How to Sell on Etsy – A Beginner’s Guide to Start an Etsy Shop

Etsy is a leading ecommerce marketplace in selling vintage items, handmade items and gifts, outranking its competition such as Amazon Handmade with a considerable margin.

With annual revenue of over $818 million, Etsy market value is expected to reach $170 billion by 2023.

If you are a newbie and looking for an answer to how do beginners sell on Etsy, then you are up for a treat.

For all the beginners who want to become Etsy sellers, I have created a comprehensive beginner’s Etsy seller guide to describe all the essential elements when it comes to selling on Etsy.

Here is what you are going to learn in the next 15 minutes.

1 – How to Start an Etsy Store in 4 Steps

2 – 3 Questions Every Beginner Should Ask Before Selling on Etsy

3 – How Much Does it Cost to Sell on Etsy?

4 – Etsy SEO 

But first, let’s understand why you should choose Etsy.

Why Etsy?

Unlike other ecommerce marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon, Etsy sellers can easily sell independently and create their brand. Etsy sellers get more exposure than on any other platform.

When you click on the shop name, Etsy directed to the brand store.

It’s a wonderful sign to create a brand identity without having any separate online store or website.

If you are looking for a platform to build a brand and find a loyal consumer base, then Etsy is undoubtedly for you. As it turns out, about 40% of customers come back to purchase again, and that is a significantly huge ratio.

Now, coming back to the primary concern of the beginners about how to sell on Etsy.

Once you go through this guide, you can quickly become an Etsy seller within an hour without any other consultancy.

So, without further ado, let’s begin.

How to Start an Etsy Shop in 4 Steps

Many people have concerns about selling on Etsy, such as is it hard to sell on Etsy or what are the requirements to start an Etsy shop.

Well, it’s pretty straightforward. All you need is to follow four simple steps

Step # 1 – Register Yourself on Etsy

To open an Etsy store, you have to become a member, and for that, you need to click on “Open Etsy Shop” and register with an email address.

Step # 2 – Open and Create Your Etsy Shop

Once you get access to the Etsy homepage, click on the option on the top “Sell on Etsy.”

Here you need to set the Shop language, select the country, currency, and define yourself from the options that you find for you.

Select your shop name.

On other platforms like Amazon or eBay, a shop name might not be your utmost priority. However, at Etsy, it matters a lot. So, you need to be very creative in selecting an Etsy Shop name.

For brainstorming for shop names, you can our free business name generator to get a bunch of ideas in just 3 seconds.

Most of the sellers on Etsy used ‘store’ or ’boutique’ in the last of the name, so you’d better add them in your Etsy shop name.

Step # 3 – Add Product Listing

In this step, you need to add images of your product (images must 2000 pixels wide), product title, description, SKUs, delivery time, and pricing.

Step # 4 – Set Payment Gateways

Here you can select a payment gateway to process your transactions. The payment gateway Etsy offers are;

• Visa
• Mastercard
• PayPal
• American Express
• Apple Pay

Add your bank account information and set up billing information.

That’s it your products will be live on Etsy within 24 hours and appears on Etsy search result and categories.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Selling on Etsy

To become the best seller on Etsy, you need to ask yourself several questions and understand the psyche of Etsy buyers and the norms of this marketplace.

1. Do I know the Etsy Audience?

The first rule of success of starting any new thing or business – KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!

Etsy platform is dedicated to the artisans who create handcrafted products that spark creativity and define exclusivity. The method of retail arbitrage and wholesale selling would not work here. You need to display yourself as a seller who created one-of-a-kind items with utmost dedication.

That is one of the reasons that make Etsy a go-to place for gift shopping.

2. How Should I Select Products to Sell on Etsy?

Let’s understand this with an example.

This Captain America utility belt has been selling for $150 with 550+ sales already.

So, I went to TheFoamCave and mesmerized by the collection. This guy only sells superhero accessories and collectibles. That’s what makes his store one-of-kind that you could find anywhere else.

The point here is that you find thousands of product options to sell on Etsy as long as you have a profitable niche for your shop.

So first, focus on the niche that would be the foundation of your shop and then start selling products related to your niche.

3. Do I have Enough craft suppliers to Meet the Demand?

The majority of the Etsy top sellers are manufacturers themselves, so they know about meeting the demand.

So, before performing Etsy listings, you need to figure out how you can able to meet the demand, and do you have enough craft supplies when demand is high?

It profoundly matters from where you are sourcing your products. Either you are manufacturing yourself or sourcing from any third party supplier; you must get enough inventory to fulfill the order within a reasonable time.

If you cannot make your shipment in time, it would severely affect your image as a vendor.

How Much Does it Cost to Sell on Etsy?

Etsy charges quite a few fees that seem a little complex to understand for any beginners. So, here I am listing every single cost that Etsy charges for selling on its platform.

• Listing fee

To list your products, Etsy charges 20 cents for each item for four months. If the item does not sell within four months, then you have to pay $0.20 again to relist the item.

• Transaction fee

Etsy charges this fee as a service to use its marketplace. You need to pay 5% of the retail price + shipping cost.

• Auto-Renew sold fee

When you sell an item, and you have quantities left of those items, you need to pay $0.20 as an auto-renew sold fee.

