Last updated on January 28th, 2025 at 12:44 pm
Over the years, more and more sellers have entered the Etsy marketplace. This is because of the ease of setting up an Etsy shop and the overall low capital investment requirement. Anybody with access to the internet can open an Etsy shop without investing anything in things like website development. As a result, the marketplace has become more competitive than ever before. Therefore, many Etsy sellers, especially new ones, struggle to generate sales on Etsy because of their limited experience with the marketplace. In order to generate sales on Etsy, your shop really has to stand out among the crowd. There can be various reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling. In this article, we will cover different reasons that can prevent your Etsy shop from making any sales and discuss possible solutions to fix these issues.
Reason 1: You are selling low-demand products
It is important to note that not every product will be in demand on Etsy. You may be selling jewelry that has gone out of fashion or templates that are in very low demand. Just because you can create something does not mean there will be buyers to buy it. There is a buying motive behind any sale. You have to identify popular buying motives to spot products that actually sell well on Etsy.
For instance, a resume template is always in higher demand than a LinkedIn banner template because there is a strong buying motive for a job seeker to buy a resume template to get the desired job rather than buying a LinkedIn banner template because companies typically do not require a formal LinkedIn banner to apply for their jobs, unlike a resume.
Therefore, selling low-demand products can be one of the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling.
How to fix this?
- Leverage Etsy research tools to analyze search volume and sales
Analyzing monthly search volume
There are various Etsy research tools available on the market. These tools provide search volume information for a specific keyword that can help assess the demand of a specific niche. You can refer to the article 24 Best Etsy Research Tools Comparison (2024): The Most Comprehensive Analysis by an Experienced Etsy Seller for the complete list of Etsy research tools.
For instance, when you search the term “LinkedIn Banner” in Everbee’s keyword research tool, you will see that the monthly search volume for this product is around 31, which is very low. It is important to note that not every search will result in a click, and not every click will result in a sale. Therefore, though there are monthly searches of 31, it does not mean there will be 31 sales of LinkedIn Banners on Etsy. Therefore, it indicates that a very low number of buyers are looking to buy this product on Etsy.
Another example relates to a physical product: the cupcake enamel pin. If you search this term in Everbee’s keyword search tool, you will notice that this product’s monthly search volume is only 6, indicating a very low demand.
- Analyze sales
These Etsy research tools not only provide keyword metrics but also offer a list of top-selling products related to the searched keyword. They also provide key statistics for these products, such as the number of total sales, sales trends, total revenue, etc. You need to analyze how much sales these top listings have made to know if they are actually in demand or not.
- Analyze similar products on Etsy
Analyzing similar product listings on Etsy can help you understand a product’s popularity. You should consider the following factors:
- Are there shops selling similar products?
- Are these products selling well on Etsy?
Though Etsy has discontinued the best-seller products category, there are various ways to know a listing’s popularity on Etsy. If you click on any listing, it will show if the product is in demand. For instance, the Etsy listing page below displays a message in red that states the product is in demand and indicates the number of products bought in the last 24 hours.
Etsy also displays whether the product is in customers’ baskets, which can indicate its popularity. For instance, in the screenshot below, you can see that the product is in 20+ baskets. This suggests that the product is in demand, as 20+ buyers are interested in buying it.
Another way to analyze a popular product is to look at a product’s number of reviews. You can find this information below the listing photos. For instance, if you look at the below screenshot, you will notice that the product has garnered 2,302 reviews, which indicates that the product is highly popular on Etsy.
After performing a thorough search on Etsy using the methods discussed above, you can easily ascertain whether the products listed in your Etsy shop are actually in demand or not. Low-demand products can make a sale on Etsy; however, it will take a long time for this to happen. Therefore, this can be one of the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling.
Reason 2: Your products are average
Etsy is a highly competitive marketplace. It will be harder to make any sale if you are just selling average products that shoppers don’t find worth buying. You can spend thousands of dollars on Etsy ads, but at the end of the day, you will definitely lose money if your products don’t stand out. Therefore, this can be the reason why your Etsy shop is not selling. Whether you are selling digital or physical products, you have to really come up with unique designs that Etsy shoppers prefer over others.
