How to Open An Etsy Shop in 4 Steps

Setting up an Etsy shop is easy, but in order to be successful, you should go into the task prepared for everything. Before you get started, it’s best to come up with a basic strategy that answers a few key questions:

• What will you sell?
• What will you name your store?
• What will your branding look like (logo, colors, etc.)
• How will you market your products?

Thankfully, we’ve put together this guide to make opening an Etsy shop quick, simple, and fun! Read on to learn how to open an Etsy shop today!

What Is Needed To Open An Etsy Shop?

The answer to that question is: not much! You will need some basic stuff like your tax information, a credit card to pay Etsy fees, and a bank account to collect payments.

You’ll need to enter your name, a shop name, and a shop description as well. If you plan to ship physical products, you’ll need to enter shipping information, and you’ll want to make sure you have access to critical shipping supplies like envelopes, poly mailers, void fill, a scale, and tape.

Everything else will depend on what you plan to sell and how you plan to grow your business.

How To Decide What To Sell On Etsy

The first – and most important – question you’ll have to answer when starting an Etsy shop is, “What should I sell in my Etsy store?” Since Etsy is most well-known for handmade arts and crafts, it’s best to choose something that you can design or manufacture yourself.

Here are some of the most popular items on Etsy:

• Stickers
• Shirts
• Mugs
• Paintings and Prints
• Greeting Cards
• Hats
• Hand-Sewn Crafts
• Jewelry
• Enamel Pins and Buttons

In addition to deciding which products you want to sell, you’ll also need to consider how you’ll manage inventory and how you’ll ship merchandise. For example, stickers command a low price, but they are small enough to store hundreds in a box under a bed in a studio apartment. While large paintings can command a higher price, they could be inconvenient to store and costly to ship. 

It’s important to find a product that you will enjoy making and that you’ll be able to store and ship easily so you can strike the right balance between convenience and profitability.

How To Pick A Good Etsy Shop Name

The next question you’ll need to answer when opening an Etsy store is, “What should I name my Etsy shop?” Your shop name is important because it will play an important role in how people find you and how you market your products.

If you’ll be making a specific type of product, you might come up with a name that focuses on stickers:

• StickyStickers
• SuperStickers
• StickersByJackie

If you’ll be selling several products within a content niche, you might want to focus on the niche:

• EldritchCrafts
• FoxyDesigns
• CoffeeCanPaintings

Just remember to abide by a few key rules:

• No spaces – Etsy doesn’t allow spaces in shop names
• Be flexible – Don’t choose a name that might hinder your long-term growth
• 20 characters – you can only use 20 characters max
• Don’t be offensive – while an offensive name might make you laugh, it can also get you reported

How To Market Your Etsy Store

After you come up with your core products and your shop name, the next step of starting an Etsy store is to put together a basic marketing strategy. Now, you don’t need to have everything planned out in advance, but you should spend a bit of time on the fundamentals:

• What will your brand look like?
• How will you build your audience?
• Where will you advertise, and how much will you spend on ads?

As you grow your Etsy store, you’ll have many tools at your disposal, including social media, paid ads, influencer campaigns, and old-fashioned word of mouth. Here are a few approaches you can take to attract customers:

• Show off your products on TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram
• Interact with people in Twitter comments and send DMs
• Join Reddit communities to share your merchandise
• Connect with influencers in your niche and have them promote your products
• Run paid ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube
• Start a blog and email list and send discounts to your subscribers

The key to a great marketing strategy is creativity and consistency. For example, if you ship products to your customers, you can include a small sticker with your logo and a handwritten note asking your customer to put the sticker where people will see it.

When you’re coming up with your marketing strategy, start by thinking about your favorite brands and what you love about them, then explore some marketing communities online to learn best practices as you develop a strategy that works for you.

How To Open An Etsy Shop

Finally, the last step! Luckily, this one is the easiest: you’ll just be filling out information on Etsy’s website. 

• First, you’ll need to create an account if you don’t already have one. If you already have a customer account, you can use that account to open your store, or you can start a new account – that’s up to you. 

• After following the link to become a seller, Etsy will ask you for some official information to verify your identity and ensure that your income is taxed appropriately based on where you live. 

• Next, you’ll need to connect your card so that you can pay Etsy fees.

• Then, you will connect a bank account to receive payments from your sales. Depending on your bank, verification could take a few minutes or a few days. 

• Once you’ve entered all the official information, you can start filling out essential shop details like shipping data and policies, refund and return info, and your shop description. 

• After you fill out all the critical shop information, you can start creating your listings, adding photos, and launching your products! 

Now that your store is live, the real work begins! You’ll need to execute your marketing strategy, fulfill orders, respond to questions, and more. It’s a lot of work, but it will all be worth it once the money starts coming in.

After you start getting sales and building a reputation, you’ll want to explore ways to optimize your workflow and build your business more effectively. That’s where Roketfy comes in! Roketfy offers a robust selection of artificial intelligence tools to help you save time and make more money on Etsy. 

If you’re ready to take your Etsy store to the next level, explore Roketfy today!