So you’ve taken the plunge and set up your brand new Etsy shop, selling your gorgeous handmade products, and then… nothing.
It can be so frustrating when you’ve worked so hard to set up your Etsy shop and you just aren’t getting the views, or sales, that you deserve.
Usually there are some simple fixes that will help get your new Etsy shop found by the right people. I’ve created a list of 10 simple steps to help you get your first Etsy sale.
Table Of Contents:
- How Long Should It Take To Get Your First Etsy Sale?
- How Long does It Take To Get Regular Sales On A New Etsy Shop?
- How Long Does It Take For The Etsy Algorithm To Work?
- How Many Views Before I Make A Sale On Etsy?
- Should I Run Etsy Ads On My New Etsy Shop?
- 10 steps Towards Making Your First Etsy Sale
- Summing Up
Let’s start by looking at some new Etsy seller FAQs.
How Long Should It Take To Get Your First Etsy Sale?
This is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ sort of question. Some shops might have their first sale within 48 hours of going live, but this is NOT normal so don’t let them fool you into thinking it is. Some shops can wait months or even years for their first sale.
It all depends on what you’re selling, who your perfect customer is, the time of year, how much competition there is in your category and how many products you have in your Etsy shop.
The first thing you should do is learn how the Etsy search algorithm works. Thankfully, I’ve created a helpful post about this for you here.
Once you understand how Etsy’s search actually works, you can optimise your listings and shop to tap into this.
How Long does It Take To Get Regular Sales On A New Etsy Shop?
Again, how long is your piece of string?!
Once you have a solid idea of who your perfect customer is, what problem you are solving for them and how the Etsy search algorithm works, your orders should pick up.
My top 0.1% Etsy shop didn’t have regular sales until I started putting in the work with it. I set our shop up in 2010 and ignored it until 2017. In that time, I think we had about 50 sales in total. We are now on 73k sales, but I list new items regularly and show up consistently.
How Long Does It Take For The Etsy Algorithm To Work?
The Etsy algorithm can take up to several months to index your changes and start pushing your listings to the right people. It takes on average 60 days for your changes to take effect, so don’t give up hope if you have been making changes to your listings and aren’t yet seeing results.
A very important side note here- please don’t make little and often changes to your listings. If it takes the algorithm 60 days to index your updates, and you keep making little changes every day, you’re never going to get to that day 60 point because you effectively put yourself back in the queue by making further changes. It’s better to make all the changes to your listing and then leave it alone for a few months.
How Many Views Before I Make A Sale On Etsy?
This is your conversion rate- the percentage of users who convert (make a purchase). The number of views you need before you make a sale on Etsy can vary, but the average conversion rate is between 1-5%, depending on the niche, price point, demand and competition.
The good news is that there are ways to optimise your listings to help nudge viewers to make a purchase and give your conversion rate a boost.
Obviously there are 2 different problems to solve here. Firstly, you want to get your listings found, and secondly you want to encourage audiences to make a purchase.
Here’s the plan-
- Step 1- Optimise for the Etsy algorithm.
- Step 2-Optimise for your perfect customer.
These are obviously two very different things. You want to keep the algorithm happy with SEO and keywords, but you must, must, must make sure that you create content for your customer. That means writing in a way that people understand.
There’s no point in creating the most perfect content for the algorithm if no one can understand what exactly you are selling.
Should I Run Etsy Ads On My New Etsy Shop?
Etsy ads are not something I’d recommend to new Etsy sellers.
The reason for this is that they can end up costing you lots of money and sales aren’t necessarily guaranteed. There are plenty of other things you can do to optimise your new Etsy shop before you even consider running ads.
If you’ve done all of the things below and your shop is spot on but still not being seen, you could consider ads, but I would be questioning why things haven’t taken off. The chances are that you’re missing something, using the wrong keywords, not completely understanding your audience or you are competing in a massively oversaturated category.
If it’s the latter, and you are simply not being seen because there are a gazillion other shops offering nearly identical products, it may be time to niche down and get really specific. Find something you can sell that sits in the sweet spot between high demand and low competition. More on that below, so read on…
10 steps Towards Making Your First Etsy Sale
Define Your Niche
Firstly, let’s get to the absolute basics here. Your niche is your particular segment of the market. It’s about getting specific with your offering to create a cohesive collection of products that appeal to a particular audience.
