お店の整理 Organizing Your Shop

Etsyでも普通のお店でも同じですが、品数が増えてくると見た目がごちゃごちゃしてきたり大事な品が目立たなくなったりしてきます。普通のお店だとショーウィンドーに最新の品を飾ったり高さの違う棚に並べて目を引いたり、と言うことができますがEtsyではどうやって一つ、一つの品を引き立たせることができるのでしょうか。
This is true for both Etsy and a physical store, but once you start to accumulate a good number of products, it becomes harder make each item stand out. In a brick and mortar store, you can put the newest items in the window or arrange them on shelves, but how can you attract attention to your individual items in an Etsy store?


一番目立たせたい品はFeatured Itemsとして特別扱いできます。Featured Itemsとは言ってみればおすすめ商品みたいなものでお店のバナーとAnnouncementのすぐ下に表示されます。まずYour AccountのCurrently for Saleというリストに行き好きな商品を選びます。右側のほうにグレーの星がありますのでそれをクリックし、緑色に変えてください。選択する数に制限はありませんが実際にお客様に見えるのは４品まで。どの４品をどのように並べて見せるかはYour AccountからFeatured Listingsに行って選択します。残りの品は４品のうちのどれかが売れた場合、または期限切れになった場合使用されます。Featured Itemには売れ行きのいい品や流行の色使いの品、または２，３ページ目に隠れてしまっている品などを選ぶと良いでしょう。
One thing you can do is to specify some of your most important items as Featured Items, which will be shown directly beneath your shop banner and your Announcements. To choose your featured items, first go to the Currently for Sale list in Your Account, then click on the gray stars to the right of the items you like. This will turn the stars green. There are no limits on how many items to choose, but only 4 of them will be seen buy the customers. To select which 4 you would like to show, go to Featured Listings in Your Account. The remainder of the items you chose will be used if one of the 4 items sells or expires. Your best selling items, items with a popular color combination, or items hidden on the second or third page are all great items to feature.


お店全体を見たときに、似たようなものが一緒に並んでいるほうがちゃんと整理をしてある、と言う印象を与えることができます。特に似たような色の品が横に一列並んでいるとお客様も自分の好みの色にすぐ目が行き、効果的です。品を並び替えるためには、自分のお店のページに行き左下のRearrange Your Shopをクリックします。すると上の写真のように品を好きなように並び替えることができるようになります。２ページ目から１ページ目に品を移動したい、などと言う時は商品のすぐ下に「or move to page…」と書いてあるのでそこの数字を押してください。二品以上を一度に別のページに動かしたい時はシフトキーを押しながら数字をクリックします。
To give an impression of a well organized store, you should also arrange items in similar groups, too. It’s especially effective if similarly colored items are arranged in a row, since your customers’ eyes will be naturally drawn to their favorite color. To change the order of your items, go to your store page, and click on “Rearrange Your Shop” on the lower left. As you can see in the photo above, this will allow you to move the items around any way you like. If you want to move an item from the second page to the first page, for example, simply click on the number below that item, where it says “or move to page…” To move more than one item to a different page, click on the numbers while pressing down the Shift key.


ある一定の品を探しているお客様のためにShop Sectionsもきちんと作成しておいてください。商品を分類したり、新しいSectionを作成したい場合はYour AccountからInfo & Appearanceに行きSectionsのタブをクリックします。Sectionsは１０個まで作成できます。
For those customers searching for a specific type of product, make sure you’ve set up good Shop Sections. If you want to change or create a new section, go to Info & Appearance from Your Account, and then click on the Sections tab above. You can have up to 10 sections in your shop.

Half Way

Last Friday, I got my 20 week sonogram done, which means that I'm already half way done with this pregnancy! And of course, we couldn't wait to find out the gender, so drum roll please... It's going to be a girl! My son was hoping for a little brother, so he was slightly disappointed, but he says he'll be nice to his little sister and will be a good helper.

We actually got quite a good look at the baby since we had a student sonographer sitting in, and they were very thorough. Even a non-professional like me was starting to be able to see what all the fuzzy things represented! Of course, what's important is that the baby is healthy, and she seemed just fine, at least anatomically.

Now we're going to have to come up with a good name! Being a Japanese-Chinese-American family, it's not exactly an easy task. We try to find a name that can be written in Chinese characters but is easy to pronounce and remember in English as well. I think the Chinese also has a custom of using the same first letter for all siblings. With my son, we didn't really agree on one until almost the last minute!

通貨設定 Currency Setting

Etsyでは米ドルだけではなく、日本円を含む20カ国の通貨でも品を出品することができるようになっています。ただし、米ドルを選択しても日本円を選択してもやはり長点、欠点がどちらにもありますのでそこを今回は見てみましょう。
When you list an item on Etsy, you can actually choose to price your items using 20 different currencies in addition to the U.S. Dollar. This may be helpful if you are an international seller. However, there are both advantages and disadvantages in changing your currency settings, so let’s take a look at them today.

Etsyはアメリカの会社ですのでデフォルトとして通貨は米ドルに設定されています。手数料もドルで計算されますし、ユーザーも大半がアメリカ人。そのまま米ドルに設定しているほうが便利と言えば便利です。ただし円高になると日本円で出品した時に比べて値段の価値が下がるので売上金も減ってしまいます。特にもともと値段の低い品を販売している方は定期的に値段と送料の計算をしなおさなければ、ほとんど元が取れなくなってしまいかねません。品数が多いと値段を変更するだけで大仕事になってしまいます。
Since Etsy is an U.S. company, the Currency is set to U.S. Dollar (USD) as a default. All fees are calculated using USD, and most Etsy users are located in the United States, too, so it may make sense to just keep the Currency at USD. But if the USD suddenly loses value against your own currency, your profit will also decrease, too. For those of you selling lower priced items, this may significantly affect your profit margin unless you recalculate your price and shipping charges regularly. If you have a large number of items in your store, editing your prices on a regular basis could get quite tedious.

反対に通貨を日本円に変更すると為替レートがいくら上下しても売上金に変化はありません。でもお客様からしてみると日によって値段が違う、ということになります。時にはお客様が手を出しにくくなるほど高くなってしまうこともあるでしょう。もちろん反対にぐんと安くなることもあるのですが。あと、もう一つの問題点はEtsyで通貨を変更できるようになってからまだ一年も経っていないことです。いまだに　エラーが発生してしまった、と言う話をときどき聞きます。後もう少し待って様子を見てみたほうがいいのかも知れません。
On the other hand, if you switch to your own currency, your profit will not be affected no matter what the exchange rate is. For your customers, though, this means that the price will be different depending on when they look at your item. At times, it may get expensive enough that they may not be able to afford it; while at others, it may seem like a bargain. Another possible hindrance is that it hasn’t even been a year since they introduced the ability to change your currency. I do still hear about glitches on occasion, so you may want to wait and see before you make the switch.

と言うわけで通貨はどちらにしたほうが良いとハッキリ言えませんが日本円に切り替えるのならYour AccountからShop Settingsと言う項目の中のShipping & Paymentを選択し、Currencyと書いてあるタブをクリックします。それからChoose Shop Currencyのリストから左下のJapanese Yenを選択してください。しばらく日本円を試してみてやはり米ドルのほうが良かったと思った場合は、もちろん同じ手順でUnited States Dollarに変更できます。
There really is no clear winner here, but if you do decide to switch, you can do so by going to Your Account > Shop Settings > Shipping & Payment and then clicking on the Currency tab. Then choose the currency of your choice from the list shown. If you try out a different currency and decide that it may have been better to stick with USD, you can switch back going through the same steps.