Starting an Immediately Successful Etsy Shop
Updated: Apr 30, 2020
Hey y’all! I started my first Etsy shop, Designs by Keegan, back in August 2019. And to be completely honest, it was an immediate success. In the first 2 weeks, I broke $500 in sales. It’s now been just over 6 months since I’ve opened, and I’ve had over 200 sales, and I’m now in the top 15% of Etsy shops. Although I’m not even close to the level of success I crave, I’ve had something that most shops don’t - immediate success.
So you have an awesome product idea, and you either are ready to open your shop, or you have a shop, but you haven’t had any sales yet. What next? Today I’m going to share my top tips on creating a successful shop.
1. Shop around.
It’s hard to know what a successful shop on Etsy looks like if you’ve never shopped on the site. So do yourself a favor and shop around. Go to etsy.com and do some shopping! I’m not saying you actually need to purchase anything right now (although it’s great to experience the full buying experience, and to support other sellers), but you need to note how you shop and what attracts you to various items.
From the home page, what’s the first thing you did?
What’s the first thing you clicked on? Why did you click on this?
What’s the first thing you searched for?
Did you enter your own search terms, or use one of Etsy’s suggested terms?
How many pages did you click through?
Did you go back and adjust your search?
Did you click on anything? What attracted you to this listing?
Would you purchase this product? Why or why not?
What is something that was surprising to you?
Was there anything about this listing that you didn’t realize would be important while shopping?
2. Learn about SEO.
In the first week of opening my shop, I invested in Marmalead. This is an Etsy SEO service that helps you to create optimized headings, tags, and descriptions of your products. It is SO HELPFUL! It costs about $20 a month, but is worth every cent.
An additional way to supplement your SEO education is by listening to the Marmalead podcast. This is a great way to learn from other successful Etsy sellers.
3. Fake it til you make it.
Even though your shop is not successful (yet), you need to look like you are. How? By appearing to be a professional shop. A few things to do:
Make sure your shop is complete. You need to have a shop photo, a cover photo, a profile photo, about you, completed shop policies, Q&As, shop announcement, etc.
Make sure your listings have completed information and professional looking photos.
Find some friends to purchase from you and write reviews! I don’t know about you, but I would not ever purchase from a shop that has zero sales and no reviews. So why would you expect anyone to purchase from you without any sales or reviews? Enlist some good friends and family to purchase some of your items. If you only have expensive items in your shop, list something smaller that only costs a few dollars. Have your friends purchase from your shop and give feedback on the buying process. Once you’ve got it right and your friends are satisfied, have them write you a 5 star review!
Make sure you can be found on social media. Most, if not all, successful businesses have social media profiles. You can start small with just an Instagram or Facebook page, but make sure you at least have somewhere to share your products and attract customers outside of Etsy.
4. Learn how to use photo editing software.
Although many people suggest Photoshop, I’ve found great success with Procreate. This app is only a one time fee of $10, and works fantastic with an ipad and Apple Pencil.
You don’t necessarily need to be a photographer or have fancy camera equipment to make your listing photos look professional. All you need is access to stock photos and the ability to “photoshop” your products into these photos.
I hope this has been helpful! Check me out at www.etsy.com/shop/DesignsByKeegan.
