How to sell product on etsy
How to Start an Etsy Shop & Make Your First Sale
okay guys it's Kristin nice to see you
nice to meet you if you're new here I'm
so glad you found your way to my channel
thank you for watching and I hope you
will decide to stick around if you like
this I am a college lifestyle blogger
over on my website Kristin Chang comm
and for the past year you know I've also
been running my own Etsy store today
we're going to be talking about how to
start your own Etsy store and how to
make your first sale which is obviously
the whole point because if you're
looking to start an Etsy store the point
is to make sales so I'm going to be
giving you all my best tips and tricks
and kind of things that I wish I knew
before I started my store because it can
be a little bit overwhelming and like
always I have my notes here of the
blogpost edition of this video and I
have so much information that I want to
share with you guys about this so if
this is something you're interested in
definitely check out the blog post that
I will have to go along with this
because I cannot cover everything just
for the sake of time so just like as a
general overview of what I want to talk
about I'm going to talk about the
importance of choosing a name for your
store but also not letting that be what
stops you from actually opening the
store why keywords and descriptions are
so important for your products and how
that's what actually gets you viewers
and customers a little bit about
branding and then I'll actually walk you
through uploading an actual listing
before you get started if you're already
thinking about opening a store I'm sure
you kind of already have an idea of what
type of products you're gonna be listing
and selling so I make pretty much all
like painted custom canvases like this
one and this has been like my most
popular design I knew that I was gonna
be making painted goods so after so long
I'm trying to figure out a name and
going back and forth with my sister
brainstorming different ideas and words
that I liked I finally settled on a
painted grace by KS KS being my initials
Chris and Shane and then painted grace
just to kind of give a little bit idea
of what I'm actually selling so it's
good if you can relate your title or the
name of your store to what you're gonna
be making but it's really not the end of
the world but with that and with Brandon
you just want it all to be cohesive so
if you're gonna have an Instagram or a
Facebook page to go along with your
store it's good if you pick something
with a name that's available it's
important to not get fixated on picking
the name for the store and letting that
be what stops you because if this is
something that you feel is like tugging
on your heart and taking on your soul as
my mom so nicely put it in the video
that I just did with her if you feel
like this is something that you know you
just got to do you got to just do it you
can't let choosing the name or not
having the perfect products or feeling
like everything
perfect stop you because at the end of
the day you want to just do it if it's
something you want to do just do it and
don't be what stops yourself you know
what I mean because you can always go
back edit and improve and it change so
then once you get started go on Etsy and
open that store just do it open it you
can do it it's not as scary as it seems
I mean it's scary but like it's also so
worth it branding is very important and
probably one of the most important
things for your store right off the bat
and also just for creating a personal
brand which is something that you can do
as a blogger entrepreneur small business
owner or whatever with your social media
especially and with your Facebook page
or your website or whatever you just
want all the branding to be a cohesive I
make all my blog design logos and
everything myself and if you've seen my
blog or my store page or whatever they
all have a cohesive look with the pink
watercolor pink gold white kind of theme
and I pretty much use the same couple
font so that everything looks cohesive
and that so if people are finding you
from a different platform or different
social media they know that it's the
same store if you aren't a graphic
design person you can always hire
somebody to make your logos or if you
have a friend that's good at graphic
design just get something or use canva
for free just get something up there so
that people can get a little taste of
your brand and your personal style I
would definitely recommend filling out
your stories about page that's another
good place to put keywords and to let
people know right off the bat as soon as
they see your store page what you're
about and what you're selling because
you really just want to give people as
much information as you can with being a
small business owner and Etsy because
basically your store is what's going to
drive sales and then your product
listings and their descriptions and tags
and everything are going to be what gets
your listings in front of eyeballs and
in front of customers from their
descriptive keywords SEO tags are going
to be so so important especially in
driving your first sale because if you
didn't know I'd see like Google or
Pinterest is essentially a search engine
people can search on Etsy and find I'm
sure hundreds of thousands of products
and probably a lot of products that are
going to be similar to yours unless you
have something extremely unique which if
you do more power to you that is awesome
but most likely there is going to be a
variety of products similar to yours so
I did lots of research about similar
stores having handmade canvasses and
mostly a lot of cause students also
doing something similar so that's
another way to kind of research some
examples of what their titles look
what kind of descriptions they have now
I'm going to open up my phone and I
actually tried to film this once already
and it stopped recording but I'm going
to do my best to show you a screen
recording of the app sell on Etsy which
is basically just for running your store
I do pretty much everything on my
computer but it's easier to just show
you on my phone for the sake of the
video and I'm gonna kind of show you
what it looks like to actually upload a
listing which is where people will buy
your products so I'm going to pretend
like we're uploading this listing right
here which I already have as you can see
right there on my store and again
products photography is really important
as you can kind of see the different
examples of products so these couple
right in the middle the pink and purple
ones I did with my nice camera I kind of
had a photo shoot I did a nice flat lay
so just keep in mind that your product
photos are essentially what people are
going to be buying that's what's gonna
make them the sale along with the
descriptions and the tags which are
going to be what allows your shop and
your items to show up when people search
for things like a custom pink painted
canvas okay so now I'm going to hit out
of listing and then you just want to
answer all at these little questions
they so nicely asked you and then I'm
gonna go to art and collectibles
painting acrylic paint and then here we
go so I'm just gonna literally take a
picture of this right here just for the
sake of it but of course you want to
take nice pictures and then Etsy as you
can see here gives you some ideas of
like different angles from your products
like a close-up of your product
measurements in the natural setting you
can include multiple products in the
same photo so people can get an idea of
different things that you make and again
your personal style and brand and then
I'm just gonna hit done just for the
sake of it and then here you can add in
