ragquilter

I check out Etsy shops in signature lines on this thread and other sites, I see a lot of empty shops, probably close to 50% and others with just a couple of things. Is there a reason for that? Do you only list during the holiday season(s) or have you given up? I am curious because I am considering switching to Ebay and not fooling with my Etsy shop except for vintage sheets and other supplies.

ghostrider

Isn't that a question better asked directly of the individual shop owners by private message? If you're getting to their shops from signature lines, just send them a pm and ask as a fellow shop owner. I can think of a whole host of reasons for 'shop idleness' that an owner wouldn't want to share with the entire internet audience, aka their customers.

mom-6

I've noticed that the shops are frequently empty when the owner is doing a show that week/weekend. Don't know how quickly they get the pictures back up after the show is over.

ragquilter

I was just curious. If it is going to offend people, maybe I will just have the thread deleted. I would do it myself but I don't know how.

ghostrider

I wasn't implying that it would offend anyone, only that it could embarass shop owners and/or potentially harm their business to share their reasons publicly.

Reasons could be things like personal or family illness, boredom, laziness, death, frustration, busy with other things, ran out of money for materials, don't know how to close the shop, etc. Lots of things can result in the appearance of just walking away yet could be quite embarassing or harmful to explain in public. Would you have confidence doing business with a shop owner who replied, "I've just been too lazy/busy/sick/depressed/frustrated/broke to restock my shelves"?

I was not chiding you in any way, and if that's how you interpreted it, I do apologize.

ETA: You can always ask this question on the Etsy forum you know. It's there to help shop owners.

ragquilter

I don't do etsy, my daughter does, I don't even know the password to get on the shop. She doesn't have the patience to show me anything and she goes to fast for me to catch on, if she will even bother. I thought anyone could pm me if they didn't want to say anything in public. I am trying to decide if I want to set up an Ebay shop on my own or just forget the whole thing. I am sorry I even asked the question.

willferg

I imagine there are as many reasons as there are owners, and it would be interesting to hear some of the explanations without delving too deeply into anyone's personal life. If people don't want to share, they don't have to respond.

bearisgray

I took the cooment the same way I would take a comment about a nearly empty mall.
It was something noticed -

auntpiggylpn

Hello! Good question! My Etsy shop doesn't have many things in it for a couple of reasons. 1. I've sold some items and haven't made more to replace them 2. We just did an out of state move. I have been busy since October packing, cleaning and getting our old house ready to go on the market and didn't have time to make items. I didn't want to load my shop up and try to manage it as well as getting my new household set up. I don't keep a large inventory anyway as I don't get a lot of traffic to it. The fees are reasonable so I mainly do it just for fun. I don't want to have to pay to get more exposure to my shop. Paying a fee gets you into the top picks when someone searches for an item. It is really obvious the who the aggressive sellers are on Etsy; they are the ones with many, many, many items for sale. I have found that several of the big selling shops on Etsy are actually extensions of brick & mortar business. There are several fabric sellers that actually have active online shops and brick and mortar stores as well as their Etsy shop.

ptquilts

I shut mine down when I am going to be away from home for a while. I don't want orders coming in that I can't fulfill.