If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say “I just need my shop to go viral” as if that will solve all their problems and bring in all the money they could ever want, I wouldn’t have a mortgage. 

I have a lot of opinions on the concept of “going viral”, and one of the stronger ones is that going viral would be an absolute nightmare for most people—especially new sellers.

Trust me when I say that you do NOT want to go viral right after you launch a shop and only have a month’s worth of experience. You’re more likely to end up like the “ship your enemies glitter” guy who promised to – you guessed it – ship your enemies glitter, only to go viral and realize he would have needed thousands of pounds of glitter to fulfill his orders, so he shut everything down and went into hiding instead. If you don’t know how to handle the influx of traffic, you’re less likely to make millions of dollars from your newfound fame.

The first time I went viral on TikTok was in early 2022. My shop had been open since 2016, and it still caused panic as soon as I realized what was happening. Fortunately, I was about as well-prepared as I could have been, so it was a pretty manageable situation, but it still didn’t come without its stresses.

This post will not tell you HOW to go viral because honestly, I don’t have the answer. I’ve gone viral on TikTok and Reddit a handful of times, and each time, it was entirely unpredictable. I’ve tried repeating the same processes in hopes of repeating results, and ultimately concluded` that it’s up to the algorithm gods and there’s only so much you can control about the situation. Viral internet fame often comes with an element of unpredictability, so rather than try desperately to “go viral” it’s best to set your shop up for success so that if and when you DO appease the algorithm, you’re well-equipped to seize the opportunity and convert the extra attention into sales. 

(This post contains affiliate links, so I might make a small commission if you click a link and make a purchase)

What is “Going Viral?”

When something goes “viral” on the internet, it means that it’s spreading quickly and widely across one or multiple platforms. For creators or shop owners, it means you’re receiving a large number of views, clicks, and (hopefully) sales. It usually happens because people started engaging with your content immediately via likes, comments, and shares, which tells the algorithm that it’s something people want to see and to keep pushing it out to more people. It can last a few hours, a few days, or semi-permanently if you know how to leverage it to retain viewers and customers. 

My Experiences Going Viral on Reddit and TikTok

These are the only two sites where my Etsy products have gone viral. 

On Reddit, I happened to find a subreddit that was in my shop’s niche that had almost half a million subscribers and allowed promotional posts from sellers. That’s a winning combo that is not easy to find. Most subreddits do not want people selling something, or if they do, they don’t have half a million subscribers. 

In my case, people thought my products were funny and kept commenting to the point where the photo made it to the front page of Reddit (which is both a blessing and a curse). Since my products are related to politics, the wider audience meant that a lot of manbabies saw them and decided to send me hateful messages. However, that also contributed to engagement, which kept pushing the post out to more people and bringing in more buyers. I made $7,000 the first day I went viral on Reddit, so I consider it a win despite a few guys letting me know how, in detail, they were going to kill me. 

When I went viral on TikTok, I wasn’t expecting it at all. I posted a video of one of my t-shirts using a PlaceIt video mockup, added a funny caption, and logged out of the app. A few days later I logged back in and realized I had almost half a million views and hundreds of comments asking “where can I get this?” Since TikTok doesn’t allow you to put a link in your bio until you have 1,000 followers (unless you have a business page which I did not at the time), I didn’t have a link anywhere for them to find and likely missed out on many sales. Lesson learned.

A few months after that random incident, I made a video of one of my stickers, which immediately went viral. When I posted it, I only had about 60 of that sticker in stock, which sold out in an hour. Since I don’t print stickers myself, I placed a panicked order with Sticker Blitz because they can have items delivered within a couple of days. I was not about to miss out on the momentum this time and ensured I had enough product in stock. The virality lasted through the weekend, and I made about $10,000 in 3 days, which was awesome but, again, chaotic. 

In all of these circumstances, it felt very random and unexpected. I’ve repeated the exact processes that I used in those videos and posts, and occasionally something will take off, but it’s not easy to predict or control when something will resonate with people. That’s why it’s less important to try to go viral right off the bat in hopes that it will bring in a bunch of money and solve all your problems and more important to make sure your shop is prepared to be inundated with sales at any possible moment. 

Since all my products are print-on-demand, I’m fortunate that I don’t have to make anything to order and can just hit a button on Printful to get the orders in process. If I had to print every shirt or sticker myself, there might have been a point where I had to stop taking orders or extend my processing time much longer to accommodate my order volume.

Here are my best tips for preparing your shop to go viral. Most of this is stuff you should be doing as you set up your shop, not stuff you should hurry up and do once you start getting a bunch of sales. Being proactive is essential and will make your life so much easier.

Make Sure Your Shop Policies are Established

If you go viral, you want to make sure your return, exchange, and cancellation policies are readily available for customers so that they know what their options are. Many viral buyers will be buying impulsively, so if they end up “changing their mind” or claiming they “placed an order on accident”, you want to ensure you’re covered with how you want to handle it.

