5 Etsy Shop Mistakes You Might Be Making (and How to Fix Them)
There is a common misconception that once you list an item on Etsy, you should expect to see sales. After all, Etsy has over 81 million active buyers. However, there are a few tricks of the trade involved with building a successful Etsy shop that attracts the right buyers and generates revenue.
You may have discovered this already, whether you just opened your Etsy shop or have been in business for years. But, over time, as you learn more about the platform and gain more experience, you start to pick up some tricks of the trade and learn to avoid some common Etsy shop mistakes.
Here are five of the most common Etsy shop mistakes that I see in the creative community, along with simple and practical ways to fix them.
Mistake 1: Vague Listing Titles
Listing titles should be clear and concise, yet simple. To be blunt, just tell buyers in your title: What are you selling?
Think of the very beginning of a shopper’s search journey. Let’s say they are looking for a notepad. The first thing they’ll do is type “notepad” into the search bar. They aren’t really sure what kind of notepad they want, so they want to see a variety of options at first.
From there, the shopper will likely want to filter her search results. She decides she really likes floral notepads, so she starts a new search for “floral notepads”.
This is more of what she’s looking for, but she wants to take it a step further. She likes personalized notepads, so she decides to search for “personalized floral notepads”.
Now, she’s seeing results that are much more catered to her personal taste. Once she finds one she likes, she’ll likely make the purchase.
And that is a shopper’s journey through search. It starts out very broad at first since they aren’t really sure what they want. Then, it gets a little bit more specific until they find what they’re looking for.
The Solution
Rather than using vague listing titles, think of specific keywords buyers will use to find your item. To do that, think of a noun that describes your product–like “notepad”. Then make a short, concise list of words that describe your product (the noun). Don’t forget to include words in your title like “custom” or “personalized”, if applicable. For example, “personalized floral notepad”.
Oftentimes wedding invitation businesses will use vague titles like “The Laura Collection”. This is perfectly fine for your own website, but avoid it on Etsy as it will likely not appear early in search results for wedding invitations. Shoppers are not searching for terms like this.
Avoid being too specific, as well. Titles shouldn’t include things like “printed on 120lb cover card stock” or “tear off sheet notepad”. Buyers are not searching for terms like this. These details are better in your item description.
Mistake 2: Keyword Stuffing
The next mistake sellers make is keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing means jam-packing several keywords into your title. I actually have an example of this in my own shop to demonstrate:
In this listing, I’ve repeated the keyword “stamp”, “address”, and “gift”. I’ve also packed in a bunch of keyword phrases. A better title might be something like “custom wedding address stamp, personalized engagement gift”.
Keyword stuffing used to work in the past on Etsy. However, according to the Etsy handbook:
Focus on writing short, clear, descriptive titles that make it easy for shoppers who are scanning a busy search results page to see what you’re selling. Lead with the keywords that best describe what your item is since that’s what shoppers see first when browsing, especially on mobile devices… Adding long lists of keywords to your titles may confuse buyers or turn them off your listings.
If you have a listing in your shop that uses keyword stuffing and that listing still performs well in search and generates revenue–don’t change it! That’s why I’m leaving this listing alone. It does really well in search results (mostly because of a feature in BRIDES), so I don’t want to mess with it.
So, don’t worry about any old listings you have that use keyword stuffing if they’re still bringing in sales.
The Solution
When creating a new listing, focus on those short, clear titles that Etsy currently favors rather than stuffing keywords.
Mistake 3: Taking Your Shop Announcement Literally
The shop announcement, oddly enough, isn’t actually a “shop announcement”. Part of your shop announcement is actually used for the description that populates in Google search results. Here’s how my shop appears in Google:
And here’s how my shop announcement appears on Etsy:
The Solution
Rather than announcing a sale or sharing vacation dates, make this SEO-friendly with relevant details about your shop and products. (In all honesty, my current shop announcement could probably use an update!)
Mistake 4: Only Using Mockups
In the beginning, it’s okay to use mockups. (I happen to love using them!) Mockups make it so easy for us to quickly add new products and designs to our Etsy shop. But, as you start to generate revenue, it may be time to invest in or DIY your product photography–at least for your most popular products.
The drawback to using mockups is that there are often duplicates across Etsy, which won’t help your item stand out. Additionally, clients want to see every angle of your product, and mockups don’t often showcase that.
The Solution
As your business grows, invest in (or DIY) product photography for your most popular items to supplement the mockups you may be using.
Mistake 5: Not Adding New Products Regularly
In the beginning, we’re likely so pumped about our brand new Etsy shop that we spend a lot of time adding new listings and getting it fixed up. But when our shop is full of products and we start fulfilling orders, many of us quit adding new listings.
Many people dread Etsy because they feel they have to add new listings all of the time. But, that’s not true. In fact, if you’re happy with your sales and traffic right now, you don’t have to add anything at all. But, if you’re in a sales slump, I do recommend adding new products frequently.
The Solution
It’s more about consistency than frequency when it comes to adding new products to your Etsy shop. Start out slow. Try adding one new product every week or every month. It can even be as simple as showcasing an invitation or a product in a different color or style.
Take a look at how many styles I offer for this one invitation:
One last thing…
I hope these tips will help you with your Etsy shop! If you are an aspiring or established wedding stationer, hop on my email list below for more strategies.