your title so I think this one is
something like custom colorful striped
quote canvas or something like that but
you can include lots of keywords and key
phrases again has another way for people
to search and find your products and the
description is really important too on
mine I kind of have a standard form
where I list a little bit about the
product different sizes that are
available colors options everything and
then also any general info that you want
people to know about your store so I
think I have something like all products
are custom made and subject to three to
five days processing time because I do
everything made to order give them as
much information as possible because
like the photos once they're on your
listing they're interested so it's those
pictures and those descriptions that are
really
tell them to choose you and not all the
other people on etsy so that's super
super important the biggest thing if you
don't get anything else from this is
really to utilize these tags on etsy at
the only gives you room to tag 13 things
which are basically like hashtags for
your product listing so as you can see
here these are I guess are all ones I've
used it before or my common tags but you
only get 13 so use them all for all your
listings because those tags are what
again relates back to the search engine
my first sale came just from Etsy search
and the majority of my traffic comes
directly from the Etsy search bar people
just looking for products on Etsy so
until you kind of have a following until
your social media marketing or whatever
is driving your sales you're gonna have
to rely on Etsy and the search from the
description and all that so that's
really excuse me really really important
and I hope that makes sense but
basically just that description those
tags that title are really where you
want to hit those key word hit those key
phrases that people are going to be
searching to find your products and then
the description and the photos are what
makes your sale compared to everybody
else so those are super important but
like I said you can always always go
back update edit and improve them later
on and then here you can add in lots of
other information and I love Etsy
because they make it all super simple
and you can add in as much or as little
information as you want but from being a
shop around and see for so long I know
that I like to see as much information
as possible especially if somebody's
unsure about buying you never know what
extra little detail or information is
going to make them feel more comfortable
and decided to buy your stuff which is
the whole point so you really just want
to make them as feel as comfortable and
it's informed as possible I've been
talking for too long I'm starting to
lose focus here to actually make the
sale and then you can also add in your
price your quantity and you can do
variations here so for this one I have
different size canvases and then of
course at different colors for the
actual products so you can add that in
for variations you can add different
prices for the different sizes
everything Etsy really has thought of
everything and they make it super easy
so I hope that was helpful for just kind
of showing you a little bit behind the
scenes of what it's actually like from
the backend to actually upload listings
which are going to be what sells and now
I've got a ton of stuff laid out on my
bed that I just want to talk about for a
minute because probably what stumped me
the most that I haven't mentioned yet
and that I will talk about in the blog
post as well was product ship
I was so clueless and so lost for the
first couple months and it was like
painful to try and figure out how at
these shipping works and maybe that was
just me being naive but I'm sure if
you've never really dealt with that
before it might be confusing for you too
before you can make sales you need to
have a way to actually ship your
products you need envelopes you need
boxes you need something to actually be
able to send out your product and that I
kind of is where I kind of miss the mark
right off the bat and definitely
something I wish I would have known
before here let me show you the ones
that I have right now I buy all my
shipping products on Amazon so I have
these bubble mailers I come in a pack of
like 15 or 25 or something for a good
deal and then all my different size
campuses fit in here so I use these for
pretty much everything I have a smaller
size these are just a different version
that are older that I still have this as
a smaller size and then this is a larger
size if you're starting out to go for a
bigger size that's gonna fit everything
versus I had started out with these two
sizes and this one was too small for
some of my products so especially if
your products are something flat or
similar in size definitely make sure you
have definitely check out the
measurements and make sure you have
padded envelopes or boxes or something
that are actually going to fit your
products right off the bat because that
can be kind of confusing and then Etsy
also has a lot of shipping options which
I'm sure if you've bought anything
online you're familiar with you know
first-class mail Priority Mail to day
Express Mail and it gets very confusing
from the back end of providing shipping
options for your listings and I am still
no master at that but let me tell you
the mistake that I made
first off so I have listed items with
Poshmark before another selling out
that's good for selling like use
designer clothes and all Poshmark
shipping is standard Priority Mail only
Priority Mail not first-class mail I
didn't really consider it the fact that
all Etsy shipping was not standard like
Poshmark so if you didn't know you can
actually get free Priority Mail only
Priority Mail shipping materials like
this or like bubble mailers but they're
all specifically for Priority Mail
directly from USPS you can order them
for free on USPS website and then
they'll mail them to you for free so at
your door awesome you can get as many as
you want but you can only use these for
Priority Mail labels which I guess I
just
was an oversight on my part because I
was so used to Poshmark with everything
automatically being priority mail so I
only had Priority Mail labels from the
beginning but then all my Etsy products
were listed just normal shipping so if
they're not doing priority mail you have
to get your own shipping materials so I
hope that made sense I know that was a
little confusing but basically my
problem was that I didn't realize not
all the shipping was priority on Etsy
like it is on Poshmark
but you can make that setting if you
don't want to buy your own shipping
labels but the cost of shipping does
factor in to the customers decision of
whether or not they're gonna buy your
product so if they can shop with
somebody else who has at lower shipping
rates that might be make-or-break
decision so just keep that in mind but
there are lots of affordable shipping
materials available and I will link the
ones that I use below from Amazon I hope
this was helpful for you like I said I
will have a blog post with as many
details as I can pack in there because I
can only talk so fast and pack in so
much into the video but I really do hope
this was helpful and if you're wanting
to start an Etsy store I hope this can
be your little inspiration than your
little push to just do it go for it it's
so much fun and it's so worth it and you
can go at your own pace and xeu really
does make it so easy it will also have
some products and helpful tips linked
down below in the blog post in the
description all that good stuff stay
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future content and until I see you again
I hope you have a great day
