So, you have some ideas for your Etsy shop, you’re excited to start, and all that’s left is designing the product, right? Not quite.
First, you need to learn how to find winning design ideas for your digital products shop. After all, dedicating your time to product creation without knowing what is selling won’t do you or your store any good if your products aren’t what shoppers are looking for.
Today, I’m covering how I find winning design ideas for my Etsy shop to ensure I create products that customers really want.
(This post contains affiliate links and you can read the full disclosure here)
- Use a Keyword Product and Research Tool
There are multiple keyword products and research tools on the market that are specifically designed to help you find great products to sell on Etsy.
One of the better tools on the market is Alura, an all-in-one platform that provides Etsy sellers with research and marketing tools. It offers a free version with ten searches every 30 days, so you don’t have to invest any money upfront to get started.
2. Begin Your Product Research
You likely have some ideas about what kind of products you’d like to sell on Etsy. You may be interested in selling planner printables, wall art, or printable organization labels for the home.
Start with the category that interests you and go to Alura’s Product Seeker tool, which you can find on the left-hand side of your dashboard under Product Research. From there, specify the type of product you want to research, such as organizational labels, and choose the most relevant category.
I also recommend choosing a country and filling in the total sales for a minimum of at least 500 sales to help you find products that are already selling a lot.
Remember, it’s much easier to jump into a niche of products where people already see the value and are interested in buying rather than a niche that no one has yet to discover because it’ll have little to no audience.
For more information on Alura’s Product Seeker tool, check out Alura’s tutorial and blog post here.
Example search results for printable home organization products
3. Analyze the Search Results
After your research tool populates different products based on your search parameters, scroll through the list until you find something that catches your eye. This product may be something you’re interested in creating or have a much higher price point or more sales than you would have imagined.
For this example, I choose the following product, which has made 804 sales and is currently listed for $8.75 (a whopping $7,035, assuming the sales were all made at that price). Alura also estimates that this product is currently making the seller $385 monthly, which is a significant amount of passive income for one product to generate monthly.
The editable toy bin labels listing on Etsy
4. Analyze the Stand Out Products
After choosing the products that stand out to you, research what makes them so appealing. Take notes as you go and highlight your most interesting finds and common denominators.
For example, the editable toy labels product is visually appealing and great for many target audiences, including parents, teachers, school administrators, babysitters, and home organization professionals. It’s also at an accessible price point.
As a digital product, customers can print it out multiple times. These cards also function as a learning opportunity for children as it helps kids learn the value of organization and can be used to teach early readers new words.
The listing also has a total of 97 cards, ensuring it has specific categories for nearly any type of toy out there. In addition, customers can edit the card to make their own label if a desired label isn’t included.
5. Create Your Own Versions of Your Favorite Products
Once you’ve gone through multiple searches and taken notes on different products that inspired you, choose which products you want to make your own version of. Remember, you never want to copy another Etsy seller’s designs exactly. However, you can use other sellers’ designs to inspire your listings.
For example, you could create printable toy bin labels with a completely different art style. You could use the 97 listed labels as inspiration for your categories and add your own unique categories from there.
You should also consider making multiple versions of your chosen product. For example, you could design simple, minimalistic toy bin labels and vivid toy bin labels inspired by rainbows, unicorns, or colorful animals, like tropical fish, peacocks, and parrots.
Another idea is making multiple versions of the same design with different color schemes to match different nurseries, bedrooms, school playrooms, and more. This is an easy way to maximize your profits from the same product too as changing the colors or fonts takes very little time but allows you to add another listing to your shop easily. Then, customers can choose whatever color scheme or style they prefer for their child’s room.
I recommend using Canva to create your digital products. It’s user-friendly, and you don’t need any graphic design experience to make an amazing digital product.
Interested in more detailed information about launching a successful digital products shop, finding great product design ideas, and marketing your shop? Check out my course, Digitally Purposed, which shares all my top secrets to becoming a top seller on Etsy and how I became a six-figure digital products seller on Etsy with no experience in only a few months!
