Tutorial: Keeping Track of Different Sales Venues

Today, I'm showing you how I keep track of what's selling and where. It can be so overwhelming! I stopped listing all together in early May when my dog died. As more and and more groups sprang to life, I became obsessed and confused! HOW does anyone keep track of this???

So I sat down and did what I always do when I'm confused. I write all out where I can see it!  Once I can look at the big picture, all the pieces parts start to make sense!

I realized there were four categories of information I was trying to track:

The tabs of my four page spreadsheet

• Tracking: Where a listing was (and where it had been...I don't want to relist an item in the same venue when I just listed it there yesterday!)
• Listing: What did I say about that bead and did I remember to say it's annealed?? I can't tell you how I hate having to rewite listings after hastily deleted before pasting! I also need to know where the photos are on my computer or what they are called. 
• Sales: Who bought what for how much? Did I ship it? Am I holding it?
• Groups: It's a PITA to look up the rules every time you list... So I made a list with links to the groups and basic rules I need to remember...like how many listings I can have in a specific group!

Here is the tracking page:

 The headers on this page are:

• Name: What I call the bead
• Page Listed: As you can see, I use abbreviations. LA = Lampwork Auctions. LBA = Lampwork Bead Auctions
• List Dates: Dates the listing was / is active
• Result: I track likability and comments by buyers to gauge whether I should relist or wait a bit. Notice none on this page are sold...more on that in a bit!
• Link: Hyperlink to the active listing. I delete when the listing is over as I don't want to accidentally paste the wrong hyperlink into a promotions photo on my fan page! Klutz prevention!

Using the Tracking Page:

• When I get a bid  or BIN, I write that in the results column and cut the name / Page listed / Dates / Results and transfer it to the SALES page. I then delete the enter line with the link to keep things tidy. 
• When it doesn't sell, it gets highlighted and moved.
• About the colors: White is an Active Listing, Green means Go Relist. Yellow is expired and something I'm pondering... Move it another sales page, Etsy or my website. 

The Listing Page could very well be incorporated into your Tracking Page. I chose not to for a few reasons. I didn't want to accidentally delete my lengthy listing info (and I don't trust myself!) and...it made the page too long!

This page only has two columns:

• Jpg names: the name of the photo on my computer. Alternately, I will list what file it's in. 
• Description: The actual listing copy pasted into my Facebook listing. Tip for EXCEL: if you click in a cell and paste a listing with spaces in it... it pastes them in multiple cells. If you double click...it pastes all the formatting in one cell!

If something sells but I'm holding the item (pre-negotiated payment delay / wire wrapping / customer still shopping), it gets highlighted and moved to the bottom. Once it's shipped, it's deleted.


The Sales Page:  Again, the first four columns are pasted from the tracking page. Then I add:

• Sold To: Buyer's name
• Contact: Have I found her Facebook contact info... did it go to the Other mailbox?
• Shipped: The date I mailed it. 
• Price: The price they paid.
• Ship: The shipping costs I need to add (I give discounts for multiple items.)
• Total Sales: I add a little math widget to total my sales for a given period. 

 I just add a line and keep it all organized by buyer but I can sort by date sold or date shipped.  It's pretty easy to see at a glance who I need to invoice or ship.

The Groups Page - Again, I use this to keep the hyperlinks to the groups home pages handy and to keep any rules I need to be aware of easy for me to find. That being said, some groups change their rules quite often. 

Columns here are:

• Main link - hyperlink to home pages
• Listing numbers - How many active listing are allowed.
• Nutshell - Any rules I need to watch out for or actions I need to take.

You will obviously want to check the groups you sell in and make tweaks accordingly.

This may be overkill but it's what I need to keep track of it all. I hope it helps you as well!

I have uploaded a blank version of my doc for your use ( I did keep the groups page intact... no need to put you through more research!). It will run on Excel.


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