- So, say you've got an Etsy shop
and you've done all the setup steps.
Maybe you get some views from Etsy itself,
maybe not really that many,
in any case at the end of the day,
you're not super happy with your sales
if you clicked on this video.
And you might even be wondering why is this not working?
Is Etsy even worth it?
I'm hearing people are doing really well on it
what am I missing?
If that's you, please don't get discouraged,
I want to share with you 10 tips to make more sales on Etsy.
Some are going to be foundational strategies
and others are just small tweaks to your product listings
that can make a big difference
in converting a view to a sell,
because converting views to sales
is really all this video is about. (chuckles)
So are you ready?
Let's dive in.
(drum beating)
Bonjour my name is Deb and I'm the founder of TIZZIT.CO
a membership community for makers and handmade sellers
just like your fabulous self.
You can learn more about our community,
TIZZIT HQ via the link below this video
but for now let's jump straight into today's conversation,
10 tips to make more sales on Etsy.
Let's get right into it with number one, niche down.
The first thing I want to talk about
is defining exactly what your shop is about,
what it's not about
and who you're creating your products for,
because it can't be for everybody.
One of the most common mistakes I see Etsy shop owners make
is not niching down enough.
By that I mean trying to sell a little bit of everything
to pretty much everyone.
Like my shop is for every woman who wants to feel special
and pamper herself.
If you do that, you get lost in a sea
of thousands of other handmade shop owners
who also want to sell to all those women,
and you don't stand out
or give them any reason to buy from you
versus from any other shops out there in the Etsy ocean.
When you niche down, shoppers will land on your Etsy site,
feel an immediate connection to your brand and think,
wow, that is exactly what I'm looking for,
I love this brand.
For this to happen though,
you have to not only accept
but actively try to repel some people.
Scary thought, it sounds like I'm asking you
to reduce your potential customers pool size,
it's counter-intuitive but it works 100% of the time.
I know it might seem scary to target
a small group of customers,
but trust me on this,
you're not going to lose sales if you niche down.
You're not, you're actually gonna get more.
And you're not going to struggle to get found online,
you're actually going to stand out.
Niching down not only helps you stand out
but it also helps you avoid the dollar store stigma,
which is when because you're selling
too many different things
in too many different styles,
to appeal to too many different people.
Your shop starts looking and feeling like a dollar store
leading to fewer sales and lower profit margins.
So remember, don't try to be everything to everybody
and instead focus on one ideal customer
and offer a cohesive brand experience.
Number two, I want to talk about the importance
of staying on top of trends and seasonality
when selling on Etsy.
Trends can be things like colours,
patterns, textures and materials,
themes, characters, all of that.
If you're on top of details like this,
if you do research, if you watch for keywords trends
and you prepare to incorporate them into your products,
you're going to start getting a lot more views
and a lot more sales,
because when people search for products on Etsy
using these trending keywords,
your products show up in the search results.
You are a business
and to a degree if you really want to get a lot of sales
and if that's what you're going for,
you have to kind of work with the market,
that's what keeping on top of trends is really about.
Now I know for some of you
you have a very clear style
that you don't want to deviate from that
and I think that's valid too.
You can decide that, that's a decision you make,
but if you want to go for sales
and for more of a quantity on Etsy of sales,
you have to play with trends.
I have a video about this and you know this dilemma
of how do I stay myself
and while incorporating what the market wants
and where is the line between being an artist
and selling my soul to become a business owner.
And am I even selling my soul to become a business owner
if I'm following trends.
So I'll link this video below
if you wanna dive deeper into that
to make your own decision,
but trends do help you get more sales
that's just a fact.
Staying on top of seasonal trends is just as important.
And making sure that your seasonal product listings
are up and running
well before seasonal searches actually start to increase.
Here's what I always say,
you can't just create products
and then look for people to buy them,
you need to create products
that people are already actively looking for.
I will link to more resources to help you do research,
discover trends below this video.
So once you're done watching it,
feel free to check those out if you need help with that.
Number three is bring your own traffic from outside of Etsy.
If you rely on Etsy to bring a hundred percent
of all your shop traffic,
you are missing out on heaps of sales opportunities,
not mentioning putting all your eggs in one tiny basket,
which is never a good idea.
For example, one of my favourite traffic generators
is Pinterest, if you've been following me for a while,
you just know I love Pinterest.
