Okay, so you’ve set up your Etsy shop and created your first few listings. Now, how do you turn your listings from good to great?
I believe the three most vital factors are:
- Making your listings easily searchable
- Having your listings give off strong first impressions
- Having your shop give off credibility
To hit all of these points, I’m going to explain each detail that will impact your user’s decision to buy. Here is what I’ve found to be the fundamentals to a great Etsy listing and Etsy shop. (Also if you’d like to open your own Etsy shop, you can use my link here which gives you a free 40 listings and provides me with 40 free listings as well.)
Your Listing:
Your listings are what customers will find to get to your shop. When people use the Etsy search engine, they get to your products rather than your shop, so you have to make sure they’re A) reaching as many people as possible B) captivating enough for a click and possibly a purchase.
A) Reach
Titles and Keywords
The two main features that will affect your reach are your titles and keywords. To create a stellar listing, you’ll need to optimize these two factors. I’m going to create a 4th post on everything I’ve picked up on how to make these two better.
Descriptions
Descriptions seem to only benefit Google searches over Etsy searches. So having specific searchable terms in the description won’t help your Etsy ranking, but will help for ranking on Google.
B) Great First Impressions
Cover photo
When you search for Etsy listings, you’ll notice that the most pronounced feature is the cover photo. All you really see, in fact, is the title of the listing and the photo.
This means your photo needs to be strong enough for people to click on it (and that your product itself needs to be of interest to people). I tend to only upload 1 photo, which seems to do fine with sales. However, multiple photos can be great for the user who wants an informed decision before buying.
Aesthetically, make sure your digital download A) looks professional and B) stands out over the background you place behind it for the cover photo. I’d use a neutral background as busy backgrounds don’t perform as well.
Title
The first few characters of your listing title will show in search, so ensure that it makes sense and is relevant to the keywords you want to rank for. Again, I will go into optimization in the next Etsy post.
Descriptions
After your customer has clicked onto your listing, they will be able to read your listing details and decide if the item is worth buying. To craft a top-notch description, I would:
- Explain what your product includes – Does your listing have PSDs? List of free fonts used? Be clear about what your listing includes so people know what they will get.
- Add personality – Use “I” instead of 3rd person. Talk about why you created the listing and what makes it unique. You want people to see the human aspect behind your products and understand that you put in time handcrafting your work. I am honestly guilty of not putting enough attention to creating an emotional tie to my descriptions, but I will go back and revise the listing details later!
- Include specific keywords – Again, adding keywords in your listing description only affects your ability to rank on Google.
- Discuss terms of use, disclaimers, and policies – What are the policies for returns? How are people allowed to use your listing? Make sure people are aware before they buy.
Be extremely detailed so your customer knows what to expect!
Your Shop:
Users can visit your shop to get an overall look of the listings you have:
The key to building your shop appearance is creating credibility. Complete your shop to its fullest extent:
Fill your shop with listings: Make sure all your listings follow one theme. You shouldn’t fill it with both physical items and instant downloads.
I saw my first sale after listing around 10 items, and I got more and more traction as I went from 20 listings to 40 listings. I’ve also heard that 50 and 100 are magic numbers for getting exponentially more sales.
When a user sees a fully stocked shop, they will be more inclined to buy as the number gives off credibility. And the more listings you have, the bigger your reach as you’ll cover more keyword searches.
Cover photo – Your own shop is decorated with a cover photo at the top. Make sure to put a relevant photo consistent with your brand image. For example if you want to convey professionalism, make sure the photo is in line with this theme.
Shop Name – In my previous post, I discussed how to craft the perfect shop name.
Tagline – Underneath your shop name, you can format your tagline. This tagline can only be 55 characters so it needs to be short, sweet, and to the point. Make sure it explains exactly what your listings entail.
About Section – In your about section, talk about what your shop contains, and if you can, add a background story like so:
(from createSerenity shop)
Number of Sales/Reviews – When I see that a shop has sold over 3,000 items versus a shop that has sold 3 of the same types of items, I’m more inclined to buy from the first shop that has a proven record of sales. And I’m more inclined to buy from a shop with 1,000 4-5 star reviews over a shop that has 0 reviews.
An example of a shop with almost 40,000 sales and over 4,000 ratings. Crazy!
Users obviously base a lot of their decisions on how the shop is selling and how other people have rated the shop’s listings. My advice is really to create the best products you can, and to create a lot of them.
Your User Profile:
Users can also look at your user profile:
I saw an uptick in sales as I started personalizing my user profile.
Seller Icon:
In the past I only had a logo for the seller icon, which I later changed to my face to create a more personal feel. People want to know who’s creating the listings and who to trust!
Seller Profile Details:
In your profile details, explain why you created your shop and where you can find the social media information for your shop. This gives users a way to connect with you emotionally as well as find you online.
If you’d like to open your own Etsy shop, you can use my link here which gives you a free 40 listings (and provides me with 40 free listings as well).
If you would like to learn how to make passive income on Etsy check out my course here, where I’ll guide you step by step in how to achieve the same results as I have.
In the Next Post…
Now that you know how to create a great listing, in the next post I will cover how to find the right keywords for your listings to optimize for! Stay tuned.
Part 4: How to Optimize Your Etsy Listings and Keywords for More Sales
