Selling on Etsy
My little helper! He handed me the coins to use during my photo shoots. I do photos inside a handmade light box with an infinite background. Lately I am doing pictures outdoors using as a background the flowers I have in my garden.
Last week I talked on zoom with Ana from Moshito Design about being an Etsy seller. I shared my experience during the past years selling on Etsy. I gave some tips, advices, I also showed my shop on the screen talking about the different tools Etsy has to set up a shop. I talked about how I make pictures and I answered some questions. I hope this is helpful to anyone looking into opening an Etsy shop.
Ana and I are happy to share our knowledge about two online platforms we use to sell our handmade products and art. For Ana is Spoonflower and for me is Etsy. These meetings are part of our desire to create a community where we can help each other and share what we have learned in our journeys as creatives and small business owners. The talk about Spoonflower will come very soon!
First let me explain what Etsy is:
What is Etsy?
Etsy is an American online platform for artists, makers, and suppliers around the world. Etsy has millions of vendors in their platform where each person can personalize their virtual store and sell different things, like physical products that can be handmade by the artist or made by a supplier but Etsy requires in that case that the shop owner is clear about where the item was made and by whom. Etsy focuses on handmade and vintage items and crafts supplies. These items can be under different categories like: jewelry, bags, clothing, home decor and furniture, toys, art as well as craft supplies and tools. Now you can sell on Etsy digital products like sewing patterns and tutorials, prints to be printed at home, etc. And also now there is a way to sell things that can be printed and shipped by a third party through Etsy but I have never used this so I am not sure how it works but I know it is possible to do it.
My shop banner while I was living in Ukraine.
A bit of my story on Etsy
My name is Isabel Wilder. I am the hands and soul behind my brand and shop called Gypsy Tailor. I have been an Etsy seller since 2009. I opened my shop while I was living in Argentina. I found Etsy one night while browsing the internet looking at how I could make a handmade tag to add to a winter coat I had made for my husband. Etsy came up on my screen and a whole world opened up to me! To me Etsy has been a window into a world of creativity, small businesses and people from around the world. It took me over a year to get my first sale and the first idea for products to sell on my Etsy shop was a complete failure. But I stayed there trying and experimenting. Etsy has been my sewing lab. I would come up with an idea, I made it, I listed an item and waited to see what would happen. If that idea did not work then I tried another one. At the beginning of opening my Etsy shop I was making something new pretty much every day. One day a customer asked me if I sold or could make coin purses…I went to my sketchbook, I gathered some ideas and my Mini Coin Purse was born. The day I added my coin purse in my shop it made it to the front page of Etsy and it sold. I was contacted by a few people asking if I could make it in different colors, materials and one person asked if I could make it for men…so the rest is history. I started making coin purses every day with every single material I could find. I continue to make coin purses and I like to add a new twist to them. Next is to make coin purses with hand embroidery…stay tuned! My coin purse was also a small and easy item to ship from the different countries I have lived in.
My first Mini Gypsy Coin Purse! It debuted on my Etsy shop in 2011.
Questions that I answered in the Zoom Call
1. Are there any hidden fees I need to be aware of before starting?
Etsy has a lot of fees that you need to think of when you will start selling on Etsy. The next 4 fees are the mandatory fees for every seller.
Listing fees are 20 cents. Etsy charges a fee for each listing you add in your shop. Example: every time I add a new coin purse to my shop, Etsy charges 20 cents no matter if I sell the item on my listing or not. A listing can be in your shop for 4 months for 20 cents. At the end of the 4 months the listing needs to be renewed by paying again 20 cents. You can add as many photos as Etsy allows in one listing. No matter if you add 1 or 8 photos, the price (20 cents) is the same for one listing.
Transaction fees are 6.5% (only collected on listings that sell) and includes shipping and taxes.
Payment processing fees are 3% + 0.25 and are charged in every transaction that uses Etsy payments. And it varies with the location of the bank account, the seller's bank account.
Shipping fees are 5% and this will be charged if a seller uses shipping labels (which is a way to print labels directly from Etsy, I use shipping labels)
The following fees are optional. I do not pay for these fees to sell on Etsy:
Off Site ads
Etsy ads
I tried both at certain points but I felt it was too much to invest for my small business. You can do 1 dollar daily for Etsy ads and Etsy will increase the views your shop will get and promote your shop on other platforms which is Offsite adds but if your item sells because of this promotion Etsy will take 12 - 15% of the sale… It was too much investment for me so I tried it once for about a month and just pause it. You can start Etsy ads and just pause it whenever you want.
Subscription: Etsy offers something that is called Etsy Plus, it costs 10 dollars a month. I have never used this but I understand if you pay for this a shop will have more benefits.
