How to successfully sell on Etsy with minimal upfront costs

What is Etsy?

Etsy is an online marketplace that specializes in selling handmade goods, vintage home goods, embroidery, jewelry, and other unique items made by artists, craftspeople, and small-scale manufacturers. Etsy provides an opportunity for people with creative potential to sell their products online, gaining a global audience of buyers and recognition.

Features of products on Etsy

• Handmade and unique. Etsy stands out for its specialization in selling unique and handmade products made with love and creativity.

• A wide niche of goods. Etsy offers items in various categories, but the most popular categories are clothing, jewelry, home items, modern and traditional art, handicrafts, toys, and more.

• Support for start-up entrepreneurs. The marketplace allows small manufacturers and craftsmen to sell their goods without the significant costs of creating their own online store.

• Community and feedback. Etsy creates an online space where buyers can leave feedback and ratings to sellers, which helps to maintain quality and trust in brands.

• International sales. Etsy covers the entire world, so entrepreneurs have the opportunity to receive orders from anywhere in the world and even ensure recognition for their products and high profits. The platform increases the value of goods beyond the market average.

Do Ukrainians choose Etsy for selling?

The etsy ukraine marketplace for craft and handmade goods is becoming increasingly popular among Ukrainians, especially in the current environment when many people have lost their jobs or moved abroad. 

Currently, more than 800,000 products created by Ukrainians are available for sale on the platform. Sometimes, a few dozen sales on Etsy can bring in thousands of dollars in revenue.

For Ukrainian producers, Etsy opens up access to large international markets in the United States and Europe. To start selling on Etsy, you don't need to register your company, organize deliveries, or have your own distributor outside of Ukraine. All you need to do is create an online store on etsy.com and start selling your products to the world.

Oleksandr Radych, the owner of SanatiFactory, specializes in selling hand-painted notebooks on the Etsy platform. He usually has 3-4 sales on the site every day. In total, since 2015, Radich has successfully completed about 3,000 transactions on Etsy.

How to make money on Etsy without big investments?

 1. Choose the right product

The right product at the right time to the right people   — this marketing axiom also works on Etsy. Even if you don't have unique creative abilities, but have creative ideas for the visual design of your store and a strong desire to earn money, you shouldn't give up on Etsy. The main condition for successful sales is that your product must have a value proposition for a specific audience. To determine it, analyze the preferences and demand of buyers on this platform, trends that can be tracked by the statistics of requests on Etsy. Check out the catalogs of other sellers. Think about what inspires you, what you would like to produce and sell on your own. And then do it.

What is in demand on Etsy?

1. Custom-made clothing, including dresses.

2. Handicrafts (knitting, embroidery, weaving, etc.).

3. Various accessories: wallets, bags, hats, hats, scarves, etc.

4. Goods for weddings and engagements.

5. Jewelry and bijouterie: earrings, rings, bracelets.

6. Handmade furniture.

7. Home goods: vintage vases, watches, candles and candlesticks, photo frames, bedding and other interior items.

For example, check out the store of Ukrainian entrepreneur Volodymyr Komar, who creates wooden toys and puzzles that are quite popular abroad: WoodenWorkshopUA. 

2. Prepare for the store opening

Experienced sellers advise not to rush to register an etsy shop. The algorithm of the marketplace is such that it increases the store in the search only if it notices significant activity on its pages. It's wrong to register and then spend weeks thinking about how to conduct sales. What does preparation include? Usually, this includes creating high-quality content (product photos, relevant descriptions in English), searching for keywords for promotion on the marketplace, and pricing.

• High-quality photos.

Since Etsy is an emotional platform, it is crucial to create a specific crafting atmosphere, which should be different for different target audiences. A photo of your product is not just an image, it's a mini-premiere of its benefits. There are no restrictions on technical aspects, mostly lifestyle shots are welcome. Take pictures of yourself at work. Photos that show the backstage of the creative process only increase the value of the product. Customers want to see not just a showcase of goods, but also the person behind it.

• Product Description.

