1. Unprofessional photos -Dimly lit -Grainy photos - unbalanced color temperature - Distracting background 2. Not using enough photos in the listing 3. Not enough information in the listing description. 4. Not having marketing plan - Influencer marketing -Email marketing -Social media marketing 5. Not matching keyword in title , tag and listing 6. Poor customer service 7. Not doing trend research
I agree with every one of these points. August has been my best month ever (after two years) - sure, some best sellers tail off, but others rise to the occasion. I'd say that what it all comes down to - which is the red thread among all seven issues you point out - is that you should be treating your Etsy shop as a business. If you want serious income, then be serious about your business.
I just recently took a crack at “seriously” starting my shop and am trying to use all of these tips. A good one I heard, in line with the marketing is: don’t be afraid to go to the old festival and do some vending or networking. Especially wine festivals, drunk people love to talk and buy things
I just opened my Halloween themed Etsy shop a week ago. Selling halloween poem books and papercraft skeleton construction kits, while working on creating halloween clip art for sale. I just made my first sale earlier today. As far as social media goes, i've found pinterest and instagram to be quite disappointing. I go through all the effort to make a reels or idea pin and it really doesn't go anywhere at all. It feels like a lot of work for no return.
Congrats on opening up shop! Definitely be patient and keep doing what you can to be proactive with your marketing a little each day. It can take a while to gain traction in the beginning!
I think it is not the problem at the moment - all my friends practically have no sales at the moment! I had sales over 1 - 2 K every month - sold items every day - now feels like game over :)
If you gonna do all the marketing yourself - then just open your own website, what is the point to advertise Etsy - when they will drive away your customers? They don't uniquely advertise your listing, if you look on the bottom of your listing you see all kind of sellers. so if I gonna run real marketing program its not gonna be to etsy shop - its does not make any sense.
Kate, thank you for this video! It was exactly what I needed to hear to fine tune my shop. I’m guilty of all those things you mentioned. It’s easy to overlook these things when you are trying to add new listings while working a separate full time job. 😊
I made my shop on april and i had no sales at all on etsy untul today. some people have it in their cart and some even asked if i can do custom. When i actually make sketch for their customized spooky cute plushies, they don't reply anymore. i made some sales from instagram and facebook but that's two weeks ago. i changed my pictures and descriptions.... nada. i feel like im working for nothing even though i tried so hard on instagram....
How about us beginners helps each other out? Let's follow each other on social media, favorite each other's items, and even place an order for each other items and leave positive reviews after purchasing. My shop is Enjoyablejam on Etsy. Feel free to message me on Etsy or on Instagram. We are all in this together and should be supporting one another for optimal growth :). Let’s not give up guys!
Agree with #3 and this is where keyword research comes in. Knowing what the right words are to put in your sales listing can help make your product more visible to people. Thanks for this!
If you sell crochet items on etsy these days ,you would be less likely to have increase sales because it's crazy saturated.I remember when I first open my shop about 9 years ago I had so many sales even though my photos look crappy.During that time I used pinterest,twitter,instagram which I still do but no luck.My photos are quality and I still use social media platform.I have no idea what I am doing differently for me not to get sales.I am not going to give up,I will continue to do what I normally does and hope that I see improvements.
Hi Van, may I ask what your totals were for the last 3 full years? 19, 20, & 21? Assuming you have had the shop that long. I am asking because there were some who saw a huge increase (almost all saw at least a marginal increase) in mid 2020-early 2021 due to covid. If your 80k per year is based off of this, it could be that it has more to do with the temporary influx of buyers on the platform due to the pandemic (thus temporarily inflating sales) rather than something in the algorithm or trend changes.
I just read an interesting article about Shopify. They are laying off 10% of their staff due to the reduction in online sales after COVID. During COVID online sales more than doubled and Shopify thought all these in online buyers would continue so they ramped up. With the restrictions gone online sales have dropped back down to almost pre-pandemic levels as people are buying local again.
Hello Kate, thank you so much for all your helpful videos, I have tried to apply everything that you have said, and I’m getting plenty of views and likes but no sales. I would love it if you or someone could take a look at my shop and tell me what I could do to turn my views and likes into sales
How about us beginners helps each other out? Let's follow each other on social media, favorite each other's items, and even place an order for each other items and leave positive reviews after purchasing. My shop is Enjoyablejam on Etsy. Feel free to message me on Etsy or on Instagram. We are all in this together and should be supporting one another for optimal growth :). Let’s not give up guys!
