12 Ways to increase your sales on Etsy

As an Etsy shop seller of Digital prints, I’ll be the first to admit that digital sales are not the ‘win-all’ game-changer people claim they are. But you can make some serious money if you follow a few rules. How can you quickly increase your sales on Etsy without breaking into your piggy bank?

Here is a quick list of some of the things I recommend you do to gain a little traction in the sea of sequins.

My shop, Once upon paper co, has been on Etsy since 2013. Do I sell stacks of items each day? – Not every day. But I make enough to make it worth my while in the long term.

There is little point in putting the brakes on now – since digital is probably about the most passive income source in my business at the moment.

And guess what -? It should be yours too.

Read our other posts on Etsy

Research your competitors on Etsy

Dealing with a bad review on Etsy

Increase your sales rate today

I began my Etsy shop as I had already dabbled in selling in another shop. I used other people’s artwork, namely clip art, created more products from them, and sold them on as digital products. Get started selling digital today.

I never have, nor do I intend to start selling physical items, given the current delivery problems during our wild year of 2020.

But that’s just me – if your customers are very local, there is no reason for me to put you off selling physical items.

Anyway – back to the subject.

What can shop owners do to increase their sales on Etsy?

Making more products will increase your sales on Etsy

You might think this is just a basic instinct and have already thought through your strategy of creating lots of new items. But many sellers forget that Etsy is the monkey monster in The Croods and needs to be kept fed at all times. Or at least tickled with new items regularly.

You do need to make more products to have any impact.

I have many comments on my blog and emails from sellers who are just stuck. They always say I’m not having any sales, what’s wrong with my shop?

First off – if you have less than 100 items, you need to be selling something pretty unique (think Bitcoin) – no? Sorry, bad example, that would be like finding a dinosaur. Something unique or at least ‘different’ on Etsy. I found this out when I put this print for sale. It really was just me trying out a new water brush pen with ink in.

I honestly didn’t understand that putting something out there that I’d never seen before could have such an impact. So don’t be afraid of ‘throwing spaghetti’ a few times on Etsy. You might find something that will stick.

You need to ensure that you have 100 items in your shop – do this before you do anything.

How many products should I have on Etsy?

Why 100?

With 100 good items, you will quickly see what is selling and what isn’t worth your time. So now you need to make more of these and less of those. I feel 100 was the turning point in my shop, where I felt I was on the right track.

Each listing is a window into the high street on Etsy, and you need at least 100 windows, especially if the next bestseller has 3000 windows. I’m going to repeat this again just in case you’re a skimmer. If you make $20 with 4 items, you could make $25,000 with 5000 items.

Remember, we are selling digital items, so I can tell you that a blog with 1000 posts will get much more traffic than a blog with only 36 (that’s me).

So get to work and get more items out there – if all this makes you grab a chocolate bar and face plant in your hands, well, decide now if you want to be successful or not. 

End of whine.

Double up your efforts for a start. Take 2, 3, or even five listings and create one big one. Yes, I do get a lot of single sales in my shop, but many buyers purchase 2-5 items at a time.

Probably they are making a wall of art or want to have different images in different rooms.

Your job is to solve the problem.

End of.

Redo old listings to create new listings

Use the same items with small color changes or even size if you can. Create a listing using the products you already have.

You can even copy the duplicate listing and use a different title or pictures. This is essentially the duplicate listing but using different ways to sell it.

Perfectly acceptable on Etsy as long as you don’t have a shop with 300 of the same item, of course.

Use your common sense here.

Create a one-month sale to increase digital sales

I personally have had a lot of success with 1-month sales. I hammer home the price drop and often use 70% discounts.

Wow, that’s a lot!

I know, but if you sell more and make more money – it doesn’t matter if you sell 10,000 at ​ $2 because it’s more than 500 at $5.

Views your stats and conversion rate on Etsy

How do you work out your conversion rate on Etsy?

Total number of sales divided by /total number of views * (times) x100

28 sales

150 views

= conversion rate of 18.6

My conversion rate while the shop is on sale is around 2.5% – in contrast, when I’m not on sale its usually approximately 1.3 – 1.5 %

Conclusion – everyone loves a bargain on Etsy. But you already knew that.

This should be of interest to you as a shop seller – because Etsy is interested in it.

Increasing your conversion rate may improve where your listings rank in Etsy search.

Start hitting your social media with a tiny hammer often.

It does help.

Yes, the dreaded social media. Sellers can do little wrong if they use Pinterest to direct traffic to their shop, but remember, Etsy is a big platform, and so is Pinterest.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it. – I wrote a post on how to use Pinterest to send traffic to your Etsy shop.

The basics are – make more pins, make more pins and make more pins, be interesting and use your keywords.

If this sounds like hard work – please visit the post and follow the instructions.

I’m going through this course on Instagram, helping me better improve my Instagram presence. Alien to me because I hate feeding the feed.

