The Main Thing Selling on Etsy Taught Me — It is Harder Than You Think
Why Etsy has become incredibly hard.
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You’ve probably noticed that I’m writing a ton of content about Etsy.
All the articles are about how to find winning designs, sell more, and how easy it is to start.
But as any seller knows, this marketplace has become crazy competitive.
Listings that used to easily rank on the first page now have no sales.
Shops that were successful just a year ago seem to be fading.
So what happened?
In short — the Etsy gold rush ended.
Selling on Etsy used to be like staking a claim during a gold rush — throw up a listing and sales would start flooding in.
But as more and more prospectors rush in, the claims dry up.
Now, over 9 million sellers are packed onto Etsy’s platform battling over a still-growing but small pool of buyers.
Let’s talk about the numbers:
In 2022, Etsy had 7.4 million active sellers. Just a year later, that number skyrocketed to 9 million — a 21% increase!
Yet at that same time, the buyer pool only grew from 96.4 million to 102 million.
You don’t need to be a math wizard to realize that’s a much smaller relative gain.
More competition for around the same number of buyers.
It gets worse. Etsy defines an “active buyer” as someone who made only one purchase in the entire year. One!
That means 102 million buyers doesn’t actually represent the total sales volume.
The sales are likely concentrated heavily among a much smaller group of die-hard Etsy fans.
What do these numbers mean for you?
It means standing out in search and getting sales as an Etsy seller just got a whole lot harder.
Where before SEO or mediocre photos were fine, now even tiny flaws can sink you.
Top Etsy sellers likely have teams of assistants to handle the workload.
So how can the solo entrepreneur or side hustler compete?
Here are the options you’ve got.
Diversify beyond Etsy.
Yes, you heard me right.
The key is diversifying beyond just selling on Etsy.
The major e-commerce sites like Amazon Handmade, Walmart Marketplace, or eBay can help you access different buyer pools.
And if managing multiple sales channels sounds hard to you, automation tools have got your back.
Services like Teelaunch, Printful, or Printify can save you tons of manual work handling things like order fulfillment, listings management, and even advertising.
The best entrepreneurs don’t rely on just one platform anyhow.
They spread out to multiple channels to minimize risk and multiply opportunities.
Got niche? Then double down on specialization.
Another way to master hard mode Etsy?
Specialize in a niche.
Get to know your niche customers incredibly well — their needs, preferences, and pain points.
Offer designs and products precisely tailored to them.
The broader your offerings, the harder it is to compete with those big dogs.
But if you focus like a laser on a tight niche audience, you can often outperform generalist shops.
Become known as THE expert brand for, say, bass fishing apparel or knitting puns.
Own your niche and own your success.
You have to learn SEO and improve your marketing.
As the Etsy marketplace gets more cramped, you need to improve SEO and marketing to get found.
The days of tossing up a basic listing and raking in sales are likely over.
Some key areas to focus on:
- Keyword research — Find those profitable long-tail keywords your niche buyers are searching for. Make sure to actually use them correctly in listings though, no keyword stuffing!
- Photos — Eye-catching, on-theme photos are essential now. Invest in lifestyle shots, clear close-ups of details, and even videos for premium listings.
- Titles & tags — Maximize relevancy and keyword usage here. Don’t just stuff the title though, make it compelling!
- Descriptions — Tell a story! Draw customers in so they can’t resist that buy button.
- Reviews — Social proof matters more than ever. Offer incentives for customers to leave reviews.
- Ads — Consider promoted listings or Etsy Ads to boost visibility, especially for new products.
It’s definitely more work, but applying some strategic effort here can really pay off.
While the new competitive Etsy does present challenges for sellers, opportunities still abound if you play it smart.
Spread to multiple sales platforms, focus your niche, and level up your marketing game.
Do that and you can build a business tough enough to weather even the wildest gold rush.
So prospector, ready to stake your claim?
There’s plenty of gold still left in them thar hills!
Thanks for reading!
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