For instance, if you sell products such as wedding invitations, business cards, T-shirts, and resume templates, you need to possess advanced graphic design skills and understand typography and color theory to design unique products that sell.
When you are selling on Etsy, you are competing with the world. Anybody from any country can sell on Etsy. This means if you are a graphic designer, you are competing with graphic designers from all over the world.
Are you suffering from Designer Myopia?
Usually when you design a product, say, for example, a template, you are so engrossed in it that you think it is the best design that you can offer on Etsy. In this case, your product reflects what you like and not what buyers like in general. Just because you think that your product is the best does not mean that Etsy buyers will view it the same way. The problem here is that you are more focused on your likings than the general likings. But this belief is shattered when your product fails on Etsy. I will call this phenomenon “Designer Myopia.” This is especially a common problem with new designers because of their limited experience with their niche market.
For instance, you designed a wedding invitation template with bold colors based on your liking and thought it was the best design and would be immensely successful on Etsy. However, people generally prefer lighter color shades and simple designs that are not visually overwhelming when it comes to wedding invitations. Your lack of experience with the wedding invitation market resulted in a product that will not sell on Etsy.
In order to overcome this problem, you should never design your product in isolation. You have to really keep a close eye on competing products to get an idea about the general and latest trends on Etsy. This does not mean that you should copy your competitor’s products. Your product should be original and different, but you can take ideas from competing products. Analyzing competing products is the only way you can know where your product stands in the market and how to do better. Last but not least, when you analyze competing products in a specific niche, you get an idea about the general trends. For instance, when you analyze wedding invitation template listings on Etsy, you will notice that generally, these templates have lighter color shades. These general trends give a clue as to what shoppers generally like in a particular product.
How to fix it?
- Research competing products
You should not ignore competing products on Etsy while designing your product. You need to conduct thorough research on competing products to understand what sells well. When you perform a search on Etsy, the best-sellers generally appear on the first few pages. However, you should not stop your research there. You should filter the results by the following two options:
- Top reviews: This filter option will show highly rated products. The result will show not only old products but also newly listed products that have garnered top reviews. These new products can help you understand new popular trends in your product niche.
- Newest: You should also examine new products to identify any new trends in your product niche.
Once you have identified the best-selling and trending products, you need to compare those with your product. Basically, you need to ask the following questions:
- Does your product stand out from the crowd?
- Why would a customer buy your product over these products?
- Take feedback from family and friends
You can show your product to your family members and friends and ask for their input. It is always beneficial to have a second opinion on your product. If you find their feedback valid, you can accordingly make necessary changes to refine your products further.
- Think out of the box
Though it is important to research competing products in order to understand what sells well on Etsy in your product niche, you should not think that nothing exists beyond these competing products. You should experiment with different types of designs and never be afraid to put forward your unconventional ideas. You never know which product makes your Etsy shop a huge success.
Let me tell you one instance from my own experience that relates to an unconventional product that became extremely popular on Etsy. I closely watch Etsy market trends for different products. A few years ago, Etsy was flooded with highly conventional wedding templates that featured typical watercolor floral designs. However, one of the new Etsy shops started selling hand-illustrated doodle wedding templates, which became very popular because shoppers found those different and unique. Furthermore, this shop was selling these templates at 3 times the usual price, but still, the shop was making huge amounts of sales. This new Etsy shop killed the sales of other Etsy shops that were selling conventional wedding templates. Later on, these types of wedding invitations became the new trend on Etsy, and now you see many shops selling unique, hand-illustrated wedding templates.
There are two lessons you can learn from this real-life example:
- First, Etsy buyers value unique and unconventional products if they find them visually appealing.
- Second, Etsy buyers are ready to pay a premium for a product’s uniqueness.
