7 Easy Ways To Boost Your Sales On Etsy (Without Social Media)

I've been able to generate over 7 figures in sales as an Etsy seller, and there are several marketing strategies I have tested over the years that I now apply to my shops to increase sales, all without needing to have a social media following!

The 7 ways to boost your sales on Etsy:

1. Leverage SEO Tools For Keyword Research
2. Duplicate Non-Selling Listings
3. Run Daily Sales
4. Add A Post-Purchase Message
5. Include Upsell And Cross-Sell Links
6. Regularly Update Your Announcement Section
7. Add A Bonus Product

So if you're wondering why you aren’t able to generate sales on Etsy, I'll now go through each of these in more detail, and answer some FAQs around social media and Etsy Ads at the end too!

1 - Leverage SEO Tools For Keyword Research

What Is Etsy SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and Etsy SEO refers to the process of improving the visibility of your Etsy shop and product listings in search results such as Google and Etsy search.

There are several ways to optimize your Etsy SEO, with the main one being the use of keywords relevant to your niche and products. Using keywords that people are often searching for increases the likelihood of the right audience finding your shop and listings.

Utilizing tools such as EverBee can help you quickly identify the keywords your top competitors are using, which you can then note down to use in your relevant products too. This can really help speed up the process of finding the right keywords, giving you a great foundation for which ones to use.

You can try EverBee for free here.

2 - Duplicate Non-Selling Listings

If you feel like a listing is not getting the attention it deserves, try duplicating the listing and refining some of the elements. Sometimes these small adjustments can make a huge difference in sales and helps the listing get a fresh boost on the Etsy algorithm.

For example, some changes you could experiment with are:

• Listing title
• Description
• Tags
• Main thumbnail image

You can leave both the original and the new listing up as long as they are different enough that it doesn't confuse the buyers. Then let it run for 30 days, collect data and compare it to the old listing.

3 - Run Daily Sales

You will often see listings on Etsy that say ‘Sale ends in X hours’, which often means the seller is running a daily sale. Running daily sales helps attract customers by creating a sense of urgency for the buyer, making them more likely to make the purchase and therefore improve your conversion rate.

💡 TOP TIP: Bulk run your sales - for example, every Monday you can set up the next 7 sales and do this weekly. Just make sure that the start date and end date of your sale are the same day since it will start at 12am and end at 11:59pm!

4 - Add A Post-Purchase Message

What is the ‘Message to Buyers’ on Etsy?

The ‘Message to Buyers’ on Etsy is a post-purchase message that you can include in the order confirmation email that the buyer receives after purchasing a product. You can customize this and can include instructions for how to use the product, ask buyers to leave a review, or simply a thank you for supporting your shop.

To add a post-purchase message, go into settings, click on info and appearance, then scroll down until you see the part that says ‘Message to Buyers for Digital Items’.

Adding a post-purchase message can help you:

• Get more reviews on your shop.
• Show your care and appreciation for the buyer.
• Which in turn, can help gain repeat customers.

Here is a template example for a post-purchase message:

5 - Include Upsell And Cross-Sell Links

Depending on your niche, a lot of times you may have products that align well with other listings within your shop. Here you can try cross-selling and upselling as this will be beneficial to both your shop and also the buyer who is trying to find the right product for them.

What is the difference between upselling and cross-selling on Etsy?

Upselling is when you mention a higher-value product in your listing descriptions, to get the customer to buy the bigger bundle or product. Cross-selling is when you mention a different variation of the same product, for example, another style or colorway of the same product that the customer might prefer instead. Both will be in the form of a link to the other product.

Here is an example of what this could look like:

💡 TOP TIP: To shorten the link to another product, you only need to use the numbers in the URL instead of using the whole thing - just like the seller has done in the image above.

6 - Regularly Update Your Announcement Section

This enables buyers to know that your shop is still active and that you’re regularly adding new listings or updating your products, which can help build more trust and authenticity for your shop.

It doesn’t have to be a major change, but the ‘last updated’ date should always be recent. For example, you can adjust the spacing, add a word, or mention the current sale you are having.

💡 REMINDER: Anything you add in your announcement does play a role in Etsy SEO so make sure you are incorporating relevant keywords to optimize your announcement.

7 - Add A Bonus Product

Another way to gain interest from the buyer and have faster sales is to add an additional bonus item on top of what they purchase. This is a lot easier to do for digital product sellers, but it can create a higher perceived value and gives the buyer that extra boost to convert and purchase from you compared to another shop.

Ideally, you want it to be something you can create once and distribute it as a bonus product across all your listings. It may also be worth adding this into one of the mock-up images to make sure that people know it exists.

FAQs

Is it worth paying for Etsy Ads to increase my sales?

Etsy Ads do work great for some shops, especially those that already have consistent sales and product reviews. However, it is not essential providing you have optimized your shop’s SEO - which is the most important part regardless of whether you are using Etsy Ads or not.

Do I need a social media following to get sales on Etsy?

No! I have made over 7 figures selling on Etsy without a social media following. While it’s great if you have a social media following as it provides an extra source of traffic to your shop, it’s not essential and you can still be successful without it.

Learn More

Hopefully, you’ve learned some tips that you can apply to your shop straight away to give you guaranteed Etsy sales! If you want to learn more about how to be successful selling on Etsy, you can check out my free masterclass here where I go through my personal roadmap for making over seven figures selling digital products on Etsy.

Or, check out my YouTube video below where I cover everything I’ve discussed above, plus a bonus tip on top of that!

Full the full Youtube video here!