How To Drive Traffic To Your Etsy Shop And Make More Sales

Etsy is a bustling marketplace for artisans, vintage sellers, and craft enthusiasts. 

However, with millions of shops vying for attention on Etsy’s platform, how do you ensure your store is the one that stands out?

And how do you attract a steady stream of customers, bringing sales and revenue to your small business? 

Driving traffic to your Etsy shop is crucial for increasing your small business visibility and sales. 

Below are 7 ways to drive traffic to your Etsy shop AND make more sales.

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1. Optimize Your Listings for Etsy Search

Much like Google, Etsy’s search algorithm relies on keywords to display relevant results to people who are in the platform searching for things to buy.

You need to make sure all of your Etsy listings are keyword optimized, so that you increase the chances of getting Etsy traffic to the products you sell. This way you’ll achieve the best results with sales inside the platform.

Here’s how you can optimize your Etsy SEO:

The more you work with Etsy’s search engine by using well targeted keywords for your listings and in other areas of your Etsy account, the greater the chance will be that your products will be found.

• Title: Ensure your product title is descriptive and includes keywords that potential buyers are inside the platform searching for. You can do research inside Etsy to find suitable keywords. You can also use a powerful tool such as erank or marmalead to perform keyword searches for your product listings..
  
• Tags: You have 13 tags available for each of your product listings. You should always utilize all 13 tags. 
  
• Categories: Choose the most relevant category for your product. This helps Etsy’s algorithm understand what you’re selling, so that the product can be put in front of your target audience when they are looking to buy.

2. High-Quality Images

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this is especially true with online shopping.

You have 11 images and one video available for each of your Etsy listings, and you should use all of those for every one of the products you’re selling on the platform.

Good protocol for your images/video include:

• Multiple Angles: Showcase your product from various angles, so that your target audience can see exactly what they’re buying.
  
• Use Natural Light: This brings out the true colours of your product so that your customers really see what the product looks like.
  
• Context: Show the product in use. If you’re selling jewellry for instance, show it being worn. This gives your potential buyer greater insight into how the product looks and/or works in the real world.
  
• Text: It’s really important to add text overlays to your images to provide more detail about the product, who it is for, what the benefits are, what solutions the product provides. This can help with your Etsy SEO – don’t ignore it.
  
• Alt Text: Make sure you have alt text on every image, and try to use some good and relevant keywords in your alt text, without keyword loading and being spammy.

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3. Leverage Social Media Platforms

You should not rely purely on Etsy to make Etsy sales.

It’s a good idea to promote your Etsy products in other spaces, including on your social media accounts, where your potential customers are hanging out. 

It’s essential to have good marketing strategy outside of Etsy, to raise the profile of your products and services in other spaces, and to put what you sell in front of a wider audience.

I know many small businesses who are relying solely on Etsy to sell, without promoting their shop or products anywhere else, and they’re finding it hard.

Using your social platforms can be one of the best ways to promote your Etsy store, because social platforms give you the ability to post content for free, and get organic traffic to your Etsy store. 

Pinterest in particular is a GREAT platform to get organic traffic to your Etsy store. With good Pinterest strategy this can work brilliantly for you.

I have a blog post that will help you understand good keyword strategy for your Pinterest account, to help your pins be seen. Find that post here:

How To Search For The Perfect Keywords On Pinterest.

When using social media, choose the platforms where you know your target market is hanging out.

There’s simply no point in investing time with your social media promotions inside Tik Tok, if your target audience is over on Pinterest.

As an Etsy store owner you cannot rely purely on Etsy to sell.

You must take advantage of all the other social spaces where you have visibility, to market your products to your audience in those spaces.

4. Offer Promotions

Everyone loves a good deal!

Best practices with promotions and discounts is to make sure you’re still able to make profit on each item you sell, whilst at the same time incentivising people to buy.

– You can offer discounts and promotions through Etsy messages to new customers or returning customers who have made a purchase from you.

– You can offer product specific discounts and promotions inside your store.

– You can run site wide discounts and promotions.

These can all be set up inside Etsy to encourage shoppers to buy.

– You can also encourage customers to buy more by offering discounts on bundled items.

– Free shipping (as long as this doesn’t impact profit) can also be offered as an incentive to buy, as many shoppers filter search results on Etsy to only show items with free shipping.

