How to Sell on Etsy Script
Hi everyone, I'm Priyanka Prakash, senior staff writer at Fundera.
Today I'll be giving you some proven tips on opening an Etsy shop.
Etsy has over 60 million handmade and vintage goods on the marketplace and caters to over
40 million buyers.
In order to make your product stand out from the rest, you need a strategy.
Today I'll give you five tips that will help you open and run a successful Etsy shop.
Okay, tip number one is to use professional photos.
People who shop on Etsy have an artistic eye, so they're drawn to products that have good
photos.
Now, this doesn't mean you can't take photos of your products on your own, but you do need
to do a little prep work.
For example, make sure you showcase your products in good lighting.
show how your product looks on a model if applicable, and include pictures of different
product features, angles, colors, and options.
Pick the most compelling image to be the main photo that will show on the Etsy search results.
If you use your smartphone to take photos, it's a good idea to use the built-in editing
tool or an app to edit the photos before uploading them to Etsy.
Here's an example of an Etsy shop called KaravaevaGlassArt that's using excellent imagery.
In a listing for a silver ring, the shop owner shows how the ring looks when worn on the
model’s hand, so the customer can get an idea of the product’s aesthetic and size.
The two different color options are shown as well, and you can see the front and back
of the ring.
Not only do good photos like these help you attract customers, but they also minimize
the number of messages and questions that you get from customers and help you close
sales more quickly.
That's a win win situation.
Okay, opening an Etsy shop tip number two is to curate your store.
When Etsy shoppers stumble on a product they like, they often click over to the shop’s
page to see the shop’s other product offerings.
The way in which your Etsy shop is organized can make a big difference to your store’s
success.
If shoppers come to a sparsely populated shop page or a page with a mix of uncategorized
items, they might think twice about buying from you.
On the other hand, categorizing your products carefully by type, making your shop easy to
navigate, and providing detailed descriptions for all of your items represents the work
and quality that you've put into your shop.
Here's an example of a well curated shop from SignedandNumbered, which sells handmade wooden
picture frames and home decor.
This Etsy shop has over 100 items, but notice how the shop owners have categories for every
one of their product types.
The customer can easily find exactly what they're looking for, and there are even categories
for fast shipping products and sale items.
As a bonus, the photos at the top of the shop page showcase the variety of frames and home
products that SignedandNumbered sell.
You can see the quality of this shop comes through in how well they've organized their
goods.
Tip number three for opening an Etsy shop is to make your store easy to find with SEO.
You can have an Etsy shop with the best photos and well curated products.
But if customers can't find it, then you're not going to be successful.
In order to increase your Etsy sales, you need to optimize your listings to show up
on the search results page, both on Etsy.com and on other search engines like Google.
This is called SEO or search engine optimization.
When you launch your Etsy shop, you'll need to carefully choose your shop title.
When you add products, you'll need to choose listing categories, listing titles and tags,
and product attributes.
And you'll need to carefully craft your product descriptions.
The first 40 characters of your product listing are the most important, so spend the most
time on that.
Also, keep in mind that your product might appear in multiple categories.
For example, adding your item to the engagement rings category in the wedding section also
means that the item will automatically appear in the engagement rings category in the jewelry
section.
The best advice here is to simply think like a shopper: What terms would you use if you
were searching for your product?
Say I’m a customer who searched for the term “colorful throw pillows.”
One of the top results after the ads is an Etsy shop called DesignbyJuliaBars.
If I click over to this listing, you can see how she's optimized it well for the search
term.
In the listing title are the words throw pillows and colorful pillows.
The seller also included specific colors that buyers might type in when they're shopping
for throw pillows.
The first paragraph of the item description also contains the primary search term colorful
throw pillows.
As a reminder, never use the same primary keyword for more than a couple of your listings
because Etsy typically won't list more than two or three products from the same seller
for a particular search query.
Recency also matters, so the more frequently you're adding products to your shop and the
more product listings you have, the more importance Etsy will give to your shop in the search
results.
Tip number four for opening an Etsy shop is to price your items competitively.
One of the biggest draws of Etsy is the ability to buy custom and handmade products without
breaking the bank.
Since offerings among sellers can be very similar on Etsy, it's particularly important
that you charge the right price.
The price should be fair, but you don't want to overcharge and have the customer choose
a competitor's product.
You should account for Etsy fees when pricing your products.
It currently costs 20 cents to publish a new listing on Etsy, and when you sell an item,
Etsy deducts a 5% transaction fee.
If you accept payments through Etsy, there's also a 3% plus 25 cent processing fee per
sale.
Etsy now lets sellers sign up to offer free shipping on orders of $35 or more.
If you participate, Etsy will reward you with a higher ranking in the search results.
Just remember that if you offer free shipping, you should offset the cost by baking it into
the retail price.
And our last opening an Etsy shop tip is to keep your financials organized.
70% of Etsy sellers have a day job and use the platform only as a way to generate supplemental
income.
Even if that's the case with you, we highly recommend that you treat your Etsy shop as
a real small business.
That means you should separate your Etsy finances from your personal finances.
For example, get a small business bank account to put your Etsy income and other business
income into.
Use accounting software to keep track of your Etsy sales.
Use a business credit card when you need to purchase new supplies.
And if you're in need of more capital, apply for a small business loan.
And those are our five proven tips for opening an Etsy shop.
For more about selling on Etsy and other channels, head over to https://fundera.com/blog, and
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Thanks for watching, everyone.