# Selling on ETSY



## Neil (Feb 13, 2008)

Selling on ETSY. 

Of those who sell on Etsy, not counting repeat customers, I was wondering about sales activity? I noticed the META tags are picked up by Google, Im sure this helps. I also notice many sellers there also sell on Ebay. Ebay' META tags are picked up by Google also. There is alot of compitition for soap on ETSY and Ebay. Having a specialized product or a select narrow clientel would help. tagging your soap labels with the Etsy URL would help for repeat sales, just thinking outloud. 
If ETSY was your only source of sales would it be worth the effort to set up an account? Any comments are highly appreciated. 
Another question; Just wondering how many people have Insurance to cover there soap products?


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## Lane (Feb 13, 2008)

Etsy is cheap enough. And it is really easy to set up. 

Sells? I'd say it's a good format for exposure. Here are a few Etsy pages from our fellow forum groupies.   

http://luxurylanesoap.com/EtsyPages.html


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## dragonfly princess (Feb 13, 2008)

I had an ETSy site but I got rid of it because there are too many people on there selling a lot of the same stuff


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## Tabitha (Feb 13, 2008)

I have 10x the activity on etsy as I did on ebay or my own website(s). You have to learn the tricks of the site though, how to stay on top of the search feature, etc.


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## Lane (Feb 13, 2008)

Wanna share these tricks? Pretty please? :wink:


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## Soapmaker Man (Feb 13, 2008)

Etsy has been good for me!  It is mo ONLY source of sales for TOG Products, bar one retailer soap supply place who has been selling a few TOG Molds for 2 years now.  I can't complain a lot, but I an spending between $100.00 to 135.00 per month is sales commission to them and that much with PayPal too.  I'm thinking of setting up my own site, but only thinking.  There are a few things I dislike about Etsy, but nothing is perfect.....

Paul


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## Lane (Feb 16, 2008)

You can get a sitee for anywhere from $4.00 to 50.00 a month. If you know a few tricks (or know someone who knows the tricks...) you can do all the button coding yourself...

I know A LOT of fellow Soap Forum junkie have sites (check 'um out and see what you like about each site) and I am sure any of use would love to help ya  :wink:


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## Tabitha (Feb 16, 2008)

You will NEVER get the traffic on your own site like you get on etsy. I know that sounds harsh & a million people will argue  the point, but with thousands of shoppers on etsy daily, you just won't get that on your own unless you pay out a ton of money  to advertise your web address. How will they find you?

Lane, the trick is to stay on top of the serach engine & in the time machine both newly listed & just sold. It really is the truth. When it rain it pours on etsy. If you make a couple sales, your item goes acroos the time machine, just sold & people see it, if you relist it RIGHT away it then goes across the newly listed & people see it & want to snatch it for fear someone else will & so on & so on. It becomes a frenzy, a circle, around & around & around. I have had crazy good days like this when nearly everytime I listed something, something would sell & I would relist it real quick along w/ another random item & both items would sell right away. You can look at the just sold time machine & then flip over to the just listed, if someone relists what just sold you can flip back over to the just sold & see another one sell just that quick...

I sure don't know all the secrets. My sales have been very low this month...


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## Lane (Feb 16, 2008)

Well it seems I need to get a sell on Etsy first.     

My personal site does really really well. I already stated in a few posted about how I advertise. And it works. With Etsy it seems like a zillion and two sellers sell soap. In a market like Etsy, a customer can compare your item to a zillion other items, and choose, say the lowest price (and possibly the lowest quality without knowing it..) 

*With my own website, I have people coming directly to my store, specifically to buy something from me. *

Of course you can say, "How do they even know you exist?"...Well, my insane amount of promos and advertising. I would say the number one thing I put money into is getting my name out there. Business cards, post cards, samples...Even something as tiny as your site address in your signature on your e-mails.

I'm not dissing Etsy! I LOVE Etsy and I really hope my sells kick start. Even if they don't I am staying because it is a WONDERFUL community. It's such a trade though, the fees you pay Etsy COULD be money in your own pocket if you ran your own site.

Paul, I am going to use you as an example...

Almost everyone here knows Paul.   If Paul had his own website, through Etsy he could advertise *Check out my NEW online store! Receive a free guest sized soap when you order from (web address)* That way, he is directing traffic to a place where he is not being charged for the sell. Secondly, We all hear about the TOG molds and then ask "Where can we find them?" And we are directed to the Etsy site, how would it be worse if we were directed to his own personal site?

Whew. Haha...out of breath...  

I am in complete AWE of your Etsy sells Tab! Thank you for the tips!


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## Tabitha (Feb 16, 2008)

I guess I am such a huge etsy fan cause I had my own site for  5 years & it NEVER did anything & I was out much more on biz cards, post cards, promos, freebies, etc than I am out on etsy. Plus I was able to raise my prices on etsy to not just cover the fees but to increase my profits as well. I feel like they have a higher end customer base that is willing to pay more than most other venues.  I get lots of wholesale inquries there too. That's what most of my custom listings are in my sold items.

BTW: For kicks I opened a shop at DaWanda. It is the Euro equivalency to etsy. I did that last night. We will see if it does anything...
http://en.dawanda.com/shop/PollyWogPatch


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## Tabitha (Feb 17, 2008)

As for the competition on etsy & ebay, I look at it like this: I would rather have a dress shop at the Gallaria where the rent was higher then on some secluded side street with little to no traffic. The higher rent the mall takes in goes twords advertising. They bring in the customers. You have to stand out, sure, but you are in front of the masses. If you are on a secluded side street, you saved on rent, but have to do 100% of your own advertsing. If you are clever w/ advertising, you can do well. I  obviously  suck at online advertising so it's easier for me to go w/ the higher rent & allow the mall to do the advertising for me.


