Within 12 hours of opening up my Etsy shop, I made my first sale. With in 72 hours, I have made 3 sales on Etsy and have grossed my first $100 selling mostly $4.00 items across the platforms I’m selling on.
According to some info pages I’ve read, I should have expected my first sale to come in about a week after opening. But I don’t think it was an accident or fluke that my sale came in a lot sooner than expected.
Through being strategic and following the advice below , I’ve gotten my Etsy shop off to a great start.
And If you’re thinking about opening up a shop, you can do that same.
Opening up a craft shop is something that I thought and planned about for nearly 2 years. I had it on my 2020 vision board that I was going to open up a little shop that year focused around planner accessories.
Well, we all know hoe 2020 panned out.
I didn’t get around to it then, but at the end of 2020, I set a hard date for myself of when I would open up my shop, no matter what.
March 8th 2021 came around, and that day was crazier than I could have ever imagined. My husband ended up having to work double shifts for this week, leaving me with the kids all day and night as I was trying to get everything in order.
I was up until about 11 the night before making sure that I had everything in order for my shops online and then woke up at 6am and officially opened my shop for business around 7am.
I was relived when I finally opened up and told my self that I was g=only going to focus on traffic for that day.
I wasn’t expecting to make any sales.
That is because for all the benefits Etsy offers to newer shops, it’s a completive platform.
There are millions of small business shops on Etsy, and hundreds of thousands of shops in my niche.
So how was I able to start making sales so quickly? By utilizing Etsy Ads and good ol’ SEO.
Etsy Ads
Etsy Ads aren’t like any of the ads that I’ve purchased before. Unlike Google, Facebook and Instagram, there are no perimeters for you to set. You simply tell Etsy what your daily limit is and which products you are promoting.
That is it.
This means that having good keywords for your products is vital for getting them in front of the right people.
I’m by no means an Etsy expert, but I have found it extremely difficult to get good analytics from Etsy as a new store owner. So I have turned to tools such as Marmalead and Keywords Everywhere to do good keyword research.
I started by looking up high preforming products in my niche. For example, I’m selling planner accessories, so I looked up planner accessories similar to my own on Etsy.
I looked at how they constructed their titles and wrote their description. I wrote all that information down and then looked them up using Maramalead and Keywords Everywhere.
I like Marmalead because it makes it easy to do trend research and compare multiple keywords to see which will be the best fit for me. Maramlead will also give each of your listing a grade so that you can see where you. should tweak them for better results.
Keywords Everywhere has also been a great tool. Etsy Ads is annoying in that they don’t disclose how they charge your for running your ads anymore.
Well, the quick answer is, the charge rate is based on the competitiveness of the keywords that you use in your listing. Certain keyword can cost as much as $.80 to a $1.20 pre click! That is a lot, especially seeing that Etsy has a small limit on how much you can spend per day as a smaller business.
Using Keywords Everywhere, I can look up different keywords on Etsy see how competitive they are and get estimate on how much they’ll cost pre click. This information has really helped me narrow down which keywords I really want to be using and manage my budget.
I used these two tool and made sure that I used all 13 keyword tags available to me for each product in order to get he maximum benefit from Etsy Ads.
Good Product Photos
Along with using good keywords, I also made sure that I had good product photos. People are visual for the most par. Especially with not being able to inspect the products first, having quality images that really showcase your product will help give customers the confidence to day from you.
Be sure to use all 10 slots for photos. This will give potential buyers the chance to look through your products and see them from different angles. And if you can, also upload a video so that they can get an even better idea of how it is use.
After doing some research and testing out myself, I have found that clean looking lifestyle thumbnails work the best on Etsy. Get creative and really highlight your product.
Be sure to have a mix of lifestyle and product type photography available on your listing page so that customers can get a good understanding of what they are browsing.
And you don’t need a fancy camera to get started too.
Most cellphone cameras nowadays allow you to capture quality images with good natural lighting. And you can use apps like Lightroom on your phone to edit images for free.
Of the customers that I’ve had on Etsy thus far, all of them have told me that they loved the photos that I have listed. So absolutely spend some time getting good photos in order before you open up shop.
What I’m learning is that Etsy is a complexed and completive platform, but there is space for new comers too if you take the time to learn, explore and develop yourself.
I’ve opened my shop up just under 2 months ago at this point. There is still so much to learn about Etsy’s platform, but I’m excited to share the journey with ya’ll.
I had meant to do a full check in in April, you know, life with a toddler baby and pregnancy kicked in lol. For now, I’m excited to have had a successful launch and for anyone getting ready to open their own shop, I’m wishing the same for you!
If you’re opening up shop soon, leave your store info down below and let us know what you’re selling.