Pinterest is a visual search engine
where people search for something they're looking for
and Pinterest shows images that match.
According to Sprout Social,
89% of Pinterest users
are on Pinterest for purchase inspiration
and 85% have bought something
based on pins they see from brands.
Pinterest is also investing a lot of resources
in making the platform even more shopping friendly
and that's why I usually recommend it
before platforms like Instagram or Facebook.
Now, of course Instagram and Facebook can work too,
Pinterest isn't the only way
to bring more traffic to your shop,
you to do what works for you.
The point is that,
you need to start marketing your shop outside of Etsy
and bring your own traffic to your shop.
If you're looking for ways to promote your Etsy shop
outside of Etsy,
I actually have a video just on that
that I will link below,
it gives you 11 ways of promoting your shop outside of Etsy.
So once you're finished with this one,
watch this one first,
then you're free to go and watch the other one.
Okay, tip number four is product photos,
let's talk about them.
They need to look pro,
average pictures are not gonna get you any sales
that's the brutal truth.
The reality is that follow standards
have gone way up because everyone has access
to really good quality camera
with their smartphone these days.
So you need to learn how to use yours
to take top-notch photos, top-notch.
Don't forget that there are also some photo editing apps
that will help you make your photos
look absolutely professional
even if you don't really have experience editing pictures.
And remember that people can't touch,
they can't feel, they can't smell
or experience your products online except through pictures.
So be sure to use different angles,
some simple backgrounds,
some lifestyle shots, things like that.
Mix it up to really offer a variety of images
to represent the story of your product
and really involve the potential shopper
in with your product,
so that they can imagine themselves using it already
just by looking at your pictures.
Will there be a learning curve
with product photography?
Yes there will.
There for sure is a learning curve.
Taking good photos and learning how to do it that
takes time but trust me it's time well spent.
Improving your product pictures
is one of the most important things you can do
to boost your views and yourselves on Etsy.
Tip number five is use photos to say things
that you will usually have in the description
to guide your customers.
Most people are not gonna read the description,
or they will only read the description
after they've looked at
all your listing pictures.
So use those listing pictures
not just to show you products,
but to also guide them through the shopping experience
or share useful information about the products
that will make them want to purchase it.
There are two great examples of TIZZIT members
who are doing this brilliantly.
Jane here is using a picture
to explain some cool benefits of a products
which helps potential customers,
potential shoppers, understand how to use them,
how easy and comfortable they are
and more generally it helps them imagine their kids in it.
Wendy did those something pretty similar here
with a felt play mat,
clearly showing how practical it is to use
without people having to go read that
in the product description, it's all on the image.
It also shows great attention to detail as a shop owner
and the level of care that you can expect
when you purchase from them.
Because it shows you that they've thought of it all,
you just know that the products and the customer service
will be top-notch.
So really think about how you're using your product photos
and think further than just product images
and how you can use those spots
in your listing images
to really communicate extra important information
that will help your customers or potential customers
navigate your store and listings,
and or give them more information
that really makes them want to buy your product
because you're highlighting the benefits
directly in those graphics.
Number six, free shipping.
We need to talk about offering free shipping
for your Etsy listings.
This works for some shops,
it's not gonna work for everybody,
but it's worth considering free shipping
because of two main reasons.
The first one is the Etsy algorithm
favours shops that offer free shipping in search results.
And the second one is because studies actually show
that it removes a barrier at checkout,
which means that shoppers won't abandon their cart
because the shipping charge
that they see when they checkout surprised them.
Not everyone can offer a free shipping,
I understand that and that's okay.
It's not a death sentence
if it doesn't work for your business.
Remember profit comes first,
don't cut your margins for it.
But it's definitely worth considering,
if free shipping won't work,
you could also consider a reduced shipping fee
to lower the shipping fees surprise effect
at checkout for your potential customers.
In short, the lower the fee the better.
Number seven is coupon.
Coupons, coupons, I don't know,
I think we're gonna have to roll with my French accent here
because I just can't pronounce it properly,
so I'm just gonna go with a frenchy pronunciation.
So coupon, (chuckles)
coupons are a clever way to recover a lost sales.
You can send a coupon to people who added your products
to their cart or that favorited your items
but didn't complete the purchase.
