E-commerce is one of my favorite ways to make money online. If I’ve learned anything over the last 15 years of selling it’s that there are a lot of ways to make it harder than it needs to be, whether you’re selling on Etsy or another platform. Here are some of the biggest mistakes I see new sellers make and how to avoid them so you can make sales faster.
(This post may contain affiliate links, because a girl’s gotta eat)
Mistake #1: Listing Only What You Want to Make Instead of What Your Customers Want to Buy
A lot of us start online stores because we want to sell our artwork and make money while expressing our creativity. This is exactly what you should be doing, but if making money is at all a priority, you need to pay close attention to what people are buying and use that data to decide what else to make. I’ve spoken with plenty of Etsy sellers who want to know why they’re not making more sales, and many times it’s because they would rather make whatever inspiration pops into their head instead of making another version of their top seller.
Most selling platforms, including Etsy, Shopify, and WooCommerce, have analytics/shop stats you can view to see how many visits you’re getting from search, social media, etc. At least once a month, go through these stats and write down the most common search terms people are using to find your shop, as well as which products were your top sellers in that period. Use this information when deciding what else to make.
Mistake #2: Relying on Friends and Family to Grow Your Business
When you start a business and have no customers or audience, you might be inclined to reach out to your personal network in hopes that they will spread the word, share on social media, or – best case scenario – give you money in exchange for something you’re selling. This is fine to do, but it’s important to remember that in a lot of cases, your family is not your target market. Even if they are, they might not offer the support you want or expect from someone you care about, which causes a mental complex that we do not have time for. People are weird and judgy, especially when it comes to things like starting a business or finding a new way to generate income for yourself. Some of my extended family members act like my business is a personal attack on their life choices.
This doesn’t mean you should never share your business on your personal page or hide it from friends and family. It means 1) don’t expect anything from them and 2) think bigger than your immediate circle. Focus your efforts on reaching the 7 billion other people on the planet through your brand social media pages, targeted hashtags, and SEO. Your friends and family will still see it and support you if they choose, but you’re not looking for their validation as fuel to move to the next level because you’re already there.
Also: real friends pay full price.
Mistake #3: Paying for Ads Before Optimizing Your SEO
I can’t even tell you how many dudes in e-commerce groups across Facebook think that throwing $1,000 at a paid Facebook ad is all they need to do to get rich selling knockoff Supreme shirts. Paid ads are a waste of money if you’re not putting upfront effort into search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is an understanding of what keywords your customers are most likely to plug into a search bar when looking for your product. These keywords are essential to optimizing your product titles, tags, and descriptions, which tell search engines like Google and Pinterest what’s on the page, which in turn provides more data to help your paid ads to reach the right people.
The thing about SEO is that even if your products are kinda shitty (please don’t sell shitty products), if your SEO is better than your competition’s SEO, you could possibly make more sales because you’re reaching customers that their keywords aren’t even touching. Words power everything on the internet, so it’s crucial that you know how to use them to your advantage. Here are all my posts on SEO basics and writing tips.
Mistake #4: Low-Quality Product Photos
Words are what help get people to your products, but you won’t convert their visit into a sale if your images are easy to ignore.
If you take your own product photos, find a spot in your home with the most natural lighting, ideally a south-facing window. Opt for a white or minimal background whenever possible – this will help your item pop and requires virtually no creativity. It also shows your product color most accurately. When I sold vintage on Etsy back in the day, I put a white shelf against a white wall next to my window and used that for all my product photos. It was the easiest and fastest setup and gave the crispest visuals of my products. If you don’t have a white wall and shelf, you can make your own with a rigid poster or foam board from a craft store. Here’s a post from Bigcommerce about product photography.
Depending on what you sell, you might be able to get away with using digital mockups, which is what I use for all my product photos. PlaceIt is my favorite site for finding realistic lifestyle mockups. You can see my full list of favorite mockup sites in this post.
Mistake #5: You’re Not Pinning Your Products to Pinterest
Aside from search engines, Pinterest is my biggest source of traffic for all my stores. It operates like a search engine, and the fastest way to get your products in front of their 322 million monthly users is to pin your items yourself as soon as you list them for sale. Here’s my full guide to using Pinterest for your business.
Mistake #6: You’ve Created a Whole Brand Around Trademarked Concepts
Fanart is cool, but not in the world of e-commerce. Lots of sellers think they can start a store selling their own Disney and Harry Potter merch, which is a great way to get a cease & desist email from their company lawyers and the ban hammer from your selling platform. Sellers who do this might be able to make decent money until they’re caught, but why do that when you can come up with your own intellectual property like a real business owner? It’s so much better.
A good rule of thumb to live by is that if something you’ve created could be easily mistaken for another brand’s product, don’t sell it. Before using a phrase in any of your product creations, look it up in the USPTO Trademark database and make sure there are no live trademarks.
Related Posts and Links:
20 Digital Products You Can Sell on Etsy for Passive Income
How to Make and Sell Digital Products on Etsy
How to Start an Apparel Store With Print-On-Demand
Every Tool I Use to Run My Etsy Shop
Open Your Own Store:
Etsy: Get 40 free listings when you open a shop
Shopify: Sign up and get a 14-day free trial
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