Restocking: Knowing What to Make More Of

The instinct after something sells is to make another one immediately. Sometimes that is right. Often it means you have learned something about one buyer rather than about demand.

One sale is an anecdote

A single sale tells you that one person, on one day, wanted that thing. It does not tell you whether the next person will. Two sales to two different people is the point where a pattern starts to exist, and that is the point worth spending on.

Separate the item from the buyer

Your most enthusiastic regular will buy things nobody else would, and that is a good relationship rather than a market signal. Keep making things for them by all means, but do not restock a whole line on the strength of it.

Look at what got looked at

Interest that did not convert is information too. An item people opened and did not buy is usually a price or a photograph problem, not a demand problem, and fixing those is cheaper than making more stock.

Restock the category, vary the specifics

If a colour or a style moved, make more in that direction without making the identical thing. Buyers who missed the first one want the same idea, and returning buyers want something that is not what they already own.

Keep one of everything that sold well

Not to sell. To photograph. Having the item to hand when you write the next listing is the difference between a description you can write in five minutes and one you put off for a week.