How big is your product variety?

[Oriole]

I'm leaning towards setting up my own site, but I worry that I will have a small choice.

Right now I have the following to offer:

2 items of clothing (for babies)
3 items of clothing (for women)

1 toy in four possible color options
1 toy in 2 color options
7 toys in 1 color option

Which adds up to 14 possible products. What do you think?
Do you think it's good enough to start? Or should I build it up a bit more?
How many different products do you offer?

Thanks again!

[dogmom327]

I think I started with like 12 products. I now have 160 and we add about 10-15 a month right now. But we definitely started small.

I think the biggest issue with a small selection is whether your customers can get the same basic thing somewhere else that might also sell other things they need. Otherwise, shipping gets to be hard because it's an added cost.

[Oriole]

160? wow, that's impressive!
How much of it do you do on your own, and how much of it do you hire someone to do it? How long ago did you start your business?

[lilyka]

are you selling hand made items? what kind of web site are you going with, your own or through something like etsy or hyena cart?

[Oriole]

Originally Posted by lilyka

are you selling hand made items? what kind of web site are you going with, your own or through something like etsy or hyena cart?

I'm thinking my own. Not 100% sure yet though.

[dogmom327]

Originally Posted by Oriole

160? wow, that's impressive!
How much of it do you do on your own, and how much of it do you hire someone to do it? How long ago did you start your business?

Well I don't have any employees--just DH--we do it all ourselves except for the building the website. If you are talking about manufacturing the products, most of what we sell comes from distributors and we are just the reseller. If I were hand making products, it would be a different story--no way we'd have as many as we do!

The first incarnation of our website (we're on our third) went up at the end of August 2008.

[Quirky]

If you're making hand-made items, I definitely recommend going with Etsy. It's going to be SO hard for you to get web traffic, and it will take SO much time to set up a site for what you're doing -- I'd just take what Etsy has to offer, then focus on making product and marketing yourself as an Etsy seller.

It looks a lot better to have a small variety of products on an Etsy storefront than it does to have a small variety of products on your own site.

Plus, never underestimate the turnoff of a site that doesn't look fantastic -- I think many DIY sites don't give off an impression of being reputable and trustworthy, because they're so amateurish.

[lilyka]

I totally agree with everything the last poster said.

Also it doesn't phase me to buy one item from an etsy site but I have never been to an independant site and bought just one thing. I would rather not buy at all.

also when I buy from etsy I know how it works. and it always works. smoothly. nothing ticks me off more than when I am spending money somewhere and things do not work smoothly. grrrr. and i expect several things from a website I am shopping at. on line ordering with a shopping cart that I can easily manipulate. I don't want to be coping and pasting stuff on an order form or downloading forms or anything else. (I can only think of one site I accept that from. it is a self published zine done by a bunch of monkls and it is just cool enough that I would do it all hanging upside down if that is what they asked of me) I want click click click done. And it has to accept credit cards. direct paypal is also super nice. I will not send in a check.

all that blathering to say why invent the wheel. if you are selling handmade stuff why not go with Etsy. The feature they offer sellers and buyers are excellent, it is easy and quick, and you can't beat the price. and your site will look great.

[Oriole]

Okay! I got an Etsy account and just paid for 6 months of advertisement on MDC. Super excited... Will set everything up tonight as soon as I get home.

I kind of still want to branch out and set up a whole website, but I know it will take more time to set it up the right way. So maybe I'll start out with Etsy, and see where that takes me.

Thanks for all the advice! You guys are the best!