If you’re an Etsy seller, you’ll be interested to hear about Heartsy, best described as “Groupon for Etsy”. Each day, a featured seller offers a deep discount on store credit for their Etsy store (today’s is $34 credit for $13, saving 62%). Buyers can buy credit to use in the seller’s Etsy store at any time. Users can also earn US$10 for every friend they refer, and vote on which up-coming deals they’d like to see most.
It looks like a cute idea, but will participation be worth it for sellers? – after all, those are some pretty huge discounts being given out. Handmadeology has written a superb post on how to calculate whether a Heartsy feature will cost you money, or earn it.
The problem for sellers, of course, is the unknowns. The idea is that people buy cheap, and come back and pay normal price: what percentage of voucher buyers will return to you? My guess would be, fewer than your normal rate of return buyers, because Heartsy will have a higher percentage of absolute bargain hunters than the general population on Etsy.
And – if your voucher offer is successful – will everyone use their vouchers immediately? and are you going to be able to keep up with extra orders generated? If you’re using Heartsy as a customer acquisition tool, fulfilling quickly is more important than ever: is doing that while not making your usual level of profit going to be too painful?
Do we have any Etsy sellers reading? If so, please de-lurk: I’d love to talk to you!
Via TechCrunch.
