Etsy is a popular global marketplace where you can sell handmade arts and crafts. In some cases, manufactured items are also allowed to be sold as long as they are unique to a good extent and comply with the guidelines published by Etsy. There is a huge variety of items that sell on a daily basis including handicrafts, clothing, arts, photos, jewelry, beauty products, toys, and much more. Etsy is a community of over 30 million active buyers and businesses and the figure is growing every day. Etsy requires both buyers and sellers to create accounts before they can buy or sell anything. It provides a great platform for people related to arts to display, sell, and buy unique items on the website and communicate with each other.
HOW DOES IT WORK
If you are somehow into to arts and crafts and enjoy creating handmade items and gifts then Etsy can help you in displaying your items to a global audience and sell them at the price you want. Etsy has a huge user-base of buyers and businesses all over the world and it gives you a great opportunity to be noticed among them. So here are the different types of handmade products that you can sell on Etsy:
- Home and Living (E.g. Pillows, Kitchen accessories, baskets, furniture etc.)
- Vintage Items (Should be more than 20 years old)
- Craft items (E.g. buttons, ribbons, fabric, wedding printables etc.)
- Art works (E.g. paintings, posters, digital prints, wall hangings etc.)
- Kids stuff (E.g. puzzles, clothing, hair accessories, toys etc.)
- Jewelry (E.g. rings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants etc.)
These categories can include a huge variety of products depending on your ideas and imagination. You can create almost anything if you have an artistic and creative mind and sell it on this amazing portal right away. Here are a few steps to start as a seller:
1. The first step is to create an account on the Etsy website and become a member. To do that you will have to fill an application form. You can access it HERE.
2. After filling the online form and verifying your email address, you will be able to login to the Etsy website. There you will be able to browse among different categories including the ones mentioned above. Here’s how the Home screen actually looks like:
3. The next step is to open your own shop on Etsy to start selling products. To do that, you will need to follow this LINK. This link will guide you through the process of starting your own online shop.
4. In the next step, you will have to enter a name for your shop. You can select any name that you like. Make sure the name that you choose sounds appealing enough to make the customers want to look at your shop. Here’s how the interface looks like:
5. Next, you will need to start adding items to your shop. On the listing page, you will need to enter a few details about your item including the maker of the item, category, item type, variations, item title, photos, a brief description, and most importantly, the price of the item. You will also have to provide Shipping details about your item. Here you can add the shipment details including the duration of shipment and the fees associated with it. You are free to choose any shipping/courier service you want as long as it can deliver items to the buyer’s country of residence. Here’s how the listing page looks like:
6. Once you have added your item, you will be asked to enter the Payment details. You must enter the payment details accurately because you can only earn if Etsy recognizes your payment account. Details about the payment procedure are in the “Payment Details” section.
7. After successfully entering the payment details, you will be able to publish your listing. You must keep in mind that there is a $0.20 listing fee per item. You will have to pay the fees when the listing is live. The active listing period is 4 months after which you will have to renew the listing. There are other transaction fees associated with your sales which will only be charged after your product gets sold. Or to put it simply, if your products do not get sold then the transaction fees will not be charged. The transaction fees equal 3.5% of the item’s sale price.
That’s all the process you need to know for creating your shop and adding products to your shop. Once your item goes live, it is viewable to millions of buyers at once and they are able to purchase it right away. If your item is interesting enough it should get sold in no time. Here’s an article that shares some good tips for successfully selling items on Etsy.
HOW DOES ETSY PAY
It is very important to know that in order to start selling your products, you will need to provide a Credit Card for verification purposes. So before you create your account on Etsy, you must have a valid credit card with you. Etsy also provides a Direct Checkout payment mechanism for selected countries which allows users to pay the fees in their local currencies and get their payments in their local bank accounts in local currencies. Those countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the U.S.
If you don’t belong to any of these countries then your Bank account must be eligible to receive payments in US dollars. You can also request payments through Cheque, Paypal, or Money order.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Etsy is a great opportunity for artistic and creative people to sell their unique products online and make money out of it. The best part is that you don’t have to do all the hard work of finding potential buyers for your products because Etsy already has millions of buyers as their regular members. You only need to show them something that they haven’t seen before. You can even create and sell small buttons and drawings that you probably make out of your hobby every day.
Now you know that these little things that you enjoy doing can actually sell and you can make a living out of it. Especially for moms and disabled people, this website is a blessing because they don’t have to do anything impossible to earn some income. You may be able to find some useful information in this article to help you get started. Here’s a list of the 10 best selling items on Etsy. This should give you an idea about the type of products you should be selling.
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