There is a fee called Currency fee (2.5%) This is applied if your Etsy Payments (the way you get paid) is set in a different currency than your product listing, then a seller is subject to currency conversion fees. I have never had this fee charged in my shop because my bank account does not change even if I move to a new country.
(I will add below a list of links where you can read more about all the fees and more information )
2.- How do reviews work?
A buyer can leave a review with 1-5 stars. They can also write a statement and add a picture. Not every buyer leaves a review but reviews are very helpful for a seller to start building credibility and show that customers are satisfied with a purchase. If a bad review is left a seller can contact the buyer and try to fix anything.
3.- Is Etsy helpful if you have trouble with a customer?
There is a way to get in touch with a representative from Etsy. I have not had to do that much but the times I have contacted them they have been quick to reply. You will only need to get Etsy involved with a difficult customer or a sale that went wrong if you can not go through all the steps that Etsy provides to follow in case you have to either do a refund, exchange an item, etc. I mean things will be very bad if you have to contact Etsy for trouble with a customer. I have had issues with sales that I have been able to resolve by following the steps that Etsy provides and contacting the customer. Ex: I have done refunds for a missing package, canceled a sale if for some reason I could not mail an item, the buyer changed his/her mind or if I had to exchange an item.
4.- What happens if the package goes missing? Who pays?
I have paid every time a package has gone missing, which in my 13 years selling on Etsy has happened only a few times. But I have paid it either by losing the sale completely because I had to refund the sale or I had to resend the item and pay shipping again. But now Etsy has something called Etsy protection sellers. I have not used this but it seems very helpful for sellers in case an order goes missing or a buyer claims not to be happy with an order. It only applies for sales less than 250 dollars and the buyer has to initiate a claim in order for Etsy to pay for the missing package, plus the package that was mailed must have had a tracking number.
5. What products sell best on Etsy?
It is hard to tell but in my experience things that are personalized sell very well. Wedding accessories, party accessories. You can also sell supplies on Etsy, ex: fabrics, tools, threads, zippers. Unique items sell well. People come to shop on Etsy because they are looking for something unique and different.
6.-Can you sell digital products?
Yes, digital products can be sold on Etsy. I now sell sewing pdf tutorials. These are an instant download after a person makes the payment. People can sell art to be printed at home, etc. SVG files, those are files to be used for cricut machines. Sewing patterns, etc.
When you are ready to do a listing, you will see the option for the type of product you are selling: physical or digital, you can choose accordingly.
7. Do you rely on Etsy alone? It is so expensive.
At the moment yes, Etsy is the main way I sell my products but I do work for people that hire me directly. Especially friends that ask me to create something for them, custom orders. And now I am trying to do more digital art so I can open print on demand stores. I recently opened a shop in Society6 where I am selling my art. When I am back in the United States I would like to set up my website so I can start selling from there and still use Etsy so I can compare both.
8. How to keep fees expenses low while you build and grow your sales income?
This is a really good question. I advise you to use a listing in a way that just in one listing you can give a buyer different options to buy something so you only pay 20 cents for a listing but you get more from it. Example: use the tool inside a listing called “variations” where you can create a bundle of your product, like giving a customer the option to buy one or more of the same product. Or if you can make a product with different materials, for example one of my coin purses I can make it with leather, vinyl or all fabric. In one listing I can add in variations all those options so I do not create many listings for each of these options. You can save some money in this way but you need to be careful about being clear with your pictures of what it is that the customer will get. A customer can be confused if a listing has pictures of different kind of products. I advise to do this for one product that has options to be made in different colors, materials or size but not for adding different kind of products. Example a listing with a coin purse in one picture and a wallet in the next picture and a shirt in the next picture. One listing must be for the same kind of product.
Very similar to this is about being conscious when creating a listing. Example: before I used to make a listing for a coin purse that I could only make one time, yes it was unique and a one of a kind but after all the work put in adding a new listing, after it sold I could not renew it. So think of how much juice you can get out of one listing because it takes a good amount of time to create a listing. You have to make a product, do photos, edit photos, add a title, add a description, add the tags, etc. Work in a way that all that effort pays off by making a listing that can be renewed several times just by clicking a button.
Turn off auto renew for the listings that expire so you are selective of the listings you really want to keep renewing in your shop. That is for the listings that sell the best.
Limit one of a kind or custom orders. Or charge more for custom orders. My husband always tells me I should add 10 dollars to a custom order.
9. What do you think has worked best for you on Etsy?
Communicating with my customers. I always reply back to my customers. I always send a thank you message after a purchase where I also double check that the mailing address is correct. I tell them an estimate when the package will be sent. I thank them for the purchase, this is very important to do. If I encounter a problem about making an order or shipping it I always contact the buyer to let them know. If a problem arises I give them options to choose from so they make a decision on what to do next.
