As many of our fans know, The Bobbin Mamas have been running a local socially responsible brick & mortar storefront in the Old North End of Burlington, Vermont for over 3 years now. At our shop you can take eco-fun classes in sustainable sewing & crafting, rent out the store for a private class/party, have your clothing altered, custom patterns drafted, or purchase locally handmade products made by Vermont artisans. It's that last part "...purchase locally handmade products made by Vermont artisans" that I'm focusing on for this blog post. In fact, Mamas got an embarrassing little secret to confess.
Ooohhh, secrets? confessions? about retail? how odd...
Oh, yes, Mamas been carrying this secret around for for over a year now, but the time has come to fess up...We are tormented by online retail failure. Yes, it's true, absolutely tormented by the big fat zeros on The Bobbin's Artfire and Etsy stores. Yes, ZEROS! We've maintained our little shop-on-the-web for many moons now and still nothing, zip, zilch, nada- no sales, no feedback, no karma (ugh, no karma???) no nothing! We happily sell dresses, bags, tops, eco-critters, tie belts and more, the old fashioned way-at our store, yet our 24hr online opportunity to shop has been a total dud.
Admittedly, the first six months of our online retail presence were slim and sparse at best (fuzzy boring photos, limited items for sale, clothing photographed on hangers stuck to a wall) Learning from our mistakes we've really amped up our efforts with gorgeous photo shoots of our unique local models, fun new products and increased site traffic, yet still nada.
Stubborn as all heck, we Mamas are no fans of failure. This blog post is not only a confessional (whew, it really does feel good to get this out in the open) but also a cry for HELP! Check out the sites, give us your feedback, let us know what you would like to see and by all means, if you get the urge, shop! We are on a quest to discover what it is we are doing wrong and free ourselves from the tormenting zeros.
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