Sales have stopped -please help

Hi Bee - Just took a quick look at your site and have a few first impressions. Overall I liked it a lot, very clean, attractive, friendly and personal.

The pictures were big and sharp, with some really great natural backrounds. Very imaginative! The lighting was impressive and dramatic in many cases, but in other pictures the object was in shade and felt inadaquately lit. Personally I would re-shoot some of those pictures with better lighting, or at least work on them with an image editor to improve illumination and contrast. Of course these observations are very subjective and I realize they are only my own opinion.

I also noticed that insurance is not offered. You might consider offering it to make the customer feel safer about buying from you, knowing she is covered. Personally, I always include insurance in my shipping/handling so that, not only does the customer feel more secure, but as the seller, I am protected in case of loss.

Overall a very nice store with wonderful looking jewelry! Good work. Not to worry, I'm sure business will pick up.

Maybe people are hesitating until they see what the new postal shipping is going to be on the new adds for next week. Basically mail order business shipping is now going to cost the consumer more money than it did last week. All they've heard the last couple weeks is how much postal fees are going up. My postmaster was almost in hysteria a couple days ago telling me to get ready for the higher fees. So what! They just gave themselves another raise. Maybe I should be in hysteria too?.................NOT!

Thanks for having a look. My sales have started again, I wonder if it had something to do with the bank hoiday here in the UK.
I have taken your advice ninth_wave and added the insurance bit. It was already included in the postage but not explicity stated. I have also decided to start posting to the rest of Europe and already have a customer from Norway!
Thanks for pointing to the shadows in the pictures not being so good, - it was my attempt at being artistic! LOL
Daddyo - is the postage increase you are talking about in the US? I haven't heard about any increases in the UK.
Kind Regards
Bee

Please try this site..it's for handcrafted items.

I think you'll find it quite interesting.

ETSY

Beautiful items and pics.

Diversify..Open your own website, open an ecrater store, open a selling account at etsy.

Market, Market, Market.

Best of Luck,
Donna

I liked it too. The only suggestion I would have is that perhaps if you did a few more auctions. I only have had minimal success with BIN's ...

  <a href="http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-1751-2978-71/1?AID=5463217&PID=2134641+&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%2F_W0QQsassZsrcsweet2QQhtZ-1">Check out our Ebay Auctions! For additional items and Feed back  history!</a>

Hi

I'm a total newby too, but I've been reading lots of material and I've read that if you own a store, you should post approx 1 auction for every four store items to increase the exposure to your store.

Kind of makes sense to me.

Darren

I post a handful of lead in auctions as store pointers. However I am not giving ebay any free money on those. My lead in auctions are actually items I specifically hope to sell and continue manipulating them for actual sales.

Another thing I do with my lead in auctions is in the description, I lead off the like this:

Wow! Have you seen all the additional items I have in my ebay store. Click "here" to go there now and take a look at my huge inventory variety. Etc, etc, etc..........you get the picture.

I also tail end my description with: Thanks for going to my ebay store and looking around............"my name...........the owner."
I do not put a link here, because the one at top separated as a paragraph with plenty of break space does the job for sales.

Dear Bee:

I'm a late poster here, but I visited your store and WOW. You inspire me. Beautiful work. I have added you to my favorite sellers list, as my Mum lives in the UK, and I am always looking for new UK direct sources to shop for gifts for her. Her Scottish beau wants to learn to become an eBay seller too, and I was just encouraging her yesterday, to look into the eBay education seminars which they have here in the States. He likes collectables, toys and such, and they already occasionally participate in the "boot sale" circuit, and to me, eBay does seem to be a logical step in the right direction. He has a computer, and has a camera. Do you know a good place where I can direct him...a complete newbie, to learn more about eBay in the United Kingdom. Presently, they reside in New Eltham. She suggested I come over and teach him, though I am still learning myself? It didn't seem a prudent course of action, and I know there must be a learning resource for him to investigate for himself, without pulling me away from my own educational endeavors. Any idea where I can send him?

LDCdesigns