By Melissa Randall, Editor
And John Mundati, Special Contributor
For a long time, very few people could make any money from doing what they loved. I am not talking about sports, athletics, music, or acting; I am talking about DIYers, vintage sellers, and craft enthusiasts – more so, the handmade kind of crafts.
Even now, the majority of people who make handmade crafts do so as a hobby. Something they do as a pass time and to gift friends, family, and anybody deserving. But with the never-ending desire to find financial freedom and escape the corporate grind, earning a passive income or from a side hustle is the dream.
Enter Etsy.
Opening An Etsy Shop For The First Time
Etsy has made it possible for hobbyists to earn from their art and some have even made it their full-time job – and with great success.
And because we would all love to make a living doing something we love and sharing our creativity with the world, in this post, Melissa and I are going to explore the steps involved while opening a new Etsy shop – that will actually turn a profit.
1. Getting Started With Etsy
Getting started with your first Etsy shop is as easy as opening any other online account. You need is an idea of what you want to sell on the platform and an email address. But before you go ahead and create a shop, you need to think a little more about what your unique value is going to be. What will you bring to Etsy that isn't already there?
Ideally, it will be something that:
- Doesn't cost a fortune to make, unless you're planning on a high price tag for your items.
- You actually enjoy making and won't get tired of.
- Won't fall to pieces during shipping.
- Has value for a specific niche.
You can start with a list of possible products, then search for them in Etsy (as well as any possible variations.) Take note of everything - how other shops are titling their products, their photography, their price point, and even their reviews.
You want to identify their strengths and weakness and weigh whether or not it's possible to outperform them - or be different enough for that not to matter.
2. Identifying Your Perfect Customer
Before you create your actual Etsy shop, put some thought into your ideal Etsy customer. Who are they? How old are they? How much extra money do they have every month to spend on splurges? These things are important to figure out because they'll dictate a lot of your Etsy shop strategy, such as:
- Where to promote your listings. If your ideal customer doesn't use Instagram, for example, it may not be worth investing time in that platform.
- Pricing your items. If you're after college students, an item with a higher markup may not get as many sales.
- How to write your product listings and text. If you're after a more sophisticated customer, you may not want to use a lot of casual terminology and slang.
- What your customer values. If your customer is into antiques, for instance, and you're selling antique items, they may value additional detail about the item, where it came from, etc.
You can also use your customer profile to study competing Etsy shops and figure out what they're doing right and where they could improve.
3. Creating An Etsy Shop
If you're convinced that your idea is competitive enough to be on Etsy, go ahead and create your Etsy shop. If you haven't already, double check and make sure no one else has your intended shop name. I'd also go ahead and buy the domain (www.yourshopname.com or .co or whatever) in case you eventually want to expand and have a blog, too.
I came up with "Driftyland" after going to purchase a domain. All of my "Drifty" name ideas were taken, and Google Domains provided another potential option - drifty.land. I liked the sound of it, so I went ahead and made Driftyland.com. Try experimenting with domains, using a few words or phrases you definitely want in your shop.
Then, to create the actual shop, visit Etsy’s homepage.
In the upper right corner, there is a “sell on Etsy link”. Click on the link and that will take you to the next page – ‘open your Etsy shop’ – located in the center of the page so you can start your registration process.
You’ll be prompted to enter your name, gender (which you don’t have to reveal), and then your email address. By completing that process, you will have an active account and you can move on to step 2 of opening an Etsy shop.
4. Setting Up Your Shop Preferences
The process of setting up your shop preferences will include setting your default language, setting up your home country, and choosing the currency that you will list your products in.
The language you choose is the same language you will use to describe the items in your shop. Later on, when your shop is already operational, you have the choice of translating your page into other languages.
As you set up your shop preferences, you also have the option of setting up whether you will be selling part-time or full-time. But don’t worry about that too much as it’s only Etsy’s way of understanding your intent. Whatever you choose has no effect on the whole process.
After setting up the preferences, you’ll be prompted to enter a shop name. Of all the other steps, this is where your creativity and wit should shine through with a name that’s easy to remember but that is intriguing and reflective of your merchandise. Etsy recommends that your name be 4-20 characters long, unique, and without special characters or spaces.
5. Stocking Your Shop
Now that you have an account, you have defined your preferences, and you finally have a name, it’s time to list your products. This is part of the Etsy shop opening process and one you can’t skip. However, you only need one listing to proceed as you can add more products later.
To add a listing:
Add Photos – the recommended size for Etsy photos is 1000 pixels square. Images should always be high-quality to represent your product well. For each listing, Etsy also recommends that you use around 5 photos so you can have an image of your product from different angles.
Adjust Your Thumbnail – this is the image that appears in relevant searches. Most likely, it will be the reason anyone chooses to visit your store, so make sure it is the best among all the photos of any particular listing. The proportions for thumbnail images are fixed so make sure you adjust it accordingly.
