TOW 9/25: The First Ruby Red Tag Sale ... What did we learn?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Charmed Life on September 25, 2011 at 11:06am

I've walked away from this extremely disappointed.

Not one new wish list addition.

Not one sale.

Not one question from a potential buyer.

No real change in the traffic to my shop.

 

It's like the Ruby Red Tag Sale didn't even happen.

 

Permalink Reply by Alley Cat Lane on September 25, 2011 at 11:08am

Had about a 2% increase in visitors.

No sales from the red tag sale.

One small sale on something not in the red tag sale.

Will try again the next time.  After that depends on how they charge for it.

Permalink Reply by 2Hearts Uptown @Ruby Lane on September 25, 2011 at 11:16am

First of all, I bought 3 things from shops and I know I wouldn't have looked without the sale.    So, as a buyer I loved the chance to check out what was being offered and purchase some great pieces.  Thank you!

 

I did not sell anything during the 24 hours, nor was the traffic/clicks to my site above normal.   The previous two days, however, did have a lot of extra lookers/clickers.  I have to assume that the choices I made for what to put on sale missed the mark.   I am very interested in the reaction of others, but my gut feeling is that I emphasized high end items too much.    I noticed that the three items I purchased were all in the $60-70 range, so "note to self" that maybe lots of folks were in that range.  I think Ruby Lane can really help us with this by doing some data analysis of what items were most "wish listed" and for the various lanes, how many sales were in which price ranges.    As they say "Without data, all anyone has is an opinion." 

 

All that said, however, we have had a couple different forums about slow summer sales.  My sales have been better in September than any other month since I opened my shop last February and very steady.    I am hoping this is the start of the Christmas buying season  -  have things picked up everywhere on Ruby Lane (again, RL can answer that with real sales data).  

 

I think having a Red Tag sale about 3-4 times per year would be great and would definitely participate.

D'Anne

2Hearts Uptown

Permalink Reply by San Marcos Art Glass on September 25, 2011 at 11:55am

The RTS was not a huge success for me. Beyond a couple of pre-sale items, nothing moved and traffic was normal. But this is not surprising. I have frequent sales at the store and have the same results. I often find my largest increase in sales comes after the sale is over. I don't know why that is, but it is very common. I don't know if it will happen this time, but I'll lock the RTS price in for people who didn't get back in time for the sale. 

 

I do feel a bit silly to tell the truth. I spent time promoting the sale. I hope no one outside here asks me how I did. Guess I'll have to mention the two pre-sale things and change the subject fast. :)

Permalink Reply by Antik Avenue on September 25, 2011 at 12:21pm

First of all, congratulations to all those who had success.  It was a bust for me.....no sales and when I compared visits from last Saturday to yesterday there was 4 times less traffic yesterday.  It's difficult to say why....maybe I chose the wrong things, maybe they are just not going to sale anyway.....maybe I need to look at my prices, my pictures and overall shop.  On the plus side I had a nice sale on Friday but it had nothing to do with the sale.  I'm thinking perhaps the traffic was at the sale and not on the overall site.  Also, I received an error page a few times and once when I was looking at the sale on page 10 the pictures became skewed and all showed in a vertical row.  I closed the browser and all was OK after that.  Also, my items seemed to appear somewhere in the middle (I was trying to determine).  It may be a good idea to up your click rate during a sale.  But if everybody does that then there really is not much gain and then it costs more to sell for less.  Don't mean to be so negative but just my brain storming thoughts.  I would definitely try it again, however.  I don't give up easily :-)

Permalink Reply by Kathy's Vintage Jewels on September 25, 2011 at 12:22pm

I only had 1 item added to wish list, but no follow thru; i.e., purchase.  

Will I participate again?  Probably because it didn't cost me anything to participate because I didn't have any sales!  For those who did have sales, I would be interested in learning what their discount percentage was.  Maybe I was too low at 30% off.  I have a real hard time reducing a $20 item to 50% off, when I think I already have it marked low enough.

I think my problem is I need to get rid of a lot of my old inventory and add new.  But every time I think about it, something that has been in my store for a year sells.

 

Looking forward to other responses,

Kathy

Permalink Reply by Out Of The Attic 2u on September 25, 2011 at 12:23pm

Well I also did not sell anything possibly being I only had 2 items (10%) of what was in my new store. I did have lookers which was nice even though no sales. I will participate again in the future hopefully with more to add to my items for sale.

