These past couple of weeks have been extra arrgh in the world of my Etsy shop. There have been bad delays caused by a backlog of USPS postage over the Christmas period, I was pretty good at getting all my orders done daily so the majority of my December orders went out on the day they were purchased, which is no mean feat when you work fuller than full time. I went to the studio every day after work, worked late when all I really wanted to do was go to bed. Went to the post office on my lunchbreak or asked the men in our work mail room very nicely if they could pop my parcels into the outgoing mailbag. Everything seemed to be OK, a few grumbles about delays but orders seemed to arrive in time. As a seller you feel a great sense of relief when the last Xmas parcel is out of your hands and after a year where I fulfilled nearly 400 orders on top of everything else, I felt pretty proud of myself. There’s been one lost order, a couple of returns, one broken cat and one case opened against me by a lady that didn’t speak English and had put the wrong postal address on Etsy. I refunded and received the parcel back via “return to sender” – case closed within an hour, so no real harm done. That is until the last week where everything seems to have gone wrong and I’m wondering how (or if I want to) swing it back.
I think the problem lies in the fact that this year I never put my shop into vacation mode for the festivities. I just increased the shipping times, so I never really afforded myself a proper break. I had someone buy a huge order the night before my drive back to Kent for a week with my family and instead of taking the lead, cancelling and letting myself enjoy my holidays, I informed them that I would be away and could either refund or post on my return. They chose post on return but seemed to never remember this. This is my next lesson if my Etsy shop is to survive, that is how I deal with convo’s. I have to be stricter about not answering them at all hours, weekends and during holidays. I was answering convos to this person about their order on Boxing Day, New Years Eve (15 mins before the bells), during a posh meal for Kevin’s birthday and generally all throughout my week off. Sometimes money just isn’t worth the hassle and this is something I need to really learn if I am to carry on. This one order meant I had to go back into the studio earlier than I had wanted and has been nothing but stress ever since.
A case has been opened against me and this has made me really think “Can I do this and do I want to do this”? How do I get over this, the case will be hanging over me for at least the next few days, as the parcel can’t possibly physically be delivered before then, so my shop is essentially in lockdown anyway, no orders until I either cave in and refund or I can stick it out until the parcel arrives sometime later this week. I have provided my evidence, it has clearly been shipped, what more can I do but wait and worry. Do I put myself first and end the stress, my asthma is bad and I’m not sleeping properly, do I just get this off my plate and chalk it down to ( a very expensive) lesson learned. Sometimes I guess the worst experiences are the ones that make you review, change and grow.
Do I make a new resolution with myself and trust my gut, if don’t feel an order is right then I just cancel, no matter how profitable it may be. Ultimately if it’s going to kill me like this one is, it’s not really worth it. I had a bad feeling from the start and I really should have acted on it. Do I insist all large orders are sent tracked or put a limit on the number of items sent in a single order. I had a few very big orders last year and they always make you extra nervous, but customers are generally nice and understanding. Most people realise the items are coming from the UK and allow the time necessary for it to arrive.
This is traditionally a really busy time for me in my shop and today I would usually be getting back into serious work mode. It’s my first payday of the year so I budget and I knuckle down hard and start work on listing stuff. My boyfriends birthday is the 12th Jan, so for us, this is our New Year, it’s when we start our resolutions, go back to the gym, stop drinking, eat healthily. Normally for me this is a super exciting and optimistic time. This week I have to have a real hard think about my strategy for the future. I think the biggest lesson learnt will be to give myself a break from the shop. I’m constantly trying to get stuff posted, every day I have parcels on me, an ikea bag is always in my possession and I very rarely have a clear order list. I need to be stricter, post all orders on certain days, no inbetweens. Still being professional but not bend over backwards, work hard at my shop but not let it become all consuming, post orders on time but not be continuously carrying them around with me in the hope of filtering off a few here and there.
I’m going to take a wee break from the shop until this case is all sorted and to rethink how I make everything work for 2018. All open orders will be processed today and then I shall deactivate my listings for a while. Hopefully very soon I’ll feel ready to reactivate them again – confidence rebuilt, new attitude, reviewed policies and raring to go in 2018.
Catch you soon
