How to become an Etsy Top Seller

Etsy is growing bigger and bigger.

Recently I even noticed they’re doing ads, for example:

So what does this tell us? START SELLING ON ETSY!

The Print on Demand market has been growing year by year, and will continue to grow.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the Google Trends graph:

Why will this continue to grow?

Because people are looking more and more for custom products AND they’re willing to pay a bit extra for something that nobody else has. Something unique.

So, it’s high time you hop on this trend!

Is POD still profitable in 2024?

Answer: yes.

Explanation: This has multiple reasons, let me list a few:

• you can always improve existing designs
• you can always find new, hot trends
• you can always improve SEO (if your listing ranks higher than the other ones, then you’ll get clicked more — it’s that simple)
• you can always create better mockups (it’s all about marketing)
• creativity has no limits

But what if I’m not creative?

Answer: Don’t worry.

Explanation: These days, it’s so easy to create a design.

• Use AI image generators — basically every POD platform has some integrated AI generators these days
• For example: myDesigns AI, Printify AI, Printful AI, Canva AI, Midjourney,… and so on.
• There are millions of tutorials on YouTube

And what if I have no inspiration?

Answer: Do research and/or use research tools.

Explanation:

• Just go on market places like Amazon, Etsy, Redbubble, eBay and search for “some niche you’re interested in” + “t shirt”.
• For example: “cookies tshirt”

Alternatively, you can use research tools. My recommended ones are:

• Everbee.io
• Alura.io
• Roketfy.com & podCS.com

My preferred one is Everbee, because it has a nice Chrome extension and shows info really clear and easy.

For example:

Let me zoom in a little bit:

Here you can see best-selling products, how much times this product sold this month, how much revenue it generated etc.

Very interesting, no?

That being said, let’s quickly go over some new tips I’ve discovered to GROW your Etsy shop in 2024.

1. Aim to become “Etsy’s Pick” or “Star Seller”

What are these?

Etsy’s pick are basically some products that are selected by Etsy and are displayed on the top of the page.

Star Seller means your shop is doing great, and Etsy gives you a badge (and also boosts your products a bit).

So what are the requirements for these?

1. Processing time must be 1–2 days → Get Printify’s express delivery (premium) — Otherwise you will not show up on the home page or Etsy Pick
2. Have the following dimensions : 1140×1140 px (at least, better even would be 2000×2000)
3. Style: Have professional photography & presentation (=mockups). Use e.g. placeit.net for professional looking mockups (highly recommended).
4. Get good ratings. Provide high quality products.
5. Reliability: Respond quickly to messages (and yet again have 1–2 days processing time).

Interesting, right?

Doing all these things will help you get ranked better AND will increase your chances of becoming one of “Etsy’s picks”.

It’s not a guarantee, but what IS a guarantee — is that if you DO NOT qualify for these 5 checks, you’ll never be in Etsy’s picks.

2. Make it clear that you’re selling UNISEX shirts

Most of the t-shirts that are created by POD partners are unisex t-shirts. Make that clear.

Here is the way to do this:

• Via Unisex mockups (via PlaceIt.net) — search for “tshirt mockup woman”

3. Make it clear you’re selling multiple colors

You can also change the color of the sweatshirt itself within Placeit.

Just display a mockup with your design on different color shirts, for example:

It’s very important to do this, because usually a mockup only shows 1 color, and this way people know that you also offer different colors.

Note: the above is just an example, it doesn’t look that good. When you create a real mockup, make sure that your design is clearly visible & readable.

4. Offer different products in the same listing

For example, you can have a listing with a T-shirt, a sweatshirt, a hoodie and more.

You can easily do this via MyDesigns — if you’d like to have a tutorial about bit, please let me know in the comments!

Either way, this is a very smart tactic. It can be used as upselling strategy, or maybe just to make people think “hmmm, this sweatshirt actually looks really good as well!”.

5. Use VIDEOS!

While writing this article, I noticed that really not many sellers are using videos — and this is SO powerful!

I remember reading an article a while back, it said that listings with videos are X% more likely to get clicked & convert, than listings that have no videos.

I wrote “X%” because I can’t recall the exact number, but I remember that it was quite a big difference!

Here’s an example:

FYI, you can EASILY created videos like this via placeit.net as well.

In fact, I did it for a recent article I wrote:

So, START CREATING VIDEO MOCKUPS!

6. Use the loss-leader strategy

Last but not least: using the loss-leader strategy.

Let me explain with an example:

This is a very low price for a t-shirt. Usually, t-shirts should be price around $15. So, how is this possible?

Answer: by adding multiple products to the same listing, for example a “kid’s t-shirt”, or a very cheap XS size and then putting it on “Sold out”.

Let’s check it out:

Looks like I was right: XS — Sold out:

Probably this XS tshirt was priced at $8.86… tricky, right?

But notice another thing that this seller did! They:

• Added Gildan shirt for kids
• Added t-shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie etc in the same listing

Smart.

Alright, that’s it! Now get out there and make your Etsy shop BOOM!