Vintage Sweater Season

Winter Wear is in my Etsy Shop!

Happy Fall! It's the most wonderful time of the year, for me. And now, it means I can start to wear the fall gear I love so much.

I'd say that 65% of my Etsy shop consists of fall and winter wear. So that means sweaters, cardigans, jackets, coats, and thermals have taken over. Which, to be honest, they do all the time. I prefer winter wear. I also sell winter wear for about nine months of the year. It's the summer months, when everything is put on hold, sales slow, and I'm not selling what I love; when I wonder if I'll ever have a good month again!

And every fall, I laugh at myself. Sales always pick up. Like clockwork. The moment September 1 arrives, it's like an avalanche of buyers shows up too.

I try to pick up fall and winter wear year-round during my sourcing, and hold onto them and list them when August arrives, because the moment September 1st hits, people can't stop buying them. It's a literal switch that turns on the moment the calendar turns. I don't understand it, and yet, I do. Who doesn't want to add a new vintage, amazing sweater to their wardrobe?

This month may be the best month I've ever had in nearly 15 years of being on Etsy. Why? That's the big question. I'm trying to figure it out and see what I've done differently. But I think it comes down to a lot of things, and they're all working together in synchronicity. 

Last year, I downsized my shop from 800 to about 500 items. I sold most of the items, donated some (they'd been in my shop for years and I was over them!), and rephotographed a good hundred of them to relist.

Then I chose to source higher-quality items. This meant choosing the nicer wool sweater, which costs more than five lesser-costing (and less profitable) items. I then added in a new hundred items, all of August and the first couple of weeks of September, so I'm hovering around 600 items. This seems to be the magical number because, as I said, I'm on my way to my best month ever. 

I also, much to my own reluctance, switched out all of my dual photos (photos with two pictures together in one image) for single photos. Etsy told us sellers that this does help shoppers see items better, more clearly, and are visually less cluttered.

Really, I hemmed and hawed at this for a better part of a year. I didn't want to change my photos; things were selling just fine, thank you very much. Well, come to find out, the images are a lot clearer when only one fills the screen (on phone, laptop, or desktop). And it may not look as artsy, but it sure does sell items! I should've listened to them and done this a year ago.

So, with nicer but fewer items, and with photos that actually show the item as clearly as possible, plus selling what's in a good chunk of my shop (fall and winter wear), that all adds up to a very profitable month. I couldn't be happier. It makes me feel like I'm doing things right finally. (It only took fifteen years!)

Happy Autumn, my vintage friends, and check out the shop for all the new winter wear.

-Heather