In today’s blog, I will talk to you about 10 Etsy seller tips for beginners that can help improve your sales and help get your name out there. When it comes to having an Etsy Shop, there are a lot of tips and tricks to know in order to get a sale. If you’re thinking about opening an Etsy Shop, you won’t want to miss what I have to say!

10 ETSY SELLER TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

A PICTURE SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS

When you’re selling anything on an online platform, your display photo is EVERYTHING! After all, this is what makes people say, “Wow!” and want to click on your product. You’re competing with thousands of others shops trying to sell a similar item. That’s why having amazing photos is everything.

When it comes to taking photos, natural lighting works best. If you don’t have natural lighting, you could always purchase an inexpensive light box, such as this one. Similarly, you can also make your own light box as well.

You will also need a good camera. You can use your smartphone if you’re trying to be budget-friendly or you can splurge and get a higher end camera. I recommend these two cameras: Canon DSLR T7i and Canon SX730 HS

PRICE YOUR ITEMS CORRECTLY

This is something I still struggle with as well. You want to try and price your items accordingly without selling yourself short. I know you want to make a sale, but if you’re selling your items cheaper than your competitors to look more affordable, you might be hurting yourself.

People who shop on Etsy already know that handmade and vintage items comes with a price tag. Take pride in your work! If you are passionate about your craft and take the time to make it right, people will notice. Everyone won’t like what you have to offer, but those interested will take notice and will buy something from you.

DON’T SELL ITEMS THAT ARE COPYRIGHT PROTECTED

It might seem cool to make Disney characters or other popular items, but you could get in trouble for that. Etsy can actually shut you down for copyright infringement. This is one of the top mistakes new Etsy sellers make. I’m guilty of that as well. I used to make Minion hats until I learned I could get in trouble for this. Needless to say I stopped making Minion hats. I DID NOT want my Etsy Shop to get closed down!

Another reason you shouldn’t do this is because you’re creative and can come up with your own ideas. Isn’t that why you decided to open up your shop in the first place? Coming up with your own ideas might require a little more time and effort, but it’ll be worth it in the end and people WILL start to take notice. You have to work hard to make your shop stand out a little over your competitors.

SEO IS EVERYTHING

If you don’t know what SEO is, you better start researching it and see how it can help you rank better in the search bar. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This basically means that having the right keywords in your title, description, and tags can help boost your item in the search bar and make it easier to get a sale.

For example, if you’re selling a crochet baby blanket, you don’t want to just say baby blanket and call it a day. You want to make sure you have different variations all in your title, description, and tags. Instead you might say something like crochet baby blanket, crochet blanket, baby boy blanket, baby shower gift, etc.

DON’T OPEN AN EMPTY SHOP

People want to come to your shop to see what you have to offer. If all you have to start out with is one or two items, you will only hear crickets. With only a few items, people aren’t able to see your talent and creativity. I recommend starting out with 10-15 items as that will be more than enough to showcase your skills and show people what you have to offer.

BE CONSISTENT

Upon first opening your Etsy Shop, you’ve gotten a few sales and are delighted to see people taking interest in your items. All of a sudden, your shop becomes a ghost town. This is because people are looking at the same 10-15 items you opened up with. In order to bring more people to your shop, you need to be consistent and introduce new items to your shop often. I’d say introduce new items every month. Maybe you have a spring collection or unicorn themed items you want to launch. The more items listed in your Etsy Shop, the better your shop will get noticed and get sales.

BE PATIENT

Sales don’t happen overnight. In fact, you may not even get sales during your first month of your shop being open. Please be patient! I first opened my Etsy Shop up years ago (before knowing about SEO and everything else). I didn’t make one sale back then and started to get discouraged. It wasn’t until a few years later that I really started to research different tricks and starting making things to list. Within the first month, I started getting sales, and today I have over 600 sales and growing.

So again, please be patient! As long as you have your shop set-up and looking amazing, you will get noticed. Even with all the SEO tips and tricks out there, sometimes it takes Etsy’s system up to 30 days before it starts to recognize your listing.

PRACTICE GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE

You always want to practice good customer service skills. Providing bad customer service will only result in a negative review. When you’re starting out, you want to provide good customer service in order to gain a positive review (and even a repeat customer). The better reviews you have, the more likely others will want to see what your shop is all about.

What I like to do with my shop is include a handwritten thank you card with each order I send out. This makes it a little more personal and helps show that you care about your customers. I’ve also included a free gift (keychain, packet of hot cocoa or tea) on occasion as well.

STAY ON TOP OF YOUR ORDERS

Now that you’ve made some sales and have some orders to send out, you want to make sure you stay on top of your orders! When you list each item, you’ll notice Etsy provides a specific date to be shipped out on based on your shop’s processing time. You have a list of processing times to choose from. It’s crucial that you make sure you send out your orders by the date listed. Otherwise Etsy can punish you by lowering your shop in the rankings. If this becomes a consistent problem, not only will you get negative reviews, but nobody will want to buy what you have to offer.

For me, I try and send out my orders either the day of (if early enough in the day) or next day. I pride myself on shipping my items out as quickly as I can in order to maintain happy customers. In fact, I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on how quickly my items are shipped out. Shipping my items out quickly has been something I’ve been consistent with since the beginning.

PROVIDE DISCOUNTS

It’s exciting to see sales coming in. However, your goal is to try and gain a following (in other words repeat customers). To do this, you want to provide discounts as this will show great customer care. You can automatically set-up discount code for your shop once a customer has ordered something from you. You can also provide a discount code in your thank you card when shipping your order out.

Another thing I like to do is provide a 10% discount to those who leave an item of mine in their carts. Sometimes people put items in their cart and then forget about them or decide what they want to do. To entice them, once an item sits in their cart for a little while, a 10% discount coupon is sent to them to try and get them to make the sale. This has helped to push people a little bit without having to beg for a sale.

Etsy makes it easy to offer a sale or coupon. Each discount or sale can be customized to your liking depending on what you want to do. If you want to run a sale for a holiday weekend, you can choose a start and end time and choose how much of a discount you want to apply.

BONUS TIP!!

PROMOTE YOUR SHOP

When starting out, you might not know that much about self-promotion. After all, you can’t just list items in your shop and hope for the best. That will never get you sales. You have to do a little self-promoting without being too salesy.

One way to get your shop noticed is by promoting it on social media. By opening up a business page on Facebook, you can insert a ‘Shop Now’ button at the top of the page where you can automatically link to your Etsy Shop. You can also search on Facebook for buy and sell groups to see if anyone is interested in your products as well. This has worked a few times for me.

When sending out orders, you should insert a business card with all your information on it. You can make your own business cards with some free templates or you can purchase some online. This helps people remember your name, and if they like your product will tell their friends and family about you as well.

Personally, I like sending out brochures with my orders. I include a photo and short blurb about me, but also include a few photos of things I can make, talk about my return policy, how to request custom orders, and of course where they can reach me. I find this really helps customers get to know me a little better.

These are my 10 Etsy seller tips for beginners. I hope you enjoyed my 10 Etsy seller tips for beginners and found them helpful. If you have any Etsy seller tips for beginners, please share them in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!

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