I’ve seen so much cute stuff lately, I’m having trouble deciding what to feature.

I’ve been looking at lots of wire wrapped jewelry, and of course lots of baby stuff.

What have you been looking at lately?

I’m trying to use more natural, paraban and phalate free stuff now that I’m pregnant, but I still haven’t found any shampoo and conditioner I’m willing to try.

My always oily hair is even oilier now, and it seems like most of the natural alternatives are made for normal or dry hair.

The last thing I want to do is spend a bunch of money on shampoo and conditioner that I know won’t work for me.

I’ve been thinking about trying the bar shampoo for awhile, so I figured now is as good a time as any to try it, but I am willing to try liquid shampoos and conditoners too.

Any recs would be appreciated!

Thanks.

I recently bought or received items from several Etsy sellers.

Out of the 4 packages, only one of them had information about the seller and the shop.

The rest of them didn’t have any information at all - and when I say no information, I mean they had the items and the wrapping paper and that’s it.

There was nothing to say who the items were from, there was no invoice to say what the items were, and there was no cute little note saying “Thank you for your purchase.”

I’ll admit, expecting a note is a bit much, but I’ve been spoiled so far when I’ve ordered from etailers - the majority of them have sent me some kind of note saying thank you, even when they didn’t know that I was a blogger.

Since all of the items I bought and received were gifts, the lack of paperwork in the package was very surprising to me.

My husband didn’t tell the seller that the items he bought me were a gift, so she really had no reason to know that they wouldn’t be going to the person who bought them.

Even with that, it would have been nice to have an invoice or something with a web address so that he could find the site again if he wanted to - or so that he could share the card with me or all of the people who saw the plates he bought me and said “How cute!”

I bought three items to send to my mother from three different sellers, and I included a note saying that these were a gift for my mom to each seller.

One of the three sellers asked me if I’d like to include a note to my mom, and double checked to make sure the shipping address that I’d written in Etsy was correct since it was different then my Paypal address. She also told me that she had another item similar to the one I purchased, in case I was interested in it later.

I did not hear from the other two sellers at all, so I was worried that they’d send the packages to me, instead of sending them to my mom, and I breathed a sigh of relief when she called to ask if I’d sent her something.

Since the three items I sent to my mom were housewarming/Mother’s Day gifts, I did tell my mom and dad to be expecting something in the mail, but I didn’t tell them what I was sending them, or where it was from - after all, that would have ruined the surprise.

When my mom got the first package, she called and said, “Did you send me a strawberry trivet? We got one in the mail today, and we’ve been trying to figure out where it came from all day long.”

I felt bad that I caused my parents to worry unnecessarily, but they do love the trivet.

Mom said she’d looked up the name of the person who shipped the trivet, but she couldn’t find any information about her at all - including her Etsy address.

Since I got these items because my Mom was having trouble finding strawberry stuff to go in her new kitchen, and since most people have more than one trivet in their kitchen, the seller really lost a chance to make another sale by not including contact information or repurchasing information in the package.

After the first call Mom figured out that the second mystery item was from me.

She was impressed with the package that included a note from me - she said that made it a lot more special.

To be perfectly honest, my mom didn’t remember which Etsy seller sent their card with the package, so I don’t even know that.

I do think that it would be a great idea to at least send a note out saying thank you for your order, and including a web address on the note if you don’t have a business card.

Although I’m not a huge fan of business cards with ads on them, I think they are definitely better than nothing.

If you can’t afford to help promote your business to people who are already willing to buy from you by spending $15-$20 on business cards, then at least spend the $6 shipping to get free ones, even if it does result in endless calls and emails asking you to buy more.

If you don’t know who I’m talking about leave a comment or email me and I’ll tell you. Like I said, I’m not a fan :-).

If you do have a business card, remember to include it! Even a prewritten “Thank you” in the back of the card is an added personal touch.

Although I’d rather not wait an extra week to get a handwritten note from the owner of the company in my order, I do like the personalized attention when I get a note, and I think most other people do too.

Are you an etailer? If you are do people know who you are and where to find you when they get their package, even if they weren’t the ones who placed the order?

Do you include business cards, an invoice, or a thank you note with your orders?

If you use business cards how have they affected your sales?

Customers, what do you think about packages that don’t come with an invoice or any information?

Leave a comment and let us know.

I bought this facepot from Clay Dancer Pottery for my husband’s birthday, and he loves it.

He even told me I could buy more in the series for him, if I wanted too.

Everyone who sees the facepot thinks it’s adorable as well.

I was really pleased with the shipping times, and the communication from the seller.

I was notified that the item was shipped with insurance, when it was shipped, and Trish also convo’d me to make sure that it had arrived safely.

I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to do business with Clay Dancer Pottery again.

As you can imagine, I like going to arts and crafts fairs.

I love to see what different vendors have, and to look at the variety of things there are to offer.

It drives my husband crazy when he goes with me, because I have to stop and look at all the jewelry, and the bath and body products, although I don’t know how much sniffing I’ll be able to do now that I’m pregnant.

In fact, just this weekend, I was asking my husband when the Fargo Street Fair is, so I could figure out how big I’ll be during the fair.

I also like to get ideas for sites and products to feature on Sarah’s Surprises, so I pick up a lot of business cards.

I’m pretty particular about the quality of the web sites that I feature on the blog, and I’m shy, and the jewelry booths are usually pretty busy, so I don’t normally talk to vendors about Sarah’s Surprises until I’m sure they meet my qualifications.

I’ve been surprised at not only how many people don’t have web sites, but at how many people have web addresses listed on their business cards, but don’t really have the site set up.

I found a fabulous artist that I was planning on featuring this weekend, but when I typed in her url - nothing.

There’s no web site.

I couldn’t find her if I tried, and if I was a customer, then she’d lost a sale.

It’s not that difficult to set up a message giving a little information about your store and your products and giving a way for people to contact you if you already have a web site, which I’m assuming you do if you’ve got the site listed on your business cards.

If something’s happened and the site is on your business cards, but there is no site - make a note of it on the card.

That way people who are looking for the site to order, or to share with their friends won’t be disappointed.

I did look up several variations of the url and the business owner’s name for the business I was looking for, and although I found several similarly named businesses, I wasn’t sure if any of them is the one I’m looking for - mainly because the one that was a closest match didn’t have a name or a location for the business, or the business owner, either or which could have helped me decide if this was the right place.

How important is a web site when you are deciding to buy something?

Do you look for specific information, such as shipping and handling prices, and return policies before you purchase?

If you were planning to purchase from online from someone you’d met in real life, who had an incomplete or unprofessional web site, would that affect your decision to buy stuff from them?

Are you more comfortable purchasing from some sites than others?