As an Etsy owner, you may feel stuck in the mud. Whether you’re looking for new products, your first sale, or want to scale your store to new heights and reach your business goals, boosting your sales on Etsy can be daunting.
In this guide, we aim to lift the veil behind how to get sales rolling into your Etsy store by giving you practical tips, so you can finally get over the hump.
Put Yourself in the Shopper’s Shoes
View your store through the lens of a prospective buyer. Imagine someone searching for a relevant keyword and stumbling onto your product page.
Then ask yourself the following questions:
- Do all of the elements within my product page match their intent?
- Does your product page look presentable on all devices, including the mobile app, mobile website, and desktop site?
- Is it easy for them to find the information they’re looking for?
- Is it easy to understand what you offer?
- Is your product on-par with your competitors within the same keyword search?
Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, constantly visited his competition’s store across the street to see what they were doing.
In the same way, make sure to analyze your competition so that you can provide a better customer experience than your competitors.
Write High Converting Product Description
Product descriptions provide your visitors with the product’s key features and specifications. However, they should clearly outline the benefits they receive from your product.
Great product descriptions can help build trust, especially if you sound professional yet inject some personality into your copy.
Think about the opposite. Imagine a lackluster product description with grammatical mistakes. This often hurts your brand reputation and can quickly lower conversion rates.
Here are some general tips for writing persuasive product descriptions that lead to more sales:
- Place the most important details of your product at the beginning. It’ll quickly satisfy the searcher’s intent and encourage them to be in the right place.
- Make your product description scannable. This means including keywords and prioritizing the most crucial information. Many shoppers will simply skim through your description, so only highlight the key elements.
- Focus on the benefits, not the features. For example, instead of saying socks are made from 100% cotton, you can mention they’re incredibly soft and cozy, perfect for chilly evenings.
- Link to other products in your shop. Etsy lets you add URLs within your description if they lead to another page inside the platform. This is a great way to subtly inform them about your other products, especially if they’re closely related.
- Write in a first or second-person voice as you tell the story of your products. Imagine you’re conversing with your customer; using the word “I” can make it feel more authentic.
- Use keywords. Study your Etsy Shop Stats to identify the most used keywords and add them to your description to drive more sales.
- Break up your text. This means using bullet points and short paragraphs for easier readability.
- Appeal to the customer’s imagination: You should paint a vivid picture of how a customer can use your product. Appealing to their senses is a great way to do so. For example, words like refreshing, zesty, sparkling, velvety, and warm are sensory words.
Take Eye-Catching Product Photos
Captivating product photos is one of the driving forces determining whether a shopper buys or leaves your shop. It’s often the first impression and helps to build buyer trust.
Taking great photos starts with where you take them, how you use your camera, and how you light them. Here are a few pointers to help you take compelling listing photos:
- Use natural sunlight. Soft lighting enhances the aesthetics and means you don’t need to use flash, which can create an unnatural appearance or dark shadows.
- Creatively compose your photos. Capture images in different environments to discover the best setting to highlight your item. For example, you can choose lifestyle shots to help shoppers feel better connected to your product.
- Don’t zoom. The zoom feature often makes the image blurry, resulting in lower-quality pictures. Instead, physically move closer or further away.
- Clean your camera lens. A dirty lens prevents the ability to capture clear and crisp photos that focus on the item.
- Leave space around your product. Ensure the frame is far enough to view the entire product with extra space around the item. This helps when you need to crop your thumbnail of the listing image.
Images make all the difference in the world, so spend time optimizing each photo to convey your item’s best features.
Use Email Marketing
A shopper has successfully bought from you – congratulations! But how do you keep your customers around?
The secret is email marketing. An email list lets you keep in contact with your customers. It’s great for updating your store, informing them about promotions, or even getting feedback or input on new product designs.
You can leverage advanced email marketing strategies like segmentation to send tailored email campaigns based on their interest. Let’s say you sent customers a survey to gauge their interests. This lets you sell designs that fit what they already like.
Leverage the Power of Pinterest to Promote Your Shop
Sellers who know how to leverage social media can further bolster their sales and have greater potential to earn more since they aren’t only reliant on the Etsy search rankings or the algorithm.
