Are you a crafter? Whether you craft your art because you love it, or you do it to gift these crafts to friends and family, you have probably wondered whether or not you could start selling your crafts on a larger scale and making some real money. Guess what? You can! You can sell on Etsy and believe it or not, learning how to start selling your crafts on Etsy is simple!
Start Selling Your Crafts on Etsy
What is Etsy?
Etsy is an online marketplace for independent creators, crafters, and artists to sell their handmade products. Etsy sellers can sell their handmade artwork, crafts, jewelry, clothing, collectibles, decor pieces, and vintage items. It is a unique shopping space in an overcrowded online shopping world. This is because unlike the large shopping sites on the web, Etsy’s purpose is to help independent creators and micro-businesses flourish in selling their items.
Why sell on Etsy?
As if those reasons weren’t compelling enough, Etsy is an easy place to begin for those that are thinking about selling their crafts. Better yet, unlike renting a space at a vendor fair, opening a brick and mortar store, or even starting your own online store, it doesn’t cost a thing to create a store on Etsy! This doesn’t mean that it will always be the best option for selling your crafts though, so you need to be sure you are aware of the pros and cons before jumping in.
What sells on Etsy?
Many people enjoy selling and buying homemade crafts. Here are a few ideas to get you started
Pros and Cons to Selling on Etsy
To help you make this decision, I have decided to create a short Etsy pros and cons list for you to help you in trying to figure out how to start selling your crafts on Etsy:
PROS
- Easy to start
- Free to begin
- Easy for those that don’t know how to build a website
- Easy to get a feel for the sales success of your product
CONS
- You want the customer interaction aspect of selling your product
- You create large items that are cost prohibitive to ship
- You want to create a brand (you CAN create a brand even with Etsy, but the strong branding isn’t the same when selling through Etsy)
If you are feeling good about this pros and cons list, then you are probably ready to find out how to start selling your crafts on Etsy.
Steps to Selling on Etsy
First Step – Choose Your Product
Start Small and Build Slowly!
Now you may already know what you are good at creating; but first and foremost, you need to decide what you are going to sell. Even if you are great at many things, I highly recommend starting with just one or two items so that you don’t become overwhelmed.
Second Step – Choose Your Shop Name
Memorable, but simple, is key!
Try to come up with a catchy name that will be easy for people to remember the next time they visit Etsy to shop for handmade items. Your shop name is different than your account name, and you can have several different shops under each account (reminder for later when you are ready to expand your creations list).
Third Step – Set up Your Shop
Now you’re ready to get your Etsy shop set up!
Setting up shop
Head to Etsy and click on “Sell on Etsy” and then “Shop Preferences” and from there you will enter your personal information, your shop name and info. You will then be ready to input your items for sale!
Fourth Step – Listing Your Items
Now it is time to sell on Etsy!!!
Listing your Item on Etsy
- It is free to create a shop, but it does cost $0.20 to list an item on Etsy, so be prepared for this expense. Additionally, there are more fees once an item sells, this is a percentage fee based on the sales amount.
- Post great, high quality photos, using natural light (no flash photography). Etsy recommends uploading GIF, JPG, OR PNG files that are at least 570 pixels wide.
- Create catchy, memorable product names and descriptions that will be easy for shoppers to read.
- Put the item in the correct categories and use the correct tags. This will help shoppers find your products.
- Fill in all required fields and be as descriptive as possible.
- Prepare your shipping preferences. The postal office offers free postage scales for use by customers, but you may consider getting your own postage scale to help calculate postage costs.
Once you have gone through the sale process, posting the next item will be much easier!
Etsy has a great app available for sellers so that you can sell from anywhere. There is also a thorough help section where you can find answers to many questions that you may have when creating your Etsy shop.
