Lip Scrubs A Go-Go

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath about how I store my lip scrubs, here you go:

"Crowd" (10/365)

That's pretty much it: in a cardboard box. And now the box is full, so I have to start a new box.  Lots of pretty colors, huh?

And there are four new flavors of lip scrubs in my shop this week, which now has over 100 products.  100!!

"Apple Pie"

"Blue Raspberry"

The next two are already at Lalalita Body Co:

"Margarita"

"Root Beer" (my favorite soda)

After these are set up in my shop, I'll be introducing their matching lip balms.  And then it'll be a little while before I introduce any new flavors (unless I do the mad scientist thing again and make my own), because I promised myself that I'd dial back my addiction to buying scents/flavors and only do it once a month.  Well... we'll see how that works out. ;)

December Challenge: Can You Make it Better?

As part of the Blogging Business Artisans Etsy Team, we're all required to take part in monthly challenges. This month, the question(s) posed were:

"The December Challenge is all about looking back over the year and reviewing your Etsy Shop. Can you thing of one thing to do that will help improve your shop? There's a whole list of things available to do: re-shooting photographs or coupons, having a sale, removing/adding products, changing sections/shipping requirements, or merging two shops. Write a post and share with your teammates what might help you! And if you see results, tell us!"

I looked over my shop and knew there was something lacking: namely, my "Ooo, I Smell Good!" perfume stick labels.  While clear labels look fantastic on the lip scrub and balm tubes, which are clear and can show the gorgeous colors of those products, a clear label with black print on a white tube just wasn't... popping.  So, I ordered white labels and redesigned them all with fun and colorful designs.  When my shop reopens on December 30th, the "Perfume Sticks" section will look completely new and fresh with the labels.  Here are a couple of previews:
 

Another change I'm making is the cost of the lip scrubs.  Don't know how much this will improve my Etsy shop, but it will improve my business.  Out of all my products, believe it or not, these lip scrubs are the hardest to make, and the most time-consuming.  It is an emulsified scrub, much firmer than my body sugar scrub.  While I make a profit on the actual costs of ingredients, tubes, labels, and ink, I was not taking into account the labor-- believe it or not, my arm gets a workout!  And with the success of the lip scrubs, I have to raise my prices slightly.

So, when Lalalita Body Co reopens, the cost of a tube of lip scrub will be $3.50, up from $3.  I still think this is an extremely fair price for a very good product that customers love, and I have to be comfortable with the price I'm setting for the amount of work I actually do.

What have you done to improve your Etsy shop?

New at Lalalita!

Allow me to introduce four new flavors of "Lick My Lips" lip scrubs:

Choc•O•Rama-- fudgy, chocolate chunks, and chocolate cake batter

Grand Marnier Slush-- cognac and apricot

Lemon•Lime Soda-- fizzy lemon-lime soda, like Sprite or 7Up

Peanut Butter-- as delicious as it sounds

All are available in the "Lip Scrubs" section at Lalalita Body Co (Peanut Butter will be available at noon today!). 

Make it Pretty!

Do you like pretty things? That's sort of a "well, DUH!" question, isn't it? I like to make orders a little "prettier" than they already are when I ship them off. With dolls, it's a bit of wrapping in colored tissue paper, and a name tag, usually. With my Lalalita products, it's also tissue paper, and raffia.

Here are sugar scrubs, awaiting shipment last week. Instead of shrink bands, I use colorful deco tape to seal my jars and bottles.

And Pink Icing lip scrub that went out yesterday. Kind of reminds me of an oversized Tootsie Roll ;):

I feel that "decorating" my products for shipping adds just a little more to what is hopefully a pleasurable customer experience. Do you do anything special for shipping?