It can be difficult to build a successful business on Etsy. In fact, it’s difficult to build a successful business on any platform. Anyone who tells you otherwise either lucked into it or doesn’t know what they are talking about.
In this blog post, we’ll talk about the 20 tips you should know as an Etsy seller.
Table of Contents
1. Just do it
I used to have the habit of overplanning and never starting. I would have many folders and notebooks full of ideas that I never get to.
Are you guilty of the same thing?
Sometimes, you just gotta do it.
Do you know what one of the most common regrets people have on their death beds? They regret not starting a business that they wanted to start. Fears and doubts hold them back.
You can’t avoid risk, you can only manage it. It’s okay to not be 100% confident about your business idea before starting.
You’ll find your way as you’re working on your business.
2. Don’t price too low or high
Pricing your product too low makes people think that your product isn’t as good. It’s human psychology to connect low prices with lower quality and high prices with higher quality.
However, if you price your item too high, you risk losing customers.
To find out how you should price your item, you should look at what your competitors are pricing their items at.
You need to give your customers a reason to choose your item vs someone else’s especially if they got hundreds of reviews and you only got a few. That may come in the form of high-quality products and/or lower prices.
You can play around with prices to see what price is the most optimal for your particular niche.
3. Start from 10–12 listings
Etsy has recommended that you start with 10 listings. Having 10 listings in your store can be a smart move because imagine walking into a grocery store and they only sell 3 things. Would you want to buy from them? Probably not.
This is why you should start with at least 10 listings.
4. Never place your shop on vacation mode
Etsy allows users to place their shop on vacation mode so that if they feel overwhelmed, they can stop the orders from coming in too fast.
Your items won’t show up in the search result when customers type in a related search term while your shop is on vacation mode.
Some sellers also use vacation mode when they’re on actual vacations.
There are some reasons why you should not place your shop on vacation mode:
- It drops the ranking of your listings so that when you turn off vacation mode, buyers still have trouble finding your items
- Fewer visitors to your store
- Fewer sales made to your store
- In some cases, your store tank indefinitely
- Your competitors overtake you
Never place your shop on vacation mode. You can hire someone to take over your business for a while if you really need to leave for vacation.
This is also a reason why I prefer to sell digital products over physical products since once you put them up on there, you can sell them again and again without worrying about sourcing more material, packaging, shipping, etc. And you get to work anywhere in the world if what you sell is entirely digital.
Want to find out how to sell printables on Etsy? Check out this step-by-step guide.
Want to find out the 14 types of printables you can easily make and sell? Click here.
5. Be ready for Karens
One aspect of selling on Etsy that I’m sure a lot of people don’t like is that they are at the mercy of the customers. If the customers decide to leave a bad review, there’s nothing you can do about it.
Bad reviews can tank your future sales. You really want to get as many good reviews as you can get. Especially early on when you don’t have any reviews yet.
If you have hundreds of 5-star reviews, a one-star review won’t matter too much.
This is a good reason to start your own website (we’ll talk about that in the next few points).
6. Give it time
Take a look at some of the people who built a successful empire online selling different kinds of stuff. Take a look at their brands and consider this, what makes them so successful?
A lot of times, there isn’t a single answer but something that can be used to summarize most of their success is — time.
There is no secret to their success, they have all put in the time to get there. They have spent enough time on their business and given it enough time so that they know what works and what doesn’t work.
Don’t be discouraged when you don’t make your first sale one month in. It’s not too uncommon for a person to not make any sales one month in.
Of course, you should try and learn what you can do better but give yourself time to succeed.
It may take you 6 months to make your first 100 sales but the next 100 may come within just a 1 month, and the next 100 may come within just a week.
7. Collect email addresses
You want to collect email addresses so you can eventually sell on your own website.
Collecting people’s email addresses is also a way for you to take more control of your selling process.
Customers come into Etsy wanting to purchase something and they may chance upon your store. Once they bought it, they may forget about you and your store.
Having their email address can help ensure that they’d return for another purchase when you reach out to them again in the future.
8. Sell on your own platform
You must eventually move your products to your own store on your own website to sell because you don’t actually own your store on Etsy.
- Etsy can take down your store anytime they wish (they usually have good reasons)
- You can avoid being charged extra fees if you sell your product on your own site
- You aren’t at the mercy of customer reviews because you can actually delete unreasonable reviews if your store is on your own website
- You can directly reach out to your customers in an email and make even more sales
- You can make more money when it’s sold on your own website
- You aren’t in competition with others directly when it’s sold on your own platform
- You don’t have to follow Etsy’s policies when you sell on your own site
- You aren’t at the merch of Etsy’s algorithm which could change at any time and drive away your sales
- You have complete control over how your business is run
I recommend for anybody selling anything go with Shopify. You can sign up for a domain name and connect it to Shopify.
Shopify is the best place for sellers to host their own shops. It’s even better than WordPress because it’s built to be solely a selling.
9. Make your packaging beautiful
After you make the sale, you still have to deliver the item. If your product is physical, you should make sure you invest money into pretty packaging and research how you can make the experience of opening your product a good one for your customers.
It would encourage your customers to spread the word about your business, leave you good reviews, and return for another purchase.
10. Utilize social media
This isn’t a must. Managing social media can take a lot of time. I personally am not a fan of social media.
