New Earring Display

I've mentioned before how I revamped my craft show set-up this year. Here's a little detail on the new earring display I bought from Rio Grande.

My earrings are generally displayed on cards and hang on plastic coated earring racks. I have room for 3 of these racks in my display. While reviewing my craft show sales for the past few years, I realized that earrings comprise at least 75% of my sales. Intuitively, I knew this, but seeing the numbers convinced me to do something to extend my earring offering.

I invested in this little number from Rio Grande:

It holds 48 pairs of carded earrings and does not make a huge "footprint" on my table. I use each side to highlight a specific earring design. I chose 4 designs that deserve to be highlighted: glass triangles, just pearls, hoops and enamels.

I like the way this has worked for the first 3 shows of the season. I have one more show on the schedule. Local people -- I will be at Crafts Weekend at the Anchorage Museum on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.  Remember museum members always get 10% off!

 

Customer Expectations

Many of you know that I have been selling my jewelry on etsy since 2007. My 7th anniversary is coming up in February. I've been selling my jewelry for much longer than that in person -- since 1997.

Something happened fairly recently that I'd like to share with you. I have had 3 customers in the past 3 months express surprise at the length (or lack thereof) of the earrings they purchased from me. One of these customers returned a pair because they were too small. The other simply let me know how surprised she was.

Since the beginnings of my online selling, I've included length measurements in inches and centimeters. Is it possible that people have stopped reading descriptions thoroughly? Or is it that reading the phrase, "these earrings are 1 1/2" long" has no meaning without a visual?

Whatever the reason, I decided to add a new type of photo to each of my new listings. I will not go back and add this photo to all of my existing listings. That would make me pull my hair out!

Here's a sampling of what I've added:

What do you think? I would really appreciate some feedback on this. I think the photos of the earrings in my hand not only demonstrate how big or small they are, but they also create a subtle connection to handmade.

All of these earrings are new in the shop. You can click on the photos to go directly to the listings.