- Invest in refining your skills
If you really want to come up with unique designs that actually sell, you need to advance your skills. You should invest time in refining your skills, whether it is in watercolor art, graphic design, product design, or website development. You should take online courses, attend webinars, watch YouTube tutorials, and keep yourself aware of the latest trends in your field in order to be successful on Etsy.
Reason 3: The price is too high
If you are charging a price that your product cannot justify, you will lose sales. Even though a customer finds your products slightly better than your competitors’ products, they can still change their minds after looking at the price. You have to constantly review and adjust the pricing based on the competition on Etsy. Therefore, impractical pricing and the lack of pricing adjustments based on the current competition can be the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling.
How to fix it?
- Research average price using research tools
Many Etsy research tools show the average price for a particular product. For instance, if you search for the term “cat shirt” in the eRank Keyword tool, you will notice that the average price of the top listings is $22. See the screenshot below.
Furthermore, this tool also provides a pricing range chart showing different prices and the number of listings sold at each price point. These research tools can help you analyze the best-selling listings and identify their selling prices.
- Review prices on Etsy
You can also perform a manual search on Etsy to review the prices of competing listings to get an idea of a particular product’s price range.
Reason 4: Your Shop does not have any reviews
It’s harder for new shops with zero reviews to make a sale. Those star ratings actually influence the buying behavior of shoppers and are an important consideration in the world of online shopping. The majority of Etsy buyers are hesitant to buy from a shop that is not rated yet to avoid the disappointment associated with a bad product. Buyers read review comments to know if there are any issues with the product quality, delivery times, and seller’s responsiveness.
How to fix it?
- Have patience
It takes time for a new shop to make a sale. This is a waiting game for every new shop. You should utilize this time to enhance your shop appearance, product descriptions, and listing photos.
- Use social media
It is always best to promote your listings on various social media platforms, such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. You should post visually appealing product photos and videos with relevant tags to reach the right audience. If possible, you can also post a video showing how the product is made. When you post quality content on social media consistently, your account starts growing organically with a noticeable increase in views and followers. In this way, you can easily make a sale without any reviews.
- Offer returns
If your shop is new, you can consider offering returns. This might compensate for the lack of reviews by providing additional assurance to the buyers. You might change your return policy later on once your shop is established with good reviews. However, this is only possible for physical products and not for digital products. Due to the nature of digital products, it is difficult to offer returns because of the possibility of abuse. However, you can mention in your listing that you are ready to address any concerns in the case of dissatisfaction.
Reason 5: You started selling in slow months
Even if you are not aware of this, your products might be in low- and high-demand months. The pace of sales is generally slower in low-demand months. Therefore, it can be one of the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling.
What can you do about it?
- Leverage Etsy research tools
Many Etsy research tools display keyword seasonality. You can search for terms related to your product and analyze search volume trends by month. This can give you an idea of when your products are in high demand.
- Have Patience
It is just a waiting game. You have to observe your month-by-month Etsy shop statistics to analyze if there has been any change in your listing views and shop visitors. If there has been a steady increase in these statistics over the months, then it is generally a positive sign that your products are gaining popularity.
Reason 6: You are not using tags or using the wrong ones
Etsy gives you the option to add 13 tags with a maximum limit of 20 characters each to your listings. If you are not using tags, your listings will not be visible to anyone. Furthermore, if you use the wrong tags for a listing, your product will never reach the right audience. For instance, many Etsy shops use tags like “instant download” for their digital products. Such general tags will not help your products rank in any Etsy search. If you are not using specific tags relevant to your product, your listing will never be visible to the right audience. No visibility means no sales. It is that simple.
Furthermore, using the wrong tag not only prevents a product from reaching the right audience but also proves to be highly counterproductive from the SEO perspective. Etsy tests your new listing by showing it to interested buyers in the search results. If buyers don’t interact with the new listing in the search results, i.e., they don’t click on the listing to view it, the Etsy algorithm will identify it as an undesirable product and stop showing it in the search results after the testing period is over. This is because the Etsy algorithm rewards listings with high click-through rates and suppresses listings with poor click-through rates. Since wrong tags lower the click-through rate of a product, it kills its search ranking on Etsy. Therefore, using no or irrelevant tags can be the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling.