Product descriptions must be in English. The description should include all the important details: size, materials, and how to use it. In addition, add an atmospheric story of your product: what inspired you, how the process of its creation took place. Use as many keywords as possible that customers can use to search for your product. To improve search results, add up to 13 tags to each product. By the way, ordinary keywords that work well for selling classic products will not help you promote on it. 

For example, if you sell eco-bags, it's not enough to write: "handmade eco bags for women". You need to be more specific: "handmade eco bags for women with geometric prints". Adding details to your keyword lists will significantly speed up the process of showing your collections to the right customers.

• Competitive prices. 

To set prices, you can use Etsy's tools to compare them with similar products. You should not fix the price on Etsy for which you are willing to sell the product in Ukraine. Keep in mind that the platform charges a 5% commission for each item sold, plus intermediary fees for withdrawing funds. 

Additionally, include in the price the cost of delivering the goods to the end customer. And in the terms and conditions, indicate free delivery   — such sales are better.

3. Promote your store

To attract more customers, you need to plan your marketing activities. In particular, you can turn to both paid services   — launch Etsy ads   — and use free promotion platforms, such as social networks. In the first case, the cost of advertising is formed traditionally, depending on the number of clicks   — transitions to the product. In the second case, you need to plan actions that will provide free traffic to your store, among other things:

• Be active on the site   — encourage customers to like, repost, and add products from other stores to their favorites. 

• Concentrate your efforts on promoting products through social media. The most suitable platforms for foreign audiences are Pinterest (top seller in the US) and Facebook (popular in Europe). For the Ukrainian market, it is better to create a separate page, for example, on Instagram and promote your store there. 

Life hack for promoting on Pinterest: turn your page into your client's favorite magazine. Be sure to update content that would be interesting to your potential audience: articles, sections, and thematic headings where you can advertise your products so that they logically fit in with the content.

It is also important to analyze your competitors in the chosen niche, identify their strengths and weaknesses to offer customers an even better product.

How to register on Etsy?

1. Create an account. Use your email/Facebook or Google account.

2. Choose a name for your store that reflects your brand.

3. Follow the Sell on Etsy link in the profile settings of your future store.

4. Fill out the standard registration form, providing correct information about your business, including your location (Ukraine), and online payment method. Leave the US currency and English language unchanged.

5. Go to the content of the store: place a test product. Pay attention to each storefront, without missing any fields, as this will affect the search algorithm. 

Each product page is called a listing. You need to design it separately from each other, filling in the necessary fields: photo, title   — a title with the name of the product, category, cost, number of units, renewal options   — the ability to renew (it is better to specify Manual   — manual renewal), description   — a description of the product, type, category, country, country from which the product will be sent, tags, etc. 

6. Click the Publish button and your page is ready!

Advantages and disadvantages of the Etsy platform

High price and low fees

For many creative entrepreneurs, Etsy is a great opportunity to start a business with minimal investment. The "entry threshold" on Etsy is much lower than on the popular Amazon. The platform charges only 20 cents for listing one product. 

Plus, you can get a gift listing of a certain number of items for free: for example, by clicking on another seller's referral link, you will receive 40 free listing spots. Moreover, Etsy is a place to sell rare items that are hunted by collectors, artisans, and true art lovers. And people are willing to pay money for unique items. This is the main advantage of the platform.

Difficulty in accepting payments and knowledge of English

Until recently, Ukrainians faced difficulties accepting payments on the platform. Ukrainian manufacturers had to work through intermediaries to register a company outside of Ukraine to be able to accept payments through PayPal. 

In October 2023, a payment interface, Etsy Payments, was launched in our country, which greatly simplified the way to make a profit on the platform. Therefore, the problem with crediting funds for sales from foreign customers has been theoretically solved. Time will tell how the service will work in practice.

Another thing that holds many entrepreneurs back from starting an Etsy business is the need to know English. However, this "minus" can quickly turn into a "plus". Most sellers get by with minimal knowledge of English and the services of online translators who can provide a decent translation of the text. 

In general, there is a fairly loyal buyer audience on itsy, who understands that you are a foreigner and do not have a perfect knowledge of the language. 

The steps described in this article will help you easily start a business on Etsy and make money with no significant initial investment. Be patient and improve your skills every day, because success does not come overnight.