If you’re a print-on-demand user and you’re looking for an online platform to sell your creations, then Etsy is the perfect platform for you. With over 4 million active sellers and 81 million active buyers, Etsy is a popular platform among creators who want to showcase their products and increase their sales. In this blog post, we’ll take you through a beginner’s guide in how to list a print-on-demand product on Etsy.
Choose your product:
Before creating your new Etsy listing, decide which print-on-demand product you want to sell. It can be t-shirts, phone cases, wall posters, coffee mugs, or any other item that can be printed with your designs. Remember, you can sell as many products as possible, but creating a niche-specific store might be more beneficial to you. If you are looking for a print-on-demand provider, check out my top pick here.
How to List on Etsy:
- Head to your Etsy account and click on ‘add a listing’ in the top right corner.
- At the top, you will see 6 categories for the listing. You will fill these 6 sections out for every listing that you create.
About Section
- In the ‘about’ section, you will fill out the title, photos/ videos, description, and personalization.
- Title – Use this space to tell the buyer what your product is, who it is for, and what occasions it might be used for. Use the whole 140 characters to describe your item as Etsy will use those descriptors for your SEO.
- Photos/ Videos – You can add up to 10 photos and 1 video. This is a great place to showcase what your photo looks like from different angles and being used in different scenarios. Use good-quality photos that let your customers see exactly what they will be getting.
- Description – This is where you will describe the item the customer is getting. Keep in mind that they will only see the first few sentences unless they expand the description so make those first couple sentences count! Use some of the same keywords from your title here.
- Personalization – If your item is a personalized product, you will click on ‘add personalization.’ It will show a box where you can write the instructions to your customers letting them know how to give you the personalization information. You can also toggle personalization on or off to make it optional or not.
Price & Inventory
- Price – One of the significant factors to consider when setting the prices for your products is the quality of the designs, the cost of printing, and what your competitors list their similar products for on Etsy. Make sure to keep your prices fair and within the budget of your target audience to increase the chances of capturing their attention.
- Quantity – Fill out how many of the products you have. If you are using a print-on-demand shop, you can set this to any number you want. One strategy people like to use is to set it to a low number so that when a customer sees your shop, it will show low in stock and they might be more rushed to buy the item.
- SKU – This is an optional section to fill out. If you integrated that product with a print-on-demand shop, they might have automatically filled in the SKU for you. Don’t worry about changing it, it just makes it easier for the POD to sync up with your Etsy shop and products.
Variations
- If your item is offered in different colors, sizes, materials, etc., you will want to offer variations to your product. You can choose up to 2 variations for each product. You can set variations to have different prices and quantities as well if those change with your products.
Details
- Core Details – this section tells Etsy the very basics of your product as well as who makes it. This is a super important section if you are a print-on-demand user because it allows you to choose ‘another company or person’ as who made it. You will also choose a production partner if it is a POD product. This allows Etsy & the customer to know where the product is coming from. It’s all about being transparent and upfront from the beginning.
- Category – the category section shows Etsy how they should categorize your product amongst all the other Etsy products. So if it is a t-shirt, put that. Drinkware, Earring, etc.
- Attributes – this is where you will be even more specific about the product details so that when a buyer is searching, each of these attributes is searchable and will help your listings’ chances of being found. You can enter the color, occasion, size, sustainability, sleeve length, and more here.
- Tags – to help your buyer find you even more, you are going to enter in 13 tags. Think of them as the keywords they might search for when they are shopping around Etsy. You will definitely want to use all 13 tags. Think from the perspective of a buyer, what might they start to type in when looking for a product like yours.
- Materials – This is an optional section, but again, being transparent is best. You can add in what materials you used to create your product here.
Shipping
- Shipping Option – this is where you will choose how you ship the product and where you are willing to ship to. If you are using a POD provider, the listing *should* have synced up with their shipping profile and it will show up there. If not, you can manually enter the information here. Be sure to constantly check your POD provider for their most recent shipping & production timelines, especially around the holidays.
- Weight and Size – this is an optional section that you can fill out.
Settings
- Return & Exchanges – this is where you can choose what your shop policies will be. You can either use a policy that Etsy already created, or you can make your own.
- Shop Section – this is where you will choose which section you want to place your product in your own shop. You can group together similar products for your customers, like mugs, shirts, etc.
- Feature this Listing – at the top of your Etsy store, there is a showcase section where you can choose up to 4 listings that you want to be featured. You can choose to toggle on ‘feature this listing’ and Etsy will add this product to that section. You can always change it afterward.
- Etsy Ads – if you choose to run Etsy Ads on your shop, you can add this listing to your Ads from this section. Again, you can always manually change anything afterward.
- Renewal Options – in this section, you have two options. You can either turn on automatic renewal if you want the product to be renewed after every purchase. Or you can choose manual which means the product will expire after every purchase and you can manually renew it yourself when you want it to be visible in your shop.
Launch your Etsy listing:
After completing the above steps, you are ready to launch your listing on Etsy. Once listed, promote your products on various social media sites to increase their visibility. When customers start placing orders, print them using your preferred print-on-demand service and deliver them with expedience.
In conclusion, listing print-on-demand products on Etsy is a great way to reach a larger audience and increase sales. By picking the right product, creating attractive designs, taking appealing product images, and setting your pricing correctly, you are more likely to appeal to your target customer base. As a print-on-demand user, take advantage of the popularity of Etsy to showcase your talents and make a profit. Take action and start listing your products on Etsy today!