There are many businesses that working mothers can run from home. Etsy is a great option for home businesses of all kinds, whether you make children’s clothes, design websites or sell vintage china. If you’re going to start a business selling through Etsy, you need to get it right to give it the best chance of succeeding.
Treat Your Etsy Store Like a Serious Business
An online business should be treated as seriously as if you had a physical shop on the high street. Offer great service to your customers, and keep them loyal with professional treatment, fresh stock and quality products.
- Refresh your stock with new items every month. New items give returning customers a reason to keep coming back to see what new items you have added. Fresh stock can also attract new customers who may not have been interested in your old stock.
- Make sure you show off products with great pictures. Even the best products will not sell if they have dark, blurry pictures. Take your photographs in a well-lit space and make sure they’re clear and in focus.
- Write good descriptions. Think about things that your customer might want to know about the product and get all that information across in the description. Try to answer any questions they might have, with information about the items size, the materials you used and shipping details.
- Use titles, tags and descriptions to optimize for SEO. Research the top keywords used in Etsy searches and make sure to fit relevant ones in your titles and descriptions to help your products rank on Etsy’s search pages.
- Keep your prices consistent and fair to you and the customer. Don’t forget to include the cost of the materials used, your time creating a product and any business costs like Etsy’s fees or PayPal costs.
Choose a Niche
A good Etsy store should be a specialist shop, not a department store. Find a niche for your business to give your store the best chance of attracting loyal customers, who think of you as an expert.
Imagine a customer who is searching Etsy for a vintage dress. They find a dress from the 60s that you have listed. They like it, but they’re really looking for a slightly different style, so they click into your store to look at the rest of your stock. Instead of finding more vintage clothing, they find several pages of handmade jewelry; laser printed tote bags and customized trainers. Instead of searching your store for more vintage, they’ll click back to the search pages and keep looking. Find the right niche, and stick to it to keep customers on your page and away from the search. This helps customers to know what to expect and they’ll think of you as a specialist in the thing they’re interested in.
Marketing
You can have the best stock and the most beautifully designed Etsy storefront, but if you aren’t marketing your products, no customer will find you. Build a marketing strategy to attract potential customers.
- Etsy has its own marketing tools built in, so use them. On Etsy, you can pay for some promoted listings. These listings will appear at the top of the results page when someone searches on the site. Being at the top means your products are seen first, which can really boost sales.
- Advertise on social media. Identify what platforms your target customer would use, such as Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Make sure customers can recognise you, so use the same profile picture across all platforms. Use your social channels to show off new products and shout about offers or deals. Display bestselling products too.
- Think about using influencer marketing. If your audience is young, advertising through influencers could be very effective. You could send out some products to bloggers for review, or ask a blogger with a large following to use and review a website template you made. .
Get Packaging and Shipping Right
Send out products in a way that makes you look professional.
- Send out orders promptly. Nobody likes to wait for new things they’ve bought, so get orders on their way as soon as you can, and use a service that gets orders there fast.
- Pack up your orders safely so delicate items don’t arrive broken. Choose smart looking packaging like poly mailers so your orders look professional when they arrive to your customer.
- Offer multiple tiers of shipping options. As well as your standard shipping, offer a next day service or an option where orders can tracked or signed for on delivery.