Your conversion rate is one of the best indicators of the general health of your Etsy shop besides revenue and/or profit. So if your conversion rate is low, what can you do to improve it? Keep reading to find the top 8 ways to improve your Etsy conversion rate.
What is a Conversion Rate?
Your conversion rate is the number of sales you get per 100 visits to your Etsy shop. A normal conversion rate is between 1-3%. You can find yours on your Etsy stats page.
You can also calculate this for yourself. This comes in handy when you want to calculate the conversion rate for a single listing in your shop, as Etsy only shows you the number for your shop as a whole. Just take the number of sales divided by the number of visits for your listing then multiply that number x 100. Easy as that!
Why is my Conversion Rate Important?
Your conversion rate is important for so many reasons! The first is that you work hard to get traffic, right? So make that traffic work for you! A higher conversion rate means you’re getting more sales for every 100 visits!
Conversion rate also helps with your search placement. Your tags and titles determine a lot of this. But the Etsy search algorithm also uses your shops previous sales and reviews to determine where you rank in search. So perfecting those listings and getting that conversion rate up can create a snowball effect that helps you start getting even more sales.
How to Improve your Conversion Rate on Etsy
There are a TON of factors when it comes to conversion rates. I’m going to go over the top 8 ways to improve your Etsy shop conversion rate, but remember there are other things that might come into play!
1. Photos
Your product photos are really important for helping a buyer add to cart and purchase. If a buyer clicks on your listing, but your photos don’t show them enough about your product, then they’re going to head to another shop. Or maybe your photos look blurry and dark once the buyer starts scrolling through them. Then they aren’t going to trust you enough to purchase.
So make sure your photos are bright enough with soft, natural light and are in focus. Give the buyer enough information about your product to know it’s perfect for them!
2. Product Lines
Let’s say you’re looking for a pair of earrings. You find some that look interesting and click on the listing. But they aren’t shown in the color you like. So you head to the shop front….
and the shop doesn’t have any other earrings listed.
You were only looking for earrings so now you’re off to browse in another shop.
Having fully developed product lines will help make sure you customers find something they love and increase those conversion rates!
Bonus? It’s good for your SEO and search ranking as well!
3. Listing Descriptions
These need to be very easy to read and have all of the information a buyer needs to know to purchase! Think about how to keep your buyer interested in reading. Use bullet points and headlines to help direct buyers to the information they are looking for. Include all measurements, care instructions, and shipping information.
If a buyer has to message you a question prior to purchasing, they are more likely to go to another shop. So take note of every question you get and consider adding more information as needed.
4. Variations
If you can use a variation to make buying easier, do it!
I’ve seen sellers ask customers to put a color selection in the personalization box without any color chart. As a buyer, that wouldn’t give me any confidence to know what I was getting.
I’ve seen sellers ask a customer to contact them before they pick a variation. Don’t do this! Make it as easy as possible for a buyer to make a selection and checkout correctly.
5. Processing Times
Buyers want items they buy to ship quickly. We all do! So have processing times as low, but as accurate as possible.
6. Shipping Costs
Etsy pushes free shipping for a reason. If a buyer adds your item to their cart and the shipping prices are too high, they’ll abandon your product. I often compare shipping costs when buying items with a lot of competition on Etsy. So make sure to keep shipping costs as low as possible and consider pricing your items to allow for free or reduced shipping.
7. SEO
Here’s a very typical search pattern for buyers. You may even search like this!
Let’s say you’re searching for a gift for your mom but you aren’t sure what you want. You type in a general keyword phrase like “gifts for mom” into the search bar. Then you scroll through and see a candle that looks nice. You click on the listing but aren’t sure that scent will work. So you go back to the search bar and type “floral candles for mom” because your mom loves to grow flowers.
You can see with this example how using niche, long tail keywords gives you buyers that are further along into the buying process which helps your conversion rate.
8. Marketing
Are you marketing to your target audience? Posting your shop link in Etsy groups on Facebook most likely is going to hurt your conversion rate. Unless, of course, your target market is other Etsy sellers.
When you post your link in these groups, people might click on your shop to see what you have and how well you’re doing. But other sellers aren’t in those groups to buy. They’re in those groups to get help with their own shops!
So no more posting your link in Etsy promotion groups! If you want to ask a question about your shop, that’s ok. But regular promotion this way will continue to hurt your conversion rate and there are many more effective uses of your time.
Now what?
Now it’s time to check out those conversion rates for your shop. Need to improve them? Pick 1-2 things to work on and monitor your rates for the next 30 days to see if they improve.
Need help with SEO, product lines, marketing, and more? Then you’re ready to join my Etsy course! Click here to take my free masterclass. It will teach you all about my 5 part framework for getting daily sales on Etsy and tell you more about my course that’s going to help you do it!
-Sarah
