Auditing A Luxury Crochet Bag Brand

Okay, so here is Mandy's site. Her brand is Hooked by Mandy, and she's got her shop hosted on Felt. You can... They can buy international, but it's for New Zealand sellers only, so here are her bags.

So she's got six items in total on sale. Five of them are bags, and one set of jar grippers down here at the bottom. Now, the bags are lovely. I especially like the two on the top right with the scarf detail.

I think those are fabulous. That stitch detail across the top where it meets that, um, that topper, really, really nice. Those stitches look so nice and even. It's so neat.

You... She must have so much patience to get those done so lovely. And these are absolutely looking like luxury bags, so we're well on brand here. Okay, so first thing that's gonna come to mind is at the bottom on the right, we have these jar grippers, and they're gonna throw off your branding.

Those need to go because it's a bit of an odd thing to have when your rest of your items are luxury bags. So remove that, and then we're all on brand. So that's fantastic. Now, I was having a little look at this earlier, and there's something that I really want to draw your attention to.

So I really like this orange one. Let's go into this, and when you click through, it tells you how many- um, views it's had And it's had around 2 to 300. But then we get to this one down here. This is a teal bag.

It's doesn't look quite as high-end as the others at the top. It's a bit more simple, but when you click through to this one, it's had 700 views The rest of the bags also have around 2 to 300 views, but this teal one has a lot more, and I think the reason is the picture. So if we look at the pictures of the rest of them, they tend... They're all, apart from that teal one, they're all in a home setting, whether it's on a table or it looks like you've got one sitting against a wall, but they're at home.

There's no context. This teal one, however it's doing the thing. It's aspirational, and when you're selling luxury, you're selling the aspirational lifestyle. You're doing this with this tier one.

So the people who buy luxury bags, think about who that market is. You've got either business women or the ladies who lunch And there's a close-up of that bag here. But this is all set on a, in a cafe with a lovely fresh cup of coffee with the lovely pattern in the top. It's selling the dream because it's the ladies who lunch.

It's sat on the table, and let's face it, if one of these ladies has a designer bag to show off, that's exactly what she's doing. She's putting it on the table and having that brand label out for all to see. You think they come in, bag on the crook of the arm, having the little show off around to her friends before she sets the bag down on the table, making sure everyone can see that brand name, it's braggy. Luxury is braggy.

But it's quiet bragging. You don't say it out loud, you just show off those labels for everyone to see. Look what I've got. It's that kind of a thing going on, but that's what it appeals to And that's what, uh, the vibe you need to sell into.

So the rest of your bags need that aspirational look. I did see one of the others had another photo that had the same kind of context. Yeah, it's this black and white one. And is that Mandy?

She's there showing it off, but this is also aspirational. This is the business lady in action, and look at the background. Gorgeous background. Also aspirational with the yachts.

Oh, yes. Who wouldn't want that? This, this one should be the thumbnail on the front page of the shop. I think you'll get so many clicks with that.

That's had 400 views. I think that photo's definitely doing a lot of work to help towards that. The only thing I'll say about this photo is have it of a more natural posture. So I would actually have that bag sitting in the crook of your arm and have it sort of over here showing off to the camera, and that would be absolutely perfect.

But it's pictures like this, the aspirational, whether it's on the table with the coffee or with the yachts in the background, it all leads to this aspirational feel, and that's what you're looking for with luxury, is making people feel that if they buy the bag, they will get the lifestyle. So getting your photos to lean towards that is going to do you big favors, and you're already seeing it in action with this teal one. It's got far more views from the others, and it's not because it's overly different, it's not because the color is appealing, it's because of where it's set.

That's doing a lot of work. So if you get all the other photos set up with this aspirational in-context look, you're going to get a lot more views Your bags are doing... Uh, they do look gorgeous, but they are going to benefit massively from the changes to your pictures. The other thing I would suggest for your pictures is give the bags more room to breathe.

It feels like you should have them as close up as possible so everyone can see the detail, but it looks claustrophobic. Because the bags are so close to the edges of the pictures, there's no room to breathe, so you want to just shrink them down a little bit. Give them space around the photo. You can give close-ups of the bags in the other photos that you can put into each listing, but on the main thumbnail itself that goes onto your main page, shrink them down so you got more space around it.

It gives them room to breathe, and it just, it just sets them off a little bit better. This white one on the table, you have more room in that photo, and it just feels... It feels better. It feels less claustrophobic.

It feels less cramped. It's a much better look. So I would just re-edit your photos just to shrink them down. Your titles, your descriptions, the description here on your homepage, it talks a lot about, um, handmade, crochet, handcrafted Those words are not helping you.

There's only one set of people who actually actively search for crochet bags. It feels like a t- search term that should work, that should get you found on Google, and it will, but for the wrong people, because those who are looking for your type of bags are not searching for crochet. They are searching for something that makes them feel luxurious, that makes them given that lifestyle. They're not searching for crochet, and they're not searching for handmade or handcrafted.

