In this Etsy starter guide, we’ll take you through all the steps needed to get your Etsy shop up and running. You’ll learn how to list your items properly, drive visitors to your shop, and craft a buying experience your audience will love and remember.
Contents
If you don’t need help with the technical side of creating your shop, jump to “Marketing” to learn how to get a head start as a new shop.
Setting Up Your Etsy Shop
Whether you’re completely new to Etsy or a long-time customer, setting up your seller profile is a straightforward process. Below are the basic steps needed to get your shop up and running:
1. Create an Etsy Account
The first thing you’ll need is a regular Etsy account. The marketplace uses linked buyer and seller accounts. So, the profile you use to buy goods will be the same as the one to sell them.
If you have an existing Etsy account, go to Etsy’s homepage and sign in as you would to go shopping. Then, you’ll click on your profile icon and select Sell on Etsy, as seen in the image below.
This link takes you to the Etsy seller signup page. If you do not have an account, you can navigate directly to etsy.com/sell. From here, you’ll click Get Started to begin the signup process.
A prompt will appear asking you to sign in or register using your email. Alternatively, you can sign in using an SSO for Google, Facebook, or Apple. After that, you’ll arrive at a summary page, explaining the key details of opening your Shop.
Click Let’s do this to go to the next page in the setup process where you’ll see a screen asking you what brings you to Etsy. This and the prompt on the following page help the platform tailor its recommendations and correspondence according to your needs. You can skip these questions if you are unsure or don’t wish to answer.
2. Enter Your Shop Preferences
Once you create an account, and answer the intro questions, you’ll arrive at the main parts of the Shop setup. The first step is to set your Shop preferences. Here, you’ll select a language, country, and currency.
3. Name Your Etsy Shop
Next, you’ll choose a name for your Etsy Shop. Creativity here will help your store stand out.
Look to craft a memorable Shop Name. It should reflect your brand identity or give insights into your types of products. Upon launching your Shop, you’ll have the option to revise your name up to five times. Beyond that, you’ll need to request a name change from Etsy support.
4. List Your Starting Products
Now comes the part where you’ll begin adding your unique creations. With Etsy, you must add at least one item listing before finishing the signup process. There are two pages to complete. The first asks for basic product information, as seen below:
When you answer When was it made, you’ll get a new window with additional checkboxes for how you made it. Further down the page, you’ll also have the option to add any production partners that help you make your items.
After you hit Save and continue, the next page requests more details. You can see each of the required areas in the left-hand corner of the image below:
Title and description
Start by entering your title and product description. These are key components of a high-quality listing and can lead to more product sales. You can always edit your titles and descriptions later, so don’t worry about getting them perfect if you just want to finish your initial Shop setup.
A well-crafted title grabs attention and is descriptive yet concise. It should give potential buyers a clear idea of what you’re offering. The same goes for descriptions. You want to elaborate on the features and benefits of your product, setting clear expectations for your potential customers.
Photos and video
Images are often the first thing customers look at when browsing items. They are likely the biggest influence on purchasing decisions. You can include up to 10 images and one video per listing.
When adding images, aim for a background that complements your product without distracting from it. Neutral backgrounds usually work well. Also, ensure your products are clean and free from imperfections that could detract from their appeal. You can use props to enhance the photo but try not to distract from the product.
We’ll cover more tips on creating standout product images later in this guide.
Price and inventory
This section is where you set the sales price and the available quantity for the item. You can price your product as high as $50,000 and can add up to 999 available for sale.
Etsy helps to give you a quick overview of the item’s profit potential. If you enter Your costs in the corresponding field, the platform instantly calculates the estimated profit after deducting the costs and sales fees.
Variations
Variants represent different traits of your items. Think of different sizes for clothes. If your items come in different colors, materials, or other qualities, you can specify them in the variations section.
By default, variations adopt the same price and quantity of the master product. However, you can adjust these values to specify different prices and stock levels for each sub-product.
Tags and attributes
Tags highlight specifics about your item, making them easier for shoppers to find. Similarly, attributes like material and color help define key characteristics of your products.
In this section, you may also find unique attribute options based on the selected product category. For instance, if you choose the Wood category you’ll see a dropdown for Wood type.
Details
The Details subsection shows the Core details you set on the previous page. Specifically, the product category and whether the item is a physical or digital good. Here, you can modify these values if they are inaccurate or if you find a better category to represent the product.
Shipping
Etsy requires a clear shipping policy for each item before the listing goes live. Doing so helps provide a consistent shopping experience for buyers. In the Shipping section, there is a list of different USPS services including First-Class, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express.
When adding a Shipping Option, you’ll also see areas to enter your shipping ZIP code, processing times, and shipping prices. For prices, you have two choices. Set a fixed shipping amount. Or, let Etsy calculate it for you.
Etsy recommends the Calculate them for me option. With it, they’ll use the buyer’s location to dynamically charge an amount equal to the actual cost to ship the good, based on how far the delivery is from your Origin ZIP.
Settings
The final section contains a few more critical listing components. First, are the settings for Returns and exchanges. Here, it’s best to select a Simple policy. This will give buyers 30 days to return an item, provided they cover the shipping costs.
