10 Tips to Successfully Sell on Etsy:
Introduction
Etsy can be a fantastic marketplace platform to sell your products to potential customers.
However, to succeed on etsy, it’s important to understand and use great etsy strategy, to help you sell successfully on the platform.
Far too many etsy business owners struggle to make enough sales inside etsy, to make their business profitable.
But there are many, many successful etsy sellers with revenue in five figure sums and above, who sell their goods on etsy.
So what differentiates the successful etsy sellers from those who struggle to achieve any level of great success in etsy’s marketplace?
Knowing great etsy strategy, staying consistent on the platform, and delivering to your audience the products that they need are key to your etsy success.
Your own etsy shop has the potential to achieve the same levels of success many other small businesses on the platform are achieving.
To do this, you have to understand and consistently utilize the right strategies that etsy WANTS YOU TO USE inside the platform.
In this blog I’ll share some etsy tips that’ll help you achieve greater etsy success, if you’re willing to spend the time and invest effort in making sure your etsy strategy is right.
Before we dive in to the tips below, I have some more blogs that cover etsy seller tips. They’re a great way to continue to improve your etsy strategy to win on the platform. Here are those posts:
TEN ETSY LISTING MISTAKES TO AVOID
WHY YOU NEED A MAILING LIST WITH AN ETSY STORE
HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR ETSY SHOP AND MAKE MORE SALES
I also have a deeper-dive FREE, tip packed Etsy Good Practice Guide, that you can take advantage of here:
Let’s move on to 11 Tips To Successfully Sell On Etsy:
1. Understand Your Niche And Target Audience
Before beginning your etsy journey, it’s important to get clarity about who it is you’re showing up to serve, and what you’ll be selling to that audience.
Part of good strategy around this is taking time to research etsy as a platform, to determine whether the potential buyers you want to sell to are actually in the platform shopping.
If the audience you want to serve is not active inside etsy, you would either need to change the audience, change the product to suit an audience in etsy, or go to another more suitable platform.
So spend some time inside etsy, and research whether there are other etsy store owners selling similar products to the ones you want to sell.
Check to see if those sellers are making sales, and whether they have positive reviews about the products they sell.
Doing this will give you crucial market feedback about whether you have the chance to sell and succeed on etsy.
You can also use platforms like Erank and Marmalead to carry out research about Etsy.
You can research information about your competitors who are selling on etsy, about the products and services they sell, which products are their best sellers, and the types of keywords relating to your business that people are in the platform searching for.
Once you know that your audience are online shopping inside etsy, the next step is to figure out what you’re going to sell, and how you can make your handmade products, digital downloads or other products/services stand out on the platform, to give you the best results.
Etsy, like any platform in the online space requires hard work.
You simply cannot get the big results on etsy unless you’re willing to commit to time invested in the platform, doing your market research, and keeping your etsy store up to date, so that it appeals to both the etsy algorithm, and to potential customers.
Many of the successful etsy sellers I see have high-quality etsy stores.
They have a memorable shop name, they have well researched, keyword appropriate products, with keyword appropriate product titles and product descriptions.
They have professional product photos, and they offer great value with the quality products and services they deliver.
To compete and succeed on etsy, this must also be you.
2. Research Inside And Outside Of Etsy To Understand Products, Competition And Keywords
As mentioned above, when you decide to sell anything on etsy, it’s important to identify whether that product has scope to sell well on the platform.
If you can find etsy sellers who have similar products/services, and you can see that they are making volume sales of that product/service – that’s a great indication that there’s a market for the items you wish to sell.
It’s useful to know your competitors, and to keep an eye on them.
This enables you to note what they’re selling, the prices they sell their products/services for, the volume of sales they’ve made, and what their customers are saying about them.
Prior to starting my own etsy store selling digital downloadable guides and templates for small businesses, I found out who my greatest competitors were, and I purchased some of their products.
I wanted to see how well their products worked, how much value they offered in those products, how their purchasing, shipping and/or downloading of purchases worked.
I wanted to see how well they listed their products, what their photography was like, the level of customer service they provided.
This all gave me a sense of what I would need to do to not only compete, but beat my competitors on the platform.
My etsy strategy is a long haul game. Yours should be too.
Knowing what your competitors are doing, what they’re doing well and poorly, gives you key information about how to start and build your own etsy store.
It’s also essential to your etsy online store that you carry out deep research around keywords for your products, and for your etsy account as a whole.
Because etsy is an SEO platform, it means that all products inside the platform are found by people searching for keywords, to get the products they want in front of them on screen.
You have to make sure that when you create any etsy listings for new products, you do so using good keyword optimisation for your product titles, descriptions and tags.
Failing to link your products to suitable keywords inside the platform, will significantly reduce the chances of etsy putting your products in front of the right buyers who are in etsy searching for things to buy.
3. Create High-Quality Product Listings
You cannot expect to show up and stand out on etsy with poor quality product listings, that do nothing to showcase the products you have.
Use compelling product tiles, and product descriptions, that are keyword relevant to the searches people are making inside the platform.
This will help your products show up in etsy search results.
Make sure you have detailed product descriptions including size, colour, materials used and care instructions.
Your goal is to make it as easy as possible for potential customers to make a decision to purchase from you, rather than one of your competitors.
