I have been on Etsy for just over a year, and during that time I have made lots of mistakes, more than 5! However, these are definitely the ones you'll want to avoid, if you want to see rapid growth of your Etsy shop!
I have now managed to get my shop making around 5- 10 orders per day and for a new small business, I am pretty happy with that. So if you want to learn how you can grow your Etsy sales, keep reading to hear my top 5 mistakes!
5. Not making my tags specific enough
Tags are important, these are your keywords to get your listings found on Etsy search, as well as other search engines. These keywords need to be specific for the item you are selling.
If they are too general, you will get lost in a sea of thousands of listings.
Having specific tags means that you are more likely to get your listing in front of people who have searched for that specific item, therefore are more likely to make a purchase!
Make sure that the keywords you use as tags are also featured in your listing title, and product description, this gives you an even better chance of being found. These keywords are important for SEO (search engine optimisation).
4. Setting my prices too low
Coming in at number 4 is the pricing situation. This can be tricky when you first start because you panic that if you set your prices too high, no one will buy your items (I've been there). This is usually not true, and there are a few issues with this mind set. Setting your prices too low may lead the buyer to think your items are poor quality, because we subconsciously relate high prices to high-quality and low prices to low-quality.
Furthermore, setting your prices too low means running the risk of burnout due to having so many orders that you physically cannot keep up with them. By raising your prices, it means you don't have to work as hard to earn the same amount of profit (sounds good, right!). It also means you can run sales without losing out.
I recommend having a look on Etsy and seeing how other sellers price similar items to the ones you sell, and find some kind of middle ground, remember to factor in your time!
3. Not offering free shipping
As annoying as it may be, Etsy favours sellers that offer free shipping. When I first set up an Etsy shop, I was very confused as to how people were able to offer free shipping without losing money. I kept thinking that I would have to sacrifice a little extra profit just to get in Etsy good books, (ranking higher in the algorithm) therefore making more sales. No, you do not need to lose out. Make sure to include your shipping price within the cost of the item if you want to offer free shipping. What the buyer cannot see, they won't worry about! As a buyer we would rather choose the item which has free shipping over the item that doesn't (another subconscious decision we make).
2. Not having good photographs
Studying photography at uni, you'd think I'd have nailed this one, however this wasn't the case.
I started taking images with lots of different backdrops and flower props, however nowadays, I have realised that the simpler the background, the better. Keeping the background clean and bright allows the buyer to really see the product and not be distracted by lots of surrounding objects. I have found that this works well and makes my listings stand out amongst the other, more busy looking listings. So perhaps consider ditching all the fancy stuff and go for a minimalistic approach instead!
Make sure you have high-quality images, using your phone is perfectly fine, but make sure the camera on it is high quality and can take crisp images. Etsy favours sellers with high-quality images and as a buyer if the product images are not good, it makes me feel like the shop owner doesn't value their products very highly, therefore, why should I?
1. Not having renewable listings
Okay so, number 1! The most important mistake which stopped my Etsy shop from growing was not having listings that I could renew over and over again. In case you didn't know, Etsy runs on momentum, the more sales you make the better you will rank, this means getting bumped up above other sellers, e.g. getting on the first page when someone searches for your product. Having one off products which you cannot renew will not keep that momentum going, and your listings simply won't be ranking very high. If you can, try to create a product which you can recreate and sell on repeat. You should see good results from this little tip!
So, that was my top 5 mistakes I made when I first started an Etsy shop! I really hope this was helpful in some way, and I hope you can boost your sales with this information.
Leave a comment if you found this helpful, and drop some of your mistakes below if you have any! Leave a like if you enjoyed, it helps me out a lot!
Thanks for reading!
Laura x
