What is Etsy?
Etsy is an online selling community focused on Arts and Crafts. Think eBay for artistic people.
This is a great platform both for buyers and sellers, and figures prove it. With active buyers fast approaching 50 million it’s a good reason why anyone with craft-based products shouldn’t ignore this as a selling opportunity.
The goal is to use Etsy’s massive user base as leverage to reach a massive audience for your products. You’ll avoid the hassle of setting up and managing your own website, promoting it, and handling the payment processing.
If you have an artistic streak, then why not try your luck selling your creations on this site.
Who’s it For?
- Anyone creative
- Anyone in design
- Anyone wanting to design their own products
Skills
- Ability to design and create
- Ability to spot trends and develop your own product lines
- Ability to promote online
Start Up
You can register on Etsy in the time it takes you to fill in the online forms but do some research first.
Browse competitors for items similar to products you intend to sell by using keywords searches. Figure out which ones you stand the best chance of selling as a starting point and come up with your pricing.
It may take a little longer to figure out your storefront.
You’ll need to come up with a name and get a logo produced.
You’ll also need some descriptions and images for your product listings. Spend time making sure these are high quality. Images say everything to your potential buyers, so spend money getting good ones if required.
How You Make Your Income
Once your listing is active, you’ll be able to sell your product.
Put aside a budget to for promotion and make you calculate this into your pricing.
Don’t overstretch yourself with too many products at the outset. It’s better to build gently as you become more familiar with the promotional costs and the realistic margins you can make.
If you have multiple product have varying price points to temp buyers with different budgets.
Once a product becomes successful you can copy/paste your process to begin scaling and increase your revenue.
The more you sell the more you make, so go and be crafty.
For help on promotional methods and social media campaigns see the Explainers and Plus.
