In this article, you’re going to learn 20 things to know before your Etsy shop. These are things that I’ve learned from growing my own successful Etsy shop, Penny Street Studio. I thought it would be great to share these with you, so you can get a head start on building your own successful Etsy shop too.
The Backstory
Now if you’re new to the blog, currently I run three Etsy shops, but my main shop, Penny Street Studio which I opened on the last day of 2019 sells digital products, specifically Canva templates that help small business owners with their marketing online.
Through my own experiences, I’ve been able to learn a thing or two about what it takes to build a successful shop on Etsy and I love sharing these here with you here on the blog, on my YouTube channel and through resources on my website.
Okay, so ready to find out all the 20 things to know before starting your Etsy shop?
Let’s dive in!
01: Just Start
This is probably the hardest but easiest tip of them all and that is to… just start.
I’ve heard one too many stories of people who wanted to start their Etsy shop selling digital products but never actually got around to doing it.
There were people that told me they were going to start selling digital products on Etsy back when I first started, late 2019 and are still yet to take the leap.
Opening up an Etsy shop costs next to nothing to get started. Apart from a monthly subscription to your chosen graphic design software (you can start with Canva for free) and the 20c listing fee for each product you upload to Etsy, the only thing you need is dedication, a clear path and your time. That’s it.
So if you are still on the fence about getting started, this is your little kick in the pants to get it going… today!
02: Understand Your Ideal Customer Avatar
Before opening up your Etsy shop, knowing what kind of products you want to sell and more importantly whom you are going to sell to makes it so much easier for you to build the foundations of a successful Etsy shop.
In the beginning, it might be difficult to know exactly who your ideal customer is but as time goes on you will learn more and more about them.
But having a general idea of who your customer is and what pain points, problems or desires they have, will help you to create products that they are eager and ready to buy.
Why?
Because they’ll be actively searching on Etsy for those products.
03: Optimise Your Shop & Listings For Etsy S.E.O
Essentially, Etsy is just a big search engine filled with handmade and digital products. Now if you’re unaware, S.E.O stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Like Google, Etsy’s algorithm is based on SEO.
In order for Etsy to put your products in front of your ideal customer, they need to understand firstly what type of products you sell in your shop and secondly what your product actually is.
To ensure you are reaching your ideal customer, you’ll want to make sure that you are including specific keywords and phrases inside your Etsy shop and listings that people are actually using to find your products.
Including searchable keywords and phrases inside your Etsy shop description, adding keywords inside your product listing titles, description and tags will help Etsy to understand what you are selling and then put your products in front of customers who are searching for them.
04: You’re Not Going To Launch Perfect!
You have to realise that you’re never going to launch a perfect Etsy shop on the first go!
When I first opened my Etsy shop, Penny Street Studio it was far from perfect, but that didn’t stop me from launching.
My first products weren’t the quality they are now, my branding was far from ideal, my listing images weren’t great and my product descriptions and tags were a bit of a mess… but over time I’ve worked on improving my shop and listings to where it is now.
And honestly, I still feel like there is room to improve. There are product images that could use a refresh, branding that could do with an update and old product descriptions that I need to probably delete and start again.
But that’s okay.
Running your Etsy shop is about enjoying the journey, not the final destination. You have to be okay with launching messy and then tweaking and improving as you go.
And honestly, this is what makes running an Etsy shop so much fun.
05: Describe Your Products With As Much Detail As Possible
As a digital seller, it can often be hard to show off your products in your listing images alone. Not to mention that because it is a digital product, sometimes customers can get confused about what they will be receiving.
This is where your product description comes in handy.
Writing out a thorough and detailed description of your digital product will not only help your customers understand what they are receiving when they purchase the product, but it also reduces the need for back and forth messaging with a potential customer or even worse having them too confused to buy.
When writing out your product descriptions be sure to include detailed information about what they will receive, the benefits of your products and who your product is perfect for.
06: Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself!
This is your permission slip to give yourself some grace and to not be so critical of yourself.