5. Collect and Showcase Reviews

Positive reviews build trust.

The greater percentage of Etsy shoppers will check the reviews in your store.

Reviews can help with the conversion rate from shopper to buyer.

A successful Etsy business can be built off the back of great reviews.

There is no reason not to ask any customer to leave a review when they have made a purchase from you. You can do this through the message you send to each customer when they make a purchase.

Sending a thank you for your purchase message inside Etsy, and combining that with a ‘we hope you enjoy your product and would love it if you could leave a review’, can help prompt people to take this action.

Remember to leave enough time for the customer to receive their goods before asking for any reviews. 

Getting reviews can be a whole lot easier if you offer a prompt service:

– ensuring timely delivery of purchases.
– responding to queries promptly.
– always ensuring your products meet or exceed descriptions. 

6. Engage Outside of Etsy

Don’t limit your marketing efforts to just Etsy.

This is essential.

You cannot purely rely on Etsy’s search engine for customers to find your etsy products.

You should be promoting your products across all of your social media profiles. Let’s expand a little more on this from 3. above.

You should have clear social media marketing strategy to raise awareness of the products you sell, and to engage with your target customers on social, to let them know how your products help them.

Your social media channels are a free, organic way to increase the traffic to your Etsy store.

The same can be said for other spaces online, including inside a blog where you can share stories about your products, how they’re made, or offer industry insights.

This can help position you as an expert in your field, and drive organic traffic to your Etsy store.

I come back to Pinterest again. It can be an incredible platform to promote your products and services organically – this is especially true for creative niches, food niches, finance niches, home organisation and decor niches, planning and organisation niches.

Knowing how to use Pinterest properly, and having strategy on Pinterest can give you the opportunity to drive massive volumes of traffic to your Etsy store.

For your benefit, I have a FREE Pinterest 101 Evergreen Webinar you can watch. You’ll learn current and important Pinterest strategy to help you make the most of the platform, and gain results QUICKLY.

You can watch that free webinar here:

Go here for Pinterest 101 – Your Free Evergreen Webinar.

You should also not rule out email marketing to help drive traffic to your Etsy store.  

You should collect email addresses (ethically and without going against Etsy policies), from people who purchase from you in Etsy. This gives you the opportunity to re-engage with those people through email marketing to keep your store front of their mind.  

You should be sending emails to your list to let people know about the products and services in your Etsy store, and to engage with the people on your list more deeply, to help build better relationships with them, meaning they are then more likely to buy from you.

You should not send overly sales-y emails all the time. Like anything in business, there’s good and bad email strategy.  

To learn more about the importance of email marketing with Etsy, you may find this blog post useful:

Why You Need To Have A Mailing List With An Etsy Store

7. Learn from Analytics

Etsy provides shop owners with analytics.

Use this data to understand your audience, so that you can see the most popular products you’re selling and create more of them, so you can see where your traffic is coming from and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly.

There’s a whole lot of information inside your Etsy metrics – you should not ignore them, but use them to further inform you about how to grow your Etsy store moving forwards.

You can also use research platforms like erank or marmalead to look at your competitors to see the products they’re selling, and what their best sellers are.

This can give you great research and insight into the type of products you might want to sell in your Etsy store.  

You should also do key word research inside Etsy, using search terms that are applicable to your business, products and services.

When you do so you can gain insight into the types of products that are showing up in Etsy search.

You can also see the long-tail keywords sellers are using in product titles and descriptions for those first page placements.

Conclusion

There is no doubt there are plenty of Etsy sellers killing it on the platform, selling high volume products, getting a lot of traffic to their stores, and making a lot of money from sales inside the platform.

With some hard work (no business on any platform is easy!), with products your audience is in the platform looking for, with profit margins on those products, and a commitment to being inside Etsy learning how to use the space well and keeping your store up to date, there’s no reason why your Etsy store can’t become a huge success for you.

Etsy as a platform can be a great way to make a life changing amount of sales in your small business.

I wish you the best of luck in your Etsy journey!

Want To Learn More About Etsy Success?

I have a great blog post that you might find useful, where I share Eleven Essentials You Need For A Thriving Etsy Store, and you can find that blog post here:

11 Essentials You Need For A Thriving Etsy Store