Complete the Details of Your Listing – this is where you give your product a searchable title and add your tags (up to 13). The title you choose should be as descriptive as possible and fall within the character limit which is 140.
Additionally, you can also add a detailed product description and even list its features or benefits in bullets. Lastly, you have the option to add the category and product type. For the tags, use the keywords that you think your customers will be using to search for your product.
Inventory and Pricing – the next product listing step is adding the number of items up for sale (stock) and adding the price of each unit. This is where you also specify whether there are different variations of the product - size, material, or color wise.
Shipping – in this section, you detail your shipping process and costs, the weight and size of your product, processing time, and country of origin. In later stages and to ease the process of updating items with similar shipping costs, you can opt to create “shipping profiles”.
Publish Your Listing – finally, after following all the steps above, your product is ready to go live. But before you do that, it’s advisable that you hit the preview button to see how it will appear to customers.
6. Keeping Your Shop Updated
Unless you have products ready to go, you may only start with a few listings. That's fine. However, if you want to continue to get sales, you need to keep your shop up-to-date. Personally, we try to post one new product a day, which has several advantages:
- We can focus on making that one daily listing really great.
- It's a minimal commitment each day (where we have a million other priorities.)
- We can focus on promoting that one listing very well across our Instagram, in our email newsletter, etc.
- Within a month of daily posting, we'll have 30+ products added.
I'd also recommend setting up a designated studio space (it does not have to be big) to take your photos. You want to make it as easy as possible to take a great picture every day, or as often as you choose. We use a wood-topped table and a white wall background, in a very well-lit room, as well as a nice Sony DSLR and 35 mm lens.
It's also important to note that it may take some time (even 3-4 months) for a lot of people to start seeing your listings. Think of the Etsy algorithm (or what helps people find your listing when they search for things) as an oven. Your product is the raw cookie dough slices. You put them in the oven, wait, and then ping! they're ready.
Only with Etsy, there's no guarantee of how long it will be until the "cookies" bake. That's why you want to continue to post a product each day and promote that item on other channels. It's also a good practice to actually follow and engage with other Etsy shops. Your ideal customer could be another shop owner. A simple like or share of their product could get you their business.
7. Choosing Payment Preferences and Setting up Your Billing
Now that you have your Etsy shop up and running, you need to set up your preferred ways of accepting payments from a customer as well as how you’ll be paying Etsy. There are costs that every Etsy shop owner incurs, but with a good product roaster, the profits from sales will outdo the costs by far.
You can opt to let your customers pay for products using checks or money order, PayPal, “other”, or Etsy Payments. With Etsy payments, which most sellers prefer, acceptable payment options include Etsy gift cards, debit and credit cards, store credits, and many more.
Some Etsy-related costs also require that you set up a card that you will use to pay Etsy for using their platform and resources. Also, sellers in certain countries are required to provide a card to authorize or prove their identity.
8. Making Your Shop Branding Pop
It's very likely that you won't master your Etsy shop branding from the get-go. It takes some time. But as you continue to make sales, you should begin to refine your brand a little. That means having a consistent look and feel to your shop.
For example, the Driftyland Etsy has a consistent black, white, and green branding:
The leaf pattern in our Etsy header is the custom look of our shop, and also used in a few of our product photos as a background. Our packing tape (when you get a box from us) also has the leaf pattern for consistency in branding.
You can easily create your own Etsy header using Canva, a free tool. You can also incorporate different elements, such as a notecard within the box, tissue paper, or stickers, to keep your branding consistent.
9. Properly Packing And Shipping Items
Etsy, thankfully, provides a ready-to-use label. You have to pay for it upfront, but we like that because otherwise, we'd have to be stuck at the post office or UPS Store doing it. No thanks.
If you're serious about Etsy, invest in a printer to get those labels printed at home.
You'll also want to think through packaging and shipping. Larger items will obviously cost more to ship. Fragile items need extra bubble wrap and styrofoam. As a best practice, try to study what typical box sizes (10 x 10 x 10 or 16 x 16 x 16) tend to cost to ship from your city to somewhere across the country.
You can use that estimate to guess how much shipping will be for an item. You'll also want to think about extra branding and packaging, which can include:
- Custom packing tape (we get ours from Sticker Mule)
- A thank you card or receipt
- Freebies like stickers or pens (again, Sticker Mule)
- Tissue paper
Ideally, you can keep your average packing cost low enough to make profit and keep your shop and shipping costs low enough to be competitive.
The logistical part of setting up an Etsy shop is easy. However, your actual success with the platform is going to come down to the demand for and quality of your merchandise and your ability to stand out in a sea of croqueted hats, calligraphy, and ceramic animals.
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