Whatever your greatest competitors are doing on the platform, figure out how to go one step better.
Make your potential customers see you offer more in value, quality and service than anyone else.
Use ALL of the product images AND the product video you have available for every listing.
4. Master Etsy SEO Techniques
The best way to win on etsy is to truly master etsy SEO techniques.
All successful etsy sellers will be using keyword optimization throughout their etsy accounts.
They will likely be spending a great deal of time keeping an eye on appropriate keywords, using the search function inside etsy, and using tools like erank and marmalead.
For every single product you sell, you should know keywords that you can use in listing titles, listing descriptions, product tags and categories.
This will all help etsy index your products, so that they show those products to the right people carrying out searches in the platform.
5. Use The Power Of Pinterest
This is important.
You have to drive traffic to etsy from outside the platform.
You cannot rely just on etsy for traffic. Your shop will fail.
Pinterest is an extraordinary platform to use to drive organic traffic to your etsy shop.
It is way easier to use than social media, the growth on Pinterest will happen much more quickly than social, and one of the great things about Pinterest is you can leverage the platform, and make it work for your small business, in under 15 minutes a day.
Most of the ladies in my community are now using Pinterest to drive organic traffic to their etsy stores, and to other places in their small businesses.
I can help you get started the right way on Pinterest, with my free Pinterest webinar, which you can join here:
Do not underestimate the power of Pinterest to drive significant volumes of traffic to etsy.
I have ladies making five figure sums in their creative businesses using Pinterest as an organic driver of traffic.
That could be you too.
Pinterest is a really great place to get eyes on your etsy products.
6. Leverage Social Media Marketing
As an etsy shop owner, you can and should also use social media platforms to promote your etsy shop and products.
Engage with your followers in these spaces to showcase behind the scenes content, and to share product showcases.
You can collaborate with other social media account holders or influencers to promote your etsy store.
Whilst many people find social media marketing hard, and the results on the platforms do not seem to work as quickly as they once did, that does not mean you shouldn’t have some social media visibility.
Use your social platforms as a way to build a following of people interested in what it is you do.
Building community on social platforms can go a long way to giving your target customers the opportunity to get to know like and trust you.
Community will help you get organic traffic from those target customers over to your etsy store.
7. Capture Reviews
Many etsy customers will always check the reviews given for any product before they make a purchasing decision.
It’s therefore important that you try to capture the reviews of your etsy customers so that those reviews are added to your store.
More etsy reviews can also help you rank better on etsy – this is something etsy will take into account when deciding where and how to rank your store and products.
You can’t be spammy in asking for customer reviews.
But you can send an etsy message to a customer after a purchase has been made, to thank that etsy customer for their purchase and to kindly ask for a review.
You can also add literature to your shipped to the door products, and to any digital downloads, asking customers for a review.
Some people will leave reviews, others won’t.
But if you don’t ask, and give a gentle prompt for a review anywhere you can, you miss the opportunity.
Remember, reviews come not only from great products, but also from great customer service.
It’s important that you make sure you treat your active buyers well.
8. Engage With Your Audience
​Build a community around your brand by engaging with your customers and fellow etsy sellers.
Respond promptly to messages, comments, and reviews.
Consider creating some posts that you send live inside etsy (yes this is a feature you have available in your etsy store), to go the extra mile in creating content inside the platform that your target audience will like.
Make sure your etsy customers know you’re available for them.
You can do this through etsy messaging – although again, do not be over spammy about this.
9. Use High Quality Product Photography
It goes without saying that your product listing photos should be top quality.
One of the first things any person searching etsy will see, is images of all products relevant to the searches they’re carrying out.
You have but a fraction of a second to make sure your images are the ones that stand out.
Invest time in creating professional-looking photos to showcase your products.
Use natural light, clear backgrounds, and multiple angles to help potential customers see the details of your creations.
High-quality images make a significant difference in attracting buyers.
10. Stay Up To Date With Etsy Policies And Guidelines
Be sure to stay up to date with etsy policies and guidelines, and good etsy strategy.
What worked on the platform 5 years ago, may not work today.
I have a full etsy strategy training launching soon.
That training will keep all members up to date with current and good etsy practice.
I take the hard work out of managing an etsy store, so that you have to spend less time in the platform making your etsy store work.
You can find details of that training here:
Make sure you familiarize yourself with all of etsy’s seller policies and guidelines.
The last thing you want to do is go against etsy seller policies, and risk having your etsy store shut down.
Stay abreast of any changes or updates to etsy’s terms of service.
Proactively address any compliance issues to maintain good standing on the platform.
You can find information about etsy’s policies and guidelines in their seller’s handbook, which you can access here.
Conclusion
Etsy is not a platform you can jump into and expect to achieve huge success in a heartbeat.
Like any online space or any small business online, what you put in to your etsy strategy will dictate what you get out.
Never stop learning how to get better at using and working with etsy.
Take advantage of my other etsy related blogs, my free etsy guide and my etsy strategy membership, to help you not only make the most of etsy as a platform, but to ensure you thrive there as an etsy seller.
I wish you the greatest of success on your etsy journey!
Please feel free to reach out or drop a comment if you have any questions about your etsy strategy and journey.
Jenny
​ETSY SUPPORT:
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