Currently, Etsy ranks fifth among the most visited online retail websites worldwide. With roughly 7.5M active sellers, cutting through the clutter is getting increasingly challenging.
Before we start, here’s a handy tool to forecast your earnings: the Etsy calculator. Figure out your Etsy store’s expenses and profit margin in just a few clicks for free.
Ready to get down to business? Let’s see how to get more sales on Etsy.
In a saturated market, product descriptions are super important. Why? They provide your products’ key features and benefits and help customers make informed decisions about what they’re buying. Plus, great product descriptions make your Etsy page feel more professional, which helps buyers trust your brand more.
Here are some tips for eye-catching descriptions:
Put the most important details at the beginning—It’ll grab your buyer’s attention and encourage them to keep reading.
Break up your text—Check for any big wall of text in your product description and make them more readable by breaking the info down into bullet points, smaller paragraphs, etc.
Link to your other products—Etsy allows URLs in an item’s description if they lead to another page inside the marketplace. So, when you’ve captured your customer’s attention, put it to good use and get them interested in your other products.
Focus on benefits, not features—Take this example: instead of saying that a towel is made from 100% cotton (a feature), mention that it’s super soft and has excellent absorbency (its benefits).
Pro tip: Although Etsy doesn’t allow formatting, you can use a website like YayText to highlight and stylize essential words. Copy and paste the transformed text back into Etsy for a more attention-grabbing product description.
Remember, some people won’t read your descriptions thoroughly, so make sure to highlight the most important details in your photo gallery, so it catches their eye.
2. Take captivating product photos
The photos you display are the first point of contact with your customers. And first impressions last. Top-tier product photos create an association with high-quality products, so make sure great images are a priority.
As the old saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. Give as much information through your photos as possible and complement your gallery with stellar descriptions.
Here are some tips for good photos:
Offer various angles
Pay attention to detail
Mix it up: have different layouts and lifestyle shots
Make your customer feel connected to the product you’re selling (in other words, create a vibe that resonates with your audience)
Use photos to give details your audience might not read (see the pics in the previous point)
Keep the backgrounds interesting (see some examples below)
PomchickGift listing is a great example of combining a flat layout, a styling photo, and details on sizing for the t-shirts they’re selling:
Not sure how to get great product images? Feel free to reach out to us, we’ll take care of the photos for you. Head over to our ecommerce photography services page to learn more.
3. Stand out with product videos
According to the Etsy Seller Handbook, adding a video to your listing “can provide increased transparency that boosts buyer confidence and conveys valuable information that they can’t get from photos alone.”
Plus, a study done late last year shows that 78% of buyers say “they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.”
And it makes sense: a video conveys a better understanding of a product than a photo does. It shows texture, shades of color, extra details you might not capture through photos, and (for clothing) how the product moves.
Here is a cool video example:
And make sure to take a look at the rules from the Etsy Help Center before getting started:
Your video has to be 5–15 seconds long
It shouldn’t contain any audio once uploaded to your listing
The ideal resolution for your video is at least 1080px
Etsy titles are also really important as a first impression for customers and to tell buyers what they’re looking at. So make sure you’re complying with the Etsy guidelines when perfecting your titles.
Here’s what to keep in mind when writing titles:
Include the focus keyword in the title (more on Etsy SEO next)
Pro tip: Rewrite the title and tags for your lowest-performing listings. Use keywords discovered in Etsy search to update them. The autocomplete function of Etsy search shows you precisely what shoppers are looking for.
Source: Etsy
It’s also a good idea to update some of your titles and tags when holidays come up. For example, you can add “Christmas Gift for Her” or “Sweet Christmas Gift” to relevant listings before the Christmas shopping season starts. Stay on top of the upcoming holidays by heading to our Ultimate 2023 Ecommerce Holiday blog post and downloading your calendar.
5. Pay attention to Etsy SEO
When thinking about how to get more sales on Etsy, this is one of the fastest ways to do it. Knowing what search terms the Etsy algorithm is looking for and fine-tuning your content with the right keywords will connect you to more buyers. In other words, it makes you more visible. More visibility equals more sales.
