Podcast Episode 76: How to Increase Etsy Sales by Doing a Self-Audit of Your Etsy Shop

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/X1NuQbU_fYI 

HI friends!! Welcome back to the show this week! This episode is going to my first attempt at a shorter form episode that covers a really specific topic. I want to make one of these for you once per month where we really focus in and learn a new skill—and just have it be something really educational to add to your tool belt. So definitely let me know what you think of this type of episode after you listen.   

ALSO—for everyone who listens to the very end today—I have a special surprise for you guys that you won’t want to miss out on if the title of this episode intrigued you. So for sure listen for that as we wrap up in a little bit.

The very first thing I want to do today is answer one of our leftover FAQ questions from the FAQ episode I did a few weeks ago. If you missed it--- oh my goodness- do yourself a favor and make sure you go back and check it out. We covered so much ground. It was episode number #73 and I will link it for you guys in the shownotes.

We didn’t get to every question, so for the next few of these shorty episodes, I’ll try to cover one per episode until we hit them all.

Here we go---

Sarah asks:

I have one question. I am thinking about starting a digital shop with seed bead patterns. I have the pattern maker and know how to create the PDF file but I am not sure how to create the pictures that go on Etsy. I have heard of mock ups but have no idea of how to go about doing them with pattern designs. Any ideas?

Thanks

ANSWER:

Ok Sarah— (first off guys, just for context—she’s asking about selling a pattern for a type of jewelry. So she’ll create the pattern and then sell the PDF of the pattern to her customers).

To answer your question, Sarah—which is a great one-- for patterns, I don’t think a mockup would work. Typically for a pattern the thumbnail picture should show the final created object (so you’ll need to actually make one) and then also have text on it explaining that it’s a pattern.

I would first do a ton of research for all different kinds of patterns on Etsy to see  what the best sellers are doing for photos and then play around with your products. And actually if you go search on Etsy for “Seed Bead Patterns” you’ll see some great examples of how other sellers have done this well!

I hope this helps! I think it’s a great idea—and I’d love to hear how it goes. Thanks so much for sending that in!

Now—on to today’s topic—we’re going to talk about how you can increase your sales by doing a self-audit of your Etsy shop.

This topic came about earlier this year when I did a survey of my listeners and email friends to find out what services y’all were most eager for me to offer coming back from maternity leave.

The overwhelming response from soooo many of you was that you wanted me to do Etsy shop audits where I go through your Etsy shop and then send you a report of what I think is going well, needs to be improved, and what you could do to get more sales.

I thought that was so fascinating—and I did add those services which many of you have already hired me for. (Just fyi they’re currently unavailable for a bit because they are super time consuming and I’m in the process of massively overhauling my flagship course—Listings that Sell.)

But your interest in the service also just really got me thinking—like—why is this in so much demand? What do you really need? And how can I help more of you? (Because the reality is—there’s just one of me and I can only do a couple of audits each month—it’s hardly enough to take care of you guys at the level that I want to.)

So I decided to test this topic we’re talking about today—what if I TAUGHT you how to audit your own shop? What if I just shared exactly what I look at and create a checklist and training for you so you can do it yourself?

Now I totally appreciate that having my eyes on it gives you an advantage because I’ve studied hundreds of shops and that brings it to another level. But it’s at least a start—and over time you can develop the skill as well!

And here’s the thing—I actually believe that the skill it takes to audit an Etsy shop—is the same skill you need to build a successful business. Because once you can self-diagnose what’s going well, what needs work, and what actions you can take to grow—the whole Etsy marketplace opens up to you. You can create results in your shop and any other niche you want to go into. (Not to mention, you can take that skill into other business ventures in the future.)

Just last week I tested this content at the Go Digital on Etsy Summit and 900 people found it valuable enough to go download the checklist. So I think we might be on to something! 😊 And of course—I want you guys to have access to the same information because you are my people.

Here’s what a shop audit involves and why it’s helpful:

Essentially a shop audit is just when you (or I) go through your shop looking at all the major sections for areas that can be tweaked or improved. We look for things that are missing, things that could be made better, and even look for things that might be repelling shoppers. This activity helps you create a punch of list of the things that need your focus.

It’s pretty detailed which is why a checklist is super handy—and walks you through each shop element—and then each listing element—that you need to have in place in order to have your shop optimized.

So for the sake of a primer today—I’m going to talk you through some of the important things to look for. And if you want to take it a step further, you can go over to my website (just go to EtsyShopAudit.com) and grab the checklist. It’s $3 BUT if you stick around until the end of the episode, I’ll tell you how you can get it free because I feel like celebrating a little bit today.

