Keeping a Simple Record of What Sells

Ask most creators which of their items sells best and they will answer straight away. Ask them how many of it sold last month, or whether it is selling more or less than it was in the spring, and the answer is usually a guess. Memory is good at remembering the exciting sales and poor at noticing the slow drift underneath them.

You do not need anything complicated to fix this. A notebook or a single page in a document is enough. Once a week, write down what sold, roughly what it sold for and where the buyer found you, if you know. It takes a few minutes and after a month or two it starts to tell you things you did not expect.

Look for the quiet performers. Often the item that sells steadily every week, without fuss, is worth more to you over a year than the one that had a single busy weekend. Those steady items deserve better photos, a clearer listing and a place near the top of your shop.

Notice what never moves. An item that has not sold in two months is taking up space and attention. Try a new photo or a clearer title once, and if nothing changes, let it go and put that effort into something that is working.

Pay attention to where buyers come from. If most of your sales arrive through one page or one kind of post, that tells you where to spend your time next week rather than spreading yourself thinly everywhere.

The point is not the record itself. It is the few honest minutes each week when you look at what actually happened, rather than what you hoped or feared was happening, and decide what to do next.