We talked about opening an Etsy shop for years. It took a while to finally do it because we were a little too comfortable with our other boring business. Yeah, we were making money but, I mean, who really likes accounting? The accountant we sold our business to has always wanted to be a fireman.
We had no idea how to get started selling online, and thought it would take years to start making money on Etsy, but finally, one day, we just did it. We made a mirror, posted it online, and SOLD IT THE SAME WEEK.
A few days later, we sold another mirror, and another. Then someone ordered a huge mudroom cabinet for almost $2,000 (!), and just a few months into our Etsy experiment, we had so many orders we had to come home early from a vacation. It was crazy.
It has only been three years, and have already:
- Sold our (boring) accounting business
- Transitioned into doing what we love, full-time
- Turned our hobby into our main source of income
- Made lovely things and shipped them all over the world!
We do NOT miss sitting at a desk under fluorescent lights. Are you ready to open your Etsy shop and turn it into a full-time business?!
Here are our Top 10 Tips for Etsy Success:
Tip 1: Sell useful things a lot of people want
Before opening our furniture shop, we developed an interest in quilting. Graeme’s resume is weird: contractor-accountant-quilter-carpenter. He was also my assistant back when I did photography and was ready to catch the baby when things happened rather quickly and the midwife wasn’t here yet. Graeme, Certified Carpenter Midwife.
Anyways…we decided to sell our quilts online and that went over like a bucket of farts. We made a few sales, but not enough to even pay for what we had already spent on sewing machines and fabric. Oopsie.
This is not to say quilts won’t do well on Etsy; there are very successful bedding shops on Etsy. OUR quilts just didn’t do well because we were only making rag quilts, which are very shabby and don’t appeal to everyone. Also, we didn’t think about what people wanted and what styles were trending. We only considered our own taste, and made a bunch of colorful stuff. The quilt we sold most frequently was gray and white. Oopsie numero due.
Guess which of these is still hanging out in my basement:
We never had this problem with the furniture shop because we started off making useful things that everyone wants. Everyone can do without a green rag quilt, but have you ever been to a house with no mirrors? Or a bathroom without a vanity or medicine cabinet?
Tip 2: Make things that are easy to make again
Another lesson our failed quilt shop taught us: Don’t make items so unique that you can only sell them once. If you’re only doing this for fun or if you already have a bunch of unique items that you want to sell online, then go for it.
But if you really want to make money on Etsy, you have to start making things you can easily duplicate. Going through the process of taking good photos, adding titles, descriptions, tags, and listing each item only to sell it once isn’t worth it. Keep selling the same awesome things over and over.
Tip 3: Take really good photos
This really isn’t hard to do. You don’t have to have a fancy camera or a lot of experience with photography or Photoshop. These skills definitely come in handy, of course, especially if you’re taking photos of mirrors and don’t want to appear in the reflection, like these hilarious guys.
All you really need is a simple background and a big window. There are so many bad photos on Etsy. Maybe the items are great in person, but if the photos look like my mom took them with her tablet, I’m not buying the thing.
This clean, professional photo of our walnut mirror is part of the reason why it’s one of the most popular items in our shop.
I recently found a listing for a bracelet. A very blurry bracelet on a very hairy wrist. Guess how many of those I bought? I’ve seen mirror selfies of people selling clothing, quilts draped over a couch from the 80s, and furniture casually posing in the middle of someone’s backyard. No thank you.
It’s also a good idea to take photos of your shop and process and add them to your about page.
Tip 4: Always offer FREE SHIPPING
There are two things that immediately make any listing more appealing: Good photos, and the words FREE SHIPPING. Include the cost of shipping in the price, and then offer free shipping. Everyone knows it’s only half-true. Everyone is still made very happy by this.
Tip 5: Use keywords, bullet points, and tags in listings
Think about what you would type in the search bar and that’s the title of your listing. We use four to five long-tail keywords in our listing titles, with dashes in between.
A long-tail keyword is actually several words put together, such as “Modern walnut mirror,” which is a much better listing name than just “Mirror,” which is too broad. Here’s an example of a title with long-tailed keywords from our shop:
We also keep descriptions short and to the point. What do people need to know before buying your item? This is what you need to include in your descriptions. Nothing else. The description area of your listings is not the place to get creative.
We usually use all thirteen tags in each listing, and always add the tag “shoebridgeandco”
Tip 6: Package things well
I used to think delivery guys cared. They do not. If you’re making and shipping breakable items, it is ESSENTIAL that you use high-quality packing materials.