While there are many social media platforms, Pinterest is the perfect place to market your products and get users to your Etsy store. With 450 million monthly active users, this platform allows people to explore their interests and find products like yours.
The more people are pinning and repinning your products, the more likely new customers will find their way to your Etsy store.
Start by creating a wide range of boards that show off your shop’s personality. Let’s say your Etsy store sells apparel items like socks, hats, beanies, patches, etc. It’s a good idea to create different mood boards that highlight how people can wear them and incorporate them into their outfits based on the occasion.
Pinterest has a ‘Pin It’ feature allowing you to pin your products and link them directly to your Etsy store. When using this, Pinterest automatically takes the description from your shop and puts it to your pin.
Get started with your design today!
Dig Into the Stats
Knowing your numbers is a common business cliche that gets tossed around, but it’s true. Etsy offers tools like Etsy Shop Stats and Google Analytics to help you learn more about your shop audience and traffic.
With both tools, you can view your traffic sources, so you know where your visitors are coming from, such as through Google, Pinterest, Facebook, or other social media platforms.
This can be found in Google Analytics under Traffic Sources > Sources > Referrals.
Use this data to help optimize your marketing strategy. For example, if mobile Facebook users make up the bulk of your store visitors, you may want to optimize your shop’s Facebook page. This lets you make the page more appealing and cater to their needs.
Offer Free Shipping
In today’s age, consumers come to expect free shipping. Amazon shoppers, for example, pay for Prime, so they always receive free shipping on their purchases.
Free shipping is more convenient for US-based shoppers to discover your products since the Etsy algorithm prioritizes stores that provide free shipping to their customers. Essentially, free delivery to US buyers on orders of at least $35 or more will receive priority placement in the search results.
However, you’ll have to price your products appropriately since you’re paying for the shipping out of pocket. You can bake the shipping cost into your original price so that you can still maintain healthy margins.
Offering the Right Products
Selling the right product plays a role in whether your store is getting sales. There are two significant factors – the design and quality of your product.
When it comes to designs or product ideas that are high in demand, use Etsy’s search bar to see what’s trending. Type in related keywords and phrases in the search bar. As you type, Etsy will show popular keywords people are searching for often, which you can use as inspiration for design ideas.
For example, if you type in the word “cat,” you’ll get ideas like:
- Cat toys
- Cat mugs
- Cat collar
- Cat gift
- Cat T-shirt
Another trick is to look at competitors’ designs, much like Sam Walton. Start by typing in a keyword phrase like “funny animal socks.”
Then filter your search by “top customer reviews.”
Now you’ll see a list of highly in-demand designs, giving you a sense of what shoppers seek.
When choosing products, it’s equally important to find a reliable supplier. You need to source from a manufacturer that lets you customize your products exactly how you see fit.
For example, The/Studio lets you upload your artwork onto any product available. Then you can customize your items, such as the colors, texture, materials, stitching, sizes, and even packaging. And since we offer low minimum orders and fast turnarounds, you can test products and fulfill orders quickly to ensure better customer experiences.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re still wondering how to get more sales on Etsy, we’ve compiled a short FAQ section to help jumpstart your store’s success.
How Can I Increase My Sales Fast on Etsy?
There are two primary ways to get more sales on Etsy – increase visibility and boost conversion rates. Improve your visibility through Etsy SEO strategies such as using their advertising platform to promote to the right audience, writing high-converting product descriptions, taking captivating photos, and gathering more positive reviews.
How Do I Attract Customers on Etsy?
Attracting customers on Etsy comes down to mastering your traffic source and offering the right products to the right audience. You can take many avenues, such as optimizing your store’s SEO, using Pinterest to promote your shop, and creating a niche brand that tailors to a specific audience.
Need Products For Your Etsy Store? Work With Us!
As a business owner, you’ve got to wear multiple hats. That means marketing your product, handling customer service, and sourcing your products.
Fortunately, you can make your job easier by partnering with a reliable supplier who creates customized products to fit your customers’ wants.
At The/Studio, we offer custom products to help build your Etsy brand. Send us your design ideas and place them on everyday accessories and apparel. You get to customize every detail, from the color and texture of the product to the materials and stitching used. Get started today, and join the thousands of entrepreneurs and e-commerce sellers that rely on The/Studio to help elevate their business.
