Podcast Episode 23: If you want to make more sales on Etsy, check these 8 things

This week’s episode has to start with a thank you to you guys! We are officially 6 months in to this podcast—I can’t even BELIEVE IT. But creating this show and getting to know so many of you guys has been such a joy and an honor. This is the most fun work I have ever done. Seriously.

And thank you--- ALSO--- because last week was a big freakin’ week for this podcast thanks to y’all! Over the weekend, we were ranked the #8 Marketing Podcast in the United States according to Chartable.com! Like—we were up there with heroes of mine like Jenna Kutcher, Amy Porterfield, Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner. It was a major “pinch me” moment, for sure!

Those numbers change daily as new episodes drop and each podcast continues to do their thing—but for now--- I’m celebrating! And I own this to all of you and your continued support of this podcast. From the bottom of my heart--- thank you!!! And I will continue to deliver the highest quality content I can--- with amazing guests, inspiring stories, needle moving tips, and all of the strategy I can bring you each week!

But thank you for listening each week, for subscribing! Thank you for those of you who have taken the time to rate and review. Thank you for sharing these episodes with your friends and family. From the bottom of my heart—thank you!

And finally—I can’t quite wrap up this intro without telling you that I had a TikTok go semi-viral last week lollllll – so if you found me on TikTok WELCOME!!! And if you don’t follow me on Tiktok yet and you want to – come join the party! I’m @HowToSellYourStuff on Tiktok and Instagram.

The Tiktok that went crazy was promoting last week’s episode (#22) with Anastasia who shared about creating a passive income on Etsy. I’m still catching my breath to be honest! And THANK YOU Anastasia—a) for bring such quality to last week’s episode AND b) for the TikTok tips you gave me that I know for sure helped this happen. So if you haven’t checked out that episode or Anastasia quite yet—do it! You’re in for a treat. And I will link them in the shownotes for you!

So with all of that—which was so fun to share with you guys--- let’s get into today’s topic!

I know firsthand how frustrating it can be when you’ve done all this work to create a product, and set up your shop, and take photos, and do the research, and plan your packaging--- and then you open your Etsy shop and hit publish on that first listing ----- and you kind of brace yourself and wonder what’s going to happen?! Will I sell out right away? Do I have enough boxes? Am I prepared for a rush? LOL!

And then, at least it my case 6 yeas ago when I started on Etsy--- it was crickets!! Ugh… it was the worst. When days and days went by without sales, I remembering wondering if Etsy was too saturated or my product wasn’t good enough or if I would ever crack the Etsy code.

But then, once emotions settled… I started thinking reasonably and I defaulted to my super power (which happens to be yours, too by the way). RESEARCH. If we keep studying, keeping tweaking, keep testing, keep improving---- eventually we find our way. I have done it again and again in business. And it will work for you, too if you don’t give up!

So what does that mean? Well, let’s get into some really specific examples, shall we?

If you’re not getting the Etsy sales you want, there are 8 things that you should check in your shop and maybe do some refining! Let’s drill down into some tips here:

 1) Are people currently buying your product?

I’m going to get a heck of lot more specific than this—but to start, please ask yourself and answer honestly: are people actually buying your product from other shops right now?

Is it trending? At least on some level?

If you’re not sure—do some basic Etsy research. Search your product and find the top players in your niche. Look for the bestseller badge on their products, or see if they have listings that show that “20 people have this in their cart” notification. Look for the trending badge. Hunt for those little cues that tell us that the product is selling right now.

And a mini-tip here is --- you can’t compare your current sales to the holiday season sales. For the vast majority of shops--- the holidays are where they make a huge portion of their annual income. So for more of you—it’s expected that January will be a bit slow.

2 ) Is your shop niched down?

If this is a new concept for you--- all it means is this—have you picked a very specific type of person that you are marketing your products to?

This is one of the biggest mistakes that Etsy sellers make—they think they need to appeal to as many people as possible to make sales. (Don’t worry if this is you—I *STILL* have to talk myself out of this one!)

What you really want to do is get super specific (or niche) about who you’re targeting. Because then--- you’ll know what colors they like, style they like, words they use, stuff they want… etc.

So if you sell sweatshirts--- don’t just use the word “sweatshirts.” Get really specific--- like “leopard print sweatshirts for Grandma” or “leopard print gift for grandma.”

If you sell candles--- figure out who you’re selling to. Don’t just sell “handmade candles”—sell “handmade soy candles for gen z.”

If you sell cards to teaches--- get specific! Use phrases like “Thank you card for Drama teacher.”

Get the picture?

I know it can be tempting to try to attract everyone to your shop—but what you really need to do is to help people decide very definitively in their minds if your shop or product is absolutely FOR them—or not. You want the exact right person to be like “YES—I need that!” Because so long as it’s a maybe, most shoppers will keep scrolling. They don’t want to spend hard earned cash on maybes—they’re saving it for their “heck yeses.”