How to fix it?
- Use specific relevant tags
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of relevant tags in making an organic sale. Your tags must be as specific as possible so that interested buyers can easily reach your listing. One of the ways you can make your tags more specific is by adding attributes, such as design style, color, material, and shape, to the product name. For instance, if you designed a retro-style mom t-shirt, you can combine the design style with the product name to create a more specific tag like “retro mama shirt.” If the shirt has a funny saying, you can add a tag like “funny mom shirt.”
- Analyze the tags of competing listings
You can leverage various Etsy research tools to see the competing listing’s tags. By doing so, you can discover valuable tags that can help rank your listings. The below screenshot shows how the Etsy research tool Everbee shows any Etsy listing’s tags.
- Update tags regularly
Adding tags is not a one-time thing. You should regularly track the performance of all tags you added to your shop’s listings and update them when needed. Many Etsy SEO tools can help you track the performance of your listing’s tags. Basically, they show tags’ search volume and overall competition. The whole idea is to find tags that have a higher search volume and a lesser number of competing listings. You can also use tools like Google Analytics to find keywords used by your shop’s visitors. You can use this data to refine your listing’s tags further. As your understanding of keywords grows over time, you will discover new tags that are more relevant to your products. You should regularly replace the old, less effective tags with the newly discovered, more effective ones.
Reason 7: Your shop is not indexed on Google
You cannot make any organic sales if your Etsy listings are not indexed on Google. Usually, if your shop is new, it can take a few days for your shop and its listings to appear in Google search results. If your Etsy shop has been running for more than a month, and you still don’t see your shop and any of its listings in Google results, then it can be a problem. One thing to note here is that it is possible that Google might not index all of your shop’s listings. However, if you are following good SEO practices, you should at least see your Etsy shop page and a good amount of your listings in the Google search results.
How to fix it?
- Have sufficient products in your shop
If your shop has one or two products, it might not get indexed. The higher the volume of listings, the higher the chances of your shop getting indexed on Google. This is because Google does not index all the pages it crawls. The decision to index a product page depends on various factors, such as search volume for that product, the listing page’s content, and content uniqueness. If any of an Etsy shop’s listings get indexed on Google, then generally the shop page displaying all the products also gets indexed.
- Improve your Shop’s SEO
You should work on your Etsy shop’s SEO to get your listing pages indexed. Google generally refrains from indexing thin-content pages. Therefore, your Etsy shop page and listing pages should have a good amount of content. On your shop page, you should upload a good cover photo and clearly describe what your shop is all about so that the Google algorithm can understand your shop better. On all listing pages, you should clearly describe products in the title and description sections, use all thirteen tags, and the maximum number of allowed photos. This approach will help index the maximum number of your shop’s listing pages on Google.
- Contact Etsy support for help
If your shop has sufficient listing pages with good SEO for a month, and still you don’t see anything in Google search results, you should reach out to Etsy support for help. You should explain to them the entire situation and ask for possible solutions.
Reason 8: Your shop does not have many listings
Unless you are selling highly specialized, unique products with virtually no competition, a shop with just two or three listings might look like a dead shop to a visitor. You have to have a good amount of listings in your Etsy shop to give the impression that there is enough variety for shoppers. Furthermore, if your shop is new, you really don’t know what type of product a customer likes in a particular niche. You have to experiment with different styles, colors, and shapes to discover your best-selling product. Moreover, the Etsy algorithm rewards shops that post consistently by giving more visibility to their products in the search results and similar items. Therefore, having limited products in your Etsy shop can be one of the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling.
How to fix it?
- List Quality Products Consistently
From the SEO standpoint, whenever you list a new product, the Etsy algorithm starts giving more visibility to all of your shop’s listings. More listings equal more visitors to your shop, which increases the chance of making a sale. Additionally, the higher the traffic, the better your shop ranks on Etsy, which again raises the possibility of making a sale.
