Once you get your Etsy shop up and running with some gorgeous listings, you might hope to sit back and watch the sales roll in. If that doesn’t quite happen, don’t worry!
It’s usually not too hard to pinpoint the problem.
There are five specific reasons I see ALL. THE. TIME. for why Etsy sellers aren’t getting sales.
So let’s dive right into it so that you can make whatever adjustments are needed to start makin’ that money, honey.
(This post contains affiliate links and you can read the full disclosure here)
You’re not adding new products often enough
It’s massively beneficial to add new products to your Etsy shop regularly. If you’re a digital product seller, you should actually aim for one new listing per day.
Each new product gives you another chance to show up in a buyer’s search. Also, when you have a “full store”, you increase the chance that someone will choose to buy multiple products from you.
With each new product, Etsy’s algorithm gives you a tiny boost for a short period of time to see if people are interested in your new item. If you have a new item every day that is getting that tiny boost, you end up with a lot of extra eyes on your shop!
You haven’t done your SEO research
How much SEO research have you done for each of your products? Did you do research on what products you should create based on competition and demand? Or did you decide what you wanted to create and then try to find decent keywords to go along with it?
Ideally, you are doing the research before creating your products. This way, you’re not wasting energy creating something that either no one is buying or that has tons of competition.
Along with that goes your SEO research. You don’t want to guess the best keywords to use. There are tools, like Insight Factory, Erank, and Everbee that can help take a lot of the guesswork out of this so that you can make more sales and save you tons of time.
Your keywords aren’t everywhere they could be
Etsy’s goal is to help buyers find exactly what they’re looking for so that Etsy can make their sale commission. They don’t know what to show a buyer without the right keywords in the right places for each product.
Keywords matter in your item title, description, and tags. When it comes to the tags, you can use up to 13. Etsy recommends that you do use all 13 tags available.
Try not to overlap your words so that you are even more descriptive. For example, don’t say “dog art” and “dog print”. Instead, you could use the tags “dog art” and “animal print”.
You can include some more general keywords in your shop title and shop sections along with your title, description, and tags.
For your products to be sold, you need to take advantage of all possible keyword placement positions.
You’re not selling trending products
I know I’ve said this in many other posts, but it’s always worth repeating. To gain traction in your shop, you need to create trending products.
Figuring out what’s trending isn’t as hard as it sounds! Insight Factory has a constantly updated tab where they show you exactly what’s trending. You can dig into each trending category to see the competition, discover keywords, and get ideas.
Trending products often revolve around holidays or times of the year, like Mother’s day or weight-loss-themed products around the new year.
If you’re working on getting a new product listed each day, head over to Insight Factory before you start creating. Use their trends data to decide what to make.
You’re not doing any outside marketing
Most uber-successful Etsy shops do some amount of marketing on other platforms.
Pinterest and Instagram are both highly visual platforms and are perfect places to market your products.
You can create pins on Pinterest that link directly to your shop so people can purchase your products. On Instagram, you can show each new product as well as some behind-the-scenes details of your creative process or “life as an Etsy seller”.
Facebook can also be a good place to start sharing your products. By using your personal profile and sharing links to your new products, you give your friends and family a chance to support your new endeavor.
What’s Next?
It can be discouraging to not get the sales that you were hoping for with your shop. Here’s the most important thing: don’t give up!
Remember, everyone starts at zero. The most successful Etsy sellers today all started with no listings and had to learn all of the “tricks of the trade” along the way. You can do this too.
So! Is one of the reasons from this list ringing true for you? What’s one thing you can start working on today?
Concerned about marketing your digital products shop and standing out amongst your competition? My course Digitally Purposed gives you all the tools you need to create a profitable digital products business and keep your customers coming back again and again.