3 )Do you have the right keywords in your Titles and Tags?

Once you’ve figured out your niche--- it’s time to make sure you have the right search terms and phrases in your product title, your tags, and your product description (for good measure!).

The key to this is—do your research! You need to find out what search terms your perfect customer is using to describe your product. This can be a bit of a mind meld. I remember when I first opened my shop—the words that I used to describe my product and the words my ideal customer used were quite different.

You can do this research by going to the Etsy search bar. Start typing a phrase to describe your product and see if Etsy search finishes the phrase for you--- when something is often searched on Etsy--- the search tool will auto-populate it in a list of terms below the bar.

You can also take a look at the other sellers in your niche and see what terms they’re using. Look for sellers with lots of sales and reviews. Pay attention to the “Bestseller” badge on products or those little prompts that say “20 people have this in their basket”—that’s how you know something sells well!

The key here is to study several high performing shops and use a combination of those great key phrases. Don’t just copy and paste someone’s whole title to use—because a) you’re shooting yourself in the foot—that shop has the stronger foothold in the algorithm and they’ll win the search every time. You don’t want to compete in the big leagues until you have the credibility and shop strength to actually compete. b) it’s also a bit slimy and frowned upon to copy keywords. So use a combination of phrases and words you mine from studying several shops and listings.

If you’d like me to walk you through this a bit more—I’d suggest you check out my free Etsy masterclass! I’ll go into more detail and you’ll get to see some visuals to help explain the strategy. You can grab it at HowtoSellYourStuff.com/masterclass and of course, it’s linked in the shownotes for you!

4) Does your about section create trust?

I’m always so surprised to visit someone’s Etsy shop and see an empty about section! Guys! This is such low hanging fruit!!

The Etsy platform itself creates some level of trust with shoppers--- but that has been damaged a bit over the past few years with shoppers having bad experiences with some sellers. They KNOW it’s a mixed bag--- so for your shop--- you need to help them know, like, and trust you. And that means you need info in your about section.

If your shop profile picture is a logo—(and even if it isn’t) you want to make your seller profile picture is a headshot. Shoppers want to feel connected to a human—and feel like they can trust that human to take care of them through their purchase.

In your about section—share a bit about yourself. What made you start an Etsy shop? Why do you make what you make? What else can you share about your life that will be relatable?

And I’d encourage you to include photos and/or videos in the about section too. You have a very short period of time to help a shopper trust you enough to buy--- so use it wisely and create some connection in your about section. 😊

5) Do your pictures jump out in the feed

Ok so at the end of the day—the two biggest components of Etsy are 1) your SEO (search engine optimization) which is simply—do your product titles and tags contain the same words that your ideal, niche customer would use to describe your product.

And 2) when you show up in the search results—do your pictures jump out in the feed? When they are next to all of your competitors product photos--- do your pictures capture the shopper’s attention.

One way to test this is to get the bird’s eye view for yourself. So-- a few days after you create a listing, go to a new browser—open a fresh Etsy.com that you’re not logged into-- and use a main keyword from your product title. Go through as many pages of search results as you have to in order to find your product.

(This will be eye-opening, too! It’s important to note how far a customer has to go to find you. You may need to refine your keywords if you’re too far out)

One you find your listing---- take an objective look at your photo in that cluster of photos. Do you stand out? Do any other photos look better? Ask yourself why. This will likely inspire some new photo ideas for you too.

6) Do your listings answer FAQs?

I wish I’d figured this one out years ago! I’m so excited to give you this tip.

Here’s the bottom line—if a customer can’t quickly and easily find the answer to their questions--- 99% of the time they will scroll on to the next listing. It’s only the unicorn who will DM you. Lollll

Sooo- you need to make sure you answer every possible FAQ in as many places as you can.

Etsy actually allows you to create a FAQ section for your shop—so utilize that for sure. If you’re not sure where to do that—I’ll link a resource in the shownotes.

Most sellers put all of the data in the item description—which is great—absolutely do that. Your super detail oriented shoppers will love that and read every word.

But the secret, I’ve found, is to get that info into your photo gallery! It’s the one place that pretty much every shopper looks at in detail. So make it easy to find the answers! Create cute little graphics on Canva.com (I’ll link this for you in case you’re not familiar with it—it’s a website that helps you make gorgeous graphics!)

So for example--- for years I’ve run a sign shop where we sell farmhouse style signs. My photo galleries have product pictures, but then also pics that show the dimensions, the colors choices in more detail, the hangers we suggest, how the hardware works.

Do something like this--- if you sell jewelry—make sure the sizing (both on a chart AND visually) is explained on a graphic in your gallery.

If you sell printables or some other digital product—make sure you have a graphics that tell the shopper that it’s a digital download and nothing will be mailed to them. Have a graphic that explains how to print your product.

