Why are millions of people selling on Etsy? And how can you stand out amongst them?
Many people start selling on Etsy for the obvious reason, to make money. But lots of sellers, like me, do it to fulfill themselves. There’s no risk and you can satisfy both your creative and entrepreneurial yearnings while at the same time doing something totally different than your day job. You’ve got nothing to lose so why not give it a go? Some people go all in and quit their jobs. I rather like having a nice paycheck so I dabble in my shop as time permits.
I started my Etsy shop when space opened up in my life. Although I had no products developed nor any particularly artsy skills I jumped in with both feet. My shop has been more successful than I ever hoped with over 300 sales in my first year. Yet I know people with amazing artistic talent who haven’t sold a thing on Etsy. Why? Here are some keys to Etsy success. Spoiler alert, it’s only a little about the product.
Create your brand to stay on their minds. Your brand is how your customers see you and how you make them feel. Your products, logo, marketing, photos, packaging, fonts, and content should be created with your brand in mind. Before I even knew what products I wanted to offer I knew I wanted them to have a fresh coastal vibe. Be careful that your photography reflects your brand. Crop images, adjust lighting, make sure the background is clean.
Build up your social media platforms to bring in visitors.
The great thing about Etsy is it gets tons of traffic. The bad thing is that there are those other millions sellers you’re competing with. Online product marketing is all about social media. Developing a social media following is a must to drive traffic to your products. If you are a part-timer you can’t spend time on every platform so figure out which ones are best for you. I focus my engagement time on Twitter and Instagram. Instagram is great for establishing branding. Twitter is easy to get lots of followers and visibility. My sales grew noticeably once I got a few thousand twitter followers. I also post on Pinterest and Facebook occasionally.
Diversify your products to improve your odds. While it is important to have focus it is also important to have diversity to get started. Having more items gives you more tags and attributes and hence more ways to be found, Plus it lets you adapt to changing trends, and try out new products. With handmade platforms like Etsy you can make products to order so you can offer a lot of different products without high inventory costs.
Learn about SEO to rise above. Research and keep up with Etsy’s search algorithms, as well as Google’s. If your products aren’t in the top of the results no one will even see our products yet alone buy them so a little research will help a lot. Use tools like Ad Words to identify strong tags. But don’t obsess on stats until you’ve established yourself.
Get sales to get sales. Seriously. People don’t want to buy from a seller with no sales. Catch 22? Yes. So you’ll need a strategy to get those first sales and reviews. My strategy was to start out offering low prices, unique products, and over the top customer service until I had a few sales under my belt. Many sellers offer specials, buy ads, or even sell face to face through Etsy. In addition to giving you creds, products with sales briefly land higher in search results, leading to more sales This leads to an odd phenomena where one item sells like crazy for a while then something else takes over.
Having an Etsy shop is like having a mini business. If you only focus on production you will quickly find yourself drowning in product. Spend some time on marketing and the sales will come.
My shop keeps me busier than I had planned but every sale still puts a smile on my face. Time spent creating is pure joy for my soul. And when I think about the fact that people all over the world have things that I created in their homes? Well that’s just plain crazy.
Thanks Etsy.
Sweep of Sand provides home decor with a fresh coastal flair. Our products are available on Etsy and at Sweepofsand.com.
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sweep of sand, coastal home decor
surf city, nc & bethesda, md