If you have followed my last post you will of begun to set up your very own Etsy Shop. Please feel free to take a look at my Etsy shop (www.isabellajmillinery.etsy.com) as you work though this post as it will help you to understand what I’m writing about.

The Listing section is all about putting the stock / products in your shop. Each time you put an item up for sale in your shop you will be creating a ‘listing’. 

The listing page is quite long, so I’ve captured it in several screen shots. I’ll explain the main sections of each image as we go. The screen shots were taken a few weeks ago, and Etsy does regularly update its forms and templates so if its a while between me writing and you reading this post things may look bit different. At the time of writing a series of additional attributes (e.g. colour, occasion, celebration) have just been added under the categories section.

Listing Image 1: Here we go:

Photos

You can add up to 5 photos and its a good idea to make sure you use all these opportunities. The first image becomes the one that Etsy will show under its search results. I’ve heard that Etsy prefer light, bright, plain backgrounds and over the last few weeks I’ve begun to use FotoFuze to make sure the backgrounds are as clear as I can get them. The image on the left is the original and the one on the right is ‘Fotofuzed’. Sometimes its just a matter of personal preference as to which one you want to prefer use. I’ve also heard that Snapseed is a useful photo app if you are taking pictures on your phone or tablet.

In term of the types of image to use, I try and use at least one photo from each of the following groups:

a) Studio type image – image of the whole product against a clear background.

b) Perspective – hat on a model or mannequin so the viewer can get an idea of the actual size of the product.

c)  Close Up – showing the details of a specific feature

d) Lifestyle – your product ‘in action’. For me this could be a hat at a wedding, races meeting etc. This is a picture of my floppy felt hats being worn on a county walk.

For the 5th image I normally use a photo of a different (but related) item I have in my shop which the viewer might be interested in. I do of course make sure that this is clearly stated in the description.

If you would like to have a look at this in action please take a look at the items in may shop: www.isabellajmillinery.etsy.com As you will see I have improved my photo skills since the screen shots were taken. I still have more work to do as I’ve recently found out that it’s best to use a square or landscape image to avoid having part of  your main image lost in the thumbnail size image.

Listing Details Section

Title: This section is key as the search engines use this information to find your item. You have 140 characters to play with. Use the most important words near the front of the title –  ideally phrases rather than single words to highlight your product. For example “small turquoise hat” would be better than “small”, “hat” or “turquoise”. It’s worth remembering the first 70 characters of title text appear in Google and the first 140 on Etsy descriptions.  

Think about the words a buyer might be using if they are looking to buy an item like yours. Separate your search terms with ‘space hyphen space’ or a ‘comma space’ e.g. ‘handmade hat – blue cocktail headpiece’ or ‘handmade hat, blue cocktail headpiece’.

It’s worth popping some words into Etsy and Google search bars as it will give you a hint as to the most frequently searched for terms. The Google analytical tool, Google Trends is also useful for comparing the popularity of similar words – for example is ‘pillbox hat’ more or less popular than ‘cocktail hat’?

The next three sections (categories, price, quantity) are quite simple to complete as they have drop down menus and the wording on the side to help you. For the categories section it’s really a matter of deciding which one works best for you. Remember to include the actual cost of selling your product in your pricing structure!

Renewal Options: I normal opt for the manual renewal so I get to choose when I relist an item as some of my headpieces have seasonal appeal. At the time of writing, each listings costs USD$0.20 + VAT, this roughly equates to 16 pence + VAT per listing for a 3 month period. Went it comes to your product pricing, it’s also worth remembering that Etsy charge 3.5% of a sale item and there is also a payment processing fee (this is dependent on the method you choose).

Type: again a self explanatory area, are you selling an physical product or digital download item?

Description: this is where you get the opportunity to really ‘sell’ your product. Think rich descriptive language. It’s important to also include the same wording as you have used in your title to increase the chances of having your products found on Etsy. If you use Etsy Rank you can get a listing grading to indicate how your wording and order of words may attract potential buyers.

Shipping: You can set up shipping profiles if you regularly sell items with the same shipping costs or set up individual ‘custom’ prices for each item you sell. Remember to check that your insurance covers you the countries you want to ship to.

Tags: I try and use the same words as in my title to help the buyer find my products. I always include my name as a tag too (Isabella Josie) so I (or a buyer) can easily find all my hats in one place. Try it out yourself and you will see what I mean. Always use all your tags – it gives you the best chance of having your items found.

Materials: If you fill this section in it shows up on your listing overview which is always handy.

The image below is how one of my listed items looks in preview mode. Various aspects of my listing page are pulled though to the ‘overview’ information on the right hand side of the Etsy listing. For example if you select ‘I did’ for ‘who made this item’ the wording “handmade” will show along with shipping information, materials and categories used.

That’s it for Part 2 on the Listing section, I’ll be back again with a 3rd and final part. I hope you have found this post helpful, I am by no means an Etsy expert and still have a great deal to learn. Any advice you have to offer would be great to hear, please send me your comments!

Note: The views I have expressed in this post are my own, and this article isn’t run or sponsored by Etsy, Snapseed, EtsyRank, GoogleTrends, FotoFuze etc.