Pet Peeves from a Bead Buyer

Dear Bead Suppliers:

After a long few hours of scouring the internet for gemstones I want, I'd like to provide a few helpful hints that will keep you from annoying the heck out of your potential customers and scaring or pissing them off.

JUST A NOTE: These are pet peeves...as in, they are things that make me mad when bead-shopping. Therefore, they are a little "peeved" sounding. I recognize that most of the people who do these things probably actually don't realize it, mean it, or have in mind how it comes across, but I wanted to write down what goes through a customer's mind in case a bead supplier found it helpful to know...you never know, you might look back at one of your posts and realize that it looks a lot like you're trying to take advantage of your customers, even when that had never crossed your mind. That is the purpose of this post...to help you figure it out so you can fix it, and help you and help me.

So:

1) Put what it is in the title. ALL OF IT. "Carnelian chips" is better than "gemstone beads" but the best is "Deep orange natural carnelian chip beads 36" strand." Even "half strand" isn't enough, because that could be anywhere from 4 to 18 inches. If someone told you that people don't want to read a long title like that, that person didn't realize that many people are looking for something specific! I was looking for a lot of tiny, deep orange carnelian chips...I didn't want to waste my time clicking on "carnelian chips" only to find out they are 10mm long and light brown and I only get 4 of them. You see?

2) PLEASE, PLEASE, at least SOMEWHERE in your post, put how many beads there are. I know it's a big hassle to - *GASP* - COUNT them all, and I could *theoretically* calculate it (most of the time; see #4) using math, but let's be honest here: I just DID that and it didn't work. I came up with something like 98 beads of some size per some inch strand, and a post I read directly after that said, for the SAME STRAND AND SIZE, "approx. 66 beads." As you can see, that method really doesn't work... however, while it *might* make me think I'm going to get more than I actually am, and thus get you business...what's more likely is that it will just annoy me so much that I don't want to go through the hassle of doing the math, when I know that I will probably receive the beads and find out I was wrong...and therefore, the hassle of buying from YOU is just too much, compared to someone who puts a succinct "approx. 66 beads" on his post. I'm much more likely to buy something when I actually know what I'm getting, and if I only get 40 beads, I can call that guy out on it, whereas if I got a long strand of very loosely packed beads and didn't get nearly as many as my math said I would, I have no recourse, I wasted my money. I know that, you know that, and I know you know that, so just put the darn number in and there wouldn't be a problem.

3) A good picture is worth as much as everyone says. Get a camera with a macro setting, they're pretty cheap now. Get some nice colors in the picture, and no blurriness and don't let the shadows make them look like they're dirty. Also, dust them off before taking close-ups. I am not going to click on something that looks that unprofessional, and even if it's just an off day or you were in a rush, it stays up there for months or more - it's worthwhile to go back and get a better picture. I'm buying beads that I haven't actually seen...I want ones that look GOOD, so make yours look GOOD.

4) Don't switch out measurement units from one post to another. 48 beads in one post, "half strand" in another, then "14 inches" in one, and 13 GRAMS in another. How on EARTH am I supposed to know how many beads I'm getting by the GRAM? And there's no way I can calculate that given the irregularity of gemstone mass. Seriously, it may SEEM to work out advantageously for you to kinda-sorta-just-barely-mislead your customers, but some of us are wise to it and find it REALLY annoying.

5) Rondelles have two dimensions worth talking about. A 4mm rondelle and an 8mm rondelle look exactly the same? No, people just don't bother to name which dimension they're talking about and only bother with one of them...news: it makes a difference. One of them I want, and the other I don't...and if I can't tell if yours is what I want, I'll go with certainty for a few cents more.

6) Microfacets are tiny. ITTY-BITTY. Kind-of-faceted-just-to-make-them-look-better is a look I really like, and it is NOT the same as microfaceted. I am not LOOKING for microfaceted. Be accurate or risk losing the business of people who want what you're selling and are accurate when searching for it. People who search for microfacets are going to find your items, which are not microfaceted, and they won't buy them...and I will search for faceted nuggets or faceted chips, and I WILL NOT FIND YOUR ITEM because you thought it was fancier to say it was microfaceted. Fancier is not what you're selling. You're selling rough faceted nuggets.

6.5) BE DESCRIPTIVE. PLEASE. We're here to buy things that are important to us, and we want to know about them. Be as helpful as you can. Kudos to the people who write "smooth" on rondelles and rounds and such that aren't faceted (and are smooth). Some rondelles and rounds that aren't faceted are also not smooth, so the extra descriptor gets important.

7) By the same token, be enthusiastic. Obviously this is not required, and not as essential as having a good name, but if you say something about the luscious color that you just can't take your eyes off, I'm willing enough to be marketed to (after all, I'm on your site as a buyer, not a cynic) that I will take a second look at the color specifically, to see what you like so much about it...if it didn't strike me the first time, you've just earned another chance for me to get hooked on your lovely beads and just HAVE to "add to cart." Compare them to a lot of things that are inspiring in themselves..."rhyolite rondelles" vs. "rainforest jasper rondelles in shades from gold to forest green" - they are the same thing, but which is more picturesque? I can't believe that some people just don't consider that.

7.5) Also, if your product description is only one little line - basically, the essentials of the product: 36" strand carnelian chips deep orange. NOT ONLY have you lost any potential chances to make me look at your product again to see if it's what I want, to see it for what is good about it...NOT ONLY THAT, but it basically sounds like you just don't have the time or patience, and you just don't CARE about your products enough, to write a decent description. Personally, I write ridiculously long descriptions for my work because every piece is IMPORTANT to me...every time I mail one off, I feel like I'm sending a baby off to college...so to me, it's really repugnant not to care. That's not artistic or inspiring, it doesn't make me want to use YOUR items to make MINE, because they are so devoid of love, I'm afraid it will rub off. If I buy them, it will probably be because I want to give them a better home than yours. You know, no offense or anything. And you might like to know that many of my customers have commented that my "overly-long" descriptions made them laugh, had a lot of personality...that makes them willing to spend time on my site. Your descriptions depress me, and that makes me not want to buy from you.

8) If it says "natural" in the name, I expect natural color, not just "natural because it's a stone and it came from the ground at one point." "Natural dyed agate" does not make sense to me...and if you say "natural blue agate," that had better be a natural BLUE, not just a "natural" agate.

9) On that note, that crazy fuchsia? That ridiculous neon blue? That is not a color of natural stone...and I know a few tricks, like the dye stuck in the cracks? Yeah, even an ameteur can tell...and people who don't know "tricks" can still figure it out just by comparison shopping from more honest merchants...it's obvious if it looks the same all over but yours is the only one that doesn't mention dye. So why doesn't your post mention that it has been dyed? Are you trying to mislead people who can't tell into thinking it IS a natural color? I think so...and when you actually SAY that it's natural, then there's a problem. I will never buy anything from you if I notice you doing that, and I spend enough on beads just by myself that I and my demographic of people-who-can-tell are probably worth your time to woo. Just put it in the post. If I think it's pretty (and I never do about the crazy fuchsia ones, but it's because they're crazy fuchsia, not because they're dyed) I will buy it, so worry more about being seen as a liar than as someone who sells dyed agates like everybody else does. After all, if I can't trust you on something as simple as that, how can I trust you with my money?


Long story short:
Accuracy, Helpfulness and Honesty. These things should be on your mind.


Love,
Leo
Just having spent too much on beads again, but expecting a couple really amazing packages.