Interested in building a business that centers on your artistic side? Etsy could be the best platform to monetize your talent. Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade trinkets, vintage items, and arts and crafts supplies. If you want to start up a shop on Etsy, here’s your beginner guide to selling on Etsy.
What is Etsy?
As mentioned earlier, Etsy is an online marketplace for art pieces, vintage items, handmade crafts, art supplies, and more. It is a community that shares a common interest in rare art pieces. It is the best place for craft hobbyists, artists, vintage collectors, and unique finds enthusiasts.
Etsy boasts of its millions of one-of-a-kind pieces that you won’t find anywhere else. The majority of its sellers directly produce the items being sold in the marketplace, making it the perfect place to sell anything personalized.
Reasons why you should start selling on Etsy
Here are several reasons why you should put up an Etsy store.
- Your items are crafty and unique.
- You want to test the waters first before fully investing in your business.
- The Etsy marketplace drives organic traffic to your store.
- You can do the work alone—no license needed.
- An Etsy store is easy to manage.
- It is relatively cheap to get started.
A step-by-step guide to selling on Etsy
Here are the few steps you need to do in successfully creating your Etsy store:
1. Sign up for an account.
The first step is registering on the Etsy website. Proceed to the website and register as a member.
2. Open your shop.
You can only proceed with opening a shop through a desktop web browser. Here’s the breakdown of opening a shop on Etsy:
- Click Sell on Etsy at the upper right of your homepage.
- Click Open your Etsy shop.
- Choose the shop language, country, currency, and click Save and continue.
- Input your store name, and click Save and continue.
Once done setting up, you may now manage your store through the Etsy app.
3. Create listings in your shop.
Once your store is set up, you can now start listing items up for sale. Here are some tips on listing your items on Etsy:
- Upload high-quality photos of your products.
- Write a detailed description of the products, including sizes, color, material, features, and more.
- Add keyword tags for search-ability on the platform.
4. Place the right price.
In setting your listings’ price, you should consider the Etsy seller fees you’ll be charged. That’s why you need to fully understand how Etsy takes a cut on your sales to arrive at a fair price point.
Understanding Etsy fees
Here are the Etsy seller costs you need to consider in setting the prices of your items.
Listing fees
Etsy charges 20 cents for each listing you add. This fee allows your listing to be available on the site for four months. Once the four-month period is up, you can renew it for another 20 cents.
Transaction fees
Transaction fees refer to the service charge of using the platform. The site charges 5% of the total item price, including the shipping costs of the customer.
Advertising fees
Etsy allows the prominent feature of items according to its keyword. And you can have this option if you are willing to pay the fees. This option will enable you to increase your visibility across the platform.
Payment processing fees
Etsy places additional fees for customers who use a credit card via Etsy’s direct checkout option. This fee amounts to 3% of the total price plus 25 cents.
PayPal fees
Etsy charges a fee every time a customer pays via PayPal. This cost amounts to 2.9% of the total amount plus 30 cents per transaction.
Shipping fees
The platform also charges a shipping label fee for FedEx, USPS, and Canada Post. These fees may vary according to a package’s origin and destination.
VAT
The value-added tax (VAT) depends on the geographical location.
Keep these charges in mind in setting the prices of your items. This way, you can ensure your profits for every item sold.
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Successful tips for selling on Etsy
Here are some tips for selling successfully on Etsy.
1. Master your photography skills.
It’s no secret that the more enticing your photos are, the more likely it is to intrigue people. That’s why high-quality images are highly encouraged. This also pertains to the consistency of your lighting, style, and setup. That said, you need to brush up on your photography skills, and you can do so with this online photography course.
2. Create consistent branding.
If you are only starting to sell online, Etsy is the perfect place to build your brand from the ground up. Here, you can design your store according to your brand, objectives, audience, and products. You can maximize the custom use of banners, avatars, background images, and more to have consistent branding. After all, consistency is visually pleasing, most especially for artistic audiences.
3. Be customer-oriented.
Customer experience is one of the most crucial aspects of selling. Thus, you need to provide excellent customer service, which is possible by being responsive, honest, and courteous. Ensure that you set the right expectations, especially with how your products look like in person.
4. Maximize your social media.
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing strategies you could employ in your business. You can share your listings or your Etsy store across different social media to maximize your reach.
And the best part about it is you don’t need to be a social media wizard to ace it; you only need a couple of social media strategies to unlock success. If you want to boost your store reach, here’s an online mastery class for social media to take with you.
5. Utilize social proofs.
Social proofs help encourage other potential customers to buy your items. These validate the product quality, transaction experience, and shipping details. You can ask past customers to leave a review on your listing to know how happy they are with your purchase. As an incentive, you can even offer an incentive or voucher for their next purchase in exchange for good feedback or tagging your product across their socials.
6. Justify your price.
Pricing is always a crucial aspect to consider when buying things. When your products are higher than the average, you need to justify that price point. And that is possible by highlighting the quality of the product or even its uniqueness.
Cheap products are tempting, but quality always comes first before the price. That said, leverage the product’s strongest features to justify the price.
7. Ensure your item descriptions are clear and striking.
Your item descriptions are powerful in encouraging customers to buy from you. Instead of writing generic and incomplete details, put in the effort of writing compelling copies for your listings. This can skyrocket your product impressions in no time.
8. Use SEO to your advantage.
If you are not familiar with what search engine optimization (SEO) is, it is optimizing your site to rank higher on the search results page. With just a few simple tweaks on your store, you can enjoy a first-page listing on the search engine. That’s why many businesses are utilizing this marketing effort to increase reach and generate more sales.
Some SEO practices you can apply in your Etsy store include the following:
- Writing keyword-filled headlines and descriptions
- Linking a listing to another listing
- Linking your listing to social media and earning link backs from past customers or review blogs
Treat this article as your complete guide to selling on Etsy. If you need a more comprehensive resource, here’s a top-caliber online course we recommend for you: Start An Etsy Business For Beginners.
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