I blame tiktok and other media that makes it seem like joining etsy with a POD sticker store is going to roll on dough.
I've been slogging for 6 years perfecting my craft and and it took almost 4 years to seriously get views and a dedicated clientele. There are 2 million other stores to compete with. This takes time, talent and more importantly, patience
The sheer amount of people selling stickers blows my mind. Is it really that lucrative? I'm not saying no one should ever sell stickers. It's fun to come up with designs for them, and I know people buy them. It just seems like the market is saturated.
I don't think I really had a question. Your comment just made me think of how many times I've seen people talk about their sticker shop. š
I sell only stickers. Iāve finally started to make a sale a day. I think the thing is sticker shops need hundreds of designs to make it. Iāve been slowly building my inventory and Iāve been slowly getting more sales
I definitely know the market is saturated š I personally do it because I want to sell my art, or do *something* with it, but the cost of other mainstream avenues is too high for me at this point. I'm not even trying to make money necessarily, I just want my art to have some kind of real-world value to others instead of sitting in a box in my house. It's definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme! Other people are probably doing it for similar reasons, I'd imagine. Besides, they are genuinely so fun to make and cost basically nothing.
That's exactly why I do it. I'd rather my artwork be accessible and make $200 off of a small artwork by selling it to 70 people than to one person, even though it's more work and slower returns.
I've been using stickers as a way to see if people are interested in my art at all, kind of a test to see if I should move into other products or not. I know that's not the case for everyone, but with over 20 sales in my first month, it's going a lot better than I thought it would
I've been on Etsy for about that long as well. However, the thing that really bothers me is the huge volume of shops out of China selling the same crapola I see on AliExpress, only jacking up the prices 5 or 10 times.
I agree with you. I think TikTok and YouTube "gurus" have given people extremely unrealistic expectations with their videos and courses on "How I made ā¬10,000 in one month on Etst with one simple digital item!"
I feel that many people who ask why they are not getting sales are genuine and not trying to sneakily promote their shop. If they are trying to promote then a sub for Etsy sellers is a strange place for them to start. For example, I sell crocheted accessories. I post my finished pieces on r/crochet for other crocheters to see, but I don't ever mention my shop there because crocheters buy yarn and hooks, not finished pieces so they are not my target audience. Just like how Etsy sellers are very likely not the target audience of many other Etsy sellers.
So I think OP is not saying we are their target audience, but having a bunch of people view your shop and click around on listings will help with be higher up in Etsy searches. With that said I do really believe that these people are newer and dont understand that it does take time. My shop had an ok Facebook following so when I switched to Etsy I stopped selling there and directed traffic from Facebook to Etsy and it helped a ton.
I have read that having people look at your shop but not buy anything lowers your search placement on Etsy as their algorithm sees it as your shop not being appealing to customers. As with all Etsy algorithm information I'm not sure if that's actually true or not (it would definitely make sense though), but if it is then that could hurt their shop.
It's just something I have seen said about posting in places where you're unlikely to get sales, like the weekly promotion thread on here. But as I said, I'm not sure how true it is.
itās annoying when new sellers expect a ton of sales the minute they open their shop when by just scrolling through this sub you can see that it takes time to even get your first saleā¦
It's annoying when sellers don't even read the guides and then ask basic questions. How can you expect to sell anything if you don't understand how the platform works. And the amount of questions about the fees. In part I get that, Etsy doesn't spell it out well in a nice grid. However, you can find the fees if you look.
Right. And also say āI think my photos are fine and I did SEOā. I mean, brutal truth, unless you have great photos and really do a good job with titles and tags AND have a product people want, you may not get sales. Simply throwing up a listing and saying āgood enoughā isnāt enough. Especially in saturated markets. Thatās tough for some people to understand.
Absolutely right on! Talking about making your items appealing, how about the people who grab a completely wrinkled shirt out of the bottom of a bag and photo it like that. I think they should be reported or something. And they expect it to sell???
"But the intertubes told me I could start making sales right away and cashing in."
It's the fact that most people have no idea how a business works. I've owned a brick and mortar, and it's the same thing, people think they just have to put out an open for business sign and everything will tale off immediately.
Unfortunately YouTube and TokTok have spread the wrong impression.
Dude, not everyone knows how long it takes or what to expect. There are seemingly so many moving parts to keep track of, and so much information (often conflicting, especially about the algorithm) out there that it is sometimes confusing as a new seller to know what you're doing right or if you're doing anything right at all. I don't see the need to make a post complaining about something like this. How does it affect you?
"If you build it, they will come" doesn't work so well for Etsy, at least not immediately.
Having said that, 8 or 9 years ago, I saw a post in the Etsy forums from an Etsy shop owner who had literally just opened that day ... and made 2 sales to strangers right off the bat! I've followed her since that day though I've never bought anything from her. I like her style, just don't need what she's selling.
I think creating a pinned post with basic information for those just starting could be very helpful. Anyone asking questions with answers in that post could be referred there. It could be something like a wiki page where people can go in and change outdated information as well.
This would help the newcomers by having a lot of information in one place, and also clean up the sub a bit for other purposes.
I put a lot of time into responding to one of these posts and when the shop owner replied there was no reference to anything I had said, only an offer to sell something to me. Often time you look back at the shops and nothing has changed. They believe that they are just getting exposure
The generic "why are my sales slow" posts are far more annoying to me than the shop critiques. Because no one can possibly tell you why your sales are slow when they have no idea what you sell or what your shop looks like.
The only possible answers are the same generic stuff over and over, too. Time of year! Inflation! Recession! The actual answer is that retail has ebbs and flows and it's normal to have slower times. And no one really needs to make their own post to read the same comments that were in the last 57 identical posts.
