In this post, I want to share with you tips for selling on Etsy. These tips are based on what worked for me in earning my first 1,000 sales on Etsy.
Advice for Selling on Etsy
If I’m being honest, when I first opened my Etsy shop, sales came easy.
There weren’t very many people selling digital goods on Etsy back then, so my shop was really easy to find. All I had to do was create the listing and sit back and watch the money flow in (lucky, I know).
Over time, however, more and more graphic designers began selling their products on Etsy, which made it (1) harder to find my shop and (2) brought in a lot more competition.
Suddenly, I found myself having to really put in the work if I wanted to keep my shop afloat. In this post, I want to share with you my tips for selling on Etsy.
Promote Outside of Etsy
Etsy has gained a lot of popularity in the past few years, which makes your chances of being found through Etsy search difficult at times. This is especially true if you’re in an over-saturated market such as jewelry.
It’s important that you have traffic coming into your shop from multiple sources.
You can promote your shop via your own blog (I highly recommend that you have a blog if you sell anything online), your social media platforms, and paying for sponsored posts or advertisements.
UPDATE: If you would like to start a blog, Bluehost has a great deal! If you purchase your hosting through Bluehost for just $3.95 a month, they’ll give you a free domain name.
If you pay for a sponsored posts, that means you’re paying someone to either write about your product on their blog or mention your product in a social media post. If you decide to go this route, make sure you only advertise on blogs that are related to your product niche. Otherwise, you may end up wasting money.
When it comes to promoting your shop, I recommend trying a variety of techniques in order to find what works best for you.
Add A Lot of Products
The more products you have, the better chance you have of being seen and therefore making more sales on Etsy.
Also, I know for myself, I’m more likely to stick around when I can browse through at least a page of products.
Not only is it nice to have options, but it also makes the shop look more active when I see they have a lot of products.
Tip: Try organizing your products into sections. Etsy’s “shop sections” feature allows your potential buyers to browse your shop based on the categories you’ve created.
Photography
I’ve learned that people like to see multiple photos when looking at a product (yes, even digital items).
Etsy allows you to upload up to 5 images, and I recommend that you use up all five spaces.
If you’re not sure how to use up the space, try posting photos of the item from different angles, or showing what the item looks like when worn.
Doing this will give your customers a better idea of what the product looks like.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Having good SEO can help improve the visibility of your shop in search engine results for sites like Google and Yahoo. Some may disagree, but I believe that keywords are the holy grail of SEO.
Basically, whatever keywords real people would use when searching for your product, are the keywords you want to use. These keywords need to be in both your titles and tags for Etsy search.
Titles
For your title, you want to use words that people are most likely to search. My tip would be to create your titles as if you’re the buyer.
What words would you use when searching for the product? Also, be sure to keep your keywords at the beginning of the title.
For example, I have a WordPress theme named “Enamored.” When listing my theme, I wouldn’t write “Enamored” for the title because no one is going to search for the word “Enamored.”
What I do instead is write “Feminine WordPress Theme Enamored” or “WordPress Theme Enamored.”
Tags
Etsy allows you to add up to 13 tags to a product. I recommend using up all 13 tags. By using tags, potential buyers have a better chance of finding you using words that aren’t in your title.
Tip: Only change a few listings at a time, not all of them at once. That way, you can see if the changes have positively, or negatively affected you before you make changes to your entire shop.
Listen To Your Customers
After you’ve had your shop open for a while, you’ll probably find yourself getting the same questions, or comments over and over again. Take this information and use it to improve your shop.
For example, when I first opened my Etsy shop, a common question I would get is if my themes had a live demo.
I learned that it’s really important for people to be able to see the theme live before they make their decision.
After I decided to create live demos for my themes, I noticed an increase in sales.
Save Your Reviews
You can use the positive reviews you receive from your customers when promoting your products.
For example, you can share them in tweets, or blog posts. Also, saving your reviews will come in super handy if anything ever goes wrong with your Etsy shop.
I’ll talk about this more in my next point, which is having a backup plan.
Have A Backup Plan
My biggest piece of advice would be to have a backup plan in case anything ever goes wrong with your shop.
I have heard horror stories about people having their shops deactivated by Etsy without warning.
As much as you may love Etsy, always keep in mind that you do not own your shop. Etsy owns your shop, and they have the right to do what they please with it.
I recommend purchasing your own domain name and hosting and setting up shop on your own website. That way, if anything ever goes wrong, you have a backup plan.
I also mentioned saving your reviews. If by chance you ever lose your Etsy shop or decide to move on from Etsy, you can use the reviews you’ve collected for your new eCommerce platform.
I opened my Etsy shop because I had a passion for blog design. It was fun for me then, and it’s still fun for me now.
Running a successful Etsy shop takes hard work and dedication. If you love what you do, and truly believe in what you’re doing, don’t give up.
I hope you found these tips for selling on Etsy helpful.
p.s. If you plan on opening a shop on Etsy, open it through my link here, and we will both get 40 free listings!