Morning guys! I just officially put my crochet Etsy shop in vacation mode, meaning there are currently no listings for sale. I know I did the right thing because I desperately need the break to focus on blogging and writing, but I haven’t ever said goodbye (even temporarily) to Etsy since at least 2011. Anyway, don’t mind me while I focus my energies from selling to blogging all things Etsy! These tips can be applied to any online shop these days, but since I’ve sold on Etsy almost exclusively, I thought I’d gear them toward Etsy shop owners. However, don’t be afraid to try them in your other indie shops and ecommerce endeavors! Here goes…
Choose a Style
Some shops write out a short ‘n sweet description of their products, then list any necessary info (measurements, custom order info, etc.) below. Others put the description entirely in list format (I do this with handmade, it seems to work better) – but either way, the best sellers keep it consistent and informative.
Include All Info
Lots of buyers will click out of a listing immediately if they don’t find the answer they’re looking for in. (Guilty.) Only if they’re really suuuper interested right off the bat will they send you a message. So, including the information a buyer wants can definitely mean the difference between making a sale or being passed up for another shop! The only way to really know you have all the info is to get in the customer’s head: what would you want to know if you were looking for this product? Things like size, measurements, color, materials/ingredients come to mind… Be sure to include it all.
Break Into Bite-Sized Pieces
Like any piece of writing, you can lose people if you don’t arrange your words in a easy-to-read and interesting way. A little white space goes a long way. Instead of putting all the above info into one paragraph, break it up into smaller paragraphs, bulleted lists, or any other way that allows buyers to find information the quickest. Create your own subheads if needed.
Add Links
Just like in a blog post, adding links to other landing pages in your shop will encourage buyers to linger on your site. Include a link to your shop page at the bottom of your listing to invite people to view the rest of your items. You can also include links to similar items or the category landing page if relevant – just keep in mind what I said about lengthy descriptions.
Optimize Your Listing
Your product will show up differently in Etsy search results than it does on Google, and titles, descriptions, and tags are all part of the equation. It’s important to be aware of the (constantly changing) best practices for optimizing your key words as well as staying relevant in Etsy’s search. There’s a lot that goes into search, and it can make or break your shop’s success (as much as I hate to say it). Instead of diving into this too deeply when I’ve already inundated you with info (bite-sized chunks, people!), I’ll leave you with two reads to get started: Etsy SEO by Work Your Art + this forum discussion on tags, titles, and descriptions.
Are you an Etsy seller? Be sure to check out our post on photography tips.
Kelly says
I help my mom run an Etsy + Storenvy shop, and this is actually something on my to-do list. We’ve done pretty well with what we have on Etsy, but I think there’s always something that could probably be spruced up.
Thanks for the tips! I’m definitely going to keep this in mind when I get to tweaking.
Alisha says
Great tips! I dont sell my products on etsy but I’ll def be using these!