Here’s what you should do to rank on Etsy:
Do your keyword research
Optimize the key components of your listing (title, tags, attributes, and categories)
Have top-notch quality content (written and visual)
Keep your customer and market experience scores high
Product reviews impact your SEO and conversion rates since the algorithm recognizes products with more positive reviews as “good”. That means they’ll be recommended to other shoppers more frequently—and appear higher in the rankings.
Reviews are highly regarded not only by the algorithm but by your potential buyers as well. A survey done by brightlocal found that “more consumers are reading online reviews than ever before.” In fact, in 2021, 77% were “always” or “regularly” reading reviews when browsing for local businesses (up from 60% in 2020).
Encourage your customers to leave reviews by sending friendly emails, offering coupon codes or discounts, or you can ask for a review via custom packing slips. And be sure to thank customers for their feedback.
7. Provide helpful answers to FAQs
Invest time in putting together a comprehensive FAQ section. This way, you’re giving your customers all the possible information they might need upfront. It’s especially important if different customers keep asking the same things. Provide useful, straightforward answers to remove any barriers for them to make a purchase.
You can scout other seller pages (if they have similar products) for their FAQ sections. Chances are, you’ll get a good sense of what people want to know before buying.
8. Fill out the About page, your shop announcement, and the policies section
The more information available about your Etsy store, the better. Make sure the About page, your shop announcement, and the policies section are all filled out because it’ll improve your shop ranking in search—and more customers will be able to find you.
Here’s what Etsy suggests you add to your About page:
A video about your brand and your shop
Photos of your studio layout, creative process, etc.
A punchy story headline
Your brand story
Links to your social media pages
An up-to-date shop announcement is also a must. Use it to alert shoppers to important information like an upcoming sale or absence (if you’re vacationing, for example).
Source: ZennedOut shop announcement
To round out your page’s info, give your customers the rundown of your Etsy store’s policies. It should include information about shipping, payment options, returns and exchanges, and the privacy policy.
9. Offer free shipping
Almost all online shoppers really value free shipping. According to a 2021 Consumer Trends Report, 80% of consumers expect free shipping when ordering products over a certain amount, and 66% expect free shipping for all online orders.
Also worth noting is that shipping fees are frequently named as one of the main reasons shoppers abandon their carts, and the average abandonment rate is 69.8%. Don’t let that be you!
Etsy also offers a free shipping guarantee to US buyers. This feature automatically applies free shipping to US buyers for any individual item $35 and up and any order totaling $35 or more from your shop.
But remember, free shipping is only free to your customers. You can even things out by including the average shipping costs in your product prices and making sure you’re not paying for shipping out of pocket.
10. Earn Etsy’s Star Seller badge
As Etsy puts it, “the Star Seller badge is our way of recognizing sellers with a proven record of providing a great customer experience.” Customer experience includes everything from replying to messages and shipping to ratings, orders, and sales.
Show potential customers that your store offers a top-rate customer experience and take advantage of the exposure that being a Star Seller brings.
11. Refine your branding
Another way to stand out on Etsy is by having cohesive branding—it makes you look professional and polished. This starts with the right brand image, which communicates who you are and helps your audience connect with you.
Here are some steps you can take to make your branding more refined:
Use a simple, 3-color palette for your logo and packaging, social posts, etc. (Colorhunt is an excellent resource for this)
Have a consistent brand voice (friendly, professional, formal, laid-back, etc.) in all your communications with customers
Well-defined branding will help buyers recognize your store, and you’ll up your chances for repeat customers.
12. Put together an email list
This is pretty straightforward yet effective. Start by creating a signup form (here’s our blog post on 10 Email Signup Form Hacks to Double Your Subscriber List) and put the link to the signup form in your shop announcements, social media posts, and order confirmations.
Be sure to set up an automated welcome email with a discount code for your shop to draw buyers in.
What to do after you’ve created an email list? Here are a few content ideas:
Updates about new products in your store
Upcoming sales in your Etsy shop
Asking questions and getting feedback on products and ideas
Behind the scenes of your creative process, what inspires you, etc.
Relevant Etsy news
Ways to style your products
And if you’re wondering how to send more effective emails, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Our blog post on the best email marketing strategies goes over the four pillars of creating successful email marketing campaigns:
Segmentation
Subject lines
Clickable copy
A/B testing
Remember, you can’t send email newsletters from the Etsy platform. You’ll need to collect email addresses on a separate website and use an email service (Flodesk, for example) to send out communications.
