Many people want to make money on Etsy. They set up their shop, create listings, and promote them. All seems to be going well, except for one thing — they have no sales on Etsy.
Many Etsy sellers can get stuck now and then. Some days you could be doing well, while you get zero sales on others.
But if you have no sales coming in at all and you’re asking yourself, “why am I not getting sales on Etsy?” then there must be a problem with your Etsy shop.
Luckily, that is a problem that you can fix. This article will teach you the ways I have found to improve your store and increase sales.
So Why Does My Business Have No Sales on Etsy?
While Etsy gets 377.4 million visits, many stores still don’t get sales. That’s because more than 7.5 million sellers are competing on Etsy.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Why is my Etsy shop not selling?” you’re not alone. Many other Etsy store owners struggle to convert.
Thankfully, there are ways to fix these problems, but you must determine the root issue first. So in this article, I’ll tell you the top ten reasons why Etsy stores aren’t getting sales and how to fix these problems.
1) You Just Started
There’s nothing to worry about if you’re starting and you aren’t getting sales! All good things take time. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience and hard work.
Don’t expect your Etsy shop to give you a full-time income overnight. That rarely happens when starting a business. Try to augment your income with other sources, so you don’t feel pressured to grow your business too quickly.
How to Fix It
Remember that most shops fail when shop owners quit on them too early. If you’re offering handmade items, try to talk more about the love and care that goes into every piece. Take time to build your brand and network online with people who might love your products.
Try playing around with your shop name. Create just one shop when starting so you don’t lose track of your progress.
Overall, give your Etsy business more time. You could be some time away from becoming a successful Etsy seller!
2) You’re Selling a Product No One Wants
Selling a product no one wants is a mistake that too many Etsy sellers make. Your product could be something that no one wants. Alternatively, you could also be promoting to an audience who doesn’t value your offer.
When starting any business, you need to have a great product-market fit. People only spend their money if they see the product is worth it. If they don’t, sales will not come in.
How to Fix It
The first solution you might think of is to stop offering these products. But don’t give up just yet! For all you know, you’re promoting to the wrong crowd. Build target personas of people that could see value in your work. High-quality products will sell online.
You might also want to revisit how you’re promoting your product. Talk about the benefits they provide, their unique selling points, and the craftsmanship that goes into your product.
Here’s one last tip that could be a hard pill to swallow — maybe your product isn’t in its best form yet, and that’s completely fine! We all have different stages when creating quality products.
Take time to improve your skills first and create a better product. You could sell the same product in six to eight months and make more sales because you improved your product quality!
3) You Aren’t Ranking on Etsy Search via SEO
Ranking on Etsy through SEO or search engine optimization is a crucial skill to learn when selling online. You should know how to do it if you haven’t just yet.
Performing Etsy SEO involves looking for keywords that your potential customers search for and optimizing your listings to appear as high on the search page as possible. This strategy will result in more traffic and extra sales.
How to Fix It
You’ll need to understand the Etsy algorithm to master SEO, as well as learning how to use the best Etsy SEO tools available in the market. Etsy tends to rank products based on a few factors:
- Relevance: This factor refers to your product’s relevance to the words you want to rank for on Etsy.
- Listing Quality Score: The number of views and sales your Etsy listing gets will affect your listing quality score the most.
- Recency: A new listing will get more visibility on Etsy search results.
- Customer or Market Experience Score: This score depends on your store’s reviews.
- Shipping Price: Shipping fees affect your search ranking because Etsy tends to favor products that have lower shipping costs.
- Shopper Habits: Etsy will also track the habits of your potential customers and show results based on what kind of products they tend to look at when shopping.
Etsy SEO starts with keyword research. Create a list of keywords that you want to rank. Your SEO efforts will affect your Etsy search visibility. It can also help you get on search engines like Google with enough time and effort.
Check out this guide if you want to study Etsy SEO in depth.
4) Photos and Copies on Your Etsy Store Aren’t That Good
Photo quality and copywriting are crucial in sales conversion. Etsy sellers should always try to make these two things as compelling as possible. That means improving the photos of your products and the product descriptions on your page.
How to Fix It
Improving your product photos starts with taking better pictures. Use a DSLR or a phone that can take good photos to take high-quality images. If you don’t have those, consider hiring a photographer.
Improving your copywriting skills is also highly important to experience Etsy success. Write compelling descriptions and titles, so people visit your shop. Your copywriting and image optimization efforts could also boost your conversion rate.
5) You Aren’t Offering a Good Deal on Your Etsy Shop
You can’t just set up an Etsy shop and expect people to come through the proverbial doors of your online shop. You’ll need to lure your potential buyers into your store. One of the great ideas to do that is to offer a good deal.
