So my husband and I launched a new print on demand art shop on Shopify in 2019.
And in the summer of 2020 we started selling on Etsy this new business now makes a
combined of over $100,000 in sales per month from both Shopify
and Etsy with more than 50% of those sales coming from Etsy.
If you want to know how we did it stay on to watch this video where I'm
going to share with you the three steps.
to Etsy success Hi,
my name is Mei Pak and I help makers artists
and designers make a living from selling their handmade products online.
Now, if you've been following my channel for a while,
you know, that one of my philosophies is to not put all your
eggs in one basket namely the Etsy basket.
One of my top videos on this channel is why you should get off of etsy in a nutshell.
I believe that if you want to make a living selling your handmade products
online that you should always start on your own website.
Which is what we did and once your own website is established
and you're making regular sales with that then it's a good time to start branching out
and diversifying to sell on Marketplace sites like Etsy and Amazon,
which is also what we did, so I'm not saying never sell on Etsy.
But what I am saying is selling at Sea after you've already established your own home base on your
own site Etsy is great at bringing you a new stream of income,
but it's also not the most reliable.
So when See sales are slow. You're not going to feel the pinch
because it was never your main or only source of income.
Anyway, so now that I've mentioned that disclaimer I made this
video for you guys who are ready to Branch out
and diversify into Etsy or maybe you're a hobby seller
and you don't really care if you make sales or not,
like your business doesn't need to pay your bills.
The first step to Etsy success is understanding the Etsy algorithm
and how you can rank high in Etsy search it.
Actually quite simple to understand and remember this if you simply put yourself in etsy's shoes.
It's the only makes money when you've made a sale everything they do is based off of that concept.
So they will prioritize showing product listings that make Etsy money.
So for example engagement is a large factor in etsy's decision on how high
to rank your website listing an engagement means
when people see your product photo in search results are people going to click on
it and Once they've clicked on it are people engaged enough
and interested in your product enough that they want to click
on all your product photos to get a closer.
Look of your product are people clicking on the description tab to read more about your product.
Are they adding your item to their cart?
All of these are engagement points that Etsy can track the more engage customers are with your
product listings that sends signals to Ed see that you have a good product
and at Sea will naturally want to boost your listings more because You make a sale.
Then at Sea makes money another component to the search algorithm is sales just like with engagement
when people buy your products that sends signals to XE that people love your products
and it converts into sales.
Well, so if you have a lot of people clicking on your product listings,
which means you have engagement
but no one is buying that's not necessarily a good thing
because that sends the signal to Etsy that people aren't interested enough to buy your products
and so at C will rank your products lower in search.
So let's translate all of that into practical action steps.
You need both engagement and sales conversions to rank highly in Etsy search.
That means you need to make sure that you have a good product that people
actually want to buy have good photos product descriptions
and an accessible price point.
These are the foundations of any business regardless of where you sell for example,
it behooves you to have more product photos than less right to give people something to engage with.
From a sales perspective. You also want to give people a good idea of
what they're going to get right?
So show good photos of your products from all angles have photos of your products on models.
If it makes sense and even have photos of your product packaging.
You don't want to give your customers any reason to doubt
or question your products
because once they do they're not going to buy
and for your product descriptions take the time to talk about the features and the benefits.
So you'll need to address the measurements of the product the size the materials you use Use to
make it color wait anything you can say to describe the product
and then you also want to talk about how your product is awesome
and what it can do for the customer often times.
This will come in the form of how your products make people feel.
Will it make them smile what your product alleviate stress
or help someone stay more organized really come from a place of emotions
and you will do well here I have another video that talks about how to write product
descriptions that you can check out here is Need more help on that
and if you're like me and you just struggle writing product descriptions,
check out fiver for hiring Freelancers to help you write them
for very affordable prices not when it comes to sales.
I hate to say it but on a site like Etsy
and or any Marketplace site your price is what will help tremendously here.
The more affordable. Your product is the more appealing it is to the customer.
I know it's not sustainable though to charge low prices forever,
but I do think that in the beginning
when you're Just starting out on it see that it is
advantageous to start with a lower price point first.
And once you get momentum and you're getting more consistent sales on Etsy,
then you can start increasing your prices to really
what they should be the second step to Etsy success which ties into understanding the
Etsy algorithm is having a standout primary photo this ties back
to what I just talked about with having engaging product listings,
but this is so important that I want this to be a whole Standalone step,
especially Because this is something a lot of people don't do how you get found on Etsy is based
on keywords that you put onto your product listing right now.
I'm not going to talk about how to do keyword researcher
because there are a gazillion other videos on YouTube on how to do that.
But let's assume that you are starting to show up for the keywords that you are targeting,
but maybe you're not on the first page yet,
which is everyone's goal to get onto the first page right an easy hack for quickly boosting.
Your Etsy search rankings is by designing your primary photo in such a way
that it is the first thing people want to look at
when they're presented with a search page filled with products.
So here's an exercise. You can do open a new incognito browser and it should be Incognito.
So that Etsy isn't showing you biased search results based on your previous activity on Etsy
then in the search bar type in your keywords that you are targeting
and then press enter now you're going to be presented by about 65 product listings
and I want You don't like Look Away real quick.
And then look at the listings again, then squint your eyes
and ask yourself which photo stands out to you.
It's usually going to be the product photo that has colors in it
that the other product listings don't have
so think about how you can incorporate some of those more rare colors into your primary image
and it's not necessarily in the photo shoot of the product itself.
Like I'm not telling you you have to use a different color background
because that would be a lot of effort
but you you can apply graphic design into the primary image using
something like candy bar Photoshop to help it stand out.
This will help you stand out from the competition grab attention
and get people clicking on your products,
which is all good for the NC algorithm
because now your product listings are engaging this can be such a small thing that
you add to your listings that can make a big difference
and you can do this in like less than 10 minutes the third step to
Etsy success is take advantage of at see
ads now if you're at Sea was He's have a strong Foundation already,
which is everything we just talked about like with product photos product descriptions and prices.
Then you might be ready to take on Etsy ads.
Now. The reason I say this is
because it takes time for you to do well with Etsy organically for free,
but at Sea as can really help fast track your success,
for example, you might want to rank for a certain keyword right?
But maybe you're only showing up on page 20 of search results.
How are people ever going to find you and engage with your product with stay?
NG if you're on page 20 and you know, most people aren't going to get past the first few pages.
Well one answer to that is you can drive your own traffic to your Etsy listings
and when people buy them you are getting that signal those two Etsy that you have sales conversions.
And then it's equal start ranking you hire however,
I don't recommend this because any traffic you are bringing
yourself should be brought to your own website
and not to Etsy and if you want to know why go watch my Etsy video right here.
Instead. What I want you to do is start using Etsy ads to get
your listings showing up higher in search
for your targeted keywords.
And when you've done step one and step two then it's so much easier for those sales to happen.
Right? What we found is the more sales we were getting even if they were from Etsy ads.
We also started doing better organically Etsy ads have been insanely profitable for us,
but even if they aren't super profitable for you,
I still think you should consider doing them is only To accelerate your organic sales initially.
It has been a very effective way at growing
or Etsy shop to 1500 sales from scratch in just a few months as of this recording.