13. Reach out to interested shoppers
Who are your interested shoppers? There are three groups:
Customers who have favorited items but haven’t purchased yet
Customers who have abandoned their carts
Customers who have already purchased something from you
First, think about sending a targeted email. This will help motivate potential buyers to buy from you and reward loyal customers who already have.You can sweeten the deal by offering a percentage or a fixed sum off as a discount.
Combining products allows you to make new listings and expand your keyword reach (meaning, you can use new keywords that you haven’t used before). It also gives you a chance to link up bestsellers with items that aren’t selling as well.
If you’re interested in creating bundles with your less popular products, try sprucing up their listings. It’s likely that these products don’t have customer photos or reviews—now’s the time to get them.
You can put together products with a similar style, combine products that are often used together (a beach towel paired with flip-flops or swimwear, for example), or bundle similar products (think stickers, cards, etc.).
You can think outside the box on this because the bottom line is: customers love bundles.
15. Launch a sale
As we mentioned, a percentage off is considered the best type of discount for over 50% of consumers in the US, the UK, Sweden, and France. So by the same logic, people must really like sales.
You can take advantage of this with Etsy’s filters. Note that “on sale” is one of the filtering criteria—use this to your benefit. Drive new customers to your store by putting your products on sale.
Source: Etsy
By running a sale, you can:
Increase the visibility of your Etsy shop
Find new customers (who are more likely to buy from you later on)
Spur word-of-mouth marketing
Create a sense of urgency (especially with a flash sale)
You can also use tools like Etsy on Sale. It puts all or part of your shop items on sale in just one step, schedules sales events for the future, and promotes them on the Etsy on Sale site during your sales campaign. All of this helps drive new traffic to your store.
16. Be present on social media platforms
At this point, it’s no secret that social media strategy can improve customer retention, boost brand loyalty, give you comprehensive insights (by using analytics tools), and more. Use it to your advantage, but don’t spread yourself too thin: pick a platform or two, and focus on them.
Posting interesting and relevant content will help generate interest in your store. Here are some social media content ideas for your Etsy business:
Customer photo reposts
Customer reviews
Styling tips
Product design processes
News stories that are relevant to your industry
Fun trivia
A day-in-the-life
Tracking your progress (pinpointing which posts are drumming up interest and which are falling flat) is imperative. So what are the metrics you should track?
That largely depends on your goals, but here are a few:
Reach (number of people who see your content)
Impressions (number of times people saw your posts)
Audience growth rate (number of new followers)
Engagement rate (number of reactions, shares, comments, etc.)
Click-through rate (CTR) (how often people click a link in your post)
Conversion rate (how often clicks turn into sales)
Like customer reviews and product photos, user-generated content (UGC) improves your brand’s authority and boosts trust in your shop.
This type of content increases credibility for you as a seller because it’s created by your community. Your brand will come across as more authentic and the reviews more organic, making other shoppers trust and like you more.
How to get UGC:
Ask customers to share pictures of themselves using your products and invite them to tag you
If you’ve been tagged, ask for their permission to repost the photos
Ask for reviews and post them across your social media
18. Collaborate with influencers
The influencer marketing industry is set to grow to approximately $16.4B in 2022. Yes, billion with a b. So if influencer marketing isn’t already part of your marketing strategy, this is the year to get acquainted with it.
An important thing to note is that influencer marketing is not about finding a person with a large following and giving them something in exchange for a good review. Influencers are considered to be industry experts whose opinions and endorsements are valued by their following.
Spend some time doing your research to find the best fit for your Etsy business: someone who produces content you like, someone who compliments your brand’s voice, has similar values to your brand, etc.
Since this is a marketing strategy, you should set an objective to measure the success of the collaboration.
The metrics you should use will depend on your goals. Some of the most common areas to take a look at are:
Level of content
Audience Reach
Impressions
Engagement (reviews, comments, likes, and shares)
Conversions:
Growth in followers
Brand mentions
Traffic to your page or website
Signups
Increased sales
In the end, working with influencers can have a major impact on your Etsy business, so choose wisely. Make sure you find the right person to rep your brand and track whether or not their influence is stimulating sales.
