How to sell product on etsy
How to Start Selling on Etsy in 5 Simple Steps (Etsy Shop for Beginners Step by Step Walk-Through)
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how do you start an Etsy Shop really
though chances are if you've been
researching how to start an Etsy Shop
you've probably gathered about 30 steps
that you need to take and are probably
feeling pretty intimidated by all the
advanced Etsy strategy everything from
SEO to niching down to mock-ups am I
right well if you want to sell on Etsy
but feel totally overwhelmed not knowing
where to start I got you friend because
today I'm breaking it down into five
super simple steps to get you going on
Etsy let's get it
[Applause]
welcome back to the channel friends if
this is our first time meeting I'm Kate
I'm a wife mom Etsy seller and business
coach and I'm so excited you're here I'm
so excited to go over these five simple
steps to get started on Etsy today like
I said my mission here is to break this
down as simply as possible and make it
easy to understand for beginners wanting
to start selling on Etsy in addition to
these five simple steps that you can
take to get started on your Etsy shop
I'm also excited to share with you a bit
about one of my favorite resources
Taylor Brands and I also have two
additional Pro tips at the end so make
sure to watch this video all the way
through to get those tips okay so let's
go ahead and jump into step number one
so step number one when you want to open
an Etsy Shop is to First decide what you
want to sell on Etsy the top four
categories that you would be thinking of
are either handmade products digital
products print on demand products or
vintage products Etsy has a strict no
reselling policy for me manufactured
items so everything that you sell on
Etsy has to either be handmade which
means that you yourself are either
actually making the item or designing it
or you can sell digital items that you
yourself have designed and created for
download or you can sell vintage items
but they have to be truly vintage which
means 20 years or older so I know it can
be hard to get specific with this but I
definitely recommend niching down as
much as possible here to pick one of
these categories to start with you can
always open additional shops in the
future but you don't want to offer
several different types of products in
one shop you want to become known as The
Specialist and the expert in one
specific thing so think about between
these different options which one best
fits your passions what you're
interested in as well as what you think
would sell best on the platform and what
you could create the best then once
you've decided what type of product you
want to offer then we move on to step
number two which is to establish your
business the first part of establishing
your business is deciding on your
business name this is a super exciting
step if you don't know what you want
your business this name to be yet I
recommend you choose something that is
easy for people to remember and also
something that makes sense with the type
of products or the niche that you'll be
selling in when you think you've got a
good name in mind you also want to make
sure to check for the domain name and
that name on social media whatever
platforms you think you'll be on to make
sure that that name is available and not
already taken by another business the
next part of establishing your business
is to decide on your branding and to
really dive deep into the feel of your
branding which is your logo your brand
colors any fonts that you want to use
specifically in your marketing
promotions and your branding across the
board and also what sort of overall Vibe
or feel you want your brand to have
whether it be light and Airy maybe it's
dark and moody maybe it's muted earthy
tones but think about what sort of feel
you want when people encounter you
whether it be on social media on your
shop itself you want to give them a
specific Vibe and aesthetic right from
the beginning going along with this you
want to think about any marketing
materials you might need to go ahead and
prep and have made ahead of time other
that be a business card or a pack-in
flyer that you might be including in
your packaging if you're selling
handmade items or even fun things to up
level your packaging like branded
stickers or labels and then of course
you can't forget the legal steps to
establishing your business as well now
I'm not a legal professional so I can't
give you any official legal advice you
definitely need to do your own research
to figure out what steps you need to
take here but a lot of people start on
Etsy either as a sole proprietor or an
LLC so research and see which one of
those fits you the best and go with that
you'll also need to look into possibly
getting a federal EIN number as well as
any state licenses or permits you might
need to operate your business again if
you're in the US this very state to
state so I can't tell you exactly what
you need but you can definitely find
that information just by researching
what you need for your specific State as
far as opening a business and getting a
business license now getting all of this
established for your business may seem
like a lot of work and seem really
intimidating but thankfully there are
resources out there that provide provide
more of an all-in-one solution for
business owners who are just getting
started with their business one of these
great resources is Taylor brands on the
Taylor Brands website you can literally
get everything you need to establish
your business from your logo and
branding to marketing materials to even
forming your LLC they help you launch
your business step by step with their
customized business building experience
if you're in the US and want to form an
LLC for your business Taylor Brands will
take care of it for you getting an LLC
or limited liability company is a pretty
popular choice for small business owners
as it adds a level of professionalism to
your business and can greatly impact how
much you pay in taxes and your liability
having an LLC builds trust with
customers and is relatively simple to
maintain you can just answer a few
questions and Taylor Brands will take it
from there and handle the process hassle
free while you're there Taylor Brands
can also help you create your logo
purchase your custom domain name design
your website create a digital business
card and even put your logo on your own
custom merch you can literally look
professional in a matter of minutes it's
no coding or design skills needed so
click the link in the description below
to check out Taylor Brands and use the
code Kate Haze 30 for 30 Off Taylor
Brands plans I'm super excited for you
guys to try it and I want to say a big