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## pepperi27 (Feb 17, 2008)

Soapmaker Man said:
			
		

> Etsy has been good for me!  It is mo ONLY source of sales for TOG Products, bar one retailer soap supply place who has been selling a few TOG Molds for 2 years now.  I can't complain a lot, but I an spending between $100.00 to 135.00 per month is sales commission to them and that much with PayPal too.  I'm thinking of setting up my own site, but only thinking.  There are a few things I dislike about Etsy, but nothing is perfect.....
> 
> Paul



Unfortunately for us, your selling something that is of high necessity for us soapers! Of course we and all others are quite happy about it! But so many sell soap and other b&b items sometimes its standing out thats the difficulty rather than just selling your items.


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## Tootie_Smiles (May 13, 2009)

I just listed an item on my Etsy store...I was just wondering Do you list more than one item or how ever many you have in stock? I am trying to keep my costs down right now. 

Would it be better to list all the items I have available?

In my thinking I would just list one and then relist the item. I understand that if I relist the item my hearts and comments will go away for that item...right?

Thanks,
Pauline
http://www.sapphiresoaps.etsy.com/
http://twitter.com/SapphireSoaps


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## Tabitha (May 13, 2009)

No one pays attention to hearts & comments. I did not even know you could leave a comment. Where is this?

Relisting will put you on page one of the search engine. With soap, in just a couple days you will see you have fallen to page 30,40, 50. No one is going to look through 50 pages to buy a bar of soap. Your best bet is staying as close to the top of the search engine as possible.

If it were me & I have 20 bars of lavender lemon soap I would list a bar a day or a bar every other day & have 10 or 20 seperate listings, that way you could be found on 10 or 20 different search pages raher than being found in only 1 location as a multiple bar listing.


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## Tootie_Smiles (May 13, 2009)

Tabitha...thanks for responding.. let me understand this..you have a seperate listing for the same soap? I wonder if they have a limit to how many listings you have. 

I am not sure where you put the hearts or comments, I read about it on the Q&A regarding relisting and renewing the listings.

Thanks,
Pauline


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## zeoplum (May 15, 2009)

Tabitha, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.  As you know, I'm listening and soaking up what you have to say!  I love that I'm learning all of this stuff now before I am ready to sell.  Because I would be one of those people frantically scouring the message boards for answers to all my questions at the last minute.  This way, I can relax, think about the business end of things at a slow pace and then when the time comes, I'll be ready to go.

By the way, how did the DaWanda site go?  Did it generate any sells?

zeo


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## kslo78 (May 15, 2009)

It is really easy to get lost on etsy so you need to promote in other ways.  I sell yarn and spinning fiber on etsy and do ok.  It's been slow but then again everything is right now.


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## madpiano (Jun 26, 2009)

I was thinking about opening an Etsy or Misi shop. 

My main reason for that would be that I will have my own website but don't want to store credit card details. So I thought a link on the bottom to my Etsy / Misi / DaWanda shop would work ?

Or should I just stick to paypal ?


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## Guest (Jun 28, 2009)

I have never heard of Misi. Off to check it out. 

Kitn


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## LJA (Jul 6, 2009)

Etsy kinda blows (excuse my french)...I've only had 33 sales, and many of them from the same customer.  There's so many other soapmakers on there, I'm trying to decide if my own website is the way to go.  I sell FAR more stuff offline.  Kinda disappointed.


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## Mandarin (Jul 7, 2009)

Practically all of my sales are online.  I do pretty well on Etsy, but it is certainly not my only venue.


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## gcfanca (Jul 13, 2009)

Hm have you tried Bigcartel, Lov.li, thousandmarkets?


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## Guest (Jul 18, 2009)

LJA said:
			
		

> Etsy kinda blows (excuse my french)...I've only had 33 sales, and many of them from the same customer.  There's so many other soapmakers on there, I'm trying to decide if my own website is the way to go.  I sell FAR more stuff offline.  Kinda disappointed.



have you tried Artfire ?


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## LJA (Jul 18, 2009)

Kitn said:
			
		

> LJA said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I'm considering doing that and opening an eBay store as well.  I see many people have several online shops.


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## Bigmoose (Jul 18, 2009)

LJA said:
			
		

> Etsy kinda blows (excuse my french)...I've only had 33 sales, and many of them from the same customer.  There's so many other soapmakers on there, I'm trying to decide if my own website is the way to go.  I sell FAR more stuff offline.  Kinda disappointed.



I agree LJA.  I would say as a guess 2% of my sales are on etsy, 98% offline.

Bruce


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## Mandarin (Jul 25, 2009)

Well, I do very well on Etsy.  It has been a great selling venue for me. It was not always that way though. 

I think that tags are the key to success on Etsy.  You cannot keep listing the same tags for every item and expect to have good results.  You need a variety of words to use. Look at the item and see what else stands out about it other than the obvious. You also have to list something several times a day.  I also feel that having a fully stocked store front is extremely important.  Joining a team or two is good because you often sell to other team members.  I belong to two teams and none of them pertain to soaping. 

All of these things work extremely well for me!


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## LJA (Jul 25, 2009)

Thanks for the tips, Mandarin.  Do you mind if I take a look at your store to see if you're doing something, I'm missing?


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## Mandarin (Jul 25, 2009)

LJA,  I prefer to stay private on the boards.   If you let me see your Etsy shop, I will take a look and give you an objective opinion.


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