- Design different styles of the same product
You can offer different styles of the same product to cater to different likings of Etsy shoppers. For instance, if you are designing “minimalist wedding invitation templates,” you should offer them in different font styles, layouts, colors, and wordings. When you offer different variations of the same product, it increases the chance of making a sale.
Reason 9: Your listing photos are bad
Half of the job is done if you have nailed the listing photos. If the listing photos are of bad quality, no customer will be interested in buying that product. You can consider listing photos as free advertising. Listing photos is a direct way of communicating the product’s quality and your shop’s professionalism. No buyer can trust a product’s quality if they cannot trust the listing photos. Your listing photos should be in high resolution and should present different angles of a product in ample lighting. These photos should be captured in a way that provides the feel of the product. Without a doubt, bad listing photos can be the reason why your Etsy shop is not selling.
What can you do about it?
- Use a professional camera or services for listing photos
If you don’t have a professional camera, rent it or borrow one from your friend. You can also consider a professional photographer who can take high-resolution photos of your product in an aesthetic setting.
- Invest in high-quality mockups
High-quality mockups are another useful way to showcase your products, saving you time and money. They are especially useful for print-on-demand and digital products because you don’t keep any physical inventory for them. There are many websites where you can buy high-quality mockups, such as Creative Market, Envato, and Etsy itself.
Reason 10: Your products’ thumbnails are bad
Even with good listing photos, a bad thumbnail can kill your shop’s sales; therefore, this can be the reason why your Etsy shop is not selling. If a thumbnail is blurry or does not clearly depict the product, people will be less interested in clicking on that listing.
The Etsy algorithm rewards listings with a higher click-through rate. Whenever you post a new listing, the Etsy algorithm will show its thumbnail to the shoppers searching for that product within the first few days of the listing date. If the listing gets a good amount of clicks during this time, the algorithm will rank it higher and continue showing it in the search results. If there are fewer clicks on the listing during the testing period, the listing will get buried in the search results and will lose visibility to future shoppers. Therefore, you can say a good thumbnail is a free form of advertisement.
What can you do about it?
- Make the Best Possible Thumbnail
A thumbnail showing the product in an aesthetically modern setting can attract a lot of shoppers. Etsy also provides the option to zoom in and out on the product in a thumbnail. You should use these options to provide the best possible thumbnail view of your products. Last but not least, the thumbnail should not be blurry and should not hide the product in any way. You should assess your thumbnail by actually seeing it in the search results on different devices, such as a laptop, tablet, and phone.
Reason 11: Your shop has negative reviews
If your new Etsy shop has some negative reviews that are clearly visible to shoppers, it must be the reason why your Etsy shop is not selling. A bad review can prove to be very damaging for new shops with no or fewer reviews. A bad review, no matter how unjust it sounds to you, can significantly influence the purchasing decisions of future visitors. Sometimes there is a valid reason behind the negative feedback, and sometimes it is just bad luck. Whatever the reason is, you have to really figure out something to get rid of the negative impact of bad reviews on your new shop.
What can you do about it?
- Personally reach out to the buyer
A buyer has the option to edit the original review within 100 days of the estimated delivery date if you have not responded to the review. If you have responded to the review, the buyer cannot edit their review afterward. Therefore, you should first try to resolve the matter directly with the buyer and check if they are willing to reconsider their rating. You should personally reach out to the buyer who left a negative review. If you think it was your mistake, you should apologize to the buyer via message and offer to correct the mistake, such as with a replacement or refund. After the remediation, you can ask the buyer to reconsider the rating.
If you think it was not your mistake or that there was some misunderstanding, you should try explaining that to the buyer and asking about their expectations. It is worth noting that initial ratings highly influence an Etsy shop’s success. Therefore, you should try your best to get a more favorable rating. In any case, you should never display impolite behavior during the interaction with the buyer.
- Respond to Negative reviews professionally if everything fails
The buyer cannot edit their review after you have responded. Therefore, you should respond to a negative review only if nothing works out. You should respond to a negative review professionally and politely. You must mention all the corrective actions, such as refund or replacement, that you have taken in your response to demonstrate your professionalism not only to the reviewer but also to anyone reading it. No matter how unjustifiable the review sounds to you., you should refrain from sounding aggressive and making any rude comments.