Further down, you’ll have the ability to set where the listing displays in your Shop. As a new seller, you won’t have any Shop sections so you’ll need to make them from scratch. As such, it’s generally best to wait until you’ve built out your product offering and then determine the best way to order the listings on your storefront.
Lastly, are the Renewal options. Etsy keeps listings active for four months. After that, the listing will expire and the product will no longer be visible to shoppers. You can avoid this happening by selecting Auto-Renew.
When you’re done, select Continue to finish the listing. If everything goes well, there will be a success page where you’ll have the option to add more products. We suggest only starting with a curated selection of items that genuinely represent your craftsmanship and brand.
The prompts for getting paid and billing are self-explanatory. Once you complete those steps you’ll be able to customize your shop.
5. Launch and Customize Your Shop
The final step in the setup process is to set security features like multi-factor authentication. Once complete, Etsy charges your billing card for the setup and listing fees, and then your Shop will be live!
Remember, first impressions matter. Before promoting your goods, take time to perfect your Shop’s look and feel. An attractive store design can resonate with your audience and stay lodged in their memory. You can enhance your store by:
- Polishing your profile: Add an engaging bio and a Profile photo. This creates a human touch and builds trust with potential customers.
- Designing a standout banner: Create a banner that captures your brand’s essence and unique offering.
- Optimizing image thumbnails: Preview your shop and listings to ensure image thumbnails match the effect of the main images added during setup.
Marketing Your Etsy Shop
Your new Shop may have the most unique and well-crafted items. However, without any market presence, even the most creative goods will go unnoticed. This makes marketing your Etsy shop key to attracting new customers.
Etsy Ads
Etsy Ads lets you show your items across the site, including Etsy search and category pages. Starting an ad campaign is easy as you simply go to Shop Manager, select Marketing > Etsy Ads, and click Get Started.
You then set your daily budget. This is the maximum amount you’ll spend for ads each day. The prompt starts with a $1 budget, the minimum needed to run a campaign.
If you want sales from ads, it’s best to raise the spend to at least $5 per day. This will ensure you receive enough visitors to convert into buyers. You can change your daily budget at any time after launching the campaign. By default, ad campaigns include all your listings, but you can change this as well to exclude specific items.
Etsy SEO
Ads are a great way to attract customers. However, they come with the obvious financial cost. If you want unpaid traffic to your listings, you need to master search engine optimization (SEO) for Etsy. While it is an online market, Etsy functions like a search engine, wherein shoppers enter a query and are given results based on an algorithm.
We don’t know the exact algorithm, yet we can tell it is significantly impacted by relevancy and shopper experience. Relevancy relates to how well your page content (titles, descriptions) matches a buyer’s search query. Shopper experience is based on store performance, reviews, and your on-time fulfillment rate.
Keyword research to improve SEO
Researching high-ranking keywords related to your niche and incorporating them into your product titles, descriptions, and tags will increase your shop’s visibility.
Start by using the autocomplete feature in Etsy’s search bar, Google Keyword Planner, and other keyword research tools. These will help you find popular search terms related to your niche. You can also look at similar top-selling items to find relevant keywords. From there, you can begin optimizing the key areas of your listing.
Titles
For your title, you want to start with a concise description of the item. Remember, potential buyers need to know what it is or they won’t click through to the listing. Try to put the most important keyword towards the front of the title but don’t force it. You then want to add any secondary terms without making the title too long or difficult to read.
Descriptions
From the customer’s perspective, the description should explain what the product is and why it’s beneficial. Try to repeat your primary keyword in the first line of your description, if appropriate. You can then include secondary keywords where they make sense and sound natural.
Note, that Etsy takes the first 160 characters of the description to create the page’s meta description for Google. As such, this area is a good target for where to include your keywords.
Tags
Tags help buyers find relevant products when searching on Etsy. Sellers use them to describe and classify their items but they can also have SEO benefits. As such, you should aim to include all relevant keywords in your tags. Avoid overdoing it though, as Etsy may penalize the listing for keyword stuffing or irrelevant tags.
Offsite Marketing
You can extend your reach and better establish your brand by engaging with your audience through external touchpoints. Some of the best options are:
- Social Media: Share your products on platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to build an engaged community around your brand.
- Blogging: Content marketing lets share valuable knowledge and gives your audience a deeper look into your unique creativity.
- Offsite ads: Etsy automatically advertises high-performing listings through external channels such as Google Ads.
How to Price Your Etsy Products
Online marketplaces like Etsy provide access to a large customer base. However, this comes at the cost of competition from other sellers. The result? Sellers must strike a fine balance between pricing for sales and pricing for profits.
Higher prices can mean higher profits but they can also lead to fewer sales. Conversely, lower prices can drive more purchases but at the cost of losing money. This makes understanding your target market essential. You must consider who you’re selling to and what they’re willing to pay for unique, handmade, or vintage items.
Start with a thorough cost calculation. Add up material costs, labor, and any overhead to get an accurate cost per item. For example, let’s consider the wood carving item below.
