Online Pottery Shopping and the Scarcity Mindset
I quietly filled my online shop today with this and lots of other goodies. I say quietly because I’m not a big fan of the scarcity mindset… the big buildup to the “online shop update”, where people have to make an instant decision and click the add to cart button before someone else does. I personally like to have a little bit more time to think about my purchase.
The past three years since the pandemic began there was a real shift in the way artists/craftspeople sell their work. We shifted from in-person shows to completely selling online. I think we have treated it as if it were an in-person show of sorts, sending out social media “invitations” but more so… posting about the sale nearly daily to try to beat the algorithms with hope that people will actually see at least one of our many posts. Or they might possibly see every post, who knows… and that gets a little old.
This announced buildup for weeks type “shop update/sale/show” makes it so the people that come to the show in the first five minutes to half hour get first dibs. Yet this model of the online show just isn’t quite the same as a community based in-person show, where there is talking, sharing stories and maybe drinking wine together. The online show is quite lacking, basically it’s just a frantic online shopping experience.
I want there to be no pressure when buying a handmade work of art. For me it really goes against everything that handmade/slow made is about. One of our jobs as artists and craftspeople is to help slow down the busyness of people’s lives, not add more stress.
One of my goals for this year is to have work always available in my online shop.
Yes I know that I am one person and my handmade items are limited because I can only make a finite amount of work, and it’s a task to keep work stocked in the online shop. There is so much to do, with taking photos, editing and uploading photos and writing a description with measurements. Maybe if I do a little at a time rather than all at once it won’t be such a multi day daunting task. It also won’t be two days straight of packing pottery.
I like to think of it this way also… if I owned a brick and mortar store and the shelves were empty, what would a customer think?
So, here’s to trying to keep my online shop open with a good sampling of functional pottery to purchase. If you are local and want to actually touch the pottery before you buy, visit me in Greenfield Massachusetts, the studio shelves are always stocked!
I originally posted this on my Instagram page. Check out all of the comments to see how others feel about this subject. A good conversation for sure!
Take your time and browse the shop. https://www.lucyfagella.com/shop
If you are looking for an urn for a loved ones ashes visit my other shop. https://www.luciaurns.com/shop-online/