- Look for someone in your Friends and Family
You should look for someone in your friends and family who might need your products. It is worth noting that Etsy does not prohibit transactions and reviews between friends and family, provided they are fair, honest, and unbiased. Etsy has a well-defined policy on shilling. While Etsy does not say anything about the IP address, to be on the safer side, your friends and family should refrain from ordering the product from your home. They should order from a different IP address than yours to prove that the transaction is legit and at arm’s length in case Etsy has any concerns regarding this transaction. After selling the product, you can personally ask the buyer for their honest feedback.
- Promote your Etsy Store through Word of Mouth
You can leverage your family and circle of friends and acquaintances to promote your store through word of mouth. Suppose you run a wedding accessories shop on Etsy. People in your family and friend circle can recommend your products to anyone they know who is getting married. You can then personally ask these buyers to leave their honest feedback on your Etsy shop. It is highly likely to get positive reviews this way because you can have physical or virtual contact with the buyer, and you can directly address their concerns to the utmost satisfaction.
Reason 12: Your shop appears dead or sham
There are so many Etsy shops that either appear dead or untrustworthy at first glance. If a shop does not have a proper cover photo and logo, does not offer discounts, or does not share a personal story, it appears like a sham. Buyers will hesitate to purchase from such a shop, and therefore this can be one of the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling. You should make every effort to show the visitors that your shop is live and ready to take orders.
How to fix it?
- Upload a Nice Cover Photo and Logo
You can design a nice cover photo and logo in graphic design software such as Photoshop. You can also design those using the web-based graphic design software Canva, which offers a wide range of free and premium Etsy covers and logo templates.
- Have a strong branding
Your Etsy shop should follow a specific color theme and font combination to reflect your brand. A well-crafted Etsy shop with a consistent color theme and font combinations demonstrates professionalism and a commitment to quality. The brand color theme and font combination should be followed consistently across all shop elements, including the cover photo, logo, and informational slides.
- Offer Discounts
You should offer discounts in your Etsy shop to give the impression that your shop is live and running. Etsy displays the “Sales ends in” banner that creates a sense of urgency among interested buyers. Furthermore, when the sale ends soon, Etsy will send this notification to buyers who have clicked on your listings. You can run sales for up to a maximum of 30 days, which can be extended further as many times as you want.
- Add your Personal Story
Etsy gives you the option to add your business story and photos in the bottom section of the home page. This type of content helps you build a personal connection with your shop’s visitors. Many shop owners share the story of their businesses and also the photos of them making the product for a more personalized touch. Many buyers love to read this section and want to know the face behind the scenes. This personalized content makes your shop look more lively and also increases the chance of making a sale on Etsy.
Reason 13: Your Shop does not have a niche
If you list many unrelated products under one shop, it might look like a shop with no specialization. Furthermore, anybody who browses your shop for a specific product might lose interest quickly. However, this does not mean that there are no successful Etsy shops that sell unrelated products. For instance, there are many gift shops on Etsy that sell miscellaneous items and make a good amount of sales. But in this case, you have to have the best of the best products in your shop that can outcompete products from other specialized shops. Furthermore, it can be possible that these successful shops that sell miscellaneous items are already established, successful businesses outside Etsy, or they just started with a niche and subsequently expanded to other niches. Therefore, if your shop does not have a specific niche, it can be one of the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling.
How to fix it?
- Follow a niche and expand later on
If you browse Etsy, you will notice that the majority of shops, if not all, are very specialized in nature. A shop selling wedding templates is only selling wedding templates, a shop selling t-shirts is only selling t-shirts, and a shop selling phone cases is only selling phone cases. Even within a niche, some shops focus only on a sub-niche, for instance, a shop selling only minimalist-style wedding templates and a shop selling only retro-style tote bags. Once your shop is established with a good amount of sales and a number of reviews, you may consider expanding into other niches.
