It's a tough decision, but after being here only 3 months, and a lot of thought, I've decided to close my Zibbet shop.
I feel like my initial efforts at online marketing have been something of a resounding belly flop into shark infested waters, but I am slowly figuring out what I need to do to stay afloat, and part of that is not biting off more than I can chew.
I just don't have the energy to keep 2 online shops properly stocked, and this is going to get worse as soon as tourist season starts here. While it makes sense to have 2 shops if I am hoping to get seen by a broader section of online shoppers, I have only made one small sale in Zibbet, in 3 months, and that is the result of both my Artfire shop and here. This is partly my own fault as I have an aversion to advertising and my return policies are quite strict, but I am thinking if online marketing is going to be helpful to me, it will probably be by servicing my local customer base. Having my work spread between 2 shops is likely to make things more confusing to local people, who just want to find my work in a simple straightforward way.
It's a tough decision because I have found Zibbet's seller support to be absolutely excellent, and for some reason everything I have in Zibbet, from my shop announcements to my listings, has outranked both my blog and Artfire shop in Google searches. The problem is, as most of my items have been listed over on Artfire, what should be an advantage may be a disadvantage, because the first listing that comes up in Google is for my Zibbet shop. If most of my work is listed over in Artfire ( and the way things worked out it is ) this may give a disappointing first impression, which might discourage a continued search for the rest of my listings.
I am always surprised when people are less internet literate than I am, but many of the people I know have difficulty with anything but the most basic Google search. One friend who is highly intelligent in other areas, was sent a link to my blog, which at the top of each page had a prominently placed link to both my Artfire and Zibbet shop. But my friend was unable to figure out where I was selling online, until I got on the phone with her and guided her to the links and explained she needed to click on them.
Maybe someday reaching a wider audience through multiple shops will be to my advantage, but for now, it seems that my best business strategy will probably be to try and make it really easy and straightforward for my preexisting customers to find me.
Considering the cost of Artfire, and the services provided and comparing these to the services provided for free through Zibbet's basic account, in many ways Zibbet seems like a better deal, especially as Zibbet is now able to show our work through thefind and Google Shopping, which is why I originally decided I needed to list most of my items over on Artfire.
But, all things considered, together with the fact that most of my items ended up listed over on Artfire, and that is now where they have established links and people passing these links on, and that setting this up has been a huge amount of work, I am making the somewhat difficult decision to just hoe my row over there, and set what sort of fruit it bears.
But I want to thank Zibbet staff for all their support and for providing a really great service for free.
For a while I have removed all my items, but I am leaving my shop activated, so rather than a residual first place Google listing of my Zibbet shop, which goes nowhere, I can give Google a chance to list the first bit of my shop announcement, which will become a residual Google listing once I close my shop, that lets people know I closed my shop. I also have a link to my blog in my shop announcement which will redirect people to where I am on line. I feel I need to do this to avoid the confusion that might be caused by the fact that Google results still show the now removed listings that were on those many Chinese websites.
Thanks again for all the support and I wish Zibbet the best in coming years.
