The State of the Etsy Shop
I’m taking a brief break from holiday knitting to share my Etsy shop story. This past year has been my favorite one yet, despite how scary my Christmas shipping deadlines were looking toward the end. All in all, I’m happy to share how I tripled my Etsy revenue in 2018.
From starting a blog to creating new designs to managing growth, I have a lot to reflect on this year. And if you’re also an Etsy seller, I’d love to swap stories and learn how our side hustles can require less… hustle.
How Has My Etsy Shop Grown?
It’s helpful to actually dive into your Etsy shop statistics every once in a while. Comparing my year over year results was the first time I was really floored by how much different my Etsy experience is now compared to when I started in 2016.
The blue line shows number of orders, and the green bars show revenue. Over 2.5 years, my shop orders have grown about 642% and my revenue has grown over 1000%.
That sounds impressive (which is why I included it, of course), but starting from zero, any growth will seem dramatic. So what did I find when I just looked at the past year?
From 2017, my orders are up 247% and my revenue is up 332%. You can definitely see that my Etsy shop is seasonal (how did I even survive January 2018?!), and that’s a lot to pack in my four busiest months.
Okay, that’s enough bragging. Growth feels awesome, but you might be asking, “So how did you actually do it?” And I’m here to try to answer that. What do I think explains how I tripled my Etsy revenue in 2018?
1. Life Happens
First and foremost, running an Etsy shop isn’t something I devote all my time to. Right now I have a full time job, and previously, I was a college student. Life “stuff” always affects how much I time I can spend knitting and working on my shop.
It’s easier for me to take on more orders when I’m not studying for finals during the holiday season, for one. Last year, I put my shop on vacation mode out of fear I wouldn’t meet my knitting obligations. This year? My evenings are much more predictable. I was able to announce a specific deadline for orders rather than wait until I was overwhelmed, and my business benefited.
When you have more free time and are more prepared for the craziest times of the year, then you’ll be able to support extra growth. You can update and add new listings to your heart’s content. You can keep your social media accounts topped up. And that effort can make all the difference.
My Etsy shop story will never be my only story (there’s no way I’m ever trying to live off of hat income anyway). But 2018 has given me the spare time to give it much more attention than I have in the past, and I’m grateful for that.
2. Etsy SEO Best Practices
Etsy has its own unique quirks, and the best sellers learn how to optimize the platform to help buyers choose their products.
When I first started my shop, and even well into 2017, I didn’t hold my shop to these best practices. This held me back from reaching the potential customers I could have otherwise.
Updating Titles and Descriptions
Titles and descriptions were my biggest updates in 2018. They aren’t the only Etsy SEO recommendations, but they matter. And at the user level, they’re what shoppers see first and what will help them decide whether to buy the item they’re looking at.
I love cute titles for my hat designs, but the reality is, if your name isn’t something that customers would actually search, then they’ll never find it.
This took me a while to learn. In 2018, I made an effort to rework all my listing titles to capture the keywords I thought people were most likely to search if they wanted my hats.
In the picture above, you can see an example of how this worked for my custom fair isle option. While I kept “hockey mom” in the title, I also included lots of phrases that indicated it was a custom listing — for those who wanted to build something from the ground up.
Descriptions are also a huge opportunity for Etsy sellers. This year, I had to revamp these as well.
Focus Areas For Item Descriptions
Bulk edit. Bulk edit. Bulk edit. If you haven’t taken advantage of bulk edit, you are wasting precious minutes of your life! If your listings are similar, automate your work by coming up with standardized chunks of your description and updating them all at once.
Personality. Why are my hats unique? What’s the story? Remember that many shoppers aren’t going to land on the main page first — they’ll start with a listing. Use a little real estate to show why you’re so special right in an item’s description.
Detail. Don’t leave your customers with any questions that might make them hesitate on the add to cart button. I have updated my listings to include custom options, care information, and details about each pattern.
Announcements. I don’t use this too much, but if I’m closing holiday orders, for instance, I’ll bulk edit every listing to announce this at the top of the description. Make sure the big stuff cannot be missed.
You can grow so much faster than I did by paying attention to your Etsy SEO. For every listing, pick a couple keywords to focus on. Be specific where you can. What kind of person would love this item? How can you help them find you?
Being more user-oriented will help you stand out in a sea of search results. It certainly made a significant difference in my own shop sales.
Add and Update Listings
I was really, really bad about this when I started. To be honest, it’s something I still need to work on. As a seller, you should be regularly adding or at least updating listings to help attract more business.
Many Etsy sellers recommend adding at least 20 items to your shop. This will fill up your front page and show customers the range of your talents. More is better, too. Other sellers advocate for 100 listings, depending on how niche and competitive your goods are.