Reason 14: There are no product variations
With the ever-increasing competition, online shoppers are becoming more specific in their choices. They want a specific color, shape, and design to their specific liking. For instance, if you are selling t-shirts, a customer might like its design but not the color, so they move on to look for alternatives. You have to offer different product variations to increase the chances of making a sale.
How to fix it?
- Offer product variations
To increase your chances of making a sale, you should offer a product in different colors, shapes, sizes, and designs. For instance, various Etsy shops sell chess boards with different board and piece color options.
Reason 15: Your products are not customizable enough
This is particularly true for products like digital wedding templates. Buyers shopping for these types of products are looking for templates where they can customize every aspect, such as the font type and color, graphics colors, graphics position, and background colors. If you can offer a highly customizable template, it increases your chance of making a sale on Etsy. You might have lost sales to your competitors, who are offering the same product but with more customization options. Therefore, no or limited customization options can be one of the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling.
How to fix it?
- Offer highly customizable products
If you are selling customizable products, such as templates and custom t-shirts, you should try to offer a highly customizable product that provides greater flexibility to shoppers.
Reason 16: Your listing does not provide enough information
Missing important product information can be one of the reasons why your Etsy shop is not selling. A listing should clearly provide all the information that a customer might need before purchasing a product. A customer may like the product after viewing a listing but may skip the purchase if important details are missing.
- Identify and include all the important details related to the product type
The details to include largely depend on the product type you are selling. For instance, if you are selling customizable digital templates that buyers need to print by themselves, you need to include information such as the following:
- What is included in the product?
- What are the dimensions?
- What can be customized?
- What cannot be customized?
- How will the order be processed and delivered?
- Where is the product customized?
- How is the product customized?
If you are selling a physical product, a customer will be interested in knowing the dimensions, contents, material used, size chart, color options, and instructions to use. Last but not least, you must clearly mention the expected delivery date and return policy for your products.
Reason 17: You are not adding listing videos
Etsy gives you the option to add a 3-15 seconds long listing video. Undoubtedly, listing videos give shoppers a better idea of products; as a result, Etsy shoppers will be more confident in buying them. According to Etsy statistics, listings with video get twice as many orders as listings with just photos. Especially if your shop is new, listing videos can build trust with Etsy shoppers and can compensate for the lack of sales and reviews.
How to fix it?
- Add informative and inspiring product videos
According to the Etsy Seller Handbook, there are 3 types of videos that online shoppers love. These are as follows:
- Videos that address common questions
- Videos that show your products in use
- Videos that highlight the creative details
Etsy offers a detailed guide on this topic, including additional insights from its own merchandising team. You can click on the green link above to access this guide.
Reason 18: Ineffective communication with the potential buyer
A potential buyer can reach out to you via the chat function for any product-related questions or custom requests. If your communication is weak and ineffective, the potential buyer might not proceed further. For instance, if you are providing one-word answers, a shopper might find it rude. And, if you are taking too long to respond, a shopper may buy from a competing shop. A courteous and clear communication is very important in building trust with the potential buyer.
- Respond timely
You should always try to respond to the potential buyer within a few hours. If this is not possible, you should try to respond within 24 hours. You can also set an automated response in the Etsy chat. Many Etsy sellers state their expected response time in the automated messages. This practice is good communication etiquette as it gives the sender a clear idea about when they can expect a response.
- Be Courteous
You should always start your message with phrases, such as “Thanks for reaching out!” to add a courteous tone to the interaction. A warm interaction can help build rapport with the potential buyer.
- Be Relevant
You should precisely answer all the points raised in a question. If certain points get skipped or ignored, it can cause too much back and forth that might frustrate the potential buyer. Last but not least, you should use bullet points to answer each question separately; this method makes it easier for the sender to read your response.
- Follow-up
It is possible that the sender might stop messaging after a few exchanges. You should always follow up with them to check if all their questions have been addressed. Furthermore, you can also offer the sender special discounts and deals to get a sale.