Starting and running a business (even an Etsy shop) can be hard, overwhelming, difficult, stressful at times and sometimes things do go wrong.
But this isn’t a reflection on you as a person.
As a mum of a 3-year-old baby girl with baby number 2 due in just a few short weeks, I understand the struggle of keeping up with family time, running multiple Etsy shops and also my personal brand too.
But when my to-do list gets too long, I feel like I’m falling behind with Etsy product creation or when a bad review or feedback comes through, I just have to take a step back and remember why I even started to begin with.
To-do lists can go left unchecked, I can always get back to product creation when I have more time and feel in the creative mood and the customer feedback… well, just sit down and process it in your own time and decide to either make some improvements or completely disregard it.
Try to stay positive and just know that running a business you love is enjoying the process and journey, not waiting for that day that everything will be perfect.
07: Pick One Social Platform & Stick With It.
Ahhhhh, yes… social media.
Honestly, I don’t know whether we are better or worse off with the invention of these pesky little apps on our phones.
For me, managing social media has been a bit up and down.
I would start on one, then another and then get overwhelmed to the point where I would quit posting on all of them altogether.
But since falling pregnant at the beginning of this year, I decided that I no longer wanted to spread my energy on “all the socials” and rather focus my energy on just one.
And honestly, this has really paid off for me.
I learned early on that for my Etsy shop specifically, my ideal customer loves to spend time scrolling pins on Pinterest. So that’s where I decided to focus my energy.
Instead of posting on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok I decided to double down on Pinterest and the work has really paid off.
Over half of my Etsy shop traffic comes from Pinterest, which is directing targeted traffic to my product listings, traffic that actually converts into sales.
I encourage you to figure out where your ideal customer hangs out online and then focus your energy on posting on that platform… for at least a year! Yep, that’s right. Then if you feel you’ve got running that one social media platform down-pat then you might want to think about spreading yourself between another platform.
08: Add In Your Personality
When I first started my Etsy shop, I was afraid to show myself. I wanted to hide behind my Etsy shop and the products that I created.
I was in the mindset that if I never showed my face, gave personal details about myself, or shared my story or if people didn’t like my stuff it wouldn’t matter because they never really knew me anyway.
Shout out to all my introvert buddies out there!!
But as time went on and I started having conversations with customers, I learned that hiding behind my shop was actually doing me more harm than good.
Slowly I started to update my shop to include more of me. I updated my profile pic, added a small bio about myself and where I came from. I also added a story about why I started the Etsy shop, who my shop serves and infused my personality into it.
After I updated this information, I started receiving more personalised messages from customers, and because they had an idea of whom they were talking to they also trusted to buy from me.
Where can you add some of your personality to your own Etsy shop?
09: Invest In Your Skills & Knowledge
If I have learned anything since starting my Etsy shop and personal brand, it’s that I don’t know the answer to everything.
In the beginning stages of my business, I always tried to figure things out myself or put things off because I didn’t know how to do them. But as time went on I realised the importance of gaining skills and knowledge through investing in courses and coaching.
Investing in programs, and coaching has helped me to not only save time but it has also helped me to increase my income.
Investing in courses to help with product creation, email marketing, Pinterest strategies and business coaching has been the catalyst towards my online business success.
Don’t get me wrong, each investment I have made into my business was hard. I always had fears about spending too much money without knowing if I would ever gain it back. But every investment I have made in my personal and business development has been well worth it and has almost always resulted in way more revenue than any of my original investments.
I encourage you to think about what areas of your business and Etsy shop you feel you could improve upon. Is it product creation? Look into a program or product that can help you efficiently and effectively produce high-quality products for your shop. Struggling with your SEO? Then look for a course that can help you with that. Need to work on your mindset? Then find a business coach or mentor that will guide you towards getting unstuck so you can move forward to creating the business and life you love.
10: Start An Email List.
Although Etsy is an amazing selling platform to list and promote your digital products, it’s also not your OWN business.
What I’m trying to say is that although you create and list your own digital products, you don’t own the selling platform itself (i.e Etsy) which means you don’t have control over how Etsy is run.
