Shop makeover: thinking about target

I can hear my readers saying: "Where have you gone?".

I know, I'm not blogging too much (for some reasons) in this period, although I have a long list of things I want to share with you.

I'm neglecting my blog, but I'm sitting long hours in front of my pc these days, because I'm working on a very big and important shop makeover (and so, after hours of hard work, I need to leave the pc far from me).

I'm (unlickily) out of work now and I have some free time to think about my little bussiness on Etsy.

Etsy is a hobby for me. I don't want to become rich with my creations, I only want to have fun and have a purpose for all the things I make.

But I can't conceal that the money I have on Paypal thanks to my Etsy shop has been important in the past, expecially to buy airplane tickets to come back to my family and friends in the north.

So now that I have a big amount of free time I decided to use it wisely and to improve some aspects of my shop which needed some help.

The shop makeover requires some steps. I've planned to write about them here on my blog, because I think they can inspire other Etsy sellers in some ways.

The first step is all about target!

If you are new to this subject you can read:

- this Etsy blog post ("How to find your target market")

- this Etsy worksheet ("Who's your ideal costumer?")

- this (italian) post on Etsy Italia Team blog ("Tre consigli per trovare e capire il tuo target")

I've paid attention to my products, their materials, their style, their uses, etc.

They were so heterogeneous!

It seemed like my shop hadn't a precise target.

And it was bad. Very bad!

I've read here and there an important thing: if you want to be for all, you will bo for nobody. It's true.

So I started to think to the thing my items have in common. I found it quickly: they are simple, inspired to nature, eco-friendly (because I mostly use recycled materials and/or organic fabric).

Something a well-defined kind of woman would like. She is in my mind, I know her very well, also because it's very similar to me.

Describing her in details in this blog page is not important, but I'm happy to write that I found my target market!

And after this important step I started to ask to myself "Is my shop ready to welcome this woman?".

The answer was (sadly): "No!".

The banner was too general. My avatar was too "elegant". 

The about page didn't tell about my passion for nature and eco-friendly life. 

My policies weren't promising something unique to my target. 

My items descriptions weren't focused on the eco-friendly process and materials I use to sew them. 

Only a group of my photos were communicating the rustic and nature-inspired style of my products.

A lot of work to do!

I started by changing the shop's title. 

No more the general "Bags and accessories" (thousands of people on Etsy make "bags and accessories"), now it's clear that MadameRenard makes "eco-friendly sewing".

And then I wrote it in a new banner I realized with picmonkey (a free tool online I use to edit all my photos).

This is my new banner:

Simple, with a modern rustic style, with something related to nature (leaves in the bag's bottom on the left), clean.

This is the one I've used before:

Same fonts and same cement wall as background (but darker), but very different for the style and the things it communicates to potentional customers.

I think I did a good work.

What do you think? Opinions are welcome, of course!

I've also changed my avatar. 

The previous one was an image of me well-dressed and well-"arranged" for a wedding.

A beautiful photo, yes, but... where was the real  me? The girl who wears informal clothes and spends her life between art and nature? Where was the girl who sew eco-friendly goodies trying to do her little part in saving the planet?

I needed a new avatar!

I picked up an old photo where I'm in the cloister of Certosa of Pavia, a beautiful place to visit if you are in northern Italy. There is art in it and a beautiful and bright green lawn. 

It's not perfect, but it's better.

It works.

This happened a week ago.

In the meantime I worked on other things:

- about page

- shop policies

- new photos for almost 50% of my items

- new descriptions and new tags

- items to remove because not oriented to my target (what to do with them?)

And I'm still working (now I'm focused on marketing).

I'm going to write other blog posts about the steps I'm making for this shop makeover.

Is this interesting for you? Please, let me know in the comments!