Etsy and Vacation Review

I was a little I was a little nervous about keeping the shop open while I was gone to Thailand for 3 weeks it seems like things went well. I finished filling the orders from while I was gone and it seems like everyone who ordered was well aware that they would have to wait a little longer than normal. For those of you who might be considering keeping your shop open here’s a list of what I did that seemed to work. Keep in mind that I was across the world for 3 entire weeks with limited internet connection and it seemed to work fine.

A while before I left
1. A month (or a little more) or so before I left I added a note saying that I would be going on vacation
2. 2 weeks before I blogged about my future vacation and the last day to order to before it would be shipped before I left and added the same date info in my shop announcement
3. 1 week before a reminder about the deadline blog

When I decided to start Vacation/stop taking orders (a couple days before I actually left since all my stuff is made to order)
1. changed my avatar to say “RaeGun is on Vacation”
2. changed my banner to say I was on Vacation
3. changed ALL my listings to add a couple lines at top that said I’m on vacation there will be a delay (this took a long time)
4. changed my messages to buyers to mention my vacation

While I was gone, I had limited accesses so the times that I could I…
1. checked for orders, thanked anyone with a reminder note saying that I was on vacation (if there was an order)
2. renewed

And while I didn’t have as many orders as normal (thank goodness that would have been a lot of catching up) I did have a decent amount and I’m super happy with how things went. I hope this helps some of you that might be interested in keeping your store open while you’re a way.