If you sell vintage--- make sure you have a graphic that tells customers you only have one! It’s a one-of-a-kind product and you can’t make more.

Hopefully this helps you get the picture!

7) How does your pricing compare to your biggest competitors?

After a shopper finds you, likes your product photo, and has their questions answered from your listing--- they’re going to look at pricing.

If your products aren’t selling the way you want them to—how does your pricing compare (also accounting for shipping) to your competitors?

When I first start a new shop, I usually price a bit below the top players so that I can get a food-hold in the market. Once you have sales and reviews to help give your shop credibility, you’ll be more able to compete on the same price point.

So just do a solid apples-to-apples comparison with other shops that are making sales and see if you need to make any adjustments.

If you’re super low on pricing—that can actually hurt you! It gives the impression that your product is low quality in the market. So find sellers who are selling a very similar item to you—and shoot for just below their pricing to start. (again—accounting for shipping)

8) How far out is your turn around time?

This is a big one now in the world of Amazon! People don’t want to wait for their order. So make it snappy! LOL!

If you’re making a handmade item to order—you can get away with 1-2 weeks to ship. At least, I do without a hitch.

But if you are brand new to the marketplace especially, you want to keep those turn around times as fast as you can. That will help prevent complaints, cancellations, and people hounding you for their order in the DMs.

So one reason you may not be getting the sales you’d like is your turn around time is too long.

Actually—sometimes I use turn around time as a strategy if we’re getting a ton of orders and I know I won’t be able to keep up. I will slow them down by pushing out the turn around time or maybe raising the pricing a little bit. And it works—just that tweak to turn around time from 1-2 weeks to 2-3 weeks always slows the orders a bit. Then I catch up—catch my breath haha-- and bring my turn around time back to normal.

That’s our list! Over the past 6 years of being a full-time Etsy seller—these are the linchpins! This is where you need to dig in and study and tweak in order to get your sales up to where you want them to be.

I hope this was helpful and I always encourage you--- DM me with your questions! I love meeting you guys and your questions are excellent! I always help when I can and they help me formulate topics to cover for the podcast. Let me know what else you want to hear about.

As we wrap up today--- I’ve got a quick question for ya! Would you like a free coaching session with me so I can help you get your Etsy shop to the next level?

You heard that right--- I’m going to kick off a little contest for you guys! For the next 3 weeks--- I’m inviting you to rate and write a review for the podcast--- and anyone who does will be entered into a drawing to win a FREE 30 minute one-on-one Etsy coaching session with me! I’m going to pick TWO winners—and they’ll each get 30 minutes on zoom with me.

I will announce the winners on February 17th’s episode—so make sure you tune in! Apple podcasts for example won’t give me your contact info-- so I will read the reviews that the two winners wrote and invite them to reach out to schedule their free session at that point! If you’ve already written a review (I am SO grateful for you!)—you can also enter the drawing too by emailing me a written testimonial for my website at [email protected]  I’m not leaving anyone out! 😊

Well my friends—that’s what I’ve got for you this week! I’ll see you on TikTok hahaha! See you on Instagram! And see you right here next week. Go create something!

EPISODE DETAILS

Are you struggling to get Etsy sales and you're not sure why? Don't worry! That's totally normal and we can get to the bottom of it quickly! Today we're going over 8 things to check in your shop to make sure you're set up for success. 

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

STUFF I MENTIONED:

**3 Week Contest to win a FREE 30-minute one-on-one Etsy coaching session on zoom with me! Rate the podcast and write a review before 2/10 to enter the drawing! I will draw two winners from the bunch and they’ll each get a free 30-minute coaching session. Tune in on 2/17 to find out if you won.***

Find me on Instagram and TikTok @HowtoSellYourStuff

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtosellyourstuff/

My viral TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdrUJmD6/

Last week’s podcast: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/blog/passive-income-on-etsy

ANASTASIA'S INFO:

Anastasia’s eCourse for Digital Products on Etsy--> Passive Potential:

https://bit.ly/34s90ZG 

free webinar:  https://bit.ly/33eatCh 

tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@anastasiastemplates

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anastasiastemplates/

Lizzie’s FREE ETSY MASTERCLASS: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/masterclass

How to set up your FAQ section: https://seller-tools.com/community/p/165/faq-for-your-etsy-shop#:~:text=To%20add%20an%20FAQ%20just,%22Frequently%20asked%20questions%22%20section.

Canva.com for creating easy graphics: https://partner.canva.com/c/2545784/647168/10068

Send a written testimonial for my website to enter the drawing: [email protected]

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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 eCourse “Listings that Sell” and learn how to skyrocket your Etsy business:

https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/offers/Xo52uqVF

Find me on Instagram and TikTok @HowtoSellYourStuff

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

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

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

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You can grab it today--- it’s available on demand at HowtoSellYourStuff.com/masterclass

*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