Being extra careful and spending a little extra money on packing supplies is much better and cheaper than replacing a broken item.
Our airbag machine is wonderful. It’s much cheaper to buy your own machine than to buy bags already made, and it makes the same noise as the Everlasting Gobstopper machine from Willy Wonka’s factory. Win-win.
Just assume anything you ship is going to be handled by a very angry bear. Who is being chased by poop-flinging monkeys. I am pretty sure this is what happened with this package:
Amazing story…even though the delivery bear somehow threw this package off the balcony, there wasn’t much damage to the cabinet and the customer kept it.
Like I said, good packaging materials.
Tip 7: Make customer satisfaction a priority
Be nice. We had this one guy demand a replacement mirror because there was a tiny spot on the glass. He sent us a photo and we immediately knew the spot would come off if he just scratched it with his fingernail. We told the guy. He still wanted a replacement. We sent him a replacement. He sent the defiled mirror back. The spot came off with a fingernail.
Keep in mind, once you respond to a review, the customer who left the review can’t go back and edit it. If someone leaves an unhappy review, contact the customer directly and they might change their review. If you respond to it, it will forever stay the way it is. But, you know, try not to get bad reviews in the first place.
Tip 8: Don’t undersell yourself
We all tend to get a little too modest when pricing something we’ve made. This also happens when someone compliments your outfit and you’re like, “Haha, this old thing…I found it in the dumpster behind a thrift store.”
It’s often easier to find things we admire in others and harder to appreciate good things about ourselves. If your friend made the very same thing you’re trying to sell, you would probably encourage your friend to charge more than you would charge for the same thing yourself.
If you love what you do, you are putting a lot of care and effort into your work and you deserve to get paid for it. Also, people shopping on Etsy are willing to pay more. They probably have a Walmart near them, but they are going online for something handmade from you! They want to pay you!
Tip 9: It’s okay to turn custom orders down
It was really exciting to take on custom projects at first because YEAH! People like what we’re doing so much that they chose us to make something for them! So special. And also, time consuming.
We recently realized it’s more profitable and efficient to only make standard items and turn down custom order requests.
Custom orders might be a good thing for you if you’re just getting started, or if what you make is very straightforward and simple, but usually, people who request a custom item are very particular and it can be a hassle trying to make someone’s very specific dream come true.
We’ve made custom things for people before, exactly to their specifications, and then have them ask if they can return the item because it just looked different in their minds. We have decided to stop trying to access our customer’s minds, and now our new policy is:
WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET. Praise the Lord.
Tip 10: Set a long wait time and use vacation mode
When we first opened our shop, we set the wait time to 2-3 weeks. We got so many orders and so many white hairs we couldn’t keep up with shipping and plucking. It took us a long time to finally make the switch to 6-8 weeks, and that’s been a lot more manageable.
We always thought sales would drop with a longer wait time, but customers are willing to wait several weeks to get a high-quality, handmade item.
We’re still getting so many sales we have to put the shop on vacation mode every few months, to catch up. This is a great way to focus on existing orders, without getting overwhelmed with new ones coming in every day.
If you follow these Etsy tips, soon you’ll be putting your own shop on vacation mode because you’re getting SO MANY ORDERS!
I’m serious. This will happen to you. This is real life.
Whatever you make, you can sell on Etsy. The possibilities are endless.
Here are just a few examples of things sold in super successful Etsy shops:
- Stickers for day planners
- Chocolate chip cookies
- A succulent planter shaped like a butt
- Baby bedding (that is actually cool, unlike our failed attempt)
- Downloadable art (AMAZING way to make a profit; hardly any expense)
- A Trump-themed birthday card that says “Happy birthday, you bad hombre”
- Jewelry, beads, and charms
- Party favors and sparkly festive paraphernalia of all sorts
- Baby bows that your baby will rip off but you keep buying anyway
- Face masks. These are fun to browse for because the models still try to look sexy.
I hope these ten tips for Etsy success have been helpful! This is just scratching the surface, so tell me, what else do you need to know before taking the plunge and starting your own Etsy shop?
We’ve been living like this for three years now and would love to help you get started selling online! This is definitely doable, you really can make a living this way, and you don’t need very much to get started.
So I’d love to know…
What’s holding you back? And how can we help you take the next step?!
I would really, really like to hear from you!
Seriously.
Get in touch.
Let’s do this thing.
Send me an email or leave a comment below!
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