Permalink Reply by Graceful Antiques on September 25, 2011 at 12:37pm

I sold one item and had a lot of visitors. If it pays off to them coming back it was a success. Some I am sure found RL for the first time also. 

 

I ordered an item from a shop that was part of the sale and think I will be pleased. 

Not sure if this is related to me buying also or not as a dealer but had quite a bit of problems with the sites of RL and RP off and on all night. Sometimes I could not get on at all. Possibly due to traffic. 

I loved the sale and IMHO these can only grow with time and others hearing about them as I am sure many people went away very happy. 

 

Reminds me of the Red Apple sales one of the main chains have from time to time. 

Would be more than happy to do them again. 

The sale is always, always made at the buy in this business...Sandy

 

P.s.I also got a weird page at one point. 

Permalink Reply by Charmed Life on September 25, 2011 at 12:46pm

Hi Kathy ... I haven't looked at your shop (yet), so I'm just basing my comments on what you wrote.

 

You mention deleting old inventory and adding new ... are you regularly adding items to your Ruby Lane shop? The searches and placement on RL (and RP) favor shops that add fresh inventory on a regular basis. I try to add at least 2 items to my shop 4 to 5 times a week. 

 

Sometimes I take something out of my RL shop and put it over to my RP shop ... or vice versa.

Tweak it, add a word, jazz up my description, even take new photos. 

RL & RP favor FRESH LISTINGS (I hesitate to use the word 'new' because we all sell vintage).

 

Something to keep in mind.

If our inventory has been static and unchanging for a while, it's not going to get much traffic on either site.

Kathy's Vintage Jewels said:

I only had 1 item added to wish list, but no follow thru; i.e., purchase.  

Will I participate again?  Probably because it didn't cost me anything to participate because I didn't have any sales!  For those who did have sales, I would be interested in learning what their discount percentage was.  Maybe I was too low at 30% off.  I have a real hard time reducing a $20 item to 50% off, when I think I already have it marked low enough.

I think my problem is I need to get rid of a lot of my old inventory and add new.  But every time I think about it, something that has been in my store for a year sells.

 

Looking forward to other responses,

Kathy

Permalink Reply by COBAYLEY on September 25, 2011 at 1:09pm

In the few days before the sale, the visits to my shop went from the 600 figure up into 1100 or so.   That puts me back up where the visits were before the google fiasco with the double listing between RP and RL.  I'm going to work very hard to keep those visitors coming.  Will I participate again?  Probably, depending on when it happens.  I don't think the timing was quite right at this time.  Holiday shopping was just beginning and this kind of overtook that.  

As I stated earlier in a different thread, I don't keep merchandise in my shop for a long period of time.  It's not cost effective.  However, I don't give it away either, (at least not online)...this was a face saving way to move some of that merchandise.  

The things that did sell were mostly higher ticket items that had gold content.  I probably could have scrapped some of it and got more money.  

With the prospect of another RTS, I'll think twice about lowering the price of items in my RL shop.  I'll probably move them over to Ruby Plaza for awhile before I reduce them on RL.  Then, there won't be the question of raising the price back up in order to offer it on a sale.

Permalink Reply by Kathy's Vintage Jewels on September 25, 2011 at 1:21pm

Hi, thanks for the response.  I continually add new items to my shop and I also transfer to RP, back and forth.  I try to always add the 7 new items a week to maintain being a featured shop.  But sometimes I get lazy and just transfer back and forth.  I have several items that always gets lots of hits, so I have hesitated to remove them.  I guess those are the items I am referring to.  In order to keep store fees down, I do try to limit my inventory.

 

Taking new photos is a good idea!  I think I will try that one...give it a fresh look as I add my holiday items!

Permalink Reply by 2Hearts Uptown @Ruby Lane on September 25, 2011 at 1:50pm

Cobayley mentioned timing of the sale.   My experience is that most of my sales are in the first ten days of the month; perhaps because many professionals are paid once per month on the first and feel able to splurge.   RL can check sales figures on this, as maybe I am wrong.   If that is a general sales trend,  how about the next RRT sale be close to Dec. 1st to hit both payday and Christmas shoppers??

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