you are on madelocal.app. People won’t know you are there unless you tell them – and keep on telling them!
  • 04. Join networking groups on Facebook and post regularly about your madelocal shop. There are lots of groups out there but here are a few we know about (Village Events Craft Group, Craft Fairs UK, Not on Amazon, Shop Local North Wales).
  • 05. Do a shop audit. Are you making the most of your shop? Are the pictures clear? Does the description give the customer enough information? Is the delivery information complete? Are all the options listed for the customer to be able to select what they want? Have you got the right searchable tags?
  • 06. Why not ask a friend or family member to buy from your madelocal shop and give you a review? They could also give you feedback on your shop page and suggest any improvements.
  • 07. You could ask an existing customer to buy from your madelocal shop the next time they need to place an order with you.
  • 08. Support one another. Why not arrange with another madelocal seller to do a swap? You could each arrange to buy an item from the other in exchange for a review. That’s a win – win!
  • 09.Create a video to demonstrate your product and how to use it. Share the video on as many outlets as possible such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram TikTok. Ask you friends to share it too.
  • 10. Make a purchase – do you shop on madelocal.app yourself when you need to buy a card or gift? Why not browse the collection and see what you fancy for yourself? This way you will see it from the customer’s side and you might pick up some tips for your own shop.
  • 11. Are you directing sales to your other platforms instead of or as well as madelocal?
  • 12. Promoting your page once or twice at the start is simply not enough, especially if you are actively promoting other sites and still expect to make a sale on madelocal.app. Promoting your page once or twice A WEEK is recommended. You can plan your content in advance and we will talk more about this in another blog.
  • 13. Reach out to the madelocal team and actively engage in the madelocal community. We are here to help you and we love it when you want to collaborate.
  • 14. Don’t believe everything you read!! Instagram creates a culture or hype that glamorises small businesses. If you look deeper into some of the figures out there they are literally incredible, which makes you start to question what else is fake.
  • 15. Online sales are down everywhere as people feel the squeeze on their incomes, and shoppers want to get back to the high street after the pandemic. There will always be a need to have an online presence and it might as well be one that doesn’t cost you anything. Saying that, you do need to put in a little effort now and then.

We’d love to know what other advice and ideas you have. If you would like any help with a shop audit or helping using the website in general, please just ask.

Tag Sales Help New Seller Top Tips
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Clare @ madelocal

How to describe my role in madelocal.app? I guess you’d say I was the co-pilot or sous chef to Dave as the head of the enterprise. I am the planner, organiser and strategic thinker in the partnership.

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