Unlike having your own website or email list, Etsy doesn’t allow you to contact your customers outside the platform. Meaning that once a customer comes to your Etsy shop and makes a purchase, apart from messaging through the Etsy dashboard, you’re technically not allowed to take their email address or any other personal details to then contact them outside of Etsy.
Let’s say, in the worst-case scenario something happens and Etsy decides to shut down. Or worse, Etsy decided to close your Etsy shop and not allow you to sell on the platform ever again.
This would mean that your business would be gone, done, finito and you wouldn’t have any customers or audience to contact to rebuild. You would be left having to start from scratch. From the beginning.
I don’t say this to scare you, but what I want to do is help you to realise that you want to start building up your own audience and customers the day you open up your Etsy shop, that way if anything bad was to happen, at least you have something to fall back on.
Now the easiest and most effective way to do this is by building up your email list.
An email list allows you the opportunity to build up your customer base with people who have either purchased from you in the past or are interested in buying from you in the future.
This way, whenever you want to contact them, you can.
By having an email list of interested buyers and customers, you can send them weekly updates on what you’ve been up to in your business, inform them of any new products you have listed in your shop, let them know about any sales you’ve got going on or even just send them a friendly email to connect with your audience on a more personal level.
11: Build Your Community
Very similar to what we were just talking about regarding starting an email list, building your community outside of Etsy is sooooo important too.
You can build a community outside of Etsy through something like your email list but you could also build a community through a Facebook group or even a private customer hub.
Building your community outside of Etsy helps you to build the “know, like and trust” of your audience, which adds to the foundations of establishing a lifelong business that goes beyond Etsy itself.
If you are looking for an example of how I have created a community for my personal brand, you can check out my own community, the Etsy Seller’s Community & Market Hub.
A few of you may already be members (you know who you are), but if you’re curious to take a peek at what’s inside, then feel free to join. It’s completely free to do so!
12: Don’t Take It Personally.
I’m going to give it to you straight.
You ARE going to get negative feedback, reviews, hate or negative comments.
It comes with the territory of doing anything online right?
If and when your negative criticism or review comes through, I want to remind you that it’s okay. Not everyone is going to LOVE your product as much as you or most of your customers do and that’s okay. It’s not a reflection of you as a person.
So when one of those pesky 1-star reviews comes through… who cares!
If you feel like the customer is giving you constructive criticism, then by all means take it on board, but generally, those bad reviews are just a reflection on the individual and it’s not worth stressing over.
I recently received my first 1-star review for one of my products, after over 600 sales in my shop and on a product that is my best seller. A product that so many people have loved and left 5-star reviews for. Instead of worrying and stressing about this review, I decided to politely reply and then let it go. I don’t have time for unreasonable reviews and feedback and nor do you!
Just think about all the amazing, happy customers you’ve had in the past and all of the amazing customers you’ll have to come.
You’ve got this!
13: Use The Etsy Seller’s Handbook
When I first started my Etsy shop, Penny Street Studio I referred to the Etsy seller handbook almost daily.
It was honestly such a blessing for a newbie just getting her toes wet into selling digital products online.
The Etsy seller handbook is more of a list of resources and articles that help you in almost all areas of running your shop.
If you haven’t yet checked it out, I would highly recommend doing so!
14: Try Out Etsy Ads To Expand Your Reach
As a beginner, it can sometimes seem daunting to try out Etsy ads, but utilising the power of Etsy ads is a great way to get your products in front of more interested buyers.
When I first started Etsy ads, I stuck to a small budget, just a few dollars per day and I made sure that I advertised all of my product listings. I used that first month of my advertising budget as a way to gain data. I wasn’t too concerned with making my money back or even making a profit on the ads. What I was interested in was seeing what product listings had the most traction (i.e the best return for my ad spend). Going forward, in the next month I tweaked the number of listings I included in my campaign and also increased my budget.
And that’s when I started seeing some really positive results from advertising.
So if you’re on the fence about trying Etsy ads, I’d highly suggest giving it a go.