Make Sure Your Processing Times are Realistic and Honest

The huge benefit of print-on-demand is that I don’t have to make or ship any of the products myself. I don’t have to print any shirts or posters, order supplies, or pack and ship anything. 

The downside is that I have less control over how long it will take everything to print and ship. Sometimes a shirt will process and ship in 2 days, other times it will take a week. This process is entirely out of my control, so I have to make sure to accommodate the “worst-case scenario” in my processing times. 

I know a lot of sellers worry that having a processing time of 7-10 days will turn away too many customers. Still, it’s better to turn away a few people who expect everything to ship in Primetime than to sweat every time you open your Printful dashboard in hopes that an order magically ships in 3 days because that’s what you promised a customer. 

I’m sure there are some people who have decided not to buy from me because my processing time is set to 7-10 business days, but it hasn’t stopped me from having $500 days, or $7,000 days, or $17,000 days (my personal record). It is better to underpromise and overdeliver, which increases your chances of positive reviews when an item ships “much quicker than expected”. 

Don’t Be Afraid to Extend Your Processing Times

When my stickers went viral on TikTok, I had my sticker processing time set to 2-4 days because I mail those myself and make several shipments a week. However, that was before I suddenly had 400 orders to fulfill while caring for an infant. I decided to extend my processing time to 5-7 days until the orders died down to give me some extra breathing room.

If you print or make all your products yourself, you’ll likely have to do this at some point if the orders don’t slow down. People who really want your product will be willing to wait, trust me. You can always make a follow-up video explaining your process, that you’re a small business with limited resources and hours in the day, and that you appreciate the explosion of support which means it will take a little longer for everything to ship out. Trust me, it’s okay and you are allowed to do this.

Make Sure Your Listing Images are Visually Appealing

Even with the push of viral traffic, if you have bad listing images, you’ll inadvertently turn many people away because they’ll be less inclined to stay in your shop. 

I use PlaceIt.Net for most of my apparel mockups because they are high-quality and professional-looking and offer a realistic look of my product on a person. It also makes it easy to have a variety of models and images throughout my shop.

I take photos of my stickers and magnets because I ship them myself and they’re always in stock at my house. I use bright, natural lighting and often take images outside with the grass as a blurred background. 

Good quality images also encourage people to keep scrolling through your products, which hopefully means they will buy more than one thing. 

Etsy also prioritizes listings with videos, which you can make in PlaceIt or Canva. This is not 100% essential but helps with traffic. Sasha has a quick course on how to create video mockups here.

Feature Your Viral Listings (And Similar Listings) At the Top of Your Shop

You can make it easy for your customers to find the specific products that have gone viral by pinning/featuring them at the top of your shop, either in the featured section or as the first listings that appear when they click on your shop. 

If you have one product going viral, I recommend putting that as the first featured listing, then adding other similar listings that interest these customers close to the top.

My shop has 560 items, so the last thing I want to do is turn anyone away because the product they’re looking for is on page 4. Not all customers look through your shop categories, so this is a helpful way to put it front and center.

Retain Customer Information With an Email List

Email marketing is one of the only ways to contact your customers without the unpredictable algorithms associated with social media, which can suppress your posts and only show them to select people. With email, you can send new products, sales, and shop updates directly to their inbox. I always recommend having an email list synced to your Etsy shop, which gives customers the option to opt-in after they make a purchase. 

Etsy has a partnership with Aweber email marketing service, which you can access and set up right from your Etsy dashboard. It’s free for the first few hundred subscribers, but then you will have to pay to maintain it, so you’ll want to make sure you actually use it.

Stay Active and Responsive With Your Customer Service

When you get hundreds of orders, it becomes more difficult to respond to messages and customer inquiries, but it’s more important than ever to ensure you’re staying on it. More customers means more people asking when their order will ship, if they can get something in a different color, why you don’t sell ABC instead of XYZ, that they love you, that they hate you, or whatever else they’re inspired to send. It can become stressful, overwhelming, and downright frustrating when the answers are clearly outlined in your policies/descriptions/order receipt or they’re asking something you think is just plain stupid. However, you must grit your teeth and respond as if you’re smiling and not judging. The benefit to the internet is you can respond kindly while talking a bunch of shit in your head. This will pay off in positive reviews. 

A lot of these tips are things you should be doing from the beginning, which will make your life significantly easier if you go viral. Many people fumble the bag during a moment of virality because they’re not prepared to optimize the attention and convert it into sales. The better your shop is set up, the easier it will be to fulfill orders, deal with customers, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. And remember, going viral isn’t always in your control – someone else might share one of your products and lead to a surge in sales when you least expect it. It’s best to be prepared for the unpredictability by setting yourself up for success from the start. 

Have you gone viral? What tips do you have for handling it? 

Still haven’t opened an Etsy shop? Open it now and get your first 40 listings for free.

Read my posts on selling digital products on Etsy here.

Read my posts on starting a print-on-demand store here.