I listen to my customers. The best ideas for products in my shop are the result from listening to customers and what they need or want. Custom orders have resulted in great ideas and products that I have sold a lot in my shop like my Nano Bags. A customer asked for a really small version of my coin purses to store his pills. I almost did not make that bag but I did and after that I have sold many of those. Listen to your customers!
About making products: for me it has worked to try and experiment. Take time to experiment and try ideas. The only way you will know if an idea will work and sell is if you try it! Take the time to develop an idea and add a listing. At least at the beginning, when you are new selling on Etsy, you have to do this and yes invest the 20 cents to add listings until you find the item or items that sell the best. I did not start selling my mini coin purses from the start, it took me a while to get to that product.
Keep renewing listings that have sold well and try to add a new listing or renew a listing at least twice a week or more. In that way your shop will be at the top of the search list when someone is looking for example for coin purses. When I have not moved my shop (meaning I have not renewed a listing or add a new listing) my shop is at the bottom of all the other shops that have been active and adding listings. If you do not have a new item to add then renew a listing but before you hit renew, check the listing and see what can be improved: new pictures? new title? new tags? Ask yourself these questions and give a new look to an old listing.
Lastly is to promote your shop through Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. And also using the internal social media of Etsy. On Pinterest you can add the link to your Etsy shop in your Pinterest profile. If you share a pin on Pinterest, there is a place there where your Etsy shop link can be added so people can go from the Pinterest picture directly to your Etsy shop. On Instagram you can add on your profile a smart link bio or Linktree where a link to your Etsy shop is available, in that way every time you do a post on Instagram you can direct people to your bio where the link to your Etsy shop will be and people can click on it and then they visit your shop and maybe buy something!
10. Can you open an Etsy shop if you do not live in the United States?
Now Etsy has a list of countries allowed to be on Etsy. This is because now Etsy does something called Etsy Payments. Etsy payments is the way you get paid on Etsy. Basically you have to add a bank account to your shop and I think that there are some countries that their banks can not offer this service. Long ago sellers were paid through PayPal but since Etsy changed to Etsy Payments now customers can buy with a variety of payment methods, especially credit cards. Below I will attach the link to the list that Etsy has for the countries that can be on Etsy.
I know Peru and Ecuador are not on that list. I am now living in Peru but my shop is based in the United States.
11. Have you made a mistake with one of your orders?
Oh yes I have…the one I can remember the most is when I sent the wrong kind of coin purse to a customer. When I realized the mistake (a few days later) I contacted the customer and let him know of my mistake. He was very friendly and understanding. I gave him options to choose from, he picked one and the case was settled!
I have listed items that I could not re-do again…then sold it and realized that I did not have the materials to make it after it was sold….ups!! I have learned to not let that happen again by making sure every time I renew a listing I double check that I have the materials to make the item again.
In that case I contacted my customer and explained what happened and gave her options to choose from. When I mailed her the coin purse with the new fabric she picked I added something else as a thanks for being so nice about changing the fabric.
And I am sure I have made a few more mistakes but I can not remember them now. An Etsy seller is a real person behind the shop. We are humans and we make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from those mistakes and try to improve. And always communicate with your customer!
My first labels were made in Argentina. The next time I needed labels was while I was living in Vietnam so I had these made there. There are many kinds of labels you could use. Embroidered labels, printed labels, wood labels, leather labels. I remember that learning about labels was another research in the process of opening an Etsy shop. And having business cards made too. Yes there is a lot to do when opening a shop but every little step adds up to your goal! Keep going!
My advice:
If you are going to open an Etsy shop I advise you to read and research the platform a lot. Read all the information Etsy offers about selling on Etsy. Check other shops that sell similar items to what you would like to sell. Pay attention to how they do pictures, how they do titles, the tags, etc. Play to be a spy on Etsy and use all the information you gathered to help you open your own shop. Not copying other people's work. After your research is done, it is your turn to add your own personality to your shop and your unique mark.
Best wishes!! You can do this!! I am not an expert and I am still learning! Please send me any questions you might have. I will be happy to answer them and adding them to this blog.
I have a pdf that you can download if you would like to keep it in your computer to read on later. It has the Q&A section and a list of the things you need to open an Etsy store as well as the Etsy links that are a good resource to begin selling on Etsy.
Here it is a video of our zoom call, where I talk briefly about selling on Etsy.
Links to visit to read more about selling on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/legal/fees
https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002120927-How-to-Enroll-in-Etsy-Payments?segment=selling
https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/10603291042967-What-s-New-for-Sellers-?segment=selling
https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015672808-How-to-Open-an-Etsy-Shop?segment=selling
I hope this blog will help you start in a new journey as an Etsy seller! Please contact me anytime. I would be happy to answer any questions!
Sincerely,
Isabel (Gypsy Tailor)