Many people have tried to make money on Etsy, and many people have failed. If you want to be successful on Etsy, you must be aware of a few things.
Etsy is a global online marketplace for people to sell their wares and services. While it’s pretty easy to set up a store, for ultimate success, you want to make sure you do it correctly.
To start, you need to treat your Etsy shop like a real business. You need to have patience. And you need to have quality listings.
Without any one of these, your Etsy store is doomed to fail.
If you would like to learn how to create a successful Etsy store, even if you are a beginner, just keep reading. Everything you need to know is covered in this article.
How Do Beginners Sell on Etsy? What You Need to Learn How to Start Today
1. Setting Up Your Etsy Account
First thing’s first – you need an Etsy account! Specifically, you need an Etsy account for a seller (Sell on Etsy), not just a consumer.
You should also get the Etsy Seller app. This will allow you to answer customer questions and get back to them timeously.
You will be able to select your store name, which needs to be between 4-20 characters long. This name cannot have special characters or spaces.
The app will guide you through the process of setting up your store. This will include the currency, language, and so much more.
2. Pick the Kind of Etsy Shop You Want to Have
Next, you will want to select what kind of Etsy shop you will be opening. For a list of what sells best on Etsy, read this!
You will be able to customize everything for your shop name and title, add external links, a message to buyers, and a shop announcement.
Take your time and make sure you fill out every one of these sections. These will all play an important role in how successful your store is on many levels.
Shoppers like to feel connected to you, your products, and the store. Connect with potential buyers by sharing a bit of personal and interesting information about yourself.
3. Select Your Payment Method
Your payment method is next. This will determine what authorization processes, information for identification, and more. You can choose to allow buyers to buy through Etsy Payments or PayPal.
Etsy Payments is the popular choice because it allows you to get paid in a number of ways through a trusted service.
These payment options include Google Wallet, VISA, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Etsy Gift Cards, and PayPal.
It should be noted that there is a fee with this option. The fee is usually a set rate plus a chosen percent of the total sales price for the specific item.
However, this can vary from country to country, and is subject to change. Before signing up, you need to do the research for your location.
4. Set Up Shipping Fees If You Are Selling Physical Items
Finally, if you’re going to be selling physical items like paintings or plant pots, you will need to set up shipping fees.
You must consider a number of factors, such as whether you will only ship inside the country, and the weight of your items.
If you will be shipping items out to other countries, make sure that all the shipping fees are accounted for. If you miss this important step, you may end up losing money.
This is very easy to overlook, but it can have a significant impact on your Etsy shop.
Once your shipping fees have been set up, you can begin listing all your wonderful products.
If you are selling digital products such as downloadable prints, you don’t need to have shipping fees.
This is because nothing will be getting shipped out, so there are no extra costs for shipping.
Creating A Great Etsy Listing
1. Optimize Your Profile
Optimize your profile as much as possible. This means adding photos and creating a personable and interesting bio for shoppers to read.
Add social media links, and any other information that could be relevant.
You want to make your store look like it’s been there awhile and get potential buyers to trust you.
Without an image, bio, or write-up, people are less likely to pay any attention to your store as a whole.
2. Pick the Right Images
It’s advised to have a minimum of five images for every listing. However, these pictures need to be great quality and super clear.
Ensure that all photos have uncluttered, bright backgrounds, and take many photos at different angles if applicable.
Your buyers want to be able to see the quality of the item, and fully appreciate it.
If you are selling digital products, use mockups to create scenes with them. This will prevent people from stealing the images.
You may also want to watermark images if you are concerned about people screenshotting images.
Ensure all images are sized properly and that they look consistent. The thumbnail images must be eye catching to bring in potential buyers.
3. Take Inventory
If you’re selling physical products, take note of how many you have available.
This won’t be relevant if you’re selling digital products, as you won’t run out unless you have a limited license.
If you are making products to order, then this might not apply to you either, but always mention this so that buyers know that there will be a waiting time.
4. Set Prices
Take into account everything mentioned about fees and set your prices accordingly.
When pricing your work, you want to make sure the sales price will cover all of the costs for the materials, and your time, plus extra for your profit.
Do some research and see the prices that other similar sellers are listing their items for. You want to be competitive, but you don’t want to lose money either.
If you find you are priced higher than the rest of the competition, point out the reasons why your work goes for higher. You may use a particular grade of material that costs more than the competition, or your items are made one at a time vs. in bulk or mass produced.
Explaining these differences allows the client to see the reason for the higher cost so they can decide which they want and why.
Not everyone wants the lowest price, so don’t short sell your work! Ask for a fair price and back it up with facts about why your work is better than the rest.
5. Branding and Aesthetics – Design Matters!
Your banner and shop design should match your branding. You can create amazing banners using photos of your products or customizable templates from Canva, PicMonkey, PhotoShop, or other graphic design platform.
Your shop appearance is a reflection of you and what you are selling, so make sure your message and brand colors are consistent across all of your media outlets.
6. Market
You can get an Etsy Plus subscription to make the marketing process easier for your store, or you can market your store on your own.
Be sure to add links to your store on social media and share it so that everyone gets to hear about all your work.
7. Preview Your Store
Finally, you can preview your store to make sure that everything is perfect before going live.
See your store from a customer’s perspective and change anything that doesn’t look or feel right.
When you’re happy with it, go live!
Relevance On Etsy
Make sure you do your research before creating listings and items to sell. You want to be positive people actually want to purchase your products and that there is a demand for them.
Use search engine optimization to ensure you use all the right words in your listings.
Also, check that all your items are ranking on the search engine; otherwise you could be putting a lot of work into your store for no reason.
Here’s an article with some excellent tips on SEO for Etsy that’s a must-read!!
Costs Associated with an Etsy Shop
There are some costs associated with opening an Etsy shop. However, there are also plenty of benefits to consider!
There are lots of different fees that you will experience, so price everything accordingly before listing them on your store.
You will need to pay a small fee of a few cents for every listing you put up, as well as a transaction fee to ETSY for each sale. As of this writing, the fees are $.20 cents per listing, and ETSY gets a 6.5% transaction fee for every sale. There is also a payment processing fee of 4% for each sale.
While Etsy’s fees are generally lower than other on-line retailers, you will want to include them in your costs when you’re determining the asking price for your products so you can still make a profit.
How To Increase Etsy Sales
- Promote your listings on social media outlets like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. If you’re blogging, add a plug-in to include your Etsy store on your site and write about your products
- Pictures say a thousand words, so make sure you get excellent photos for your items. Etsy allows you to have up to 10 shots of your item, so take advantage of this! They also have a guide on how to take great listing photos – you can read it here.
- Ensure your pricing is fair, competitive, and optimized. If you’re priced more than your competitors for similar products, explain why your item is superior in your product description
- Get an understanding of Etsy’s algorithm and search methods so you can optimize your listings
Final Thoughts
Being successful on Etsy can be a challenge, and it takes a lot of work.
If you need further information on success on Etsy (see also ‘Amazon Vs Etsy: A Comparison For Merchants‘), there are a number of incredible YouTube videos that talk you through the whole process in great detail.
Hopefully this article has helped you going through all the basics about Etsy shops. Good luck selling!
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