Etsy is a great marketplace to sell your craft supplies, digital art, handmade jewelry, and much more. You may be intimidated by the idea that you have to set up your own shop. Etsy makes it easy by giving you step-by-step instructions. Here are five tips to help you get up and running.
1. Decide what products to sell
When selling on Etsy, you need to sell products that you know consumers will want to buy. You can sell both digital and physical items. Consumers enjoy being able to touch, feel and display physical items.
If you want to know how to make prints of your art you can conduct a bit of research and look for a print-on-demand company that will meet your requirements. After finding the right company you can also sell a huge variety of physical merchandise, such as phone cases, mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, etc. It’s as simple as picking a product, adding your design, and making a sale. The print-on-demand company prints the item once a customer places an order and ships it to them.
2. Set up your Etsy account and name your shop
On Etsy, you need to create a seller account and set up preferences like your home country, default language and currency. You can choose to be a full-time or part-time seller.
It’s exciting to come up with a name for your shop, and if it reflects what products you sell, it will be easier for them to remember. Etsy has various guidelines your name has to meet:
It must be unique from the names other Etsy shops use.
It should be at least four characters long but not over 20 characters.
It should not violate any trademarks or use profanity.
It should not contain any special characters or spaces.
If you don’t know what to name your shop, Etsy gives you some tips for choosing a name.
3. Create your first product listings
Etsy also has a step-by-step guide you can use to create product listings. After logging in to your Etsy account, you will click on “Shop Manager” and choose “Add a Listing.”
Photos or videos: Your photos are a very important component of your listing and must showcase your products effectively. You can use a good iPhone to take high-quality photos of products on a white background in a well-lit space. Videos aren’t essential, but they can be helpful in showing all the angles of a product.
Listing details: The listing details will include the title of the product, who created it, and when it was created. You will state whether it is a digital or physical product. A detailed description will also include materials used and tags.
Pricing and product variations: You will have to give your product a price and whether it is sold in different sizes or colors.
Shipping: Etsy can calculate your shipping costs for you if you input your origin zip code. You will need to input where you are willing to ship, the shipping services you offer etc.
4. Set up your payment details
Etsy has its own payment processing system you can use. It will need to know your tax filing status, and you need to input different details if you operate as a sole proprietor or an incorporated business.
Etsy needs your bank routing number and checking account number so it can make payments into your bank account.
You will also need to enter your credit card details to pay for your Etsy fees, such as your listing fees, transaction fees, and payment processing fees (if you use Etsy’s payment processing option).
5. Set up your shop policies
Setting up your shop policies can help in the event of any disputes with buyers. You should include factors such as your processing times, shipping policies, payment options, and returns policy. Setting up good policies can anticipate questions buyers may have and prevent many questions via chat that could waste your time.
Conclusion
Setting up an Etsy shop gives you a huge potential customer case. It isn’t that difficult to do as Etsy offers so many guides and tutorials to help you. There is also a well-established online community that’s happy to give new sellers advice and tips.
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