15: Provide A Great Customer Experience.
Like any business, providing a great experience for your customers is crucial to the future success of your Etsy shop.
Making sure that you are doing your best to ensure that your customers are happy will help you to gain a positive experience for future customers too.
Happy customers leave great feedback and reviews which in turn helps other customers decide if they want to shop with you too.
I have an article that runs through how to create a great customer experience in your Etsy shop.
16: Etsy sales WILL go up and down! Don’t worry.
Ahhhh, if only someone told me about this before I started, it would have saved me so much heartache.
The likelihood that there are Etsy sellers with shops that bring in a consistent high volume of sales all year round is very slim.
Different niches, seasons, holidays, months and trends means that all Etsy shops have times when sales are high and times when sales are low.
You just have to be realistic about what niche market you sell in and how that reflects when people are actually searching for what you have to sell.
For example, let’s say you sell digital products like planners or calendars. Obviously, the end of the year and the beginning of the year will be your busiest times. Or if you decide to sell Christmas gift tag printables, these products will sell well a month or so before Christmas and then completely die off straight after the holidays are over.
I encourage you to keep an eye out on your stats and over time you’ll see a pattern with your Etsy sales. From here you can make informed decisions and changes based on the data.
17: Make Sure You’ve Done Your Research.
Before you open up your Etsy shop or create any products to sell, you want to make sure that you have done market research to know whether there is a demand for your product.
There’s nothing worse than putting all your time, effort and energy into opening a shop, creating products and then listing them on Etsy, only to realise that no one on Etsy is actually searching for them.
This is why I cover this topic inside the free 5-day Discover your Ideal Canva Template mini-course because it is one of the fundamental steps you need to ensure you create and list products that people actually want to buy.
18: Check Your Stats.
It’s so easy to get inflated or deflated when you feel like your sales are going up and down, but if you check on your stats you can ensure that you are getting all the information you need to make calculated decisions on what you can do to improve your Etsy shop.
Every month I do a deep dive into my Etsy stats to find out more about what’s really been happening over the past 30 days.
The specific things I’m looking for are:
- What is my conversion rate,
- Where is my traffic coming from (for example is it coming from Etsy search, Etsy ads or Pinterest)
- What keywords and phrases people are using to find and purchase my products.
Looking over your Etsy stats every month is a great habit to get into and will tell you so much valuable information about what you can do to improve your shop.
19: Want To Make A Pivot? Then Do It.
Just because you decided that you want to sell a type or niche product in your Etsy shop, it doesn’t mean that you have to do it forever.
The products I listed and opened up in my Etsy shop when I first started are completely different to the products I now sell. At the time I was excited and enthusiastic about selling a certain digital product, but as time went on I found myself pivoting and changing it up.
One of my other Etsy shops went through a complete overhaul where I even changed my Etsy shop name, branding and removed all of the products and started fresh.
You can do this too. So don’t feel just because you have an idea now, doesn’t mean you have to stick to it forever.
I give you permission to do whatever you want! Follow your intuition and lead with your heart.
You’ll be so much happier you did!
20: Have Fun!
The most important thing to remember when starting your Etsy shop is to make sure you are having fun.
I’m all about building a business and life you love through selling digital products on Etsy.
Although selling digital products on Etsy is a great way to earn passive income, there is upfront work and time that needs to go into setting it all up so you have those automatic sales coming in.
So if you’re not enjoying the process, it’s just going to feel like another task or job that you HAVE to do.
And I don’t want that for you.
If I’ve learned anything from starting my own successful Etsy shop, it’s that when I’m in my zone of genius, creating products that I’m excited about and designing from a place of excitement, that’s when I know that my customers are going to be excited too.
So if you take anything from today’s article, it’s that I want you to enjoy yourself, have fun and enjoy the amazing journey.
Alright, that’s the 20 things to know before starting an Etsy shop! I’m SOOOOOO excited for you to start your Etsy shop filled with digital products you love and enjoy creating, a business that will allow you the freedom and flexibility to create a passive income online.
Until next time, friend!