To define your niche, you need to work out exactly what it is that you do, what you’re best at, and what there is space for in the market.
Perhaps you are particularly passionate about dogs, and you are incredibly talented at drawing. Your niche could be personalised pet portraits for animal lovers. It’s not going to be in your interest to then also offer logo design for business owners, because business owners looking for logo design are not likely to also be looking for personalised pet portraits.
If you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.
Think Like a Buyer
Now you know your niche, you need to get inside your perfect customer’s head. What problems do they encounter? What are they searching for? What sort of information do they want to see in your listings?
You can read more on this here, in 5 steps to understand your ideal Etsy target audience.
Optimise Your Shop
Make sure you’ve added all your shop policies, shop title, profile picture, logo, shop banner and shop announcement. You can include your most important keywords in your shop title and your shop announcement. Select 4 feature items to appear at the top of your first page.
When writing your shop announcement, there are a few different things you can do here. Firstly, you can use it to introduce yourself and tell people a bit about your business. Secondly, you can use it to offer a discount code for multiple purchases.
Optimise Your Etsy Listings
This one is a biggie. Go through each listing with a fine tooth comb and make sure you have followed this Etsy listing checklist:
- Clear title with your main keyword, written for humans, not algorithms (Read more here)
- 8-10 high quality images with alt text, including your keywords in image descriptions (Read more here)
- 1 video per listing
- Clear, well structured item description with keywords (Read more here)
- All attributes added
- 13 product tags (Read more here)
Level Up Your Photography
Be honest with yourself here, are your product photos bang on? Are they beautiful, clear, well composed and well lit? If so, well done! If not, you’ve got work to do!
Most customers when browsing Etsy will look at the main image more than anything else. If your main image for each listing is completely gorgeous, how could they not click on your listing?
Read more about Etsy product photography here.
Offer Free Shipping
Customers LOVE free shipping. Etsy’s algorithm LOVES free shipping. Everyone LOVES free shipping.
Of course, we all know that really a £5 item plus £1 postage is exactly the same as a £6 item with free postage, but, as humans, we love feeling like we’re getting a good deal.
Price To Sell
Take a look at your competitors’ offerings and prices. Is there a way that you can offer competitive pricing, even if only until things are more established?
You could run a sale, but this one needs to be used sparingly. There are some Etsy shops that seem to have a permanent sale running, and this is just not a good look. However, once in a while, it can be a useful tool to drive sales short term.
Add New Products
New products get a little visibility boost while the algorithm works out what to do with them. Capitalize on this by regularly adding new items to your shop.
Share Your Shop Link With Everyone
The more you share your Etsy shop link, the better. Add it to your stories and your bio on Instagram. Share links to your Facebook page regularly, post it to Twitter and get it over on Pinterest. If you have an email newsletter, share it there. If you don’t have an email newsletter, get one.
More is more.
The added bonus with this is that you pay less Etsy fees when customers use your direct shop link.
Get An Etsy Shop Review
If you feel like you’ve done everything you can possibly do and you’re still not getting any Etsy sales, it can be so helpful to get an outsider’s opinion.
Any Etsy shop review worth its salt should give you a list of actionable points that you can implement to improve your Etsy shop and help your visibility and conversion rate.
I offer affordable Etsy shop reviews, starting from £50. Contact me to discuss your requirements here.
Summing Up
The journey to your first Etsy sale can be a long and tricky one if you think you can just list your products and wait for orders to flood in to your inbox. With over 9 million sellers on the site, it’s a bit more work than that, I’m afraid! You need to make sure that your shop is visible, clear and beautiful.
Your ideal customers are almost definitely out there, you just need to get found by them. Learn who they are and target them with the right keywords so you show up. Then draw them in with deliciously beautiful product photography and inform them with crystal clear listings giving all the information they need.
And the biggest, most important bit of advice I can give you here- stop comparing your sales figures with other people’s sales figures!
The Makers Hub 