How to open a store on Etsy

The world-famous American fair was created specifically for those who are engaged in manual creativity. A small shop on Etsy is a place where they can offer their work to fans of unusual objects from all over the world, and it must be said that there are quite a few of them. According to the Etsy report for 2017, the site has 1.9 million registered sellers and 33 million active buyers!

Paintings, photographs, knitted and sewn items, herbariums, candles, vases, birdhouses are exhibited on the site – it is impossible to list all the interesting things that can be found there. In addition, vintage items are offered, their age must be at least 20 years old.

There are many sellers from Russia on the site, and for those who are confused by its “English-speaking” nature, we offer a small instruction on how to open a store on Etsy. This is not so difficult to do, but it opens up a good opportunity to make money on your hobby. Currently, the administration is testing a beta version in Russian, it is already working, although not quite correctly.

There are many sellers from Russia on the site, and for those who are confused by its “English-speaking” nature, we offer a small instructions on how to open a store on Etsy. This is not so difficult to do, but it opens up a good opportunity to make money on your hobby. Currently, the administration is testing a beta version in Russian, it is already working, although not quite correctly.

How to register on the site

Step 0. We translate into Russian. If you use a browser with automatic translation, such as Chrome, you can easily figure out how to work on Etsy. Opening a store is paid, but it is inexpensive, and there is a way to display the first 40 products for free. How to do this, we will describe below. We will warn you right away: choose one of the two methods in advance, because after registering a paid store, you will not be able to use the referral link to open for free!

This is what the site page looks like in automatic translation of Chrome

Step 1. Create an account on the site by clicking on the “Register” button . To do this, you will need to enter your email address, create a password and enter your name in English. A link will be sent to the address, by clicking on which you will complete the registration.

Step 2. Then you need to select the item “Sell on Etsy” in the upper right menu , after which you will be redirected to the store settings page. On it, one by one, fill in: store settings (language, location, currency), name the store and set up accounts.

Get ready for the fact that you will choose a creative and not yet listed name for a long time, because many options have already been used. It can be changed later, but only once. Spaces and numbers cannot be used in the title. Before moving to the next menu item, do not forget to save the entered data (lower right corner of the page).

In the price settings, it is best to select the dollar, especially since for each buyer from any country the cost will be recalculated and shown in the local currency. After going to the “In the store” item, you can upload photos of your product, make short, attractive descriptions for it in English.

Step 3. Entering the goods into the store . On the “In the store” tab, you will be prompted to insert a photo, after which you will need to fill in information on the product, the list contains quite a few items:

name, what it is, when it was made;
physical is an object or a digital file;
indicate the category (clothing, embroidery, paintings, photography);
indicate the price of the goods, the method of delivery and its cost;
the period during which you send the parcel.

Note! The translated version of Etsy does not reflect the “Price” section. To set a price for your work, you need to cancel automatic translation. Only in the English version will you be able to complete this section and save the information.

This is the page of your store, where you will find yourself after entering the first listing (product card).

Step 4. Go to the next menu item “How do you pay”, or “How you’ll get paid”. Here you need to decide how you will receive payment for the items sold. In total, three options are offered: the payment system Etsy Payments, PayPal and transfer by mail. The first option does not work for Russian sellers, but the second one is actively used.

It is clear that a PayPal account must first be opened, which must be linked to your account (shop on Etsy). You can choose more than one method, for example, add “Other” – perhaps this will be useful when the buyer is from his country and you find a more convenient payment method.

Step 5. The last step is to specify how you will pay for Etsy’s services and fees. To pay with PayPal, you must have a Visa (Classic) bank card and connect a mobile bank to it. If you intend to use the account both for receiving money for goods and for debiting payment for services, it is better to set the PayPal setting to “Currency USD” to avoid double conversion. This can be done in your personal account on the site.

Upon opening, the administration adds $0.2 to your account for the publication of the first listing, without which it is impossible to activate the store. The publication of each next product also costs 20 cents. The record is valid for 4 months or until the date of sale. If an item is purchased, a transaction fee of 5% of the price will be charged, including shipping. You can renew the listing manually or by setting automatic renewal in the settings.

Free store opening

You can open an Etsy store for free, and you will be allocated as many as 40 listings! The site has a system for registered sellers that allows you to send a link for referrals. At the same time, each of them and the new participant gets the opportunity to place 40 products without payment. To do this, you can search seller profiles with the corresponding button through Google for the query ” Open an Etsy shop and list your first 40 items free site:etsy.com “. Or enter an abbreviated request on Etsy itself, and a lot of such invitations will pour out in response, but for a small fee.