The first part of a shop audit is to look at the elements of your shop that create first impressions.

We know first impressions are important—obviously—but on Etsy, when you’re first getting started and you don’t have a bunch of sales and reviews to build trust with a shopper—all you have is that first impression. And it will make or break those first sales.

Your visuals are really important to this part—so things like—do you have a shop banner in place and does it look great both on mobile and desktop? Is it just ornamental or does it feature your products or at least create a brand vibe?

You also want to make sure you have simple logo in the shop profile picture on the left side of your profile and a smiling picture of yourself in seller profile picture on the right side of your profile.

These elements make your shop feel more professional and absolutely build trust and create a brand experience.

To go along with this, you want to make sure you have your “about section” filled out—ideally with some pictures and video. I can’t believe how many new shops I see that skip this part! Filling out your about section is actually important for more than just a first impression.

In the course overhaul I’m doing, I’m adding a mountain of information about how the Etsy algorithm works, and how listings and shops rank within it. As you can imagine it’s quite involved—although not at all difficult to understand.

But one of the factors I’ll let you guys in on right now is something called your “Customer and Marketplace Experience Score” which Etsy assigns your shop based on your standing in the marketplace. It’s essentially a calculation of how trustworthy Etsy thinks you are based on how you interact with the people and the platform. One of the pieces of the calculation is whether or not you filled out your about section.

So it’s SUCH a win-win. It builds actual trust with your customer looking at your shop and trying to make a buying decision and ALSO builds trust with Etsy and increases your “Customer and Marketplace Experience Score.”

Another piece of that score that I also think it an important thing to review as part of your shop audit is whether or not you have your shop policies in place. These are things like your return and exchange policy, cancellations, and privacy.

A lot of shoppers check to see if a shop will work with them on exchanges or returns before they will buy—so especially as a new shop, you’ll increase the likelihood of a sale if you’re willing to work with your customers.

I know this can be controversial. But all I can tell you is my experience. I have had SO few problems with this. I’m of the attitude—treat my customers the way I’d want to be treated. I’m very lenient with exchanges and returns for physical products. And I personally do not feel like I’ve been taken advantage of. Are there some bad apples. Sure. But it’s not enough to hurt my profit and I feel like I win A LOT more than I lose by having 30 day return or exchange policies. It’s just my two cents. Either way—for the sake of the shop audit—I encourage you to post your policies in a clear and friendly manner.

Other areas that play into your first impressions would include having a FAQ section set up, having a welcome announcement, and if applicable, including your social media links in your Etsy shop. (There’s a place for them on your shop page and you can add them by going to your seller dashboard, clicking on the marketing tab, then click social media and you’ll be prompted to connect your accounts.)

After first impressions, the next part to review is your listings. And I recommend just going item by item.

SO your shop titles—are you using all 140 characters and including as many long tail and short tail keywords as you can fit? (Basically what this means is that your titles should not just be a creative title for your product, but it should have all of the phrases that a perfect customer would type into the search bar to try and find what you’re selling.)

Are your strongest keywords at the front (or beginning) of your titles?

Also--- do you have as many categories and attributes filled in as possible? These are the drop down menus that populate from Etsy based on the product you identify you’re selling. It’s stuff like color, size, style, etc. It totally varies based on your product—but complete them with as much detail as you can.

Next is your photos:

Is your first picture in your photo gallery for each listing your best one? Will it jump out in the search results?

Do your other pictures answer common questions?

It’s a good idea to use every photo space you can and I recommend creating graphics that have important information on them like dimensions or sizing or color info. You might include turn around time or shipping info. Or customization info.

What’s important to know is that most shoppers won’t actually read your product descriptions. It’s important to have them and be as detailed as you can. BUT—the really important stuff needs to also go on graphics in your photos because shoppers are more likely to scroll through them than read your product description.

Next you should look at your descriptions—are they complete with all the important info a shopper might need about your product?

Are they organized and easy to read?

Are they rich with your keywords? Last year the Etsy algorithm was tweaked to include listing descriptions as another place (in addition to titles and tags) that should include your most important SEO keywords.

Most shoppers will not DM you with a question—if they can’t find an answer, they will move on to another listing that makes it clear. So for sure make the effort to give them all the info they may need. And if your shop is new and you’re not sure what to include—it’s a great idea to study the best-selling listings in your niche and see what those sellers include in their descriptions.

And finally—your tags—are you using all 13 of them on every listing? Are they emphasizing the same keywords as your titles?