thank you to Taylor brands for
sponsoring this portion of today's video
okay once you've chosen what type of
products you want to offer as well as
establish your business then it's time
to move on to step number three which is
to actually open your shop when you go
to etsy.com and click to open your shop
it's a pretty simple process Etsy just
asks you a few different rounds of
questions to get your initial setup
complete these are things like what you
want your shop name to be asking for
your personal and business information
as well as getting your finances set up
so I definitely recommend if you want to
have a separate business bank account
that you have that ready to go first
because this initial setup is where
you're going to input all of your
financial information to get your Shop
officially open now during this initial
setup it will ask you to create one
listing you have to make that first
listing in order to get your shops setup
complete but don't stress too much about
this you don't have to actually keep or
use this listing at all and you can
always change it after you get done with
this initial part but it just wants you
to go through the steps of creating your
first initial listing so you can
seriously just add like one picture and
just go through the bare minimum of
what's required for that listing and
then once you're done with the initial
setup you can always deactivate or
delete it and add your real listings
later once your initial setup is
complete then the next steps to get your
shop up and going is to go ahead onto
your shop manager and customize and add
some very crucial parts to your shop
this would be like adding your profile
picture adding your logo and your banner
filling in your about section with your
shop story and any information you want
to give in that section as well as
completing your policies now policies
are things like returns and exchanges
and shipping and payment methods so you
want to make sure all of that is set up
on your shop so when buyers start to
land on your shop page they can see very
clearly what your policies are now if
you have no clue what to put for these
policies as he's got you covered because
they actually have templates that you
can use and they have the basic
information already there for you for
each of these different types of
policies so you can just go on and use
what they already have and tweak it a
little bit to add or take away from
whatever does not apply to your shop
once you have your shop all set up and
ready to go step number four is kind of
a combo step this includes doing product
and Trend research and also beginning to
create your product okay so the first
part of this step is doing Trend in
product research to really Niche down
and get specific about style and design
elements that you want to include for
the products that you're going to sell
so you want to make sure that you're
niching down on a style that's either
trending or proven to be trending by
doing some research either on Etsy
itself or through a tool like sales
Samurai to figure out what people are
actually searching for what trends are
on the rise and what design elements you
could incorporate into your products to
ensure that you're going to offer
something that will be in demand and
popular on the platform a great way to
do this is to go on Etsy and search for
a keyword phrase that describes your
product that you're thinking of and take
note of the results that come up on the
first and second pages and specifically
taking note of the listings that have
the little yellow best seller or popular
now badge because those are clues that
these are the listings that are the best
sellers that are doing the best in your
Niche and you can look at things that
you see repeating over and over again
whether it be specific color schemes
font Styles patterns you can identify
the things within those listings that
are making them really successful and
then put your own twist on it to offer
something in your Niche that is unique
but also trending with those same
successful elements now the second part
of this is to actually start creating
your products so this is different for
handmade versus digital products so
let's say if you're offering handmade
products a couple steps here number one
you want to figure out where you're
sourcing your materials from ideally you
want to Source your materials from a
wholesale company and so this is going
to involve a little bit of research on
finding the right wholesale supplier
more on that in just a minute but once
you've identified where you're going to
get your materials from then you need to
order enough for your first batch of
what you want to start on and actually
start making your product now it's a
little bit different with print on
demand or digital products as you're not
going to be having to physically order
materials to start making them but for
print on demand your first few steps
would be to identify which print on
demand provider you want to work with as
well as syncing your Etsy shop with that
print on demand provider if you want to
offer digital products let's say like
printable wall art or digital cards or
templates or anything like that that is
a digital download product you're likely
going to be creating your own designs
for those so your first step after you
figure out exactly what types of
products you want to offer within that
category is to figure out how you're
going to make your designs identify
which design software you want to use
and then go ahead and purchase whatever
graphic elements or fonts you might need
to create your designs this is also
applicable for creating your own designs
for print on demand products whether
your designs are going to be going on a
physical print on demand product or on a
digital download product if you're
creating your own graphic designs you
may need to purchase some things so that
you are not starting from scratch if
you're not a professional designer there
are a lot of great websites for
purchasing things like graphic elements
and fonts I'll have some of those linked
below if you're interested and then of
course if you are offering digital
download products you want to do some
research on similar best-selling
listings within your Niche to see what
sizes and file types you need to offer I
recommend you looking at some of those
best-selling listings to see what those
sellers are offering because success
leaves Clues so you can see what people
are wanting the most in terms of file
type which would be like PDF PNG JPEG
and file size as well once you have your
first several products created now it's
time to create your listings and begin
marketing so there's a lot that goes
into creating an Etsy listing that will