Why? More listings means there are more opportunities to get eyes on your shop. At the most basic level, getting attention is a numbers game.
There are downsides, of course. Creating and renewing listings will add more to your monthly fees, and you don’t want your listings to be redundant. This was largely what held me back from adding extra listings before 2018.
But ultimately, it’s accepted that you will appear more involved and established if you have lots of items to browse, and you have a better chance of including an item that a potential shopper will fall for.
One way I’ve accomplished this is by designing new patterns in my slow months, adding to my shop when I’m not swamped with orders. I also plan to start including different color versions of the same pattern instead of listing them all together with various photos.
If I create a listing for each color of my piano hat, for instance, I increase the chance of a customer seeing and clicking on the one that appeals most to them — rather than turning to a competitor. It’s also less confusing and reduces the amount of communication needed for a customer to let me know which color they’d like.
3. Social Media Savvy
Honestly, I can’t believe I didn’t even make social media pages for my hats until October 2017. Most Etsy-based businesses are inherently visual. You have awesome handmade or vintage goods, so taking advantage of social media is a huge way to boost business.
In 2018, I wasn’t always consistent. But I tried to update my platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest — fairly regularly and develop goals for each. Different social media platforms have highlighted my business in distinct ways.
Facebook was for engaging with friends, family and past customers. Instagram helped me connect with other crafters and drive traffic to listings via the bio link. And Pinterest was mostly for sharing my blog posts with other users, although my shop listings also get plenty of attention there.
For full transparency, here are my traffic stats for 2018. Social media isn’t the biggest driver, but it’s important. 11.5% of my views came from social media platforms, with Facebook being by far the biggest driver for me personally.
I’m excited to see how social media helps my Etsy shop even more in 2019, especially as I work to create more regular posts and optimize my platforms. I really feel the brand recognition helped as I tripled my Etsy revenue in 2018.
Etsy Shop Goals For 2019
Holly G Hats has come a long way, but there’s still a ton of room for improvement. In the next year, I have a few ideas for ways I can get better. After all, I’d love for my next year in review to have an even better revenue boast.
1. Master Pinterest
My biggest 2019 tip for Etsy sellers? Do Pinterest better! My page needs a lot of work, but it’s helped me reach people in the knitting & crafting community, find inspiration, and drive traffic. I can only see this growing in the next year, as I keep updating and optimizing my boards.
I’m a fairly regular Pinterest user, but this doesn’t mean I’m great at regularly creating and promoting my own pins. This year, I want to beef up my boards, create more connections, and be more consistent in sharing designs and content that I create.
One reason why Pinterest is so great for Etsy sellers is because your pins won’t fade with time. If you post a listing, it can get pinned and viewed as long as it lives on the platform. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, sharing great, relevant content won’t be victim to crowded timelines.
2. More In-Person Events
You can read all about my first craft fair here. This was a lot of fun, and made me more curious about selling my hats in person. I’m planning to do another market fairly soon, and hopefully be even more prepared for 2019’s holiday events.
Sure, online orders are the bread and butter of my Etsy shop. But in-person marketing can help me reach more people, develop some recognition and learn what does and doesn’t work for customers in a more tangible way.
Plus, I almost never get to see the reactions to my hats. Selling in person is gratifying, and it will help me remember why I like to run my Etsy shop and how important my customers are to me.
3. This Blog!
So I skipped this above, but another huge change I made in 2018? I created this website!
The blog isn’t a part of how I tripled my Etsy revenue in 2018, but it is an important new project for me. While it will help promote my business, it also lets me share ideas and take part in the crafting community. I’m really excited to focus more on the website this year and see how much more I can learn.
Importantly, I am not planning on leaving Etsy. You can see in the traffic stats I shared above that Etsy plays a huge role in driving people to my shop. I do not feel that I would be able to grow my business effectively if I started selling directly from my website.
My Etsy Successes (and Lessons) From 2018
I was not a perfect Etsy seller this past year. My shop SEO wasn’t perfectly optimized, I didn’t have amazing listing descriptions, and I still struggle with photos. But as a seller, the best thing you can do is learn from each year and keep growing your shop at the pace that’s best for you.
Don’t ever beat yourself up for failing in one way or another. Discouraging myself over mistakes or stress is not how I tripled my Etsy revenue in 2018. Instead, I took errors in stride, did my best with the time I could commit to my Etsy shop, and set new goals.
There’s so much to learn as an Etsy seller, and running your shop is not the only responsibility in your life. But I hope my reflections may have helped you. I’d love to learn from you too — how did your Etsy shop grow over the past year?
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