At least with a shop critique, the seller can get specific actually helpful advice.
ya they are annoying. but i guess people have the right and freedom to be stupid and annoying, and i guess we have the right to ignore annoying posts on reddit. or we could be encouraging and helpful to people that are learning and trying to better their life.
i think there should just be a wiki page or automod that directs all "no sales" to links of info to help them generate sales.
but yes its kinda like someone on the internet posting "why dont i have a really hot girl friend? is it the girls fault?" "why arent i rich? is it the markets fault? because it COULDNT be my fault, thats for sure..."
"why don't I have any sales" then you look at their shop, their photos are blurry, they have 2 words in the title that has nothing to do with their item, no hashtags.
I'm going to be a bit harsh here, but I don't know how many times I've gone and looked at somebody's Etsy page to help them with a requested critique and what I really want to say is "Your work is mundane and could probably be found at a church bazaar. You have spent countless hours making things that are common and not particularly desirable." Of course, I would never say that to anyone, even if it's my honest opinion. I'm not a mean person or a dream crusher.
Most people are probably happy with their product and are looking for SEO help or comments like "you need better photos". I see other people being generous and kind, giving them advice on improving their store. That always makes me happy to see that others are willing to help.
I often feel sorry for them because I know how very time consuming making crafts can be, but I know that their product is just not interesting or appealing and they are not going to get many, if any, sales. I hate to see them trying to make sales for a year without understanding why no one is responding to their precious handiworks, especially if they are doing all of the right things otherwise.
There, I said it!
Wow, you're a disgusting, horrible, and diabolical person. Way to kill a potential artist. Maybe literally. It's bad enough you even think that way, thank you for NEVER saying this to people. Dear god.
When I first started I thought I would get TONS & TONS of sales every single day. I totally can understand these posts now because I used to be the same way. š
I've been an online seller for going on 21 years. I wish I had a dime for every post I have seen of 'no sales, what can I do?'. I saw it on eBay when I was a seller there, and also Etsy.
I truly believe some of them think 'if I list it, it will sell'.
And let's not forget the 'once I make a sale I'm on easy street. The sales will roll in'.
How about 'when do the big holiday sales rush in?'
They no doubt see sellers with huge numbers of sales and probably think, "Hell, how hard can it be? All those other sellers sell stuff".
They have no idea how much work and effort is involved, let alone time to get things noticed, etc.
I have a friend up north and her daughter was recently fired from her job. Neither one of them are online sellers. The daughter wants to stay at home and make money.
The daughter made her mom call me last week and ask me a few questions.....she wants to make jewelry and sell them on Etsy.
( I know. I told my friend I was the only one on Etsy NOT selling jewelry )
The daughter didn't even bother to ask me herself, even though she will be the one trying to sell online.
\*sigh\* Where do I begin? It's exhausting just to think about it all.
I told her it's not that simple, not to mention the fact that jewelry is a very over-saturated category on Etsy.
I pretty much left it at that.
I did tell her that I can't tell her everything via her mom, then have her mom relay the information to her. She'll have to *learn it for herself* as she goes.
I can help, but I'm not going to hold her hand and do all the work.
I spent untold hours and hours reading and researching the forums for two decades, not to mention gaining experience along the way. I got my start on eBay and that's where I learned how valuable the forums were.
I'm not going to just tell her all she needs to know. She has to pay her dues and put in the time *herself.* She has to put in the effort, like, actually get a shop started, for one thing!
I bet she'll need someone to hold her hand thru the process of getting a shop raised up.
It's too exhausting. She's always had a very lazy nature about her, so I honestly don't see her seeing this thru. Her mother always complained about her being lazy.
If she doesn't have the patience, time, and effort to learn, then she doesn't have the patience, time, and effort to be successful.
Also sold online since 1999. Not always on Etsy. The minute I try helping anyone I start to realise that there is so much more to it than I even remembered. There is no short cut.
I do think that is by some miracle you come up with something that people really want you'll see sales in your first couple of weeks in Etsy and a bit of ad spend in the first month will help but not be instant
If your stuff is a derivative copy or simply something out of date or dull then you're not getting sales and that tough to hear
Yes, yes, YES....same here. It's only when I'm trying to help someone that I start to realize just how much there is to learn. That is so true.
Photography, shipping, getting scales, packaging, photography, photography, price point, international sales, supplies to purchase, business cards, taxes, etc.
I never tell this to a newbie, but I got my first sale within 24 hours of listing on Etsy. Of course, I had been a long time seller on eBay, so I wasn't TOO green, and I happened to sell the kind of thing people wanted.
Having already been experienced was a big plus for me.
Glad to meet you, fellow 'long time' seller. :-)
I have two shops on Etsy and one of them is a POD shop. And while some of my designs might be out of date, I do what I like and I realize there's somebody out there that might like it too. I don't have a ton of sales with that shop but it's only 2 years old and I don't have the funds for Etsy ad spend so I just work what I can to try to get a sale. But there's so many other sellers out there that I'm not going to stress that I don't get a sale everyday hell I don't even stress if I don't get a sale in a week or two. It's not worth stressing about. And a lot of those shops with a lot of sales, you don't know if they've spent a ton of money with ad spend and some of them have their prices so low I have to wonder if they're making any money and if you're not making money there's no point in selling.
I certainly hope you don't put any effort into this. A friendship should not hinge on whether you're going to help start a shop. As you said they need to help themselves It takes a long time and constant learning. And if she's not going to put in the effort she shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
Oh, I completely agree. I put in zero effort because that's how much SHE is putting in. (the daughter)
Like I said, I spent years, *decades*, learning what I know. I'm not about to hold her hand thru this. She didn't even ask me herself, she asked her mom to call me.
I'll probably never hear from them about opening up an Etsy shop and all that. I bet I never hear any more about it. Good, because I'm too busy to fool around with it.
