I have an online store at Etsy called Crystal’s Creations. Nothing too exciting but I sell my greeting cards and some photography. (Nothing wrong with a little self-promotion) Within the Etsy community, there is a forum where we can discuss everything from promotions to business ideas and solutions. I don’t consider this a serious income; however, a majority of people that sell on Etsy make it their primary job.
One day a post in the business forums started a discussion on the avatar of people’s shops. Your avatar is the little photo that shows up in your profile and on all of your posts in the forums. This person questioned why people did not change their avatar after they sell the item. For instance, my avatar was a card with “CC” in the lower right-hand corner. This card was in my shop but luckily, it sold. I chose not to change my avatar because this is how people identified me in the forums. The person was distraught that sometimes the avatar wasn’t actually for sale in the shop anymore; they wanted to see the item and have the option to buy it.
My argument was based solely on identification. If I change my avatar my customers might not recognize me when I post new items in the forums. This is something I didn’t want to happen because I could potentially lose business. I think customers want that familiarity. After all, it is all about having a ‘brand’ and an ‘identity’. So, I was steadfast in my ways and kept my avatar.
After reading more posts from people complaining about the avatar not being for sale I decided to give it more thought. Is there a way to change my avatar to reflect something currently for sale while still keeping that identity. My first thought: GOOGLE. Now here is a brand that is known worldwide. At this point you will be hard-pressed to find someone who had not heard of the search engine giant, which by the way, now has its own browser. I remembered a conversation I had in grad school regarding identity. Google went out on a limb and decided it was okay to change their logo even though everyone thought it crazy. Not only did they change it, they decided it would be fun to change it everyday. Clearly, Google did not lose business.
Well, it worked for Google; why wouldn’t it work for me? They found a way to keep their identity- the Google logo- and change it at every whim. After all this, I decided to give it a try. I changed my avatar to something currently in my store but kept that elusive blue “CC” in the lower right-hand corner. I don’t know if it will affect my business yet as I only changed it two days ago. We shall see. Hopefully it can only increase my sales.
By the way, just in case you are curious I thought I would show you my branding material.
