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Etsy is a creative marketplace where 29 million buyers from all over the world come to shop for unique and fresh items. Founded in 2005, it has become the go-to online marketplace for buyers who want to purchase something special from artists and creatives who offer great products at a fair price.
Unlike many other giant online marketplaces, there is also a powerful community around Etsy. Buyers are able to purchase items not available anywhere else, whilst sellers can sell their lovingly created wares to a wider audience. Below we have collated some key bits of advice on how you can tap into the power of Etsy, set up shop and achieve success.
Etsy is perfect for sellers looking to get going in the world of eCommerce or who are testing the waters of selling their art and craft items online to local or global markets.
A huge benefit of using an online marketplace such as Etsy is definitely the community plus a consistent flow of potential customers who are looking to browse and purchase exciting personalised or unique items.
You can set up your Etsy shop for no cost at all, which is ideal for those looking for a low volume of orders, to begin with before they invest more time, resource and products. When it comes to marketing your creative works and building up your brand, Etsy is perfect and you can focus on those tasks without the hassle of having to maintain your own website.
Etsy provides all the order management tools you could possibly need to make the most out of your shop, but time will need to be invested in making your store and products stand out as there is plenty of competition vying to make sales.
If you want to sell your handmade, vintage or crafty items to the millions of shoppers browsing on Etsy, you need to set up shop. Simply head to the Etsy website click ‘Sell on Etsy’ in the top right corner to get going.
Etsy provides a comprehensive overview of how to set up your shop so take the time to check this over properly and your store up and running on the front foot.
No major development skills are required to run an Etsy store, most of the heavy lifting is handled by the useful tools available to use from your account site plus there is a whole library of guides and helpful tools to have a read of as well as an active seller community to reach out to.
Etsy as with most online marketplaces is pretty intuitive and simple to use once you get to grips with the dashboard.
Etsy buyers are on the hunt for unique, custom made or personalised goods. The millions of visitors that come to browse the categories on Etsy are looking for items not available on the high street and want to purchase inventive, high quality and stylish products.
Etsy is well known for breaking the trends of normal, and the sense of community that has been built up around this marketplace lends itself to customers wanting something made with care and love. This also means they are willing to part with more money than buying generic mass produced items often found on the giant marketplaces of this world such as eBay and Amazon.
One of a kind items do very well on Etsy, who themselves curate products from sellers using their platform. There are certain restrictions and you can find a list of prohibited items here.
Quality pictures are key if you want to make a success of Etsy. It is your opportunity to showcase your products in the best possible light and convince buyers to purchase from your store. For each listing you can use one main photo plus four additional photos, so you can create a proper overview of your product.
To be found on Etsy you will need to provide accurate descriptions of your items and include relevant keywords about what your items are that people are likely to search for. You can really use the description to push the benefits and features of your product to convince the buyer to make a purchase.
You can also add tags to your item and include the relevant keywords, these tags should represent the keywords buyers with the intent of buying an item like yours,
When you have poured your love into creating bespoke products you are going to need to cover the costs of materials and very importantly, time. Many items are sold on Etsy for £50 or more, but Etsy buyers are also looking for value and Etsy sellers are mostly successful selling items for under the £50 mark. Lower prices bring in more shoppers, but you can fluctuate your prices to find your sweet spot. You will also need to consider the time and costs involved in packaging and preparing your items to be shipped and then the costs involved to get your items safely to the recipient.
An online marketplace such as Etsy opens the doors to reach new customers all over the globe who are on the lookout for cool items that nobody else has come across yet. Whilst this is exciting as a seller, you will need to consider how best to then ship to your customers.
Parcel Monkey offer not only domestic courier services, we offer discounted international courier service using tracked and reliable companies such as DPD, Parcelforce and DHL.
Simply use our courier quote engine to compare delivery prices and you can be shipping the items you have sold on Etsy for a fraction of the cost it would set you back at the Post Office. Not only this, you can choose to have a courier come and collect your parcels from your home or work address, or if you prefer to drop off at the Post Office or DPD Pickup shop you can book online for a discounted price, print your shipping labels and drop them off at a time that suits you.
Many items sold on Etsy are very fragile, so you will need to package them very well to be shipped through a courier network, so follow our packaging guidelines carefully.
There is no monthly cost to use the standard Etsy package, only a listing fee for every item you list of around £0.16 per listing which is billed in dollars so will appear as a fee of around $0.20 per listing. When you put a listing live, they stay active for four months or until your item is sold. Etsy is now going to offer a Plus package with an expanded set of tools for those who are looking for a more professional offering.
As of 16th July, Etsy is increasing the transaction fees from 3.5% to 5% to reinvest in making their platform even better for sellers and to provide better customer support. If you use Etsy payments there is also a payment processing fee of 4% + £0.20 when an item is sold.
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