If you are trying to increase sales in your Etsy shop, there are a million standard ideas, do promoted posts, list more, etc. But what about some out of the box ideas to get more sales?
Here are 5 different ways you can make more sales!
SEO Your Posts So They Show Up In Google
There is a LOT of talk about Etsy SEO and YES! You should be maxing that out before your doing anything else crazy to get sales. But a few tweaks can help you rank for Etsy AND Google, increasing your views from outside of Etsy.
As you can see here, my traffic from Google on my two stores accounts for a fair number of views. So how do I do that?
For example, my “Whale Oil Lamps” listing shows up in Google Shopping.
Why would mine show up instead of the 37 other listings on Etsy? Well, first off, I have “Lamps” in my title (tags don't matter to Google) and the search I did was for “brass whale oil lamps”. I KNOW SEO peeps will tell you that Etsy and Google don't care about plurals, but sometimes (like this) they will pluck yours out because it matches exactly.
Also my pictures are good and my price is higher than most. Do these matter to Google or Etsy technically? Don't know, but they sure don't hurt.
Google Technical Bits
So how does Google decide to rank a listing in their search results? It is a combination of the title and “snippet” or description. For example, this vintage cow doorstop has that exact phrase in the title for the search “vintage cow doorstop”…
And then Google pulls the description for the search engine result from the first lines of the listing's description…
If you have anything but good solid keywords at the top of your listing description, move them down and add an introductory paragraph with your main keyword in it!
Also make sure to use Vintage or Handmade in your title. I KNOW, Etsy sorts that out on the back end, but if you want to rank in Google search, better get those words in there!
Open A Second Related Shop
One of my Etsy buddies was asked how she doubled her revenue last year. Well, it was by opening a second shop instead of just increasing her listings in her first shop.
She started with Viva Terra Vintage which sells vintage decor and housewares.
But then she found that she was good at sourcing other items like handbags, purses and jewelry too, which didn't seem to have a real solid home in her first store. So she opened Viva Terra Boutique which sells all kinds of vintage items for ladies.
Now the one thing that makes Tracey so successful is that she had a very clear idea for each of her shops and sorted out her buyers this way…
In my decor shop most descriptions tells the buyer what decor aesthetic it would go with, how they should use it eg coffee table decor, mantle decor. Every description in my boutique shop tells the shopper who and what occasion they should buy it for.
How brilliant is that? Her one store sells to buyers of home products and the other store to gift givers looking for presents. It changes how she lists her items and what she says in her descriptions!
Open A Second Unrelated Shop
I have two different shops that sell totally different kinds of products. My first Etsy store, Paperly People, sells digital download products that help my business peeps with their planning.
And then I took all the knowledge I had about Etsy SEO, marketing and branding and did a vintage Etsy shop called So Glamorously Vintage.
For me this is an easy one. I make the planner pages in my work and then do the vintage as a side hustle. It is my hobby.
If you have gone to all the trouble of figuring out how Etsy works, this could be a great answer to increasing your Etsy sales.
OR… you could open an Ebay or Amazon store! All of this is about doing something different but related to the knowledge you already have about selling online.
Add A Product That Is Related
Since you are already selling on Etsy, why not find something to sell that is related and offer it in your store?
Different Version
For example, Nightly Doddles offers several different versions of her artwork. You can get stickers, cards or prints. Jenipher already did the hard work of creating the artwork, now she just uses it to sell different products.
I know that I don't often buy artwork, but I do buy stickers. And someone else may hate stickers but buy cards to use as college dorm inspiration.
Offer A Service or Training
Kara Buntin of A Cake To Remember teaches cake decorators how to grow their business (and sells supplies for cake making).
I had always offered worksheets in my Paperly store to help my peeps but just added a service where I will help them individually! It is Single Item Etsy SEO video that walks them through how I do SEO.
You could sell patterns for your sewn goods or how to draw classes if you are an artist.
But WAIT! I can hear you now, “if you tell them how to do it, won't they just do it themselves?” Uh, no for the most part.
For example, I just saw a lady who makes resin sidetables that look like geodes. Now I KNOW I can't afford them, but if she did sell a “how to” I would totally buy it. And then probably mess it up (#PinterestFail) and then save up and get one of hers anyways.
Because we know how to do something and it is easy for us, we think it will be easy for everyone, but that is just not so!
Sell Something That Is “Popular”
This one is for a gal in one of the Etsy Facebook groups who is banging her head against the wall, trying REALLY hard and sells super unique, niche drawings. Her pieces are funky and colorful, but no one is actually looking for the type of art that she does.
So what should she do? Throw in the towel? What if she did a few pieces that were a “popular” style. Things that people would actually be looking for like “colorful nursery art” or “unique unicorns”.
It takes more work to figure out what is sellable, but it can result in more people finding your store and more sales.
But what about creative integrity? Doesn't that count for anything?
It depends on whether you are looking for sales or if you are wanting to be “artistic”.
Now you vintage peeps, you are not off the hook! I know that I “like” selling some things that are not so popular and struggle to get excited selling and shipping another 15 pound toolbox, but it is hard argue when you find something that sells consistently! Source more!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Blog Post: How To Figure Out What To Sell
- Join The Awesome Etsy Facebook Group
- Check out all my Etsy Markting Videos
- Paperly People – All my best worksheets & planners, Etsy Item SEO