I think it’s really draining when it becomes a mandatory activity to be active on social media every day. To post things, comment, share stories, etc.
However, if done right, social media can be a powerful tool to get your business to the next level and make you more money.
Just make sure that if you do have social media for your brand, maintain it because it makes your store looks abandoned if you don’t update things on social media.
11. Use all the allowed photo space on Etsy
You’ll be allowed to upload a certain number of photos on Etsy, make sure to take pictures of your product from different angles. It gives the customers a better sense of what they’d be getting.
Here are some shots you can take:
- Studio shot (product in the plain background with lots of lights)
- Lifestyle shot (product in a natural setting)
- Scale shot (To convey how big or small the item is. Maybe hold it in your hand)
- Detail shot (Pictures that show all the details of the item close up in all angles)
- Group shot (Show a cluster of your items together)
- Packaging shot (show the product in its packages)
- Process shot (show the process of you making the product)
You may also include a video if you want.
12. Fill that about page
Make your about page compelling. Don’t just fill in nonsense or not fill in anything at all.
Your about page should tell a story about what inspired you to create these products and what it means to you.
It’s not the end of the world if you don’t have a sad story to tell but if you do, this would be a great place to talk about it and gives your business a unique standpoint.
Even if you don’t have anything particularly interesting to say on your about page, putting the effort to fill it out is a good sign for the buyers. It makes them think that they’re buying from a person who cares about what they do and isn’t just trying to make a quick buck.
13. Use all the 13 available tags when listing
You’ll be given 13 opportunities to input tags. Use them all. The tags help people find your listings.
You should also research what tags to use.
A very quick way of determining what tags to use without using any tool is to type into the search bar what you think your customers would type in when searching for your product.
For instance, if you were selling art pieces with people’s names, you can type in “name” and see what pops up.
You’ll see Etsy suggest items on the drop-down and you’ll pick the ones that resemble your item the best.
14. Allow your customers to reach you easily
You can include your business email in a business card so your customers can easily reach out to you if they are unsatisfied with something or if they have a question.
This will prevent your customers from leaving bad reviews on your product page and it demonstrates that you do care about the customers.
When they do email you, make sure to reply promptly. Ideally, within 1 day or 2.
15. Set up the coupon code system on Etsy
You can set up coupon codes on Etsy and send those coupon codes automatically to those who liked your listing or have purchased from you before.
If you have your customers’ emails, you can send them the coupon codes from there if you want.
16. Brand your company
Branding your company means many things.
When customers buy from you, they typically won’t remember the name of your brand and if someone asked the customers where they got the product, they’d say “Oh I got it from Etsy”. In that case, you’re building Etsy’s brand not yours.
Here are some ways you can brand your company:
- Create a website for your brand
- Run social media channels for your brand
- Start a YouTube channel for your brand (you can post videos of how you make the product)
- Put company logo stickers on all your products
- Include a business card in the package
- Encourage your customers to check out your brand website
- Have a theme color that easily identifies your company
- Make sure all your graphics on social media, your own website, and Etsy share common themes and coloring
- Leave a personal touch on the ‘Thank you’ card. It can say “Thank you for buying from___” rather than a generic “Thank you for supporting my small business”.
17. Don’t open too many stores at once
Believe it or not, you can actually open up many stores on Etsy but you’ll have to create each new store with a new email address.
It may be tempted to create a bunch of stores and try out different things to sell. Well, that may be a bad idea.
Your products require time and effort on your end. More time distributed across several different stores is less time spent on one thing.
You really should focus on only one store if you want to do it well particularly if you’re new to Etsy.
18. Make your shop name easy to remember and recognize
This is also part of branding. For those of you who already have a shop up and running it may be too late for you to change your shop name but if you’re just starting out, choosing a shop name can be one of the most important things you can do.
A good shop name can help you gain recognition faster. Customers see your shop logo and name and they immediately recognize you. It’ll help boost sales.
If your shop name is so generic and common, you may just disappear in a crowd.
Your shop name could be the first impression customers have of your store so make it unique, easy to spell, easy to remember, and easy to type.
19. Make your shop policy uncomplicated
You can set a shop policy for your store on Etsy. This could be whether you accept returns or exchanges and how you accept returns.
Make your shop policy uncomplicated so that your customers won’t be confused and refuse to buy from you.
20. Reinvest into your business
Walmart eventually beat out its competitors because they reinvest the money into better equipment and the development of better processes.
This is what you should do with your own business as well.
Those who reinvest the money into their businesses tend to do better long term than those who took the money and continue to put out the same thing over and over again.
You can reinvest your income into:
- Better equipment
- Prettier packaging
- A website designer
- A warehouse so you can create more products
- Experimenting with creating better products
- Hiring extra helping hands
Final thought
As an Etsy seller, there are truly so many things you should take heed of that could make your business that much better and drive that much more traffic to your store.
It can feel overwhelming when you try to implement every Etsy selling strategy.
Give yourself more time and you should see results. In the meantime, learn more about how you can do your business better.
I like to end off with the idea that there really is no secret to people’s success on Etsy (or on anything). They just have been working at it longer and know what works and what doesn’t work through trial and error.
Experience is the best teacher. All you can do now is just start. You’ll pick up new tricks along the way.
Good luck!