19. Do competitor research
In addition to promoting your Etsy store in various ways, it’s also essential to identify top competitors in your niche, so you know what you’re up against. You can even use tools like eRank to study other Etsy sellers. There’s a lot you can learn from their approach:
Product photos
Unique selling points
Titles & descriptions
Customer support
FAQs
About section
New product ideas
Doing your research before launching new products reduces the possibility of the product not being a hit. Looking at what competitors are doing isn’t a guarantee you’ll get it right, but it improves your chances of success.
20. Add new products
New products should be added to your store every few weeks (more or less). Especially if you have less than 50 listings, this can positively impact your brand’s visibility on Etsy.
Keeping your store updated with new products is useful for various reasons:
It helps boost your Etsy SEO
It attracts new customers
It gives existing customers a reason to return
It gives you the possibility to explore new niches
A good way to find ideas for new products is by tapping into your potential buyer needs. You can find them on social media and forums or read negative comments on Etsy. Listen to what they have to say and what’s missing that you could provide.
Creating seasonal products is another great way to reach new customers. Make special versions of your popular items for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and so on. Doing this gives you a good chance of increasing your Etsy sales during those periods. Make sure to promote any holiday products in your email newsletter.
21. Set the right prices
This is super important. When considering what price you should set, keep in mind that buyers typically look for good quality products at a decent price point. Your pricing should reflect the value of your product while also keeping it affordable.
Here are two key steps to follow when pricing your products:
Scout the market for similar products and set your price according to what you find
Do some testing—raise or lower the prices for one or several of your products, track what sells, and decide whether or not you should adjust the pricing on your listings
Lowering the price can have a positive impact on sales. But lowering the price too much can have a negative effect. The main issue is how it affects the perceived value of your product from the customer’s point of view. While getting a good deal is always desirable, too low of a price can raise suspicion. The two pictures below illustrate just that.
Ultimately, the right approach to pricing gives you the value you deserve for your products but will also help you stay competitive on Etsy.
22. Consider Etsy Ads and Promoted Listings
Etsy advertising is well-suited for those Etsy sellers who already have an established following, have made a few sales, and got good reviews on them. You can, of course, run ads as an Etsy newcomer as well, but your success rate will most likely be considerably lower. More on that later.
What should you know about Etsy Ads? There are two types: onsite and offsite. Onsite ads are also referred to as promoted listings.
Setting up Etsy Ads is simple: you set the daily budget and choose which listings you want to promote. By default, all your current listings are advertised when you start an Etsy Ads campaign. Also, you can select the countries where buyers see your ads if you want.
All sellers are automatically enrolled in Offsite Ads. Sellers who have made less than $10K in the last year can opt out. We recommend using it, though: it’s a great opportunity to grow your business by having a team of experts run your advertising for you without any upfront costs.
You can see how much you’ve made in the past year by going to your Stats page in Shop Manager and setting a custom date range.
Remember that people are generally more likely to click on products with social proof (more specifically, a review count and rating). Potential shoppers will need less convincing once they see that others have interacted with you and it’s been a pleasant experience.
23. Improve the products that aren’t performing well
You may be thinking: out of the number of people visiting my Etsy page, what percentage actually end up making a purchase? Meaning, what is my “conversion rate” (or order numbers vs. visits)? Well, the average is around 2–3% (and more than 4% is awesome).
But let’s focus on the products that have a significantly lower rate. Why are they not “converting”?
Reasons why this could be:
Title or tags are not optimized
Not enough details are given
The price is too high
The description is written in a way that’s not easy to read
Photos (you either need better-quality photos or maybe more of them: more angles, more details, etc.)
Go over this list and see if your low-conversion listings can be improved.
Time to put these tips to the test
We hope you’ve found this post insightful and will be able to put it to good use. Let us know your main takeaways, what you plan to use, and what you’ve learned on your own Etsy journey.
Karlina is an SEO Content Writer specialist at Printful. As a firm believer in attitude over aptitude, Karlina gives her 100% whenever she works on something new. Karlina spends her free time reading, traveling, and doing yoga.
Karlina is an SEO Content Writer specialist at Printful. As a firm believer in attitude over aptitude, Karlina gives her 100% whenever she works on something new. Karlina spends her free time reading, traveling, and doing yoga.