• Multi-quantity fee

When you sell more than one item to a single buyer, you will be charged for each extra item. If your customer buys two products, you will be charged $0.20 as a multi-quantity fee.

• Etsy Payment fees

Etsy allows its payment service to several countries. The sellers from eligible countries cannot use PayPal as a standalone Payment gateway.  They must enroll Etsy payments integrated with PayPal.

This fee varies on the country your store is based. The percentage (3% – 4%) charges on the total amount of what the buyer pays plus some cents. Check out Etsy payments of different counties here.

If you are not eligible to use Etsy Payments, then you need to use process payments by mail or PayPal.

• PayPal Fees

If you are selling from the counties that are not eligible to use Etsy Payments, then you will pay a fee of 2.9% of total sales price + $0.30 as a PayPal fee.

How to Setup up selling price?

When it comes to setting up the selling price, you need to make sure that you get at least 30 – 40% profit of total sales after taking all the fees, expenses, labor costs, material, and suppliers into account.

Now understand Etsy selling fees with an example:

let’s say if you are selling a Mug for $15 + $5 (shipping)

So, the customer pays $20 for the mug

Start deducting the Etsy cost from $20

Listing fees = $0.2

Transaction fees = $1 (5% of $20)

Auto-renew sold fess = $0.2

Etsy payment fees = $0.85 (3% + $0.25)

———————————
Total Fees = $2.25
———————————
Remaining Revenue: $20 – $2.25 = $17.75

$17.75 will be the revenue you would earn by selling an item of $20.

However, this ($17.75) would not be your total profit. You must have sourced your product somewhere so the profit will be

(remaining revenue) – (base price of the product) = Profit.

Let’s assume that, you get that mug for $8, so my profit will be

$17.75 – $8 = $9.75 (approx. $10). Not bad, huh!

That’s how Etsy charges fees on selling. So, make sure to keep all these costs in mind before finalizing a price on your product.

There is also an optional advertisement cost.

This cost will be charged when you want to run ads on Etsy against some particular keyword.

For example, you can see four sponsored posts on the keyword iron man helmet.

There is no way to examine the fixed advertisement cost on Etsy.

If you are a newbie, I will not recommend going for an advertisement. You might end up losing money before making any from Etsy. So, to increase your odds of getting more exposure, I would recommend improving the ranking of your item on the Etsy search engine. For that, you need to understand how to do SEO on Etsy.

Etsy SEO

If you have absolutely no idea about what is Etsy search engine or what SEO is, here is a brief introduction for you.

Etsy search engine is the platform where the visitor searches for the product they want to purchase.

SEO is called search engine optimization, in which you improve the ranking of your store/site to get maximum traffic.

Etsy SEO is one of the top priorities of every Etsy seller, so that most people see your product on Etsy on the targeted keyword.

To do SEO for your Etsy shop here are tips you need to follow,

Stop Guessing and Start Researching

Do not compare Etsy search with Google search. Many beginners make this mistake of treating both searches in the same way.

When a person goes on Google, he is searching for something that he does not know like the red and green necklace. The buyer on Etsy is usually very informative and knows what they are looking for.

So, you need to think like an Etsy buyer to boost your ranking.

Match Query 

All you need to do here is to match the query of your customers. Etsy looks through listings and examing them to check how much a listing is relevant to a query. Etsy examine these things in your listing,

• Product Title
• Tags
• Relevant Category
• Attributes

So, make sure to add the relevant query in these sections.

Add Long Tail Keyword and Get Most Relevant Audience

A long-tail keyword is consists of three to four phrases that means if a person is writing that big keyword, he is coming for something particular to purchase.

If you add the same keyword in your Etsy listings, you have the maximum chances to get the most relevant audience for your product that would quickly boost your sales.

However, the main question here is how you find the keywords for your Etsy shop? That’s where Etsy SEO tools come to the rescue.

Etsy SEO Tools

Several Etsy keyword research tools give a complete report of a keyword such as engagement, monthly searches, and competition.

Marmalead ($19/month) is pretty useful when it comes to Etsy keyword research. I would recommend running your shop for a couple of months then investing in any paid tool.

Here are two great Etsy keyword research tools that you can use for free.

eRanks

Many of its key features are free to use in its standard plan. You just need to connect your Etsy store with eRanks and start looking for keyword ideas for product listing.

You can check average monthly searches of a particular keyword as well as average clicks without paying anything to eRanks.

Keyword Tool Dominator

This tool is ideal for doing basic long-tail keyword research for your Etsy store. You can easily search long-tail converting keywords that are consist of three to four phrases. Visitors with these kinds of queries are most likely coming with purchase intent.

All you need is to write a keyword, and KTD will generate multiple long-tail keywords.

It allows up to three free searches per day. For unlimited searches, you will need to buy its premium plan for a $49.99 one-time fee.

Related Articles:
Etsy vs eBay
Shopify vs Etsy

Wrapping Up

So, that’s all from my side. I hope that the explanation was comprehensive enough that it would help you to start your first Etsy shop right away.

If you have any suggestions or queries regarding selling on Etsy, make sure to mention them in the comments below. You can join our 5000+ members community of aspiring entrepreneurs to brainstorm ideas for online business.