Etsy is an online marketplace that sells products created by creative artsy people. The site attracts millions of customers every month who want to buy unique items created by hand.

As a seller, you will be joining a platform that is absolutely beginner friendly.  You can set up a shop for free and the fees are very low when you start making sales. You will also have very powerful tools at your disposal and a very responsive customer support and education team.

Since there aren’t any monthly fees, the barriers to entry are very low. You won’t have the pressure of having to make a sale to break even on site operational costs in your first month. The transaction fees on sales made is just 3.5% and the site allows users to process payments via PayPal.

Tips to Help You Set up Your Shop Correctly

Finding success on Etsy can be possible if you do the fundamental things correctly. Since there are many sellers, you want to differentiate yourself from the lazy ones who never bothered to set themselves up for success on the platform. These tips will help you gain momentum so that you can rise above the masses and start making sales to grow your store.

Choose a Shop Name You Can Use 5 Years from Now

Some of the new sellers don’t pay much attention to the name they give their store. Since choosing a shop name is one of the first things you do when setting up an account, you may skim over the process. This is a mistake as Etsy won’t allow you to change your shop name down the road. If you want to build a recognizable brand name on Etsy, your shop name is just as important as other aspects of your marketing.

Optimize Your Product Descriptions and Other Text for Etsy Search

Etsy is a legitimate search engine. Millions of people use its search bar, which works similar to Google, to find creative products. A serious seller should take the time to find out the keywords that users are searching for when searching for products and optimize their Etsy shop for those keywords.   A word of caution, you will remain in Etsy oblivion if you don’t learn how to market yourself on this platform.   It’s a simple concept that if not done will be the equivalent of being on page 100 of Googles Search Results; no one will ever find you.  If they can’t find you, they can’t buy from you. 

Let Your Pictures Tell a Story

The only tools you have to sell for you on Etsy are your product pictures and product descriptions. Etsy is a creative site with lots of people who pay unimaginable attention to how things look. If yours is one of the few stores with bad pictures (read as bad marketing), you will have trouble gaining credibility and making sales.   You need to ‘WOW’ people so they visit your store.   You don’t have to take spell-binding professional photos but your photos must look decent by Etsy standards which are defined by your competition.

Make It Easy for Users to Buy More than One Product

Brick and mortar stores would not survive if shoppers only walked in to buy one product and nothing else. To gain momentum fast on Etsy, put up a collection of items that someone purchasing an item in your store would also find interesting. This is the same philosophy Amazon uses when they tell you that customers who bought item A also bought items B, C, and D.

Price Your Product Appropriately

Pricing on Etsy is an art rather than a science. You don’t want to price your products so low that users begin to question their quality. Also, you don’t want to price your items so high that you price yourself out of the market.

One of your first tasks on Etsy should be to do product research. Find out how much your competitors are selling their products for and figure out a good price for your product considering the costs that you will incur.