sell and convert well but the top three
things I want you to think about here
are using good highly searched keyword
phrases for your SEO now SEO can be
super intimidating and sounds super
complicated really all SEO is is you
using phrases in specific parts of your
listing that other people are already
searching for so you just do a little
bit of research on a tool like sales
samurai or even just on Etsy itself
using the search bar to see what phrases
are currently being searched by a lot of
Shoppers on the platform and then you're
plugging those specific keyword phrases
into places in your listing like in your
title in your tags in your listing
description that way Etsy knows how to
pull your listing up in the correct
search results now along with using
great keyword phrases in your listing
you also want to make sure that your
photos are super professional looking
this can be done in several different
ways if you have a budget for it you can
always hire a professional photographer
but if you want to try to do it yourself
you totally can and you can make it look
really professional you just need to do
a little research first as far as some
basic photography product photography
techniques as well as editing techniques
and then of course if you're offering
digital products you might not do either
of those you might just use professional
looking mock-ups which are basically
just images that are already taken that
you can then put your design on to use
as your product photos any of these
methods work as long as it looks
professional and clean and quality and
the third thing on your listing that I
really want you to pay attention to is
your price point so your pricing on your
product can really either make or break
the success of that listing so you want
to make sure you have a really accurate
good price point that's going to be
competitive but also going to provide
you some profit and then of course once
you get your listings up and you're
ready to do your big launch you have to
dive into marketing you really can't
just throw some listings up on Etsy and
sit back and just expect sales to come
in that's just not how it works in the
beginning you really have to get after
it and be proactive and intentional
about getting the word out about your
shop people are not going to know that
you even exist on Etsy unless you tell
them and get the word out so there are a
lot of different types of marketing that
you could try my top three favorites for
Etsy sellers are email marketing social
media marketing and influencer marketing
now I dive deep into these in some of my
other videos on my Etsy playlist you're
are welcome to go watch that if you want
a deeper dive into marketing your Etsy
shop but those are the three that I
recommend you start with when you are
starting to advertise and get the word
out Okay so we've been through all five
of our steps to get going on Etsy but I
do want to give you these two pro tips
as well so the first one is that if you
are offering handmade physical products
and you're going to be sourcing physical
materials to use I highly recommend you
find an actual wholesaler to Source your
supplies from when you work with an
actual wholesale company as opposed to
just buying your supplies from a retail
place like Michael's or Hobby Lobby or
some other retail craft supply shop
you're going to be saving a huge amount
as they usually offer really steeply
discounted prices now one catch with
this is that most wholesalers will also
have you order in bulk so you'll have to
order more than one at a time they'll
have a minimum order depending on what
that specific wholesaler requires so you
definitely want to do some research on
this and make sure that you're not going
to have to order a ton more than you
need in the beginning so there is a
little bit of trial and error to this I
don't want you going out and just
purchasing a ton of bulk materials when
you haven't even tested your product yet
to see if it's going to sell but once
you've tested it and you've started
making some consistent sales on one
specific thing that you make and you
know you're gonna have to be ordering
more materials definitely look into
sourcing those from an actual wholesale
company and pro tip number two that I
have for you is regarding pricing so I
recommend that you price your items in a
two-phase strategy the first phase of
pricing is when you first start and you
haven't made that many sales yet you're
gonna price a little bit lower than what
the average price point is for your
Niche and your type of product so you're
gonna have to do a little bit of
research to figure out what that is but
once you identify kind of that average
middle price range for your product type
you want to price a little bit lower
than average to be really super
competitive this means that you're gonna
have a leg up on your competition and
you're more likely to make more sales in
the beginning now in this first phase
you likely won't be profiting a lot
because of that lower price point
because the purpose of the first phase
is not necessarily to make a huge profit
yet it's to start stacking sales on your
listings getting them ranking higher and
higher in the search then once you start
making consistent sales on your listings
and you feel like they've been selling
regularly and starting to rank higher
and higher that's when you can move on
to phase two which is upping your price
point a little bit to make a healthier
profit margin now at this point once you
raise your prices you might start making
a few Less sales but you're making more
profit per sale so actually you're
working less for more profit which is
the goal but you can't skip that first
step to be more competitive to really
start stacking some sales because you
have to start ranking before you can
start really making consistent sales and
earning that higher profit margin so I
hope this was helpful for you friends I
know it can be super intimidated and
feel really complicated to get your Etsy
shop going but I hope this laid it out
in a bit more of an easy to understand
and doable way for you it's definitely
worth the upfront effort that it takes
to start an Etsy shop and I know you'll
be successful if you put in the work of
doing some Trend research and making
sure to follow these strategies step by
step and being diligent to grow your
shop make sure to click on the link
below to check out Taylor brands for all
of your establishing your business needs
they are a great resource and I'm so
excited for you to try them out and if
you're interested in further Etsy
strategy and tips you can click or tap
on the Square on the screen right now
and that'll take you over to one of my
other Etsy strategy videos bye friends