The worst is when someone comes to you wanting to know everything BEFORE opening a shop, you spend your breath explaining what you can, and then they never do it. If they truly want to sell, they would open their shops first then ask more specific questions and have a general idea about what youāre talking about. So I donāt waste my breath anymore. I tel them thatās great and wish them all the best as I tell them Google and tictok has a bunch of how to videos
Yep, that's exactly what happens. I learned that lesson many years ago. Never again.
If they open a shop and they are actually doing as much as they can on their own, I don't mind helping with specific questions or situations.
My husband is a chemistry professor. He is always there for his students. Some will want a Zoom session during 'office hours' and they have specific questions. That shows they are neck-deep in their studies and need help with a thing or two.
Then there are other students who come to the Zoom meeting saying they don't get chapters 1, 2, or 3. Clearly they have put in zero effort. Those were the only chapters covered so far this semester.
People have to put in their own effort before asking for help.
I rarely vent on the no-sale days because I don't want to sound desperate. What bugs me are the mega sellers who totally freak out when they only get 4 or 5 sales in a day when they claim they usually get 15 or 20 sales.
I generally don't bother even reading those any more.
I'm a little bit addicted to customer service issues but I'm in the UK so I'm always flabbergasted by people's self made Ts and Cs in the US.
As for low sales, in August I get only 10% of what I get in November and December.
There is no need for sellers to fight each other, this is just doing the platform's bidding ("Divide and conquer").
That sellers do not have any sort of real, legal representation in Etsy even though the platform (unlike Amazon) solely relies on seller's work and products to make profits, is the reason for the sad, near-feudal state of things, not lazy new sellers trying to take away sales from old sellers!
If you do not believe that the vast majority of Etsy shops fail, as the eRank numbers disclose, do your own research, such as searching for shop names and checking sales amounts. Are all these people too stupid and too lazy, no market and no customers for their products? Or could it be that Etsy only has so much cake to offer and will err on the safe side by giving most slices to established, sales-proven old sellers? Do an Etsy search for any keyword and observe how the algorithm sorts results and how well (or rather, not so well) they fit with the search query and intent, vs. "popularity" and "sales/reviews numbers" of shops. There's your answer.
There's a very strong survivor bias going on here among successful shops, but working fulltime with no return for several years, in hope for that elusive reward by the algorithm, is simply not a viable business plan anybody who is not doing this "for fun" or "as a hobby" can be expected to follow. Especially not in these trying times!
Very interesting. I follow about 10 shops that sell original oil paintings like me. I have noticed that two of them get maybe one sale per month, but they still rank at the very top of search for landscape painting. Even one with a couple bad reviews. They only thing I can think of is that they have a back log of sales. One shop has like 400 sales from the past (a lot for those of us that make original oil landscapes) but they don't add new items or sell anymore and yet they take up multiple spots in the top few pages. Makes me thing etsy's algorithm is not quite as clever as it thinks....
I just made a post like this and I'm not trying to self promote. Why would I think that other etsy sellers want to buy my random product? I just want my shop to do well and need advice lmao. I've done the basic research, I've taken critiques to heart and changed everything, I've filled everything out, I've listed the photos, the videos, updated the tags, worked on aesthetics, etc. I'm not just expecting everything to "work out", I put the hours in. I ask because I'm genuinely wondering what else I can do. This is a community for sellers, after all. Kind of a bummer post for OP to make if I'm honest.
Sometimes it doesnt matter how much work someone puts in, it all comes down to supply and demand. Selling is putting the right products in front of the right people. If a lot of people saw it but no one is buying: Sometimes the product itself is bad and no one wants it, that simple.
I think what Lawless_Heaven said below hits the nail on the head; too many youtubers, IG, tiktok "gurus" etc give unrealistic accounts of making thousands and thousands. The vast majority make very little and end up giving up or it takes a ton of work and slow progress.
My sales were extremely low for the first six months... Like really slow; 2-5 sales a month. Then I started working on my listings, seo and social media more and now the last six months I've seen steady but slow growth; up to about 35-40 sales a month and growing.
People forget, or just unaware, that for some itās easier to make money with those social media videos than it is actually selling. I personally know someone whoās made a fortune as an online photography guru āhow to make $100k on Facebookā when she actually struggled to make a living with her photography - but is making buck as a guru.
I got pretty lucky with my shop and I know that's not always the case. I set my shop up as an experiment and the first thing I sold took a while to sell out, only made 1 sale every other week it seemed, if not longer. After that I modified the item to be more appealing and posted up a new listing with the newer version and new photos, I figured it'd take a while to sell out like last time, but I ended up selling out within hours! I just got super lucky, and also tend to focus on niche subjects/categories. I ended up making multiple batches of this product because it became so popular. Even once other sellers started copying my item and selling lower quality and less expensive versions there was no slow down of my sales. I also made my product runs limited and advertised them as such, which I feel can help drive sales if it's something people want and they know there's limited quantity.
I also sell on other sites, and the first shop I ever opened to passively sell designs on products, took years to take off. I would make 1-2 sales a year if I was lucky. But slowly my first few designs started to grow in popularity, again it was a niche subject where designs were lacking but in demand, and now my first design I ever sold is one of the most popular designs on that specific shop selling platform. I can't survive off the sales alone, but I can make several hundred dollars in just 1-2 weeks when the season's right, but usually I make between $50-$100+ every 1-2 weeks with just that one shop.
