Etsy Shop Jumpstart List

Etsy Shop Jumpstart List

I’m so excited about this article! As you may know, The Handmade Gift Guru, is all about helping his followers to success. It’s a great feeling to know when you are helping others. Below is a complete list of items that I compiled from reading a looooooong Etsy forum thread. It took me 4.5 hours to read, but I think the benefit that it will give to you, my readers, is well worth it. Now you can read everything that I read, but it will only take you 5-10 minutes; saving you valuable time to do more fun stuff like practicing your artisanship. So enjoy!

General Rules of Thumb:

• Make sure your store name is unique but generic enough for your products to grow and change as your business grows and changes.
• Instead of listing all your shop items at once, list 1-2 items a day. Why? Newly listed & re-listed items appear on the first few pages of Etsy which is great advertising for your shop.
• Time Saver: Once an item has sold, or whenever you decide to list another item; if the items are similar, you can save a lot of time by going to your sold items and clicking re-list. Then you can change the pictures and tweak the description. All your tags will be left in place and your shipping is already set.
• Strive for excellent and GENUINE customer service. Any suggestion or constructive criticism from a buyer is valuable marketing information. If you receive a negative message from a seller, remember to remain calm in the tone of your reply.
• Use spell check when writing descriptions to protect the integrity of your shop. Some people search by color so remember to include colors in tags.
• Keep your receipts. They are extremely helpful when calling the shipping carrier about a lost item. Also, save receipts for your taxes. It's an expense and as a small business you should be writing off ALL of your expenses. No matter how small, they add up quickly.
• Use a picture of an item from your shop as your avatar. This is a free way to market your items.

Store Policies

• Have policies up and in place for returns & shipping. Make sure your policies are clearly defined and up to date.
• Under-promise and over-deliver on shipping times.
• Specify scheduled shipping dates instead of shipping items daily. This will save you time as your sales increase.
• Specify payment should be made within a certain number of days or otherwise the order will be canceled and re-listed to avoid Buyer confusion.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Sales:

• Take outstanding pictures for the following two reasons:

1. It looks better to buyers (duh!) making it more likely to catch a buyer’s attention
2. Bloggers LOVE to put beautiful images in their blog. Great pictures dramatically increase your chances of being featured on a blog.

• Use the macro feature (looks like a flower on most cameras) for clear & crisp close-up photos. Photos are the best tool that you have as an online seller for showing the quality and uniqueness of your work. Use great photos to bring the buyer as close as possible to feeling your product.

Pricing Your Item:

• Here’s a simple online form to help determine the cost of your item. http://www.rolbe.com/etsy.htm
• Start by pricing your item for wholesale and then add your retail price on top of that. If you price too cheaply and decide to wholesale, you’re in trouble!
• Include a desired wage when pricing items. Try www.toggl.com for tracking your time. It also generates reports allowing you to evaluate where you spend your time.
• Be careful in your pricing of custom orders. If it's not something you've done before, make sure you have permission from buyer for a cost overrun or you could be at a loss.

Expenses:

• Calculate your expenses for making & shipping your items. Then figure out how to cut those costs. Buy shipping & packaging supplies in bulk, buy raw materials in bulk, and take advantage of discounts and additional services to reduce your overhead. Remember to never sacrifice quality. There is a difference between inexpensive and cheap.
• This Etsy seller has a nice Excel spreadsheet for tracking and evaluating your expenses. [Click Here]. If you don’t have MS Office, Google has spreadsheet software available for free [Click Here]. Since it’s stored online, your information is available from any computer or location, AND it’s free from the risk of being lost due to any computer problems. I will be creating a free spreadsheet online for everyone to download soon. If you would like to share your Excel Spreadsheet that you have created for ideas, send it to me in an email attachment at GiftGuru.Handmade@gmail.com.

Shipping:

• Invest in a great postage scale. Keeping a close eye on your shipping costs is very important when listing an item.
• Pay the extra for Delivery Confirmation. It only costs 18 cents. Use a highlighter or "Please Scan" stickers to help remind postal carrier to scan item once it is delivered.
• It is cheaper to print your shipping labels online using PayPal.
• Waterproof shipping labels by covering labels with clear tape. Waterproof packaging by wrapping items in plastic or a zip lock bag.
• Check, re-check & double check that the Buyer has the same mailing address on Etsy and PayPal. If not, you may want to convo the Buyer for the correct mailing address. If you do not take this extra step, make sure to state in your store policies which mailing address you will use as default.
• Do not ship until the item is marked PAID.
• Be sure to read Buyer’s notes on Etsy invoice and PayPal invoice. This information is found at the bottom of the Etsy invoice AND at the bottom of the PayPal invoice .There may be special instructions such as not including an invoice in the package if the item is intended as a gift.
• Under your "shop appearance" there is a space to put a message to buyers. Use it to re-state your shipping schedule and thank Buyer for the purchase. This makes it an automated process and saves you time.
• If you choose to ship internationally, list dimensions in US and Metric. Use an online conversion calculator.
• If you have products that have a high probability of arriving damaged (broken or leaking). Pack a few shipments. Address it to a friend or fake address in another far away state. When you get it back you will learn truckloads about what you’re doing wrong or right in packing your orders and your choice of packaging.

Develop a System for shipping:

• Set up a system to make processing shipments easy. Have all your shipping info available in one location. Process one shipment at a time to avoid shipping the wrong item.
• □ When printing shipping labels through PayPal, double check all items on the order and write it to the right of the shipping label. Be sure to note every item to be included in the parcel. (e.g. item name, quantity, extra samples, note if it’s a gift)

Ideas compiled from Etsy forum thread: [Click Here]

Well there you have it. This is my way of saying thank you for your support. Now it’s up to you to print this out and check them off. Please leave a comment if you feel something is missing and re-tweet to all of your Etsy friends.