How to start selling on Etsy

With thousands of online marketplaces available online Etsy has made a name for itself when it comes to handmade goods and vintage items, as well as other arts and crafts. It became so popular over the years that it now has over 40 million active buyers and over two million active sellers.

With so many active buyers in one place, there are plenty of opportunities for Etsy sellers to make a profit. So why not start selling on Etsy now? Creating an online store on Etsy is a smart choice for small business owners who specialize in handmade items – so if you enjoy had knitting or making “Marvel” themed enamel pins, you should think about opening a shop on Etsy.

If you don’t have any experience with eCommerce platforms, then opening an Etsy store may seem like a complicated prospect.  But in reality, setting up an Etsy shop is not that difficult, in fact, it can be quite straightforward, and at the end of the process, it might prove to be a suitable home for your products.

If you are interested in growing your company and brand with an Etsy business, the first thing that you will have to do is to open an Etsy store. We’ll talk you through the steps to create your very own online store and give you a few tips on how to sell products on the Etsy platform.

Create an Etsy account

The first step is to make your presence on the platform is to open an Etsy account – you will use this account to run the shop and to buy from other sellers on Etsy. After creating the account you should update your profile picture and bio to let other people in the Etsy community know who you are. After this all you have to do is to open an Etsy shop by clicking on the “Sell on Etsy” link, entering your email, name, and password – and by clicking on “Register”, you are good to go!
Note: you also have the option of creating an Etsy account by signing in via Facebook or Google account.

Set up your shop

Now comes the part where you have to set up some basic shop preferences such as the default language, which is the language you will be describing your items –after opening the shop, you can choose to translate the page into other languages, then you will be asked to set your home country and currency in which you will be listing your items with.

The next step would be to set up your Etsy shop name

You need to get those creative juices flowing – ideally, your shop name needs to be intriguing but easy enough for customers to remember and it also has to be reflective of your products and values.

The shop name has to be 4-20 characters long, without any spaces or special characters, it cannot be a name that is already in use and it cannot infringement and trademarks – if you need some inspiration, check out this link.

Customizing your shop

Another important step is to customize your shop – your store needs to be easy to find, beautifully curated and intuitively organized – and of course, constantly updated. So what other things do you need to add to your shop?

A bio and a photo

In your bio, you have the freedom to tell the public anything that you want, through this, they can learn more about you – both as a business owner and a person outside of your work. You can say a little about your background, interests, qualifications and you can also tell the story behind the products that you are selling.

Policies

Just as you would do on eBay, you will have to answer any pertinent questions your customers may have about the manufacturing, processing, shipping and payment process. Be sure to include an estimated shipping time so that the buyers have a clear idea of what to expect when it comes to delivery. You will also have to be sure that you include your returns and exchanges policy, and the payment methods you accept.

Listing your items on Etsy

The next step is to start adding products to your Etsy shop – it is similar to the process you would see on eBay:

First, you need to add photos of your products – Etsy recommends using at least five photos per item, so that the customers see your products from various angles and that the size of your image has at least 1000 pixels on all sides. These photos also include a thumbnail – that you will have to adjust – this thumbnail will be the first image that customers see – think of it as the product’s headshot.

After getting the pictures sorted, you will have to complete the product details – write a description that gives the customer more information about the product, think of it as an overview of the item that you are listing.

Add the product’s price and the quantity – if you have more than one item in stock – and variations ( if you have more than one version of the same product).

Now there are two more things left to do: Choosing payment preferences and setting up billing

First, you have to pic how would you prefer to accept payments – options include PayPal, check or money order or Etsy payments.

When it comes to billing, it depends on your country – in certain countries Etsy will require you to provide a credit card for identity authorization purposes.

Now, all is left is for you to open your shop! It wasn’t that difficult, was it?

Starting an Etsy store is logistically simple, thanks to the platform’s user-friendly interface and abundance of internal resources. But like with any other store, opening the shop is the easy part – you will have to put in extra work to build a fanbase and to get sales going.