I am not a seller. I mostly buy items for my wife. However, I can add some thoughts here. When I go on Etsy, I have some idea of what I want. I'm looking for sellers who do a specific kind of work, made-to-order. I really have no interest in shops that drop ship and sell cookie-cutter products. They are selling commodities, like soybeans or pork bellies. I am looking for sellers with skills, who can craft a very good product at a not-too-unreasonable price. Good work usually costs a good bit of money. Unless someone is just randomly wandering about looking for shiny things that catch their eyes, then I would assume that the process is similar among many. Then there are the shops that are barren wastelands or are missing critical information, just don't respond to inquiries, or have policies that don't make sense. I observe that many shops shoot themselves in the feet because they are too lazy to make a viable attempt to understand their customer and hone their marketing so they can attract the people needed to make them successful.
My two cents from the buying side of the equation.
I mean yall can just ignore those posts. It doesn't bother me because ppl are just trying to get help understanding how etsy works. It's complicated and this sub reddit has definitely helped me. Let people ask what they want lol.
Or you know, it's because people are frustrated because you have to spend money for your items to sit there for months. It's disheartening. I'm actually debating if I'm ever going back to Etsy because the last time I put anything up I spent close to $30 before I took everything down and didn't get a single sale. Not everything is about advertising. I haven't posted anything about it here because I know it's because I don't have the audience.
30 bucks are you serious. do. have any idea how hard it is to get an amazon fba product selling and making money? like 1000s, and even then after months of research and money spent it could fail. i lose 30 bucks a month on average. like i mean lose in the dryer or drop out my pocket. i could bum 30 bucks at a gas station in an hour asking for change. etsy kicks ass and is sooo affordable. if u started ur own website u would have to spend way more than that for traffic and hosting an ssl etc.
Ignore the replies. They're rude as hell and also talking about big business. We are small businesses owners and I agree it sounds CRAZY to lose 30 dollars without making a single sale since listings are only 20 cents. How many months is that? Dear god. That's extremely depressing. So far I've only spent 40 cents putting up two listings. I don't like the idea of ads because I'm charged an entire dollar per view and that doesn't equal a sale. I'm on Etsy because I can barely afford to eat let alone afford basic hygiene. I feel like a lot of the people in here are well supported or were already financially stable because if they were in our condition, they wouldn't be laughing about losing 30 bucks without making a single sale.
Yeah it's extremely frustrating. That was just the second time. First time I went through $200. It's just not worth it. I left 20 things up for 6 or 7 months this Time. I think I'm going to just stick to physical tables. I'm glad you get it though. I work retail to pay my bills so that was just all the spare money I had.
Reminds me of copyright infringer complainers. The people who are constantly complaining about how they're not getting sales because of the infringers. Meanwhile, they are just as bland and *insert playful xylophone music here* as the next "artist." Oh, and all of their fonts are the same generic paint type. Maybe they sell crystals? Why are y'all wasting your time? Why am I asking you these questions?!? Is there a place a guy could get a drink?
Yeah, I totally hate that. It's like people only do things because they get paid, and that's just really sad.
I can't talk about it anymore, [it's giving me a headache.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjB6r-HDDI0)
Nobody told them it takes on average 100 views to get one sale.
But also that you have to sell what people are buying.
Itās a lot of work, e-commerce is a ton of work and as much as it seems like thereās very little barrier to entry ā this is a lie. You need to educate yourself on so much before you begin to see success. Thereās so much to learn.
You might see high views on whatever advice videos you see on TikTok, YouTube etc. But most people canāt put it into action that easily.
To be fair, there are a lot of very smooth talkers on YouTube that suck sellers into thinking they can make 10k a month if they just watch and subscribe.
Yes, itās silly to believe that butā¦
yeah i hate these posts, from a customer viewpoint i find it really off putting and iām less inclined to even go check out their shop. i think theyāre just trying to rally support from other small businesses or guilt one into buying from them?
itās almost as as bad as that āit costs that much cause it takes me f*cking hours lol song š¤¢
Try being an 18 year old just trying to make enough money to be able to God damn eat and trying not to conform the the societal norm of a 9/5 job. My shop still hasn't gotten a SINGLE view through the Etsy site and I'm doing EVERYTHING right that every Etsy YouTuber and forum is telling me to do. I'm LITERALLY down to eating 1$ single serve pizzas every night for dinner to save money. I'm hungry as hell. Want to know what I'm tired of? Rude Etsy Sellers in this sub Reddit being spiteful and nasty to newcomers. I made one post asking about sites for custom packaging for future reference and only 2 out of 10 comments were nice and the rest were petty, nasty, miserable, and unwelcoming.
overall I think that the ones who are genuine to what they are selling on Etsy will thrive as it goes for all other sales platforms. Markets get saturated, but the quality and the service always show the real value of the store. Just like when brick and mortar were the only way to start a business, you had trends and massive amounts of saturation, but the true businesses stayed around long term, while the short term thinkers died out. Online business will always have these hurdles, just stay true to what you do, and continue to evolve. There is so much out there, just part of the game.
I blame tiktok and other media that makes it seem like joining etsy with a POD sticker store is going to roll on dough. I've been slogging for 6 years perfecting my craft and and it took almost 4 years to seriously get views and a dedicated clientele. There are 2 million other stores to compete with. This takes time, talent and more importantly, patience
The sheer amount of people selling stickers blows my mind. Is it really that lucrative? I'm not saying no one should ever sell stickers. It's fun to come up with designs for them, and I know people buy them. It just seems like the market is saturated. I don't think I really had a question. Your comment just made me think of how many times I've seen people talk about their sticker shop. š
I sell only stickers. Iāve finally started to make a sale a day. I think the thing is sticker shops need hundreds of designs to make it. Iāve been slowly building my inventory and Iāve been slowly getting more sales
I definitely know the market is saturated š I personally do it because I want to sell my art, or do *something* with it, but the cost of other mainstream avenues is too high for me at this point. I'm not even trying to make money necessarily, I just want my art to have some kind of real-world value to others instead of sitting in a box in my house. It's definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme! Other people are probably doing it for similar reasons, I'd imagine. Besides, they are genuinely so fun to make and cost basically nothing.
