So many shops have been suspended or closed unexpectedly by retailer platforms like Red Bubble, Etsy, Shopify, or even Amazon that searching for solutions has become a trend. But why? There are a plethora of reasons that a platform like this might suspend or cancel a shop with or without any notice at all.
It can be something as simple as not receiving their telephone call which leads them to believe that your contact information is inaccurate. Often times when inquiring about the issue, you’re presented with a generic list of possibilities that don’t apply to you in any way. If you’ve been baffled by this situation you’re not alone. So what you should do if your Etsy, Red Bubble, Shopify, Amazon, or Squarespace shop is closed without notice?
Firstly, when utilizing these platforms, it’s important to remember that the shop is not yours. You’re only renting space and can be ousted for any reason, any time. Even people who have been selling and bringing in large amounts of sales and profits for the platform for years fall victim to this situation and have no more recourse than a brand new user. So when this happens… what should you do?
The best way to look at these platforms is to consider them a stepping stone that you’ve now grown out of. It’s time to open your own shop. You may not know anything about web design or development. You might know nothing about SEO or social media advertising… but that’s okay. The best thing to do is to take complete control of your business. Once you obtain a website that is owned by you alone, you won’t have to worry about losing sales with a suspended or canceled shop ever again.
To begin, you’ll need the following:
1.) NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number for your business. This is required by Google to list you in the search engines with a Google My Business page to direct users to your website effectively.
2.) Photo, title, description, variations, and price(s) for each of your products. These can be saved to a Google drive folder for reference or can be pulled dynamically from a Print On Demand provider.
3.) A privacy, returns, and shipping policy. If you don’t have these, examples can be found by searching Google or can often be obtained from a print on demand account if you’re using one. Examine the examples that you find and create your own by personalizing it to fit your own business regiments.
4.) Branding. You’ll need a logo or at least an idea of what information that the logo should convey. Your business name, your shop’s tone (fun, polished and pro, dark, bright, etc.)
5.) A web simple account. With Web Simple, the website hosting, basic SEO, server maintenance, and website maintenance is all included. There are no fees per sale. You will be assigned to a personal webmaster who will build your shop to suit your needs and get everything running for you. The shop can be ready to roll in 1 – 4 weeks depending on the complexity and number of products you wish to sell. Your Web Simple webmaster will take care of any changes or additions that you need, usually within 48 business hours.
With your own website and webmaster, all you’ll need to do is take care of business and we’ll take care of the rest. You’ll be provided with the ability to edit your own products if you want to or to request that the changes be taken care of for you within 48 hours. As long as you’re not reported to be selling or providing services that are illegal and your account’s billing remains up to date, you will enjoy 99.9% uptime with your new shop and will never be suspended or closed unexpectedly again. You can count on it!
While opening a shop on retail platforms like Etsy or Amazon gets you started, the next step as a professional entrepreneur is to actually own your own website… which is almost always more economical and customizable. You can apply your own branding, colors, ads, products, services, crafts, or even sell the kitchen sink if you like 🙂
Why wait? Let’s get started.
Eliyahna is a full-time web developer and designer and the CEO of Eliyahna Creative, LLC.