Unique paintings, hand-dipped candles, funky cushions…you can sell pretty much anything as a small business on Etsy. If you are particularly artsy or you love creating and selling one-of-a-kind pieces, you may be considering opening up your own online store through Etsy.
Setting up to sell your products on Etsy is one of the easiest ways to get your business off the ground. Before you even begin to make your Etsy account, it’s always a good idea to gather your supplies. Consider what specific pieces of equipment you’re going to need. Will you need office printers to print out your artwork or sticky labels? Will you need raw materials to create handmade ornaments or scented candles? Will you need to download specific software to produce amazing graphic designs?
Here are some simple steps you can follow to open up your store on the Etsy platform and start generating revenue.
Create an Etsy Account
Quite an obvious first step is actually creating your account on the Etsy website. If you’ve already got a customer account, you can attach your shop by clicking ‘Open your Etsy Shop’. Once you’ve registered, you can start building your online brand!
Choose Your Shop Name
The next step is choosing the name of your store. It should be creative and unique to reflect your brand’s products and values. Etsy allows you to have a store name that is up to 20 characters long with no spaces or special characters and no profanities. For obvious reasons, you can’t choose a name that another seller has already taken.
Add your First Few Items
Now comes the exciting part. Adding your first few products! The process of uploading items onto Etsy is fairly straightforward. You should include the following in every listing.
At least five clear, bright photos displaying your products
An intriguing title
A detailed description of the product and any variations
Prices of the item and postage fees
Focus on SEO when describing your product. Use the keywords that your audience will be searching for to maximize their chances of seeing your store. Once you have filled in all of the above, you can publish your items.
Sort Out Payments and Billing Setting
Etsy will ask you to clarify your payment preferences. You can accept payments either via PayPal, check order, ‘other’, or Etsy payments. When you begin to upload and sell your items, you will be charged selling fees. You can set up auto-billing where Etsy will automatically charge you for any selling fees you incur, so you don’t have to manually do it each month.
Customize Your Shop
When all of the above steps have been done, you can start to customize your shop and make it your own. You should upload a photo that includes your name and logo to reinforce your unique branding. Etsy also allows you to insert a short bio briefly describing what your shop sells just next to your photo. For a more detailed description of your store, you get 5,000 characters to describe who you are, what you sell, and what your values are. You may also want to include any social media links here to direct traffic to your Instagram or Facebook page.
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