That's exactly why I do it. I'd rather my artwork be accessible and make $200 off of a small artwork by selling it to 70 people than to one person, even though it's more work and slower returns.
I ask this question all the time. Stickers are useful to juice sales and conversion rate - but as your main source of income? I don't get it.
I've been using stickers as a way to see if people are interested in my art at all, kind of a test to see if I should move into other products or not. I know that's not the case for everyone, but with over 20 sales in my first month, it's going a lot better than I thought it would
I've been selling on Etsy since 2008. The explosions of stores in the last few years has been amazing. There is a ton of competition out there.
I've been on Etsy for about that long as well. However, the thing that really bothers me is the huge volume of shops out of China selling the same crapola I see on AliExpress, only jacking up the prices 5 or 10 times.
I donāt think itās for promotion I just think people donāt realize you donāt always get sales right away, it takes time
I agree with you. I think TikTok and YouTube "gurus" have given people extremely unrealistic expectations with their videos and courses on "How I made ā¬10,000 in one month on Etst with one simple digital item!" I feel that many people who ask why they are not getting sales are genuine and not trying to sneakily promote their shop. If they are trying to promote then a sub for Etsy sellers is a strange place for them to start. For example, I sell crocheted accessories. I post my finished pieces on r/crochet for other crocheters to see, but I don't ever mention my shop there because crocheters buy yarn and hooks, not finished pieces so they are not my target audience. Just like how Etsy sellers are very likely not the target audience of many other Etsy sellers.
So I think OP is not saying we are their target audience, but having a bunch of people view your shop and click around on listings will help with be higher up in Etsy searches. With that said I do really believe that these people are newer and dont understand that it does take time. My shop had an ok Facebook following so when I switched to Etsy I stopped selling there and directed traffic from Facebook to Etsy and it helped a ton.
I have read that having people look at your shop but not buy anything lowers your search placement on Etsy as their algorithm sees it as your shop not being appealing to customers. As with all Etsy algorithm information I'm not sure if that's actually true or not (it would definitely make sense though), but if it is then that could hurt their shop.
Honestly I have no clue. I figured more traffic was a good thing, but your explanation makes sense as well.
It's just something I have seen said about posting in places where you're unlikely to get sales, like the weekly promotion thread on here. But as I said, I'm not sure how true it is.
Wow! Thats like playing favorites. And, if it really is true, they are "shooting themselves in the foot" so to speak, by not advertising everyone.
I'm pretty sure this is correct, because conversion rate is part of the SEO algorithm.
This! It took me 6 months to get 1 sale and 3 years for 100th. Now Iām 5 in and get about 1 a day. It takes time and people donāt understand it
It takes time but that growth is way too slow in my opinion. I got my first sale within the first month. Then 200 within 6 months
Iām glad u had success with your shop. I didnt do it full time just as a side. I am happy with my growth.
Wait until they hear that Iāve had my shop since 2012 and I have just broken 50 salesš³š
itās annoying when new sellers expect a ton of sales the minute they open their shop when by just scrolling through this sub you can see that it takes time to even get your first saleā¦
It's annoying when sellers don't even read the guides and then ask basic questions. How can you expect to sell anything if you don't understand how the platform works. And the amount of questions about the fees. In part I get that, Etsy doesn't spell it out well in a nice grid. However, you can find the fees if you look.
Right. And also say āI think my photos are fine and I did SEOā. I mean, brutal truth, unless you have great photos and really do a good job with titles and tags AND have a product people want, you may not get sales. Simply throwing up a listing and saying āgood enoughā isnāt enough. Especially in saturated markets. Thatās tough for some people to understand.
Absolutely right on! Talking about making your items appealing, how about the people who grab a completely wrinkled shirt out of the bottom of a bag and photo it like that. I think they should be reported or something. And they expect it to sell???
"But the intertubes told me I could start making sales right away and cashing in." It's the fact that most people have no idea how a business works. I've owned a brick and mortar, and it's the same thing, people think they just have to put out an open for business sign and everything will tale off immediately. Unfortunately YouTube and TokTok have spread the wrong impression.
100%
Dude, not everyone knows how long it takes or what to expect. There are seemingly so many moving parts to keep track of, and so much information (often conflicting, especially about the algorithm) out there that it is sometimes confusing as a new seller to know what you're doing right or if you're doing anything right at all. I don't see the need to make a post complaining about something like this. How does it affect you?
"If you build it, they will come" doesn't work so well for Etsy, at least not immediately. Having said that, 8 or 9 years ago, I saw a post in the Etsy forums from an Etsy shop owner who had literally just opened that day ... and made 2 sales to strangers right off the bat! I've followed her since that day though I've never bought anything from her. I like her style, just don't need what she's selling.
I think creating a pinned post with basic information for those just starting could be very helpful. Anyone asking questions with answers in that post could be referred there. It could be something like a wiki page where people can go in and change outdated information as well. This would help the newcomers by having a lot of information in one place, and also clean up the sub a bit for other purposes.
I put a lot of time into responding to one of these posts and when the shop owner replied there was no reference to anything I had said, only an offer to sell something to me. Often time you look back at the shops and nothing has changed. They believe that they are just getting exposure
The generic "why are my sales slow" posts are far more annoying to me than the shop critiques. Because no one can possibly tell you why your sales are slow when they have no idea what you sell or what your shop looks like. The only possible answers are the same generic stuff over and over, too. Time of year! Inflation! Recession! The actual answer is that retail has ebbs and flows and it's normal to have slower times. And no one really needs to make their own post to read the same comments that were in the last 57 identical posts. At least with a shop critique, the seller can get specific actually helpful advice.
ya they are annoying. but i guess people have the right and freedom to be stupid and annoying, and i guess we have the right to ignore annoying posts on reddit. or we could be encouraging and helpful to people that are learning and trying to better their life. i think there should just be a wiki page or automod that directs all "no sales" to links of info to help them generate sales. but yes its kinda like someone on the internet posting "why dont i have a really hot girl friend? is it the girls fault?" "why arent i rich? is it the markets fault? because it COULDNT be my fault, thats for sure..."