The people who search for crochet bags are your competitors, other crocheters who are selling their own crochet bags and want to check out the competition. They're the people who search for crochet bags. Your customers don't, because it's just not something they aspire to. Not because it's they don't like crochet, it's because they don't care, which sounds really harsh, but the people buying these bags do not care how they're made I mean, you could give them a Birkin bag, the ultimate in high-end luxury for bags.

They don't care how it's made. They care that it's Birkin. It's the same thing here, and actually crochet hurts you crochet makes people think of grandma crocheting in her chair every night in front of the TV or listening to the radio and just crocheting away for hours and hours on end. Grandma does it.

It makes them feel old-fashioned. It makes it feel like they sh- it... what you're selling should be cheaper. It just has a subconscious vibe which puts them off.

I would remove crochet from your titles, from your listings, from the front page. Now, if you have an About page for you on here, then great, put that you're a crocheter. You love crochet. You're proud of it, and as you should be.

But when it comes to your customers, that is actually harming you, and no one is searching for it. So take it off the page. Same with handcrafted, handmade. What we want is what you see with luxury bags is that they're hand-stitched.

That is a term that comes up with luxury bags. I would do that instead, and it's, it's true. You have hand-stitched them. You can see that beautiful stitching on these, um, toppers you've got with the bags with the scarves.

It is stitched. Crochet is made with stitches, so it's true. It's just not in the way that they would associate it with, but also they don't care. They just want a luxury bag that does what it says.

So take those words off. Instead, you want to go with what they're searching for. Keep quality craftsmanship, absolutely. Put hand-stitched in.

You want to talk about, uh, the exclusivity, how very few of these pieces are being made. Every single one that you make is unique in its own way. Unique is definitely something that's up there. A little bit of research here, but I don't think that any of the terms that your customers are searching for are on your page right now do a Google search.

Look for what brands actually sell for the Ladies Who Lunch Brigade or the, um, Business Women Out For Lunch Now, I did take a look at the Birkin website earlier. I don't recommend that you go looking on that. It's a bit weird. Um, but Birkin is owned by Hermès of Paris.

They do have other bags on there. They have the Hermès brand. Go take a look at that site and th- look at the wording they use. That will give you ideas, and go and look at other luxury bag sellers as well.

We're not trying to steal everything, we're getting inspiration, looking at the words they use to pull in their customers. But doing a bit of research on them is gonna help you with this section at the top the other thing I would consider is your brand name, Hooked by Mandy. It's not a luxury bag name You could just take The Hooked off and just say By Mandy. That's got a much more luxury feel to it, or just Mandy as your brand name.

Use your own name as the brand name. Why not? Just do a quick Google search and make sure no one else is using those names, but I would definitely recommend taking away The Hooked part and just leave By Mandy or Mandy, which then leads us back to your bags and these lovely metal tags you got on the front. They say handmade Mm-mm.

No, no, no. Luxury is about showing off the brand name. It needs to be your name. By Mandy or just Mandy.

That's what people want with luxury. They want the quiet brag. People spotting the brand names without them being mentioned, which means they've got to be on that tag. The metal tags are absolutely a winner.

It's what's on them that needs to change. They've got to be your name. They are your advertisement. No one's bragging about a handmade bag.

They are bragging about the brand. So there needs to be your name on there. Not only is it free advertising for you, it goes into this aspirational of ladies who lunch and doing the quiet brag with the bag on the elbow as they walk through the door if you're gonna put tags on, it's got to be your brand name. That's what matters, and that's what I would change about your site.

That's it. I'm done. Your bags themselves, absolutely gorgeous. They are beautifully made.

I mean, the evenness of those stitches is fantastic. I love them. But changing your pictures just so that it's aspirational, so in the cafe, the one with the yachts in the background, absolutely perfect. That's the type of picture that's going to sell the luxury.

You're selling the lifestyle, not just the bag. So that's my audit of Hooked by Mandy's site, and I will be doing more of these audits in the future. If you do want to get involved, then make sure you sign up to my newsletter at crochetbusinessschool.com/subscribe or check the link in the show notes.

And the next time a call goes out, it will be in my newsletter, and you can sign up there. But Mandy's site is lovely. Her bags are fantastic. They definitely have the luxury vibe.

They need some tweaks. And it's not meant to be a criticism. It's just what can we do to help these sales increase? And often we only need some tweaks, some different photos in a different setting, just making sure that any tags we have have our branding on, and that we're getting found in search results by the right people.

You want everything on the site to gel together and make sure that the customers who are really searching for you find you, and that we get those sales up. So I hope that wasn't too harsh and Mandy isn't too disappointed because she shouldn't be. She's done some really fantastic work with those bags. They look absolutely stunning.

It's tweaks. It's knowing how to attract the right customer, making sure all the search terms are there, so that is it for me for this week and my audit with, uh, Hooked by Mandy. So thank you for watching, and I shall see you next time for the next episode.