Starting an Etsy shop is a must for any Craftpreneur. After running an Etsy shop for several years, I’m sharing all my hard-earned tips to help you learn how to sell on Etsy successfully.
Hey, y’all! One of the things that I did early on in my business was to open an Etsy shop. It was a way for me to get my products in front of more people so I could land more sales and grow my business.
And it worked!
Thanks, in part, to my Etsy shop, we’ve grown our business into a seven-figure business doing what we love. Being creative and helping others learn how to start living their dream life are two of our passions.
Today, I’m sharing with you tips and tricks I’ve learned for how to sell on Etsy successfully.
When you start to think about selling online you can easily become overwhelmed and give yourself excuses as to why you can’t sell on Etsy. The truth is that Etsy has made the process super simple for starting an Etsy shop! But, there are still a few little tricks that you need to know about how to sell on Etsy in order to be successful.
If you want to learn more about how to sell on Etsy, check out Great Product Photography Tips For Selling On Etsy, Etsy Seller Mistakes to Avoid, and How To Promote An Etsy Shop Like A Pro!
Starting An Etsy Shop – The Right Way
When you start to think about selling online you can easily become overwhelmed and give yourself excuses as to why you can’t sell on Etsy. I’m thrilled to say that isn’t true! Etsy has made the process super simple to start your Etsy shop.
But, there are still a few little tricks that you need to know about how to sell on Etsy!
Before we get into those, I think it’s extremely important that you first understand what Etsy is.
Etsy is an e-commerce website that hosts thousands of shops and items from all around the world! It’s basically like an enormous online craft show y’all. When you visit Etsy you’ll find that the site focuses on handmade gifts, craft supplies, and vintage items.
Ready to sell on Etsy? Here are a few things you should know to help you find success.
Why is Etsy the best place to start selling your handmade crafts?
Here are some of the main reasons why people choose to sell on Etsy over Shopify, eBay, or Amazon Handmade:
- Easy to get set up – Learning how to sell on Etsy is simple. With the platform, you can have your shop open in just a few minutes. You only need one item ready to sell and 20 cents to open your Etsy store!
- Support – Etsy provides customer support to help you manage their site and their customers. Having a difficult time? Just ask Etsy for help!
- Ready customer base – Etsy has a huge market of built in customers which means more exposure for you. Etsy has more than 45 million people that show up with their credit card in hand ready to shop.
- Customer satisfaction – People already know, like, and trust Etsy. Etsy has been around for a quite a while and customers already trust the platform. The company spends a lot of time and money to make their customers happy, which makes them come back again and again.
- Sell your products around the world – Etsy has an international customer base. There is an opportunity for you to have customers all over the world because the platform makes it easy for you to reach them.
- Help with shipping costs – Etsy has negotiated built-in shipping prices. With shipping prices skyrocketing, it’s great that Etsy has some built in options to help new businesses get started.
Why should you consider starting an Etsy shop?
You may have heard that you should have your own website. While I agree with that (and you should one day), you shouldn’t jump right into it. Why take on that expense before testing your product before an existing audience? Etsy is an affordable and easy way to launch your business in the online world.
Unlike a personal webpage, Etsy has built-in traffic and helps put your products in front of their own customers. You’ll have to spend less time and money marketing your store when using an Etsy shop.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Etsy has 81.9 million active customers as of their quarterly reports for 2021. That’s a lot of eyes for your products!
I do highly recommend that you purchase the URL of your business and have a goal to transition to your own website at some point in your business. Get your shop off the ground utilizing the benefits of Etsy and then invest in a website when your business has the extra income to support it.
The Cost Of Selling On Etsy
Etsy offers sellers multiple ways to sell on their platform. The options are:
- The “standard” option that offers all of the basic tools and services
- The “plus” option for $10 a month that offers you additional resources and tools that allow you to customize your Etsy shop.
After choosing your seller option, Etsy will charge you $0.20 for every new listing that you create as a listing fee, as well as 5% of the total sale of your product. Your $0.20 fee is good for 4 months or until the item sells before Etsy requires you to pay that fee again.
On top of the $0.20 listing and the 5% transaction fee, you will also see a fee for processing the payment from the vendor.
For reference purposes, I usually account for about 10% of the total transaction to be paid back out in transaction fees.
How To Sell On Etsy: 7 Simple Steps To Starting An Etsy Shop
Starting on Etsy may seem like a scary task, but there are just a few simple steps that you need to take! Here are the SEVEN basic steps to opening your Etsy shop!
