Is recession really affecting the sales of jewelry?

I've just been musing...back in December I ran a 10% off offer on all my jewelry on my blog and Dawanda shop. I had really hardly any sales, whereby I truly wanted to help people save some money by buying it cheaper.

Interestingly enough, sales started to pick up soon after the prices went up to normal. And what's more interesting, the mid-higher end pieces are going better than the cheaper ones. For example, I've just sold today this Queen's necklace, one of my chainmail pieces, which seems to go nowadays much easier than the Euro 15-18 earrings. I know people like my jewelry, they are buying them, I mean look at the feedback that I'm getting, so it's definitely not that.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to offer cheaper - yet still quality - jewelry so more people can afford it, but it seems that things are turned upside-down. I guess it shows that no woman can say 'no' to a beautiful piece of jewelry, or something to pamper oneself with, and recession has no saying in that at all! Speaking of which, I just got hubby to buy me Dior's J'adore *gulp*. Don't I have a sweet hubby? And boy that perfume smells like heaven...

Bit of personal boasting

I guess artistry runs in the family. While I am good at creating handmade silver jewelry, my brother's passion is playing classical guitar.
I got this very short video of him playing classical guitar in a known Berlin cafehaus. I really love the relaxed atmosphere of that place. Nothing like the coffeeshops here in Cyprus.

So may I present, my brother :)

My jewelry at Dawanda

Well after some discussions with friends and some deep thinking, I've decided to keep my jewelry at Dawanda. Any new jewelry I make, I will post directly on my blog, however while existing stock lasts, I leave them at Dawanda. Once I sold out, I will close shop. This will give me the time to open the shop under my own domain, which will feature only jewelry created in 2009.

Now that I came to the decision, I feel relieved :) Sometimes it's not which decision you take, but you take a decision is the important part.

On another note, I've been asked what type of jewelry was my best seller in 2008. On the quick, I'd say herringbone jewelry and border wrapped cabs. But I will check my stats from the database and post back here the results, with some pictures of what has sold.
It's funny because I thought that chainmail jewelry would be the best seller, and border wrapping is a thing of the past. I guess the truth proved me wrong :)

Dawanda is finally introducing listing and sold items fees

I've just received today a pre-invoice from Dawanda. This is two fold:
1. We are to pay for all sold items starting from June 08 a 5% fee
3. Dawanda is introducing new listing fees (it was free until now), which is depending on the price of the item.

This is the new scheme for the listing fees (separately of the 5% commision on each sold item).

Items up to value 10.00 EUR cost 0.10 EUR per item listed
Items of value 10.01 EUR - 20.00 EUR cost 0.20 EUR per item listed
Items of value 20.01 EUR and above cost 0.30 EUR per item listed
Listings are now running on a limited time of 120 days, starting on the day of listing.

Now I don't mind paying, we all knew it was coming, however I find that being less known than Etsy, and having much less traffic and sales, Dawanda is introducing a very steep pricing structure.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Etsy has 3.5% commision and a flat fee of $0.2 for each listed item.

Dawanda, has a 5% commision, and depending on the item listed, it can cost you up to 0.3 Euros (which is approximately $0.4 - double than the Etsy listing).

Also I think most of us were under the impression that the fees will be introduced from 'now on', not going back to mid last year. A couple of us have been just hit with a major fee that we have to pay by Feb. 23, which we didn't count on.

I guess what I've always preached but never really put into place, I will have to actually do: start my own shop under my own name and domain, so I can control exactly what I'm paying and when.

If you have a shop at Dawanda right now, what do you think of these new listing fees? You might just convice me to keep my items there for a bit longer if you have the best argument...or to open my own shop :-)

A quick detour to another hobby of mine

This post is really not for everybody, but if you are at all interested in what is called Internet Marketing, I've set up a an online diary for my journey in the world of online marketing. It's a quite interesting world out there, and I'm learning lots as we speak. And many of the things I'm learning there I can apply to promoting my jewelry as well. If you're curious, head over to my Internet Marketing Blog and let me know what you think. Beware, it has nothing to do with jewelry, so if jewelry is your only passion, you might get bored there. But if you're interested in the new possibilities of earning money out there (think of stay at home moms, or people who lost their jobs or folks want to start out on their own instead of being stuck at their 9-5 jobs), it's something you can pick up very easily anytime.