No one clicks and expands the item description. I have a shop and I'm an extremely particular collector of items I buy online as well. Even I won't extend myself to find the description when the app does not make it easy. It's hidden. Period. I make sure to add all info in my photographs. Including photos with a charming antique ruler.
Honestly, Pinterest has been soo disappointing even though I thought it will have the most likely chance of bringing in traffic I sell digital templates in my shop called TempyTemplates and most of my listing rank really well for a lot of keywords but I've had not a single sale till now even though my prices are significantly lower and affordable than my competition.
Just so everyone knows, Etsy withheld the name of my shop from Google search AND from their site, for the entire time. I was thinking my store would eventually make sales. However, upon checking, potential customers did not even have a way to log into my store. Family and friends went to Etsy and typed in the name of my store. But it doesn't show up. So I pulled all of my stuff. Very sad. I got word that the site is very commercialized now and it won't market homemade items actively. NO CUSTOMER CARE REPRESENTATIVE CARED or INVESTIGATED THE ISSUE.
I can't get enough to pay my Etsy fee, leave alone making living. My Etsy fee X2 of my sales. And BTW my listings look perfect I'm a graphic designer by trade and photographer. So there is nothing wrong with my photos, everything about store is filled up, sales run constantly, Etsy adds running. I'm selling online since 2003, so I know all about it, I have sold on many platforms, I closed my 2 Etsy stores in 2017 cause sales drop sadden and I couldn't make my fees. Recently I decided to re-open store with different product (Thats I sell on other platforms) because of all hype around Etsy and now 3 month later I see I wasted my time. If you thinking to open Etsy store - forget about it, don't waste your time.
It's interesting that you show you taking a picture on your cell phone with a gray card. I was going to buy one, but when I googled it, it said it was only for cameras. When I checked my camera app on my Note 10, I found a "PRO" mode with a WB feature. It didn't let me use an image, but it did allow me to adjust the WB before I took a photo.
Kate, thanks for your video. I have seen all your series and I still do not know what to do to speed up sales. I just recently created my shop and I do not know what I am not doing right. Would you be willing to do a series of videos where you help a new etsy seller to improve?? :)
Mistake #3 is spot on! I try to tell my clients that you've got to emulate the in-person buying experience as best you can. What info would you need to buy something, you know? I see so many great sellers just overlook this and miss out
Etsy has been a nightmare for me after having lots issues getting suspended right from the beginner and for not reason they fixed it but I have not sell 1 item at all. can you please help me ?
Are you using Canva? If so, you can use any of the free photos on there that are licensed for commercial use. You can also purchase photos to use from a stock photo website or styled stock subscription like Social Squares- this is not for selling Canva templates though unless you have commercial license to use the images to resell in that way. Just check what license you have for the images you want to use to make sure you can resell! :)
This is exactly what I was thinking.. people are now becoming hesitant to buy anything more than their basic necessities. Comparing my sales from the last two years, it’s really significantly low this year.
Keep your chin up and working on your business! Things ebb and flo depending on what customers are looking for now. I have products that get more views certain times of the year (I’m still new at this too). Don’t give up
Kate, I’ve tried to get Etsy’s help on this, but my question has gone into the void. Regarding a customer changing their review. I fixed something with an order and my customer wants to change her review. There is no edit option for her to change her review. She does see the edit option on other reviews she’s given. Any idea why the edit option isn’t available?
I’d say it depends what specific categories you’re talking about. All items in one shop need to be related in some way whether it be product type, theme, style, etc. If they are completely different with nothing in common then I’d say start a second shop!
Hi dear Kate, thanks again for your advice, i am on you email list so i listen and read your tips often. I started my shop early in May and have only had 3 sales, one of which was a double order. So i prefer to say i have had 4 sales. One question please, how do i contact these clients to ask them for reviews? Dont know where to find them. I am really getting desperate, have done 300 designs now and i think they are cool, tees, sweaters, totebags and mugs, have done a month of etsy ads and a 20%discount and still nothings happening. Also started showing some oroducts on instagram. Please be so kind and tell me what more i must do. I think my pics and SEO is good. Thanks and Blessings. Love, Christa ForeverYoungDesignSA.
Hey there! You can find the customers under your “completed orders” tab and directly message them asking how they are enjoying the product and giving a gentle, friendly reminder that they can leave you a review if they’d like (just don’t do this more than once per customer). Keep in mind they can only leave a review for 100 days after it was delivered so the option goes away if it’s been longer than that.
Little did I know if the USPS looses someone's package...etsy doesn't care...they just refund their money...then they eventually end up with your product also... extremely frustrating etsy doesn't care much abt the store owner...