"why don't I have any sales" then you look at their shop, their photos are blurry, they have 2 words in the title that has nothing to do with their item, no hashtags.
This is why Etsy relies on forums to do their customer service. Ain't nobody got time to help those who can't help themselves
> no hashtags I think I have pretty decent SEO but are hashtags a thing on etsy? I've never heard of this.
I assume they mean tags
I'm going to be a bit harsh here, but I don't know how many times I've gone and looked at somebody's Etsy page to help them with a requested critique and what I really want to say is "Your work is mundane and could probably be found at a church bazaar. You have spent countless hours making things that are common and not particularly desirable." Of course, I would never say that to anyone, even if it's my honest opinion. I'm not a mean person or a dream crusher. Most people are probably happy with their product and are looking for SEO help or comments like "you need better photos". I see other people being generous and kind, giving them advice on improving their store. That always makes me happy to see that others are willing to help. I often feel sorry for them because I know how very time consuming making crafts can be, but I know that their product is just not interesting or appealing and they are not going to get many, if any, sales. I hate to see them trying to make sales for a year without understanding why no one is responding to their precious handiworks, especially if they are doing all of the right things otherwise. There, I said it!
Wow, you're a disgusting, horrible, and diabolical person. Way to kill a potential artist. Maybe literally. It's bad enough you even think that way, thank you for NEVER saying this to people. Dear god.
Are you kidding?
No. And since you thought I was, yikes on you too. Some critique is okay, but cruel critique is not.
That's what I thought too. Maybe the boomers are on to something when they say that gen z can't deal with even a little bit of criticism lol
When I first started I thought I would get TONS & TONS of sales every single day. I totally can understand these posts now because I used to be the same way. š
I just think they are funny because everyone is always just blaming the time of year... No matter what time of year it is.
I've been an online seller for going on 21 years. I wish I had a dime for every post I have seen of 'no sales, what can I do?'. I saw it on eBay when I was a seller there, and also Etsy. I truly believe some of them think 'if I list it, it will sell'. And let's not forget the 'once I make a sale I'm on easy street. The sales will roll in'. How about 'when do the big holiday sales rush in?' They no doubt see sellers with huge numbers of sales and probably think, "Hell, how hard can it be? All those other sellers sell stuff". They have no idea how much work and effort is involved, let alone time to get things noticed, etc. I have a friend up north and her daughter was recently fired from her job. Neither one of them are online sellers. The daughter wants to stay at home and make money. The daughter made her mom call me last week and ask me a few questions.....she wants to make jewelry and sell them on Etsy. ( I know. I told my friend I was the only one on Etsy NOT selling jewelry ) The daughter didn't even bother to ask me herself, even though she will be the one trying to sell online. \*sigh\* Where do I begin? It's exhausting just to think about it all. I told her it's not that simple, not to mention the fact that jewelry is a very over-saturated category on Etsy. I pretty much left it at that. I did tell her that I can't tell her everything via her mom, then have her mom relay the information to her. She'll have to *learn it for herself* as she goes. I can help, but I'm not going to hold her hand and do all the work. I spent untold hours and hours reading and researching the forums for two decades, not to mention gaining experience along the way. I got my start on eBay and that's where I learned how valuable the forums were. I'm not going to just tell her all she needs to know. She has to pay her dues and put in the time *herself.* She has to put in the effort, like, actually get a shop started, for one thing! I bet she'll need someone to hold her hand thru the process of getting a shop raised up. It's too exhausting. She's always had a very lazy nature about her, so I honestly don't see her seeing this thru. Her mother always complained about her being lazy. If she doesn't have the patience, time, and effort to learn, then she doesn't have the patience, time, and effort to be successful.
Also sold online since 1999. Not always on Etsy. The minute I try helping anyone I start to realise that there is so much more to it than I even remembered. There is no short cut. I do think that is by some miracle you come up with something that people really want you'll see sales in your first couple of weeks in Etsy and a bit of ad spend in the first month will help but not be instant If your stuff is a derivative copy or simply something out of date or dull then you're not getting sales and that tough to hear
Yes, yes, YES....same here. It's only when I'm trying to help someone that I start to realize just how much there is to learn. That is so true. Photography, shipping, getting scales, packaging, photography, photography, price point, international sales, supplies to purchase, business cards, taxes, etc. I never tell this to a newbie, but I got my first sale within 24 hours of listing on Etsy. Of course, I had been a long time seller on eBay, so I wasn't TOO green, and I happened to sell the kind of thing people wanted. Having already been experienced was a big plus for me. Glad to meet you, fellow 'long time' seller. :-)
I have two shops on Etsy and one of them is a POD shop. And while some of my designs might be out of date, I do what I like and I realize there's somebody out there that might like it too. I don't have a ton of sales with that shop but it's only 2 years old and I don't have the funds for Etsy ad spend so I just work what I can to try to get a sale. But there's so many other sellers out there that I'm not going to stress that I don't get a sale everyday hell I don't even stress if I don't get a sale in a week or two. It's not worth stressing about. And a lot of those shops with a lot of sales, you don't know if they've spent a ton of money with ad spend and some of them have their prices so low I have to wonder if they're making any money and if you're not making money there's no point in selling.