An example of a link to open a shop on Etsy for free.

You can only follow this link if you have not opened a store before! Otherwise, you will be asked to invite a new member and receive a legal discount for free placement of 40 listings for a period of 4 months. After entering the site through this link, you will need to go through all 5 steps described in the previous section.

Selling rules, payment and commission

As mentioned above, the placement of goods is paid. For 40 listings, you will have to pay $8, which is a little more than 500 rubles. The invoice comes to your personal account on the first day of each month (for the previous one) and must be paid before the 15th. Otherwise, the store will simply be blocked. The Etsy rules also specify the conditions that must be observed.

What items can be sold

Items for sale must be original, handmade, or old enough to be classified as vintage (the age of the item is indicated on the card). You can sell tools, accessories for creativity and handicraft.

Resale of items is prohibited! Just as you can not expose weapons, pornographic images, objects for violence. Any of the participants can mark them, the administration will remove the listings without a refund of the paid money. Price collusion with other sellers is not allowed.

Photo Requirements

A photograph is the only visual source of information about your product. It should be made by you yourself, and it is most beneficial to show its merits. Each listing can contain up to 10 views. It is better to photograph an object against a white clear background, but you can also present it in a composition in the form of a still life or in an interior.

Is it possible to open a second store?

People who are creative often try themselves in several different directions. They are engaged in modeling and painting, create applied objects: clothes, souvenirs. In order to more accurately determine the category of the item, and many buyers are looking for items of interest to them precisely on this basis, it is better to scatter the works into different lists. In addition, the seller can also sell antique, vintage items at the same time.

The site administration allows you to open a second store on Etsy, and even several, subject to several conditions.

It is forbidden to duplicate stores – that is, list the same products, use the same descriptions, covers, banners. The purpose of such actions is the appearance of “doubles” in the list of one category, they are considered “spam” and are stopped.
You can include similar, identical products in the listings of different stores, if you have enough of them. Unique, one-of-a-kind products cannot be duplicated. The predominant part of the list should be different.
The names of all your stores must be linked to a public profile. In it, you can talk about other areas of your work, invite buyers.
You can pay for listings of all stores with one card, but each list is separate. If you made a mistake and brought a photo to another “shop”, the payment will not be transferred to you and will not be returned.
The administration works with the seller, not with the store. Therefore, if you broke the rules in one of them, the sanctions can be extended to all the others. And if the store is closed for this reason, you may be refused to open another point.

To open a second store on Etsy, it is enough to create another account and register it in the manner described above. It must be remembered that each of your “shops” works separately: you cannot transfer customer reviews and other information from one place to another. Passwords for them will also be different. The only thing that will unite them is your personal profile.

Seller profile, where you can enter information about the second store.

How to promote your product on the site?

In order not to get lost in the sea of interesting offers (remember, there are almost 2 million of them), you need to master some skills to promote your online store. The platform offers several promotional tools that will help draw attention to your product.

Paid advertising. It is implemented in two versions: ads directly in the Etsy panel and advertising banners in Google Shopping. Real clicks are paid, not ad impressions. The amount of payment is included in the monthly bill.
Promoting your products to the top of the list. The cost may depend on demand and category. Advertising resources are sold from the “auction”. Promotion can be done manually, or you can set up an automatic “lift” of new products. Costs from $1 per day.
Setting up the display of ads on Google is done through the Etsy interface. Here you can also set a daily limit, and if the actual conversion exceeds the allotted budget, you will only have to pay this amount multiplied by the average number of days in the month (30.4).
An active life on Etsy, social networks: Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter (the number of likes given to other products, communication) has a positive effect on promotion. This evokes sympathy.

You can learn more about the rules for advertising, participating in promotions, and receiving discount coupons ($ 0.10) in this section of Etsy. You can opt-out of the promotion at any time, but payment will be calculated on the day of the opt-out.

How purchases are shipped

The product card (listing) indicates the time during which you ship the product and the shipping cost in the selected currency. You can make adjustments to it if you have agreed with the partner about the changes. In the listing, you put a mark on the departure of the parcel, and your buyer receives a notification.

In most cases, this is done through the Russian Post, and you need to carefully study the tariffs for international shipments, taking them into account in your financial calculations. So, the cost of sending a parcel weighing up to 1 kg to the USA ranges from 250 to 1050 rubles. Tell the buyer the tracking number so that he can track her movement.

In conclusion, we note that interest in handmade work ( handmade ) knows no national boundaries. Connoisseurs of creativity and non-standard items from all over the world love the site for the opportunity to purchase unique items for themselves or as a gift. We hope our short guide will help someone open an Etsy store and join this great creative company.