If you have an Etsy shop set up, but aren't getting any action, I'm sure you ask yourself this question every day. How do I get more sales on Etsy? Keep reading to learn about the two reasons you aren't getting sales on Etsy!
A lack of sales on Etsy boils down to 2 different categories of reasons. That's it! You either have a bad conversion rate or not enough traffic. Let's talk about the issues that can cause each of these two problems.
1. Not Enough Traffic
You may have 5 listings or 500, but if you are getting only a handful of views a day you aren't going to be getting regular sales. A good conversion rate is between 1-3%. So even the perfectly styled shops won't get sales if they are only getting 10 views a day. Why aren't you getting any views? There are three main reasons for low views and visits. Let's explore that a little further!
Search Engine Optimization
The first reason for low traffic is that you have bad SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is how you get found in Etsy search, which is the easiest and fastest way to get consistent traffic to your Etsy shop. There are a few important factors in SEO. You need to target the right keywords, you need to target accurate keywords for your product, and you need to format your listings correctly. How do you know if you're targeting the right keywords? You are going to have to start researching them! Use Etsy Rank or Marmalead to find out how competitive your keywords are and how often Etsy buyers are searching for them.
Poor Click Through Rates
Why else might you have low views in your Etsy shop? It's possible that no one is clicking on your listings even if you are showing up in search.
If you have bad photos, you can have the best SEO in the world…but no one will click on your listings! Your photos will never be perfect (trust me…mine aren't), but they need to look professional espeically as Etsy gets more and more competitive.
You might even consider keeping your Etsy shop fresh by updating your photos for each holiday season.
Product Lines
The last main reason sellers have low visits is because you don't have enough listings in each product line. You get 13 tags for each listing. So if you have 10 items that's 130 possible keywords. If you have 50 listings? 650! So if we are purely looking at the numbers, the more items you have the more keywords you can target. There isn't a “magic” number of listings that will help your shop succeed, but having more quality listings can help you show up more and more in Etsy search results.
To fill your product lines in your shop, start with creating a production calendar that will ensure you're ranking for your target keywords before the search season starts for those products. Holiday season searches start much earlier than you think they do. So don't miss making sales by creating your listings too late in the season.
Now let's talk about the second category…conversion rates.
2. Bad Conversion Rates
Let's say your Etsy shop is getting a lot of visits and views, but you still aren't getting any regular sales. You have a whole different list of potential problems than the sellers who aren't getting any traffic. We'll go over some those reasons now.
What is a conversion rate?
First of all, what's a conversion rate? It's the percentage of sales you get for every 100 visits. An average conversion rate is 1-3 sales per 100 visits. And there are a whole lot of reasons why yours might be lower than that.
Descriptions
Your item description may leave your shop visitors with questions. If your description is too short to contain all the information it should or too long that it's hard to read, buyers will move onto the next shop.
You want to find the happy medium between answering all of your potential customers' questions and making the listings super easy to read. Don't forget to use your photography to communicate product details with customers who tend to skim the listings.
Variations
You might not have enough options for your buyers. They might want different sizes, colors, or personalization options. Are you getting a lot of questions about certain options? Give your buyers what they want!
Having too many variations can also decrease your conversion rate, however, because shoppers can get confused easily. And a confused shopper never purchases.
Need help with this for your shop? Check out what other sellers are doing for their variations and pay attention to what feels the easiest to understand.
Shipping and Processing
The last big reason for low conversion rates can be high shipping rates. DON'T BE MAD AT ME! I know Etsy is stressing this and that's stressing a lot of sellers. But here's the deal, Etsy tests these things and they have stats that show lower shipping rates help your conversion rates. Etsy even surveyed buyers and found out they were 50% less likely to buy an item if they thought the shipping was unexpectedly high!
Your processing times are also a huge factor in your conversion rate. If you aren't making sales, it might be because your customers don't want to wait too long for their products. This is really dependent on your niche, so again, make sure to check out other sellers in your niche to see where you fall in the range of processing times.
Other Factors
There are hundreds of other factors that can affect your conversion rate, including the important details in your listing description, customer reviews, trends, your specific traffic sources, and even repeat customers.
If you want to test a variety of factors, make sure to do one at a time so you know what caused any changes that occur.
FAQ:
What if I'm getting a lot of views on Etsy but no sales?
The first thing you want to check is your total traffic for the last 30 days. If you've had fewer than 100 visits in the last 30 days, then you don't have enough visits to get a real view of your conversion rate and need to increase traffic first.
If you have over 100 visits in the last 30 days and your conversion rate is less than 1%, it's time to do some market research! You'll want to check your Etsy search terms and analyze your competitors to see where you sit for price, photography, processing time, shipping costs, and everything buyers care about prior to purchasing.
Should I try Etsy ads?
Etsy ads will always amplify how your shop is currently working. Here's how that works:
If your shop isn't ranking a lot in organic search results currently, the ads algorithm will have a hard time knowing which potential customers to show you to. That means you'll probably be tested for a variety of keywords that don't convert. If this is you, you'll want to focus on finding and ranking for long tail keywords prior to trying ads.
If your shop has a low conversion rate, you will need a lot more clicks to get a sale. That means your ads are less likely to be profitable and way more likely to waste your money. Improve your conversion rate before you advertise.
Will social media help?
If you love social media marketing, sure! If that isn't how you want to promote your shop in the long term, you're better off learning how to get found in Etsy search consistently first. This will give you more consistent traffic even when you're not able to consistently create content.
Should I just start a new shop?
No! Please just keep your original Etsy shop open. Starting a new shop makes it much slower to start making sales. Keep focusing on showing up in search results for your current product lines, one at a time. Starting fresh just prolongs your results. Want to fast-forward them? Pick one product line and focus solely on that until it starts working for you.
What if there's not enough demand for what I make?
There are 100 million annual buyers on Etsy. I promise that some of them are interested in what you make. I've never found a seller who we couldn't find good keywords for.
What happens when you assume it's what you make (instead of how you sell it), is that you keep introducing new products thinking that's going to solve your sales problem.
Then those new products, don't make sales either. And that's because it was never what you were selling. And always how you were selling it.
Then you're out the time it took you to create all of these brand new items and out the money it cost you for new supplies and new listings that didn't get any traffic.
Learn how to get found in Etsy search for what you're currently making before adding new items to your Etsy shop.
Summary:
Your shop's low sales boil down to not enough visits or a bad conversion rate. If you aren't getting as many sales as you want, after reading this article, do you know why?
Want to learn more about how to start getting sales on Etsy? Sign up for my free masterclass here!
-Sarah