Make people feel like buying from your shop is nothing but a bargain.
How to Fix It
You’ll need to learn to put items on sale on Etsy if you want to boost Etsy sales. Here are some great ideas to try out.
- Offer a bonus pack — Studies show that a shop can sell 73% more if you offer a bonus pack. That bonus pack could be a free ebook, additional products, fancy stickers, or anything else you can give for free without ruining your profit margins.
- Give a discount — You can also use a coupon code to attract more buyers and increase sales. Play around with the coupon codes’ discount size and see which one will result in more outstanding net sales.
Ensure you aren’t losing money when running these sales for your buyers.
- Provide free shipping — Another great way to lure Etsy buyers is to offer free shipping for a minimum order size. Other shops might include free shipping with a bulk order. You can also give free shipping to repeat customers to encourage repeat purchases.
6) You Haven’t Tried Etsy Ads
Boosting your product listings with Etsy ads could be a great way to reach new customers. Promoted listings help increase your visibility by adding your product listings to Etsy search and offsite platforms like Google, Facebook, and other news sites and blogs.
How to Fix It
Making sales on Etsy often needs a little boost. Despite the extra cost, ads could be a great way to bring in good sales for your business. Ensure that you’re monitoring your ads every day. There’s no point in running them if they don’t sell products.
Try boosting other listings too. Don’t increase your ad spend budget until you see conversion on them.
7) You Aren’t Providing Enough Payment Options
Your lack of payment options is gravely causing your store to miss out. Let’s say you’re selling home decor to young homeowners. Many of these couples might not have credit cards. If your shop only provides that option, you won’t be able to convert them.
How to Fix It
Offering multiple payment options is beneficial because Etsy supports many payment options too. You can set up the following options for your customers:
- Credit card
- Debit/bank card
- Etsy Gift Cards and Etsy Credits
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- PayPal
- Klarna Financing (United States)
- Klarna installment payments (Australia, Canada, Spain, United Kingdom, United States)
- Klarna Pay in 30 days (Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, and Norway )
- iDEAL (the Netherlands)
- Sofort (Austria and Germany)
8) You Aren’t Getting Customer Reviews
Up to 93% of customers will read customer reviews before buying a product. So a shop that doesn’t have reviews and feedback could have a lower conversion rate.
Humans are social beings, meaning we turn to social proof when we want to validate a purchase. A shop that doesn’t have that validation will struggle to get more sales. Inversely, getting good reviews could make a big difference for your business.
How to Fix It
You need more reviews if you want more new customers to buy from you. The simplest way is to ask your previous customers to leave a review.
If you’re afraid to ask, people might never give you their kind words. The more you sell, the more you should have reviews on your site. Respond to those positive reviews, too, so you get engagement up.
And when someone leaves you a negative review, don’t fret! It happens. Try to respond to that customer and find ways to amend the relationship.
9) You Aren’t Promoting Anywhere Else
Another reason why you’re not selling on Etsy is because you’re not talking about it on other channels.
Don’t think you can put up your first listings and expect people to know about them. Lead them to your listings by promoting them on other channels. Try email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, and so on.
How to Fix It
Before adding more listings to your Etsy store, try out these other platforms to get the word out about your shop:
- Start an email marketing newsletter
- Promote your products on social media platforms
- Create a blog if your target audience is an avid reader
- Market it offline by trying a garage sale first and telling people to check out your Etsy shop for more convenience
- Add your shop and social media links to the packaging
10) You’re Not Giving It Your Time
Your shop, just like any business, will need your time, effort, and attention. Don’t buy into the lie that you can sell products passively on Etsy. Your Etsy shop will demand action on your end.
How to Fix It
Etsy shops with no sales indicate that you should dedicate more time and effort. If you’re busy, try to cut down on things that could be eating your time but adding no value.
You can also opt to outsource parts of your shop maintenance that could take too much of your valuable time. Consider hiring a virtual assistant to post on social media, handle order fulfillment, update and send shop policies, and so on.
Etsy Sellers Should Pivot Often
If you’re an Etsy seller asking, “Why are my Etsy sales down?” and not doing anything about it, it’s time to make a change! Try different ways to promote your Etsy shop, starting with the recommendations provided in this article.
Your outcome will not change if you don’t make a change. Etsy is a promising online marketplace filled with opportunities for those who take the chance and work. So which of these strategies can you try out for your business?
Focus on one or two at a time. When you start boosting Etsy sales, double down on them or try something new.
So if you don’t have any Etsy sales or aren’t getting the desired results, try some of these ideas out. You could be on your way to getting more Etsy sales and becoming a highly successful Etsy master!
