Over the past year Etsy, the small business global marketplace, has had incredible growth, reporting a year over year 128.1% growth in the third quarter with total revenue of $451.5 million. This growth saw a further 9.6 million new buyers in the third quarter alone, which is clear evidence that consumers are currently wanting to buy unique handmade products from small businesses.
3 Essential Expert Pieces Of Advice On How Your Small Business Can Succeed On Etsy
At a crucial time for small businesses to thrive online, we pulled in some comments from four Etsy experts, including Etsy team captains. Etsy teams are a community feature, run by successful sellers on the platform to come together and share inspiration, advice, and growth opportunities such as collaborative social media campaigns or local selling events to name a few.
If you are thinking about setting up an Etsy store for your small business and joining the 3.7 million other sellers on the platform, here are some top tips to help you succeed!
1. Which types of small businesses do best on Etsy?
It is well known that Etsy is a platform for unique products and how many times have you searched Etsy for that extra special gift? If you’re interested in opening an Etsy shop but unsure about what you should sell our Etsy experts can help with some inspiration.
Victoria, a leader from the Swansea local team says that the small businesses that do well are usually handmade high quality products such as home decorations, prints, jewellery, baby gifts and ornaments. Silvina, the captain of the Etsy Brighton team agrees and she thinks people use Etsy to find gifts that you can’t get anywhere else.
Personalisation and custom-made pieces are also proving popular and Rose, an Etsy Educator in Leeds confirms that customers love to shop these types of creative products.
Etsy release a trend guide each year which gives interesting insights into what is working well. It’s well worth taking a look to help give you an idea of popular themes on the platform. In 2020, there has been a big surge in customers looking for craft kits to keep them occupied as well as a lift on all products for the home.
2. Top tips for Etsy success
We asked our Etsy experts for their top tips for growing sales on the Etsy platform.
- Use the help that Etsy provides – First off, Rose champions reading the seller handbook written by Etsy itself. It is full of great advice including customer service to product photography and can help you get to grips with the Etsy search algorithm.
- High quality imagery – Once you have your shop up and running, Vicky recommends using high quality images, making sure you use all ten in order to get a customer’s attention. Alongside photos you should complete every section on your shop and listing in order for Etsy to recognise you are a serious seller.
- Be present – Silvina and Danielle both recommend spending a little time every day on your shop. Danielle, an Etsy expert with over 25,000 sales advises that the more present you are, the more Etsy will show your products to people so it’s important to block time out each day to log on.
- Test and learn – Silvina checks her listings every day to look at everything from the titles to the tags she has used, and if an item isn’t selling she makes small changes each day to see what works best.
- Learn from others – the Etsy teams for example are a great way to tap into the wealth of knowledge that other sellers can bring.
3. What to think about before joining Etsy?
After you’ve done your necessary research and are ready to go, take a look at these tips from our Etsy experts to keep you motivated!
Vicky uses the analogy of your Etsy shop being in a shopping centre. If you created a shop in a large shopping centre but didn’t open the door, create a wonderful window display, show up each day and put the work in you wouldn’t sell a thing. Etsy is the same and you should always be tweaking.
Working hard on your product titles, tags and categories is how Danielle advises you to get sales. Think about what customers are actually searching for. Try to use long-tail keywords (phrases which are very specific e.g. silver and blue drop earrings) rather than more generic terms.
Silvina thinks that opening an Etsy store is like anything in life, if you put the time in it will give it back to you. She is a firm believer in doing it now and that there really is no better time than now to open an online store for your small business. And finally Rose agrees and says go for it! It’s a relatively low cost option to get your small business in front of millions of buyers.
In a world where online shopping has grown substantially, Etsy is the perfect place to get your product business out there. It will take time and dedication but Etsy will reward you with sales in the long run and you can build a very successful shop on the platform and learn some new skills along the way. While you should always look to have your own website as well as an Etsy shop, Etsy can bring you exposure to a new retail audience and can be a great way to test and learn.
Thank you to our Etsy experts for these tips and If you’d like to check out their shops for some inspiration here are the details: