Choosing this week’s subject of review turned out to be more difficult than I had expected. Both shops have lots of appeal to me and I see areas for improvement in both. In the end, I decided to review Sweet Tea Company, but will also be reviewing Waterrose later this week! Having said that, let’s just jump in, shall we?

The first thing I noticed about Sweet Tea Company is the vibrancy of the shop. The banner is bright and engaging and the design elements are very pleasing and suit the shop theme. The slogan, ‘refreshing designs for cool people’ is catchy and memorable. So memorable that I could have sworn I had heard it before but some intense Googling didn’t turn anything up so it’s just THAT memorable!

The shop announcement tries to work that theme, but came off as ‘trying too hard.’ It may just be a matter of wording in the first two sentences. Instead of the way they are written currently, I would rewrite them to be something like this:

Like a cool drink on a hot summer day, experience a refreshing style that opens up endless possibilities and evokes memories of bright skies, sunny afternoons and gentle summer breezes.

That feels less forced to me, and avoids having the word ‘make’ twice in the same sentence. Noting that the items are lovingly handmade is good though common for Etsy. The comment about serging the seams is good, but how many non-sewers know what that means? I’d think it better to use the notion of the seams being reinforced as that is more quickly understood by the layperson and then make a note about serging in the profile instead where you might add a sentence or two to state why serging is the sign of quality.

As I’ll note for almost any shop that does this, I recommend against asking the potential buyer to inquire about shipping to destinations you do not have pre-defined. Buyers generally do not want to take the extra steps to do so. Assume that buyers will pass you by if you are making them work to give you the honor of a sale. In this case, if nothing else, research the correct costs for shipping to the place furthest from your shop and put that in under ‘everywhere else’ and then note that you will provide a refund for shipping overcharges, if you so desire. With the current state of the U.S. dollar, international sales are strong and you want to make it as easy as possible for those buyers to choose to purchase from you.

Moving to the profile, Sweet Tea Company’s profile has no shipping information, payment policies or other helpful information in their profile. Really all that exists is one line about the shop artisans and even that is too little and we should learn a bit more about them to be able to connect with them. As I stated in my ‘Bug in Rugs’ review last week, this will inevitably cause a number of potential buyers to walk away as they do not want to go through the trouble of sending an email or conversation to the shop to find this information out. Putting forth even some basic policies about payment, shipping, custom orders and returns would be a significant improvement here. I would also add in your location and the manner by which you ship items (USPS, UPS, FedEx, other), as it puts the shipping costs into context.

The photography is very nice if a little dark in some photos and keeps a consistent natural theme that is appealing, though I question how well this will work come fall and winter. The photography also shows design elements in detail, which is nice as the buyer gains a better sense of the item that way. What I didn’t see and just occurred to me as being useful were any rear views of the items. I’ll admit this is a failing with my own photos as well. Finally, a lot of feedback on seller forums seems to indicate that using a dress form to display your apparel is a failing somehow. In the case of Sweet Tea Company, I’d disagree. The dress forms are unobtrusive and the natural setting hides the mechanics of them.

Moving onto the items themselves, the item descriptions do not mention the materials involved. I understand that they are listed in the materials section below Tags, but calling them out in the description is useful and sometimes it’s a matter of preference to buy cotton knits over cotton weaves and so forth. I would also like to see some mention of garment care in the listing so that I’d know if I was looking at an item that was dry-clean only, though I don’t believe any of Sweet Tea Company’s are. The sizes are a question as well. Are they standard pattern sizes, Sweet Tea’s own size designations, etc? As Sweet Tea offers apparel for children as well, are the sizes adults, child or both? To help clarify, I would include the size information in a way meaningful to the garment, such as the waist size(s) in inches and centimeters (don’t forget the international buyer!) for skirts and so on. I like that each listing thanks the potential buyer for looking at the item. Its a little touch, but it sticks with the reader.

The only other item of note is just a minor nit on my part: the profile states that Sweet Tea Company is two friends, and yet a number of the item descriptions use the singular ‘I’ which throws off the vibe if you’ve seen the profile!

To sum up, I like Sweet Tea Company’s look and items a lot but they need to work on their profile, shipping information and tweaking their descriptions just a bit. I think that once they do this, their potential for sales will increase significantly as their items are very eye-catching!

My final rating of Sweet Tea Company: 2 of 5 cherry blossoms but with the right profile could easily move to 3 or 4 of 5.

If you would like to be reviewed, please leave a comment on this post requesting a review AND providing one constructive comment on Sweet Tea Company (the shop featured today) or on my blog. Reviews are chosen at my discretion and will only be occurring weekly so if you are not chosen, please try again later. Further information and rules can be found at the ‘Review Me’ button in the header. I also encourage you to submit yourselves for the ‘Daily Artisan Spotlight’ using the “Free Press’ button in the header. Thank you!