To start, the seller needs tools and accessories for their work area. These are purchased once but still impact the overall cost of doing business. In addition, they require material and packaging for each item. Then there’s the monetary value of the time to craft the item. This is best estimated as the opportunity cost of working some similar income-earning function instead.
To calculate the cost per item, you would estimate your tools’ useful life—or how many items you can make before they need replacing. Next, you would divide the cost of the tools by the useful life to get a per-item cost. From there, you can add these and your labor costs to the value of each item’s material to get an accurate product cost.
Below is an example of how this cost breakdown might look:
- Wood: $5 per carving
- Paint: $1 per carving
- Tools and accessories: $0.50 per carving ($100 total, good for 200 carvings)
- Labor: $30 (estimate for one hour to make carving)
- Packaging and inserts: $1 per carving
- Shipping: $7 per carving
In this scenario, your true product cost would be $44.50 (including shipping). Knowing this amount can help ensure that you don’t price your items at a loss.
You can then check what other shops charge for similar products to price your goods competitively. Remember, competitive pricing doesn’t mean selling yourself short. You should always ask for fair value for the work you’ve put in. However, a popular growth strategy is to underprice your competition temporarily to drive traffic and sales quickly in the beginning. This will help you get some reviews which ultimately give you a lift in the search results.
Remember not to forget transaction and processing fees, which equal around 10% of your sales value.
Leverage Discounts and Incentives
If you can’t outprice your competitors, there are other ways to make your offering stand out. Sales promotions are one proven way to increase interest and conversions. Similarly, you can offer free shipping or add-ons like custom packaging, or a discount on a future purchase.
Above all, remember to review and modify your pricing strategy based on changing factors like shifts in material costs, market trends, and the success of your Etsy Shop.
The Importance of Good Images
Etsy caters to the creative spirit, but those looking to turn the marketplace into a profitable sales channel must follow sound business practices. To that effect, it’s important to regularly review your shop’s analytics to ensure you’re getting what you want from your efforts.
The Etsy Shop Dashboard provides valuable insights into traffic sources and customer behavior. Using this data lets you tweak your strategy and product offerings to better meet market demands.
The same goes for SEO. You want to stay on top of Etsy SEO best practices and adapt accordingly. Doing so will maximize your listings’ exposure.
Grow Sales With Engaging Imagery
A picture is worth a thousand words. In eCommerce, it can also be worth a thousand sales (or more). Investing the time and effort to create stunning visuals can lead to shoppers selecting your creations over countless others.
Here are some tips to maximize the quality and effect of your Etsy product photos:
Don’t overlook lighting
Lighting can make or break a product photo. Opt for natural light as it often provides the most flattering illumination for product photography. When using artificial lighting, avoid harsh shadows and highlights that could obscure product details. If you’re able, try to experiment with different lighting setups to find what best showcases the unique features of your products.
Above, you can see an example of a great Etsy photo. It is professionally shot and well-lit, highlighting the main aspects of the product. The image stands out in search results, making it a great asset for gaining new viewers.
In contrast, below is an image whose lighting isn’t the best. As you can tell, it’s hard to discern the item’s material and the shadows distract from the main product.
Use proper framing and composition
It’s best to compose your product photos in a way that guides the viewer’s eye and highlights the item’s key attributes. Frame the product so that it fills the majority of the image, making it clear and easy to identify.
Use the rule of thirds to create a balanced and engaging composition and consider taking multiple shots from various angles to give customers a comprehensive view of the product.
Choose a Viable Product Category
Deciding what to sell on Etsy can be daunting at first. The pivotal decision shapes your Etsy experience, as your niche will determine whether the venture is a long-term success.
Handmade jewelry is one of the best examples of a viable Etsy category. Data from the Etsy research tool eRank reports it consistently at the top of keyword searches.
The category enjoys a diverse audience, ranging from collectors to fashion enthusiasts looking for that perfect accessory. Plus, Its demand is perennial, meaning it doesn’t waver due to seasonality or macro trends.
Within the jewelry category, personalized jewelry is a great niche for sellers. This style has a huge market on Etsy as customers love customizable items. As a shop owner, you can enjoy the financial benefit of having a product line that’s produced post-purchase.
How to find your niche
Begin with introspection. Look at your interests and skills to determine what you are passionate about. Whether it’s vintage jewelry, handmade crafts, or bespoke illustrations, the right niche will be something that energizes and excites you. That said, you must assess your abilities and the feasibility of turning your interest into a tangible product.
It’s also important to assess a market’s overall demand. Passion will help you stick to your business. But you won’t make it very far if no one is interested in your goods. Therefore, you should use Etsy’s market research features and tools like Google Trends to scout the demand for your passion niche. Similarly, you should check Etsy for the competition level and research production costs to see your potential profit margins.
No matter the niche, look to start small. Choose a refined selection of products and track their performance. See which items perform best and use this data for further refinement. Customer feedback can also guide future product development and help you craft a winning formula.
Success on Etsy is no trivial feat. Beyond creative and analytical thinking, it takes a deep understanding of your customers, and the agility to adapt to market trends. With the right approach, your shop can be a valuable medium for sharing your creativity while ensuring your business is profitable and sustainable.