This is a great tool to fight cut abandonment
which is the fancy way to say
that it helps to convince people
who are interested in your products
and have already added them to their cart
but didn't finish the checkout process.
These people came so close to purchasing your products
that it's the perfect time to send them a message,
to say, hey, you know, you've let this wonderful candle
in your cart, finish checking out today
and you get 10% off.
Some people might find this spammy,
like they feel like it's an intrusion in their email,
I understand that,
but also anyone using Etsy
can actually change the preferences settings
to not receive those emails.
And people are really used to those these days,
every shopping platform sends you shopping recommendations.
It might as well be for things
that you've shown interest in.
So make sure your profit margins
allow for the discount being applied and try them out.
Next product description, let's talk about those.
One common mistake I see on Etsy Listing
is product descriptions
that are full of details and features
but they don't talk about benefits.
And the truth is when someone is shopping on Etsy,
at the end of the day,
they want to know what can this product do for me.
People don't really wanna buy a silver chain,
they wanna buy a lightweight, apologetic chain
that is great for sensitive skin and to wear all day long.
They don't burn your skills or the specific techniques
that you use to make the product,
they buy how they feel when they use your products.
Or if you sell the core how what makes their home feel,
you get the idea.
Benefits work because they take your potential customer
from interested in your product to involve
and they start picturing themselves using the product.
Once you paint a picture for the potential buyer
of how the probe will benefit them,
then you can list the features
and the rest of the information,
the materials, the size, the weight,
the shipping information, the processing times,
all of that stuff.
But you must first use benefits
to tell a story that allows potential shoppers
to imagine how your product would fit in their life
and to get excited about that feeling.
Next is simplify your listings.
This is a common mistakes I see
and it's offering too many options
for customers to choose from.
I know this is going to sound totally opposite
of what you might think,
but if you want to increase your sales,
you actually need to simplify and reduce
the number of options you give shoppers.
This will do two things,
first it will help you reorganise your listings
in such a way
that you can actually get more views and traffic.
Let me give you a quick example here.
Let's say you sell candles
and you have 10 different fragrances.
If you have all of your fragrance choices
in a dropdown menu
in a listing as a variation,
and the title of your product is scented candle.
When someone searches for vanilla candle,
the listing that say vanilla candle in the title
will get more clicks than your listing
which just say scented candle.
But what if you listed each candle separately
with the fragrance in the title?
Now each time someone searches for a vanilla candle
or a lavender candle,
they will see a listing for that fragrance
and know it is exactly why they are search
and therefore they'll be more likely to click
to see your product.
I have a full video on this
that goes into more details
that explain how to use your product variation effectively
to boost views and sales, so I'll link to it below.
But second, and I know this will sound backwards
but it's true, a listing with fewer options
will increase your sales.
I get it, you would think that
if you give people more options,
they are going to find exactly what it is they want
and therefore they're definitely gonna be happy
and they're more likely to buy your product.
But it's actually the exact opposite that is true,
the more decisions someone has to make
when they finalise a purchase,
the more stressed out they get and unhappy they feel
and the more likely they are to just give up,
freeze and get analysis paralysis
and make no decisions at all
and therefore they're not completing the purchase.
The rule of thumb is to give your buyers
a max of two decisions to make,
like ask them about colour and size,
or size and fragrance.
I know it might feel super counter-intuitive
but I promise you this is how you'll finally start
making more sales from your listings
and really boost that conversion rate.
Now last but not least, number 10,
if you're on Etsy
and you're not tapping into their built-in audience,
what you're doing? (laughs)
It might pretty obvious but there's no chance
I wasn't going to mention that you need to make sure
that you're optimising your listings for Etsy search.
Etsy SEO is one of the best things about Etsy.
They have millions of people looking for products
and using this search feature.
You want to be sure that your products show up
in those search results.
If you need help with this,
you feel like you don't have this together
and you want to get your SEO docs in order,
I have two great resources for you.
The first one is a completely free
and super comprehensive guide to Etsy SEO
which includes a free Etsy SEO checklist.
And the second is a full step-by-step Etsy SEO course
that will show you exactly how to get more views
for your products using Etsy search,
without pulling your hair out in the process.
I will in both of these resources below,
so make sure to go check them out right now,
the link is just below.
Thanks for watching,
check the links and until next time, au revoir.