Creative Business: 5 Tips for Selling on Etsy
I have had a lot of friends ask me about selling on Etsy, and I have cut and pasted these 5 tips into many an email, so I thought I would share them with my blog readers too, in case anyone is thinking of taking the leap and starting an online shop...
1. Pictures are very important. Take pictures outside
in natural sunlight for the best lighting. Around noon is usually
best.
2. Price a little higher than you think you should. This is one that I
struggle with. I have a hard time valuing my art and the time gone into
it, so I tend to undercharge. I've heard so many people say that when
they raised their prices, they ended up getting more sales. Etsy is
weird that way. The higher the price, the greater the perceived value
becomes, so people are more likely to buy expensive things rather than
cheap things, even in this economy. Weird, but I heard many times over
that it works.
3. Don't list everything all at once one night when you are just
starting out. Your visibility on the site will be greater if you list
one thing per night at about 6pm. This is supposedly the best time for
listing - right after work but right before dinner. If you are in a
listing mood and want to list a bunch at once, you can save those
listings as drafts and just publish them one at a time each night.
4. Your keywords should go in the shop title, because this is where
Google takes its data from. Go to shop>info and appearances>shop
title and type in your most important search terms.
5. Make sure you fill out everything you can on your shop info so
that people get to know you. Buying handmade is a lot about buying from
the actual person behind the shop. Filling out your profile and your
location are important factors so that buyers feel like they know who
you are.
I hope these tips were helpful to some of you!
Do you have an online shop? Or are you thinking of starting one?
Leave a comment below, and let me know! :)
Hi Tessa. Number 3 really isn't the case anymore since Etsy changed its search engine from recency to relevancy last fall. It is more beneficial to have more items up that are titled and tagged properly. The first 3 words in the title are most important. For your tote I would use 'screen print tote' followed by whatever the title of the piece is such as 'screen print tote - glam girl'. The tags should almost be a little redundant keeping in mind what keywords shoppers may use when searching for your item such as screen print tote, cotton tote, screen print bag, etc. If you keep refining these you can find your items on the first few pages of a search on Etsy. I think this is counter intuitive when listing art as we as artists would love to use the title of the piece as the title of the listing. It does make the titles a little wonky but I guess you can't sell if you are not seen:) On the upside it saves money as we no longer have to relist constantly to be seen.
ReplyDeleteVery helpful advice! I'm collecting tips for starting my shop. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteCindy,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your input! I didn't know that, and I really appreciate your advice. :)
Ruthie,
You're so welcome! Good luck with starting your shop. :)
Thanks for this post. I'm just starting out on Etsy and it's very helpful!
ReplyDelete