- Go to Etsy.com and click on the “sell on Etsy” button at the top right corner of the screen.
- A new page will open. Locate the “Open A Shop” button and click on it
- Follow the next few instructions that Etsy gives and answer the questions. The questions are simple ones like your country, shop language, currency, and a few more.
- Choose a name for your shop. If you need help finding a business name check out Shopify’s Name Generator tool.
- Now you’ll have to list your FIRST item. It’s the only way to move forward with opening your shop.
- Once you have your first item listed, Etsy will walk you through setting up your shop payment methods (how will vendors pay you).
- Last, you’ll have to set up your billing information (how you will pay fees to Etsy).
Congratulations! Following those 7 steps now makes you an official Etsy Seller! But, of course, there’s more shop customization and work to do before you’ll start hearing the cha-chings.
Easy Hacks:
I would call these two tasks “must-haves” before you start selling. They’re essential for establishing your shop as an official shop in your customers’ eyes.
- Fill in your “about me” section so your customers can get to know you.
- Provide your shop policies so your customers can understand how you operate your business.
Tips For Making Sales On Etsy
Creating a shop and uploading pictures isn’t enough to make your Etsy app start singing the sound of money to you.
You need to create a message that people will connect with and help you stand out above your competition.
What does a great message mean? It means that you’ve got a compelling bio, titles, product descriptions, high-quality pictures of your products, and most importantly, great customer service!
Four Ways To Help Increase Traffic To Your Etsy Listings
- Have inventory to sale – I recommend that you have at least 50 items in your shop to help attract customers. Customers tend to shy away from shops that just a few items for fear of being scammed, or they may feel like you aren’t a real business. The more items you have listed increases your chance to be found on SEO because each item is a searchable listing that could pop up in your customers’ feeds.
- Keep changing things up – Keep your shop stocked with new, seasonal, and trending items. Update your titles, photos, and SEO practices as the seasons change.
- Focus on SEO – This is about optimizing your listings so that they pop up for the keywords that people type in when searching for something to buy. Learning how to sell on Etsy means learning about SEO.
- Write compelling product descriptions – Product descriptions aren’t going to help you get found in search, but they’re often the last thing a customer sees before making the purchase. The customer can’t see or feel the product in person, so they’re expecting the product description to make up for that gap. It’s important to write attention-grabbing descriptions because they can make or break a sale.
Encouragement & Support For How To Sell On Etsy
If you need more help with selling on Etsy, you can check out Damon’s Etsy Quick Reference Guide.
This is a 4 part guide with quick tips, 600 of his top used SEO keywords, and templates that you can implement into your shop today.
This reference guide is $49.99, and it contains the exact items steps, tricks, and tips I’ve implemented in my own Etsy shop that allowed me to sell $373,411.08 worth of products on Etsy in 2018 alone!
Access the course, and you can even use coupon code “SEO50” to take 50% off of the price so you get it for $24.99!
Another option is that you can join Damon’s Inner Circle Business coaching group and get access to all of our coaching, courses, and content. That includes group calls multiple times a week where you can get your questions answered by Damon or Parker.
Learn more about our group coaching!
FAQs
If you’ve never had an Etsy shop before, you can understandably have a few questions about the process! Here are a couple of questions I see readers ask frequently.
How can I make money on Etsy?
Like any store, you make money by selling your products. Know going into it that selling on Etsy isn’t a “get rich quick” approach because it will take time and work to establish your store and customer base. But, with time and hard work on improving your business practices, you can make a good amount of money by selling on Etsy.
To help you get there faster, check out my 7 tips for selling on Etsy.
Is Etsy cheaper than Shopify?
Shopify costs $29 per month, plus 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.
Etsy’s upfront costs are cheaper. Plus, you get the benefit of an established market of customers to buy your products and help you grow your business.
If you sell a large volume of products and your business is more established, I always recommend periodically reevaluating costs to see what works best for your business.
Starting An Etsy Shop: Final Thoughts
Selling on Etsy could be the first step towards your financial freedom and your next step in living your dream life. Learning how to sell on Etsy has changed my life, and I hope that it helps you go where you want to go!
Now go out there and start making those Etsy sales!
Just pin guide to starting an Etsy shop below to find the instructions later!
If you love to craft, check out our Eat. Sleep. Craft. Repeat. t-shirts and click on the picture below!
Thank you this is very informative!!
Does esty require a tax I’d number
Thank you Damon for helping me in starting my small business. From your Creative Coaching group to all of your videos and information you give, I know I will be successful.
Thank you so much for all of your help!!