These are the key areas to really dig into and you’ll definitely end up with a list of things you can improve.

If you guys go download the checklist, it has more detail, places to capture notes, and also it will take you through a process of studying the best-selling shops and listings in your niche – because that’s where the gold is.

It’s one thing to look at your own shop through your own lens of what you think it needs. But if you really study the people who are killing it at what you want to sell—and compare their setup to your own. You’re going to learn A TON about how you level up your shop.

The Self Audit download also comes with a video training where you can visually see me walk you through the Self-Audit process.

Sooo—this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Here’s the special surprise. I sell the self-audit checklist and mini-training for $3 on my website-- but this week, I want to provide a way for you to get it totally free.

In case you missed it on the last episode--- we recently found out that this podcast is in the top 1% of podcasts GLOBALLY. And I’m still reeling from that news. I’m really grateful to you guys and I know you helped make that happen.

So here’s the deal--- if you would go leave a review for the podcast on whatever player you like to listen to it, take a screenshot of your review, and then down in the shownotes there is a link for a google doc where you can submit your screenshot and your email and I will email you access to the Self Audit Checklist and training video completely and totally free.

And if you’ve already left one—that counts too! Just go screenshot it and send it over with your name and email and I’ll get you the complimentary link also. It won’t put you on my list or anything—it’s just for the one time use of sending you this tool

Also-- it’s super easy to leave a review—for most podcast players, if you’re in my podcast (the area that lists all the episodes) if you just scroll down to the bottom of the episodes, there will be a section to leave a review. So you can easily do it now—without even leaving this app on your phone or tablet.

⭐ To get a link to receive this checklist download and mini training FREE, leave me a review on the podcast, screenshot it, and upload it in this super simple google form: https://forms.gle/SVBJ9h82chQboWdz5

This is my thank you to you! You guys do so much to bless me. You show up and listen every episode. You participate in my surveys lollll. You send in your feedback. Many of you have already left a review and invested in me that way. And I’m also SO invested in your success.

I poured a ton of time and effort into this checklist and I know it will be a big help. Especially after hearing from everyone who grabbed a copy last week.

So take me up on this! And please know from the bottom of my heart how much I appreciate you.

That’s a wrap on our mini-episode for this week. I think it felt good! I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts too! Do we like this format? I’ll do another one in a few weeks and we’ll see how it goes.

And oh my gosh guys. Next week is going to be so epic. I’ve got a guest for you that is so different and so powerhouse. I was shocked and so excited when she said yes to coming on the podcast!! Y’all are in for a TREAT so do not- do not- do not miss next Thursday’s episode! I’m already geeking out.

I love you guys! Have a lovely week and until next time—go make something awesome!

 EPISODE DETAILS

Do you want to see better results in your Etsy shop? One of the fastest ways you can figure out what’s working well, what you need to improve, and how you can grow your Etsy sales is with a self-audit of your Etsy shop. Join me on this episode as I talk you through the process-- and you’ll be well on your way to more success on Etsy.

**“How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy” is not affiliated with or endorsed by Etsy.com

STUFF I MENTIONED:

Podcast Episode #73: Answering your Etsy FAQs: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/blog/Etsy-shop-faq

How to Self-Audit Your Etsy Shop http://www.EtsyShopAudit.com

To get a link to receive this checklist download and mini training FREE, leave me a review on the podcast, screenshot it, and upload it in this super simple google form: https://forms.gle/SVBJ9h82chQboWdz5

Book a coaching session with me: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/coaching

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FREE ETSY MASTERCLASS: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/masterclass

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD: “4 Strategies I Used to Grow My Etsy Shop from $25 to $6000k/month”: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/site/4-strategies-opt-in

Grab my Course “Etsy Listings that Sell” and learn how to skyrocket your Etsy business:

https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/etsy-listings-that-sell   

Find me on Instagram and TikTok @HowtoSellYourStuff

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HOW TO SELL YOUR STUFF WEBSITE: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/

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HOW TO SELL YOUR STUFF SHOWNOTES: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/blog/etsy-shop-audit 

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THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY:

Me! And the Resources section on my website. If you have questions specific to your personal niche on Etsy, you should definitely come check out my Resource page at www.HowtoSellYourStuff.com/Resources where I will connect you with my favorite free and paid resources created by experts I have personally vetted. Whether you sell POD, digital products, printable, physical products and more—there’s info waiting for you to help you on your Etsy journey! 

Recommended Resources: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/resources

 *Some of the links above are affiliate links which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. You can see my affiliate disclosure here: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/affiliate-disclosure