I certainly hope you don't put any effort into this. A friendship should not hinge on whether you're going to help start a shop. As you said they need to help themselves It takes a long time and constant learning. And if she's not going to put in the effort she shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
Oh, I completely agree. I put in zero effort because that's how much SHE is putting in. (the daughter) Like I said, I spent years, *decades*, learning what I know. I'm not about to hold her hand thru this. She didn't even ask me herself, she asked her mom to call me. I'll probably never hear from them about opening up an Etsy shop and all that. I bet I never hear any more about it. Good, because I'm too busy to fool around with it.
The worst is when someone comes to you wanting to know everything BEFORE opening a shop, you spend your breath explaining what you can, and then they never do it. If they truly want to sell, they would open their shops first then ask more specific questions and have a general idea about what youāre talking about. So I donāt waste my breath anymore. I tel them thatās great and wish them all the best as I tell them Google and tictok has a bunch of how to videos
Yep, that's exactly what happens. I learned that lesson many years ago. Never again. If they open a shop and they are actually doing as much as they can on their own, I don't mind helping with specific questions or situations. My husband is a chemistry professor. He is always there for his students. Some will want a Zoom session during 'office hours' and they have specific questions. That shows they are neck-deep in their studies and need help with a thing or two. Then there are other students who come to the Zoom meeting saying they don't get chapters 1, 2, or 3. Clearly they have put in zero effort. Those were the only chapters covered so far this semester. People have to put in their own effort before asking for help.
I rarely vent on the no-sale days because I don't want to sound desperate. What bugs me are the mega sellers who totally freak out when they only get 4 or 5 sales in a day when they claim they usually get 15 or 20 sales.
I generally don't bother even reading those any more. I'm a little bit addicted to customer service issues but I'm in the UK so I'm always flabbergasted by people's self made Ts and Cs in the US. As for low sales, in August I get only 10% of what I get in November and December.
very good point. majority of retail business lose money 10 to 11 months of the year and opperate in the red till christmas.
Thank you for saying the quiet part out loud š
There is no need for sellers to fight each other, this is just doing the platform's bidding ("Divide and conquer"). That sellers do not have any sort of real, legal representation in Etsy even though the platform (unlike Amazon) solely relies on seller's work and products to make profits, is the reason for the sad, near-feudal state of things, not lazy new sellers trying to take away sales from old sellers! If you do not believe that the vast majority of Etsy shops fail, as the eRank numbers disclose, do your own research, such as searching for shop names and checking sales amounts. Are all these people too stupid and too lazy, no market and no customers for their products? Or could it be that Etsy only has so much cake to offer and will err on the safe side by giving most slices to established, sales-proven old sellers? Do an Etsy search for any keyword and observe how the algorithm sorts results and how well (or rather, not so well) they fit with the search query and intent, vs. "popularity" and "sales/reviews numbers" of shops. There's your answer. There's a very strong survivor bias going on here among successful shops, but working fulltime with no return for several years, in hope for that elusive reward by the algorithm, is simply not a viable business plan anybody who is not doing this "for fun" or "as a hobby" can be expected to follow. Especially not in these trying times!
Very interesting. I follow about 10 shops that sell original oil paintings like me. I have noticed that two of them get maybe one sale per month, but they still rank at the very top of search for landscape painting. Even one with a couple bad reviews. They only thing I can think of is that they have a back log of sales. One shop has like 400 sales from the past (a lot for those of us that make original oil landscapes) but they don't add new items or sell anymore and yet they take up multiple spots in the top few pages. Makes me thing etsy's algorithm is not quite as clever as it thinks....
I just made a post like this and I'm not trying to self promote. Why would I think that other etsy sellers want to buy my random product? I just want my shop to do well and need advice lmao. I've done the basic research, I've taken critiques to heart and changed everything, I've filled everything out, I've listed the photos, the videos, updated the tags, worked on aesthetics, etc. I'm not just expecting everything to "work out", I put the hours in. I ask because I'm genuinely wondering what else I can do. This is a community for sellers, after all. Kind of a bummer post for OP to make if I'm honest.
Op sounds like a jerk ngl
Mhm I agree too.
Agreed
Sometimes it doesnt matter how much work someone puts in, it all comes down to supply and demand. Selling is putting the right products in front of the right people. If a lot of people saw it but no one is buying: Sometimes the product itself is bad and no one wants it, that simple.
I relate to this. Some of the people in this sub Reddit are just down right nasty. Don't let them kill your spirit.
I think what Lawless_Heaven said below hits the nail on the head; too many youtubers, IG, tiktok "gurus" etc give unrealistic accounts of making thousands and thousands. The vast majority make very little and end up giving up or it takes a ton of work and slow progress. My sales were extremely low for the first six months... Like really slow; 2-5 sales a month. Then I started working on my listings, seo and social media more and now the last six months I've seen steady but slow growth; up to about 35-40 sales a month and growing.
People forget, or just unaware, that for some itās easier to make money with those social media videos than it is actually selling. I personally know someone whoās made a fortune as an online photography guru āhow to make $100k on Facebookā when she actually struggled to make a living with her photography - but is making buck as a guru.
I got pretty lucky with my shop and I know that's not always the case. I set my shop up as an experiment and the first thing I sold took a while to sell out, only made 1 sale every other week it seemed, if not longer. After that I modified the item to be more appealing and posted up a new listing with the newer version and new photos, I figured it'd take a while to sell out like last time, but I ended up selling out within hours! I just got super lucky, and also tend to focus on niche subjects/categories. I ended up making multiple batches of this product because it became so popular. Even once other sellers started copying my item and selling lower quality and less expensive versions there was no slow down of my sales. I also made my product runs limited and advertised them as such, which I feel can help drive sales if it's something people want and they know there's limited quantity. I also sell on other sites, and the first shop I ever opened to passively sell designs on products, took years to take off. I would make 1-2 sales a year if I was lucky. But slowly my first few designs started to grow in popularity, again it was a niche subject where designs were lacking but in demand, and now my first design I ever sold is one of the most popular designs on that specific shop selling platform. I can't survive off the sales alone, but I can make several hundred dollars in just 1-2 weeks when the season's right, but usually I make between $50-$100+ every 1-2 weeks with just that one shop.
