2023 Shop Recap
It’s been a wild and wonderful year for Clutch Collective!
2023 was our second full year in operation and it was a year of growth in more ways than one. Not only did we break a few records and welcome dozens of new artists to the shop, but I also welcomed my sweet daughter in January! Thank you for supporting this dream of mine and the dreams of all of our featured artists. Owning a small business of any kind isn't easy but it sure is rewarding, especially in a community as special as ours.
As a marketing professional (that’s my day job!) I love data. Keeping an eye on data helps me set reasonable goals and track progress throughout the year. This year, I decided to share a brief recap with a few data pieces that stood out as noteworthy.
Compared to 2022, the shop saw an 18% year-over-year growth in 2023, with 7,708 items sold from over 83 artists! Why does this matter? Well, for one - when you buy something from our shop, you are always directly supporting more than one small business. And for each small business you directly support, you are indirectly supporting dozens more - because small business owners tend to support other small businesses, give back to local charitable causes, and invest in their community WAY more than big box stores like Walmart or Amazon. So thanks for making an impact in our local economy AND supporting the talented artists we feature!
This year, we saw steady growth across our social media channels. Why does this matter? Because our mission is focused on uplifting our artists - so more eyeballs on our accounts, equals more people discovering their work! If you aren’t already, I invite you to follow along:
You can also help us grow by inviting your friends to follow us, sharing our posts, and engaging with our content. It means a lot to our artists when you comment on one of their pieces. We’d also love it if you tagged us (@clutchcollectivemov) when you purchase a piece of art - we’d love to see it in your home!
In the spring, I decided to revamp our email newsletter, adding community news, a monthly playlist, and a fun giveaway. I had so much fun that I ended up bumping the frequency up from once a month to twice a month in the fall! We gave away signed albums, gift cards to the shop and other local businesses, art prints, limited edition items, and more. Crafting the shop email newsletters is one of my favorite things to do. If you aren’t on the list, make sure you sign up here. Right now, over 8,500 local folks subscribe to our email list.
I also invested in our website this year, making small design updates, publishing local stories that uplift art projects in our community, and making our site more accessible. I was thrilled to work with Andrea Shirey of One Nine Design on a full website audit. Andrea is the local queen of SEO and more importantly, a genuinely kind, inspiring human. I’ve already begun to implement action items from the audit and I’m looking forward to digging deeper in 2024!
In 2023, we had 6.3k pageviews and 3.1k visitors, a 70% increase from 2022. We were surprised to see that we had online visitors from 46 states and 35 countries!
Why is this important? Because I want to do my very best to introduce more people to our featured artists and our website is one way people connect with the shop.
As I look forward to another fun year, I’m excited to deepen my relationships with our featured artists and further uplift their work. I will continue to use the shop’s platform to celebrate the incredible creative community here in the Mid-Ohio Valley. I’m eager to plan new events, update our displays, and find new and meaningful ways to connect with this community. If you have an idea for a collaboration, I invite you to reach out! I’d love to hear from you.
Thank you - yes, you! - for another incredible year! Cheers to 2024 <3
