With so much competition, not only on Etsy but on the entire internet, it's important to go into starting and growing your Etsy shop with a proven strategy. Here are the Etsy best practices that will set you up to have a profitable and successful shop.
How Etsy Works
Etsy is a marketplace with a ton of built-in traffic. Your goal when you start an Etsy shop should be to get as much of that traffic as you can as quickly as possible.
After you get your first few sales, Etsy begins to reward your shop with additional traffic. This is because as you get sales and reviews, your listing quality score increases. You've proven to Etsy that you can provide a good customer experience, so in the future, it's easier to rank better in buyers' searches.
To get traffic from Etsy a new shop needs to optimize its shop about section, choose a niche strategy, perfect its search rankings, and develop a marketing plan that's simple and easy to be consistent with.
Let's talk about each one of those stages next.
Shop Optimization
This is the easiest part! Etsy wants buyers to know they can trust you so they give a little boost in search to stores with shop policies and about sections filled out. It's easiest to adopt Etsy's template policies.
Make sure to add a banner, shop icon, and profile photo as well. These are easy ways to show buyers you're a professional business owner who they can trust.
Niche Strategy
There's a lot of talk out there about picking the perfect high-demand, low-competition niche. But I'm here to tell you that picking your niche strategy solely on data isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Often choosing a niche based only on third-party keyword research tool data leads to you selling a product that you don't know a lot about. That can certainly work out fine for some sellers, but for a lot of people that means a lot of time invested into learning all about a target market that you don't understand.
For most sellers, you can get sales quicker on Etsy by selling something you know and use frequently to people who you enjoy making products for.
Make what you love for someone you know and understand. Then let the data support your decisions around your target market.
Pricing Strategy
Etsy does not need to be a race to the bottom when it comes to pricing. Remember when you're pricing your products to account for Etsy fees, shipping, your overhead costs, and paying yourself a salary.
Shipping Pricing
Your pricing strategy also needs to include offering competitive shipping prices. Buyers don't like to pay shipping costs. I'm sure you scour the internet for free shipping coupons when you're shopping too!
For small business owners, however, I know it can be tough to keep shipping costs low for your buyers. Consider using multiple shipping providers as needed and offering shipping upgrades to keep your base shipping cost low.
If you're using free shipping, make sure to integrate shipping costs into your product pricing to remain profitable.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, on Etsy is how you get your products found in buyers' searches on the platform.
You'll want to start with a keyword research process that helps you identify your target keywords. Then make sure to format those keywords correctly in your listings to help you get found in Etsy search.
Click here to learn more about the Etsy algorithm.
Processing Times
Your processing times definitely factor into your search results. Products that ship quickly can entice customers into purchasing when comparing you with other similar listings.
Make sure that you're being realistic with your timelines, however. Shipping late hurts your shop ranking and can get your entire Etsy shop shut down if done frequently.
Marketing your Etsy Shop
Marketing isn't something that a lot of Etsy sellers love. And I get it! It can be time-consuming and ineffective. If done correctly and consistently, however, marketing can be a huge boost for your Etsy business.
The traffic that you send to your Etsy shop through your marketing efforts often converts into sales at a higher rate than other traffic sources. So if you can send traffic easily that gets you some sales and increases your conversion rate, Etsy will notice your listing is performing well and be more likely to rank it higher in future searches.
While social media is usually what most business owners think of when someone says “marketing,” you do have other choices when it comes to your marketing strategy.
Let's start with social and then preview your other options next.
Social Media
Social media platforms can be a blessing or a curse, right? They can take a lot of time, be a huge distraction, and are super frustrating when all of that comes with low reach.
If you are going to be doing any social media marketing for your Etsy store, here's the strategy that I recommend:
Pick one platform to focus on. This helps you develop a community that can really get to know and love you. I highly recommend picking a platform that you enjoy spending time on.
Develop a schedule that you can be consistent with. You might see some random social media marketer telling you to post 5 times a day on a certain platform, but if you can't be consistent with that then that strategy is never going to work for you.
Be social. It's called “social media” for a reason, right? Be social! Get to know your audience. Ask them questions. Learn more about them. Let them get to know you and let your personality shine through.
Email Marketing
Listen, I know email marketing sounds scary for a lot of you out there, but it doesn't have to be. You can start an email list for free through most email service providers and sending emails to your growing list doesn't have to take more than 10 minutes a month.
A ton of successful Etsy sellers use email to increase their return customer rate because you have more control over email deliverability than you have over social media algorithms. And while new customers will always be a goal for your business, getting more repeat customers can be super profitable as well.
Product Photos
Professional-looking photos can make or break your business on Etsy.
When Etsy first started and the competition was fairly low, you could take some dark photos in your basement and it wasn't always a huge deal to customers.
Now that Etsy has around 100 million annual buyers and the competition is only rising, it's important that your photos help to create trust for your potential customers.
Here are some of my best Etsy photography tips:
Make sure photos are well-lit and in focus.
Keep props to a minimum until you're able to use them without distracting from the products you're selling.
Keep backgrounds simple, again so as not to distract from your actual products
Customer Service
An excellent customer service experience can help you get more reviews which then increases your search rankings and helps you attract customers even more consistently.
You'll want to follow Etsy's star seller badge requirements to guide your customer service standards. These include shipping orders on time with tracking, answering customer messages quickly, and maintaining a high review average.
Use the Etsy seller app to monitor your stats and messages. You can also set up an auto-responder message to help manage your message response stats.
Use Your Stats
Starting on your shop manager page, your Etsy account gives you a good amount of stats that you can use to grow your business and get more sales.
Use your search stats to improve your Etsy SEO, check out the search visibility page to improve your product listings, and watch your dashboard for personalized Etsy shop tips.
The shop stats page will also help you learn more about your conversion rate and what your shop visitors are looking for when then end up on one of your Etsy listings.
Etsy Ads
Using Etsy ads is all about waiting until you're ready. Etsy ads work best when you have some listings with a great conversion. This is because listings that convert at a high conversion rate need less clicks to get a sale so your ads tend to be more profitable.
When you're ready to boost sales with Etsy ads, start with a budget you don't mind losing each day and let the algorithm adjust for at least 30 days before making changes.
Remember that Etsy ads are based on the Etsy search algorithm and the keywords that you've chosen. So if you aren't confident that you've chosen relevant keywords for your listings, start there instead.
Banish Perfectionism
You can't sell what you don't list. End of story.
I've seen so many sellers delay opening their Etsy shops because they didn't feel ready or wanted to have more products finalized first.
But I can tell you that the faster you open your Etsy store, the faster you'll make sales. Waiting for the “perfect” time just means delaying your business. It doesn't mean a bigger chance of success.
Start your shop now and learn by making faster decisions for faster progress.
Conclusion
Your shop's success relies on getting Etsy traffic from buyers' searches, using high-quality photos to increase your click-through rate, creating a positive customer experience for each sale, and being consistent with your marketing materials.
Remember that successful Etsy shops are all built in different ways. You don't have to run your business in a way that you don't enjoy. So pick and choose strategies that work for you as a business owner with a focus on getting your Etsy shop found in search for the fastest results.