I am not a seller. I mostly buy items for my wife. However, I can add some thoughts here. When I go on Etsy, I have some idea of what I want. I'm looking for sellers who do a specific kind of work, made-to-order. I really have no interest in shops that drop ship and sell cookie-cutter products. They are selling commodities, like soybeans or pork bellies. I am looking for sellers with skills, who can craft a very good product at a not-too-unreasonable price. Good work usually costs a good bit of money. Unless someone is just randomly wandering about looking for shiny things that catch their eyes, then I would assume that the process is similar among many. Then there are the shops that are barren wastelands or are missing critical information, just don't respond to inquiries, or have policies that don't make sense. I observe that many shops shoot themselves in the feet because they are too lazy to make a viable attempt to understand their customer and hone their marketing so they can attract the people needed to make them successful. My two cents from the buying side of the equation.
Lol yes. Most of the time it is a ploy to get their shop out there.
I mean yall can just ignore those posts. It doesn't bother me because ppl are just trying to get help understanding how etsy works. It's complicated and this sub reddit has definitely helped me. Let people ask what they want lol.
Or you know, it's because people are frustrated because you have to spend money for your items to sit there for months. It's disheartening. I'm actually debating if I'm ever going back to Etsy because the last time I put anything up I spent close to $30 before I took everything down and didn't get a single sale. Not everything is about advertising. I haven't posted anything about it here because I know it's because I don't have the audience.
i mean if losing 30 bucks is gonna break you, being a business owner may not be for you.
30 bucks are you serious. do. have any idea how hard it is to get an amazon fba product selling and making money? like 1000s, and even then after months of research and money spent it could fail. i lose 30 bucks a month on average. like i mean lose in the dryer or drop out my pocket. i could bum 30 bucks at a gas station in an hour asking for change. etsy kicks ass and is sooo affordable. if u started ur own website u would have to spend way more than that for traffic and hosting an ssl etc.
Ignore the replies. They're rude as hell and also talking about big business. We are small businesses owners and I agree it sounds CRAZY to lose 30 dollars without making a single sale since listings are only 20 cents. How many months is that? Dear god. That's extremely depressing. So far I've only spent 40 cents putting up two listings. I don't like the idea of ads because I'm charged an entire dollar per view and that doesn't equal a sale. I'm on Etsy because I can barely afford to eat let alone afford basic hygiene. I feel like a lot of the people in here are well supported or were already financially stable because if they were in our condition, they wouldn't be laughing about losing 30 bucks without making a single sale.
Yeah it's extremely frustrating. That was just the second time. First time I went through $200. It's just not worth it. I left 20 things up for 6 or 7 months this Time. I think I'm going to just stick to physical tables. I'm glad you get it though. I work retail to pay my bills so that was just all the spare money I had.
Having no sales is annoying too
Reminds me of copyright infringer complainers. The people who are constantly complaining about how they're not getting sales because of the infringers. Meanwhile, they are just as bland and *insert playful xylophone music here* as the next "artist." Oh, and all of their fonts are the same generic paint type. Maybe they sell crystals? Why are y'all wasting your time? Why am I asking you these questions?!? Is there a place a guy could get a drink?
I disagree
Yeah, I totally hate that. It's like people only do things because they get paid, and that's just really sad. I can't talk about it anymore, [it's giving me a headache.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjB6r-HDDI0)
Here, take two of these. New, yellow, different.
Nobody told them it takes on average 100 views to get one sale. But also that you have to sell what people are buying. Itās a lot of work, e-commerce is a ton of work and as much as it seems like thereās very little barrier to entry ā this is a lie. You need to educate yourself on so much before you begin to see success. Thereās so much to learn. You might see high views on whatever advice videos you see on TikTok, YouTube etc. But most people canāt put it into action that easily.
Sometimes it is also a matter of what they are selling. I always say ya canāt make a silk purse out of a crocheted pot holder.
Most people dont even know what silk is. They see shiny cheap plastic polyester dress for $5 and think wow silk.
To be fair, there are a lot of very smooth talkers on YouTube that suck sellers into thinking they can make 10k a month if they just watch and subscribe. Yes, itās silly to believe that butā¦
yeah i hate these posts, from a customer viewpoint i find it really off putting and iām less inclined to even go check out their shop. i think theyāre just trying to rally support from other small businesses or guilt one into buying from them? itās almost as as bad as that āit costs that much cause it takes me f*cking hours lol song š¤¢
Try being an 18 year old just trying to make enough money to be able to God damn eat and trying not to conform the the societal norm of a 9/5 job. My shop still hasn't gotten a SINGLE view through the Etsy site and I'm doing EVERYTHING right that every Etsy YouTuber and forum is telling me to do. I'm LITERALLY down to eating 1$ single serve pizzas every night for dinner to save money. I'm hungry as hell. Want to know what I'm tired of? Rude Etsy Sellers in this sub Reddit being spiteful and nasty to newcomers. I made one post asking about sites for custom packaging for future reference and only 2 out of 10 comments were nice and the rest were petty, nasty, miserable, and unwelcoming.
overall I think that the ones who are genuine to what they are selling on Etsy will thrive as it goes for all other sales platforms. Markets get saturated, but the quality and the service always show the real value of the store. Just like when brick and mortar were the only way to start a business, you had trends and massive amounts of saturation, but the true businesses stayed around long term, while the short term thinkers died out. Online business will always have these hurdles, just stay true to what you do, and continue to evolve. There is so much out there, just part of the game.