But I love how Kat explains how to use the platform best and what you do to increase your reach. She is infectious, and it’s not often I find someone I resonate with so easily. You can find her course at Instagram Makeover.

Gary Vee on Youtube talks a lot about social media on Youtube, and he once said you should be putting out 100 pieces of content a day. Wow. That’s a lot.

Use your reviews to increase your sales on Etsy.

If anything will increase your conversion rate on Etsy – it’s fellow shoppers. Think about it, we shop on Instagram and no longer need to see a skinny woman in a magazine to buy a dress.

We like real people, those we can relate to and look like. All of your reviews are gold in your shop. You should leverage them like being a royal and get them seen and read as many times as possible to potential buyers.

But how?

Ways to increase your page views on Etsy using your reviews

• Copy them into your header
• Use them in your descriptions.
• Screens shot them for social media. 
• Tweet about them 
• Post about them 
• Have them up in big lights
• Make pins of your reviews and pin them with big powerful headlines that SOLVE A PROBLEM. Boom…

These can potentially produce your catchphrase for your shop – anything which refers to solving a problem is terrific for your brand.

For example, if someone said in a review my item was ‘just what they needed‘ – or ‘brightened up the hallway‘ – that sort of thing.

It refers to solving their problem, and I guarantee you – other buyers are looking to solve the same issues.

Start creating authority around your product.

If you are selling something you know a lot about, tell people how it is done. What inspired you, how did you start, etc. You will be surprised how many people are interested in your processes.

For example – you sell digital printable sticker sheets, and buyers can use their home machines to print them out. 

• How did you make those stickers 
• What inspired your collections 
• What drawing skills did you use 
• What programs did you master
• How do you produce your files

I use this book all the time if I’m stuck on a subject to talk about.

For the most part – buyers are interested in you as well as your product. They want to feel some connection, so you can say that you make this product unique because only you make it like this. Well, all good.

It’s a genuine way to get closer to your buyer and create buying action.

Start a Website to promote your Etsy shop.

Using a website or blog is perfect for advertising your product and getting yourself noticed long-term. Having another way the buyers can connect with you off Etsy is essential if you want to create a business with enormous growth foundations.

Find out what’s involved in creating a website for your Etsy shop.

Promote your listings on Etsy

Now there are many hit-and-miss actions you can take with this route. I have found some success in the past, but little in the long term.

If you use promoted listing on your Etsy shop, please only promote those products that sell a lot. If you are not selling much, don’t spend your profits advertising since you must verify your product first.

Verification comes with sales and products selling quickly. Check your conversion rate for your listings to find out which one is bringing you the most sales.

Create an email list for your Etsy shop

If you haven’t already done so, an email list can do terrific things to drive more traffic to your shop – and you also need to email your list often. (hangs head in shame)

I wrote a post on how to start an email list. Even if you only have a few sign-ups, it’s well worth producing a few emails you can schedule out over a sale period and when you create a new product.

This small but essential action can drive regular traffic to your shop – and return buyers.

Improve your product photos

I have to say if there is only one thing you can do to increase digital sales instantly, its enhances your shop photos.

We all have to start somewhere. Many of us started with the wrong size, the lousy resolution, and dark, out-of-focus images. But you don’t have to.

If this stumps you – please go and search for your item and put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a minute.

What do you see? Which listings make you want to click and see them? – for any reason, usually, it’s the image that attracts you first.

The listing photo is probably the most significant make-or-break issue for any Etsy shop. It holds the most weight when your product is comparable to others in the search results.

You can see how I use my images on Etsy in this post.

So do some research on your competitors.

You can give yourself a head start by using my method for using my competition to improve my shop, which I explain in my Etsy shop planner kit.

Read our guide to Etsy shop competitors

Each competitor can teach you something new and give you ideas you can use over and over to improve your shop.

Please don’t ever copy other shops, but it is an excellent place to get ideas to try.

This leads me to my next point on how to increase digital sales on Etsy

Brand your shop as though your customer is the Queen

Remember, your shop is not your living room, not where you veg out on the sofa. It’s where you invite your potential customer inside to take a look around – perhaps pick up a few items, and you do want them to wander around and view pieces.

View your shop now – and write down all the things you can change to improve your branding to make it more appealing to everyone who comes through your doors.

You can find out how to brand your Etsy shop in my post here.

Final thoughts on how to increase digital sales on Etsy

Create many more listings, preferably completely new listings, but use your current offerings and double up if that’s not possible. Make more social media posts and get your shop links out there for people to find in every area. Test where your customers are hanging out – and then put more out there. Throw in a 1-month sale at the maximum you can get away with – yes, this could backfire, but usually – you can see a lot of data with one-month sales. Think about starting a separate website independent of your Etsy shop and begin emailing your list often.

I hope you found this post helpful. – if so, it would be super helpful if you can pin me to your favorite Pinterest board.