“Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items.”
— Wikipedia
In short, Etsy is an online shop for anything unique and of value.
In most cases, this usually means handmade products because every item is unique in its own small way. But, that’s not the only type of products you’ll find on Etsy. Etsy e-commerce platform is place to a wealth of vintage, custom, quirky, and even downright weird items. Today, Etsy offers a broad range of products to every type of online shopper, including jewellery, apparel, beauty products, toys, collectibles, decorative items, and more.
Currently, Etsy occupies a niche and influential presence in the e-commerce industry. It boasts of an impressive 1.98 million sellers. A grand total of 50 million products are currently available for sale on the Etsy ecosystem. Clearly, Etsy is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms out there. Here’s everything you need to know about it and how it can help your business grow.
What is the Etsy platform?
Etsy Platform is an e-commerce platform like Amazon or eBay. However, unlike the latter, Etsy is an online store for a niche variety of products. In its own words, it’s a “shop for handmade, vintage, custom, and unique gifts.” Etsy defines each of the categories strictly, and only those products that satisfy the conditions are allowed on the platform. For instance, for any item to be classified in the vintage section, it must be at least 20 years old. Likewise, there are different criteria for different types of products on the Etsy e-commerce platform.
Advantages of Etsy
As a business, you probably have a business presence of your own. It could be either a brick and mortar set up or an e-store. Whatever your business strategy, Etsy can make a profound difference to your business in many ways. It can give you access to a large group of customers and help you expand your operations to locations that were previously unchartered for your business. Here are some of the primary advantages of the Etsy e-commerce platform:
Large customer base
There are more than 35.8 million active buyers on the platform. This is a much bigger target audience than you could ever get with your own e-commerce website. Also, a majority of these online shoppers have the intention of making the purchase. Your job is only to show them the product they want.
Go wholesale
Etsy e-commerce platform allows you to sell to wholesale customers directly. Of course, you must meet certain criteria, but if you do, you are potentially looking at bulk sales.
Market access
You suddenly find yourself reaching customers from multiple countries. You can even discover what shoppers from different countries like using Etsy and then create targeted campaigns on your e-commerce shop.
Apart from these Etsy also offers flexibility, low setup cost, analytics, branded packaging, and more, which makes it a fantastic choice for businesses looking to expand their e-commerce presence.
How to expand your business using Etsy?
The best strategy for using Etsy to grow depends on a variety of factors, including your business’s size, breadth of your product portfolio, the skills of your employees, and so on. For instance, if you have one or two products to sell, then it’s best that you create an account and list your products there. Etsy gives you a dedicated page that acts as your website on the marketplace. Shoppers can find your products by visiting your Etsy page or simply by using other search methods on Etsy e-commerce platform.
The entire strategy for Etsy changes if you have a decent to large size catalogue, or if your business is big or growing rapidly. In the world of business, the adage – time is money – makes literal sense.
The time you or your employees spend on low-level tasks like creating product listings, updating stocks, and managing your e-commerce presence on multiple platforms like Etsy, Amazon, and so on, can be spent on more productive tasks like sales that actually generate revenue for your business. So, the time you spend on those unproductive tasks costs your business a great deal of revenue.
The solution? Integrate Etsy with your e-store.
Etsy integration
Etsy e-commerce platform can be integrated with a variety of third-party apps, marketplaces, and even custom tools. These integrations give you additional capabilities like single-point management, automation, superior analytics, and more. These capabilities help you manage your business with ease and improve the efficiency of your business’s limited resources. Here’s how:
Unified marketplace management
Etsy integration is made possible through APIs. Etsy APIs offer a simplified interface on which third-party applications can be built, or existing applications can be integrated with them. Suppose you are an e-commerce business which is presently using a Shopify platform. Your e-commerce store can be integrated with Etsy to provide you with a unified interface for managing everything that’s happening on your Shopify store as well as Etsy store.
Indeed, Etsy’s powerful integrations allow you to use its APIs to connect it with a versatile set of applications and enjoy all the benefits they offer from a unified interface.
You can take care of Etsy order management from the same app on which you are managing your e-commerce store. If you ever need to copy some listings from Etsy to your Magento store (or vice versa), you don’t have to export the Etsy listings in CSV formats and then upload them to your Magento store. You can do this at the click of a button, thanks to Etsy integration.
Additional capabilities
Consider this. You have a shipping partner, and the moment an order is placed on your e-commerce store or your Etsy store, your shipping partner gets an immediate notification about it. They pick up the product from your warehouse and deliver the product to your customer. Throughout the process, your customer gets regular updates on where their product is and how soon they can get it. This is made possible by Etsy integration with shipping apps.
Likewise, many other Etsy integrations can help you unlock the full potential of your business. Everything from email marketing to in-depth analytics to CRM to finance can be managed with a single unified interface by integrating your Etsy store with suitable apps.
Some tips for starting a successful Etsy shop
In the world of business, as in personal life, first impressions tend to stick. So, when you launch an Etsy shop, it should make a huge splash. It should be successful right from the very start. But that’s easier said than done. Here are some tips to help you start a successful Etsy shop:
Take professional pictures
All the pictures of your products must be in high resolution and have a professional quality to them. In online business, if you have better pictures than your competitor, your product sells. It’s that simple. So, professionally done product pictures are a must.
Automate everything
When the orders start coming in, you don’t want to be caught by surprise. Automate the entire process using third-party Etsy integrations. The more you standardise the processes, the fewer mistakes you make.
Optimise your listings
Many tools offer you extensive SEO insights into Etsy product listing optimisations. You must identify the most promising keywords and use them in your listings.
In addition to SEO, you must also take care of the questions that may be posed by your potential customers. Think from their perspective and come up with the most common challenges that they tend to face. Your product listing must answer all of the questions arising from those situations.
Add multiple options to products
Etsy is a vibrant marketplace where shoppers usually come looking for things that make them feel unique in their style or choice. In other words, the items they purchase will potentially offer a great deal of emotional value to them. So, don’t force them to settle for what’s available.
Even if you are selling just one product, offer multiple variants of the same. You can sell the same item in different colours, different sizes, different materials, and so on. When possible, allow them to customise their purchase. Nothing makes a product as special as a personally customised one. Make them feel special, and they’ll love you for it.
Conclusion
Success on Etsy e-commerce platform relies on multiple factors, including your ability to manage your stores efficiently, effectively, and with ease. Multi-Programming Solutions is experienced in Etsy development. We can help you set up a unified, cross-platform interface for managing all your stores online.
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