Opening An Etsy Shop

7 Reasons Why You Should

Open An Etsy Shop

Have you been thinking about opening your own Etsy shop? Do you want to be a business owner? Do you have handmade items you want to sell on Etsy? Opening an Etsy account to sell on Etsy is pretty simple.

I’ve been on Etsy for several years and currently have four Etsy shops. I have learned a lot about business especially selling on Etsy but wish I knew then what I know now. I didn’t take it seriously back then and was scared to get started.

If you’re thinking about selling online, Etsy is a great marketplace to get started. Or maybe you’re on the fence about opening an Etsy shop, here are seven reasons why you should go ahead and start selling on Etsy.

1. Built-in Traffic

Etsy is a well known global marketplace and they essentially drive their traffic. Some people love shopping on Etsy and go out of their way to the only shop on this platform.

Unlike building your very own website in which you have to actively build traffic to your site with SEO, social media and paid advertising, Etsy works very hard to bring in traffic and new buyers.

Recently, Etsy has even started placing commercials on TV during popular times and tv shows.

According to Statista, Etsy had 39.4 million active buyers in 2018. That is a lot of potential for making some money. A side note, I always say, money is out there to be made.

But don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t only rely on Etsy to bring in traffic. Eventually, you will want even more traffic. You can bring in customers by using Instagram, Pinterest and the advertising which is available on the Etsy platform. See #5 for more info.

2. Customizable Etsy Shop

Don’t get me wrong. You can’t get your Etsy storefront to look like a Shopify or WordPress store but it does look pretty good, I think. Here is the top part of one of my Etsy shops. As you can see I use the option that fills the entire top portion with one of my photos. There is also a smaller option and a fee paid option with rotating photos.

You can also add your four bestselling items in the featured section. See the example below. You can use your bestsellers, most favorited or new items you want customers to take a look at.

3. Reasonable Fees

If cost is a concern you really don’t need to worry about. Compared to other platforms Etsy has pretty reasonable fees. eBay, Redbubble, and Amazon have much higher fees. For example, Amazon’s fees are 15% every time you sell an item including on shipping charges.

Etsy’s fees are:

• Listing fee $0.20

• Relisting fee $.20

• Transaction fee on item 5%

• Transaction fee on shipping charge (what you charge the customer) 5%

• If you accept Etsy Payments there is a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee

One thing you can do is to add the percentage to the cost of the item to help cushion the fees. The fees are a small price you have to pay as sellers on any platform.

4. Easy SEO

Etsy makes it fairly easy to optimize your shop with SEO. Just in case you don’t know what SEO is, it stands for search engine optimization. Basically, it’s how people will find your shop on the internet, whether on Google or Etsy itself. There is tons of information on the internet and on Etsy itself on how to optimize your shop and listings with relevant keywords. But how you will get found on Etsy will depend on the keywords you use in your “title” and in your “tags”. If you want to be found on Google the first 160 words of your description will also be searchable on Google. These are the three most important places to put your keywords.

Here is are some examples from one of my shops with the title box, description, and tags.

5. Advertising Opportunities

Etsy gives you several opportunities to promote your shop inside and outside of its platform. At first, you will want to make sure you have the correct keywords in your title and the 13 available tags. You don’t want to be found, clicked on with the incorrect keywords because you will literally be paying for it. So the promoting and advertising opportunities include:

• Etsy promoted listings- this is to promote your listing internally on Etsy

• Google shopping ads- make your listings available to Google Shopping

• Facebook ads- help Etsy sellers create ads on Facebook.

• Sales - you can offer sales to all customers and offer free shipping.

• Coupons- share coupon codes to certain customers, or share coupon codes on social media.

• Share and add your social media accounts to your Etsy shop. This way customers can easily find you on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram.

6. Accepted Payments and Payouts

Etsy has something called “Etsy Payments” where the customers can use a wide range of payment selection. You also have the option of when you want to get paid, whether daily, or weekly. It’s a really easy way to sell online.

7. Etsy Community

Etsy has a great community of forums where you can ask questions, see other questions sellers are asking and any Etsy announcements.

Conclusion

Etsy isn’t for everyone and it isn’t as simple as opening a shop, listing some items and getting sells. It is work and mostly a lot of work to get up and running and making sales. You can’t just give up after a month when you don’t have any sales. Being patience and learning everything you can is the way to making sales.

Open your Etsy shop now and get 40 free listings. What a deal.