How to Sell Your Woodworking Projects on Etsy
Etsy is the boon of artists and craftspeople. The platform was built as a place for creators to sell their masterpieces—mass manufacturers are out.
But how can one get started? What are the fees and policies that you should know about? How do you sell your woodworking projects on Etsy?
If you are a woodworker, Etsy is definitely your place. Today, you will learn how to build your shop on the platform, and I will also provide you with some tips on how to be successful on Etsy.
The things you will learn today are:
- Registration and Name Selection
- Creating Your Etsy Shop
- Pricing Your Woodwork
- How to Market Your Products
- After Sales Activities
- Understanding Your Etsy Stats
Let us get started!
Registration and Name Selection
Registration is a fairly simple process. It works like any other registration process on other websites. The thing with Etsy is that you also have to create a shop, so you have to prepare a store name.
Your name has something to do with how site visitors and buyers will react to your business. A great business name is the start of a good brand. Etsy wants each shop owner to use a unique name, so it is possible that your chosen name is no longer available.
Prepare several names before registration, so you have several options. Here are some tips in choosing a business name:
- Memorable – your name must be easy to remember, as this is the kind of name that resonates with people. You cannot use long names like Matt’s Woodworking and Specialized Crafts. That kind of name is just too long. What you want is to keep your business name to a maximum of four syllables.
- Brandable – if you are selling woodworking on Etsy, your name must be brandable. What this means is that it should not be copied from someone else. The name must also be unique, and it has to embody what you do. As a woodworker, you can use business names like Woodunnit or WoodMoods. Try to combine two different words that represent what your business is about.
A name is as equally important as the quality of the product that you sell. A business name is a fundamental aspect of marketing—do it right, and buyers will click visit your store on the mere basis that your store name sounds cool.
Creating Your Etsy Shop
After creating your account, you now have to build your online store. Like eBay, you can make your store look unique.
The beauty of Etsy is that you can add a cover image on your store. While you cannot change the fonts and colours, you can personalise your store.
Here are some tips on building a successful store:
- Use clear images – pixelated images give the impression that the seller is unprofessional; invest in high-quality photos and pay a graphic artist to edit the images as you deem fit
- Transparency – use product descriptions that are clear enough with no hidden agenda; anticipate what your customers are likely to ask and attempt to answer that. You should also try to overcome possible objections as you write your product descriptions
- Angles – do not just put one image of your woodwork. Take photos of the front, back, and sides. Display them from all angles, so the customers know what they are buying; if customers can see all the angles of a product, they tend to trust the seller more.
If you have a lot of products, you have to create categories on Etsy. An example is shown below. If a customer is inside our Etsy store and clicks on these categories, she will only see products that you sell, not products from other sellers.
Pricing Your Woodwork
Before you list your items, you need to study how you will price them. For now, forget about your competitors. What you need to know are the fees.
- Listing fee – the listing fee is 20% of the product’s cost; this is going to last for four months, after which you have to pay $0.20 for each product.
- Transaction fee – for every sale, you will pay Etsy 5% of the selling price. The 5% is taken off the product price and the shipping, along with other special fees that you charged like gift wrapping.
- Payment processing – if a customer used a credit card and paid you via Etsy’s checkout system, you will pay 3% plus 25 cents of the total cost.
- PayPal Fee – if the customer bought via PayPal, you will pay PayPal 2.9% + $0.3 of the total transaction; this fee does not go to Etsy but to PayPal.
- Shipping Fee – if you create shipping labels via Etsy, you will pay for that label. The cost depends on several factors like the cost of shipping, the destination of the package and its origin.
Now that you know these fees, you have to list your items in such a way that you do not lose money. Overall, a 40% mark-up on your product is a good way to start. That 40% should be applied to a price where you already have a profit.
If your selling price is $100, you should post that item at $140.
Here is the breakdown of your fees:
- Listing fee – $28
- Transaction fee – $7
- Payment processing – $4.20
As you can see, the total of all these fees from a price of $140 is $39.2. This does not even include any shipping cost.
How to Market Your Products
Marketing is one of the most important activities in any business. While Etsy has a search feature, you have to branch out and get leads—take these leads to your Etsy store and convert them into buyers.
Here are some best practices:
- Social Media – create business pages for your woodworking business. Use Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest; post your top selling wood items on etsy. Twitter is not a good social media channel as you want to capitalize on images and videos. Post regularly, and do not bombard our followers with sale or announcements. Social media works by selling the lifestyle, not the product.
- Google Ads – create and launch ads on the Google platform. You can launch ads on the search engines or on YouTube and on Google Play apps. Before you create ads on Google, make sure that you do your keyword research and that you target the right people.
- Social Media Ads – one thing that can put your products in front of people is social media ads. Facebook and Instagram are great places to start. The advertising platform on both channels is intuitive—you can choose where you show your ads, what demographics to target like age and location, plus you can also show your ads only to people who have specific interests.
You also have the option to advertise on Etsy but offsite. Etsy will advertise your products outside the platform, but you have to pay 15% advertising fee if your product sold.
After Sales Activities
Unlike Amazon, Etsy is not a fulfilment company. In Amazon, there is a program called Amazon FBA. In that program, you send your stuff to Amazon’s warehouse, and they take care of the shipping.
If you do woodworking for a living on Etsy, you need to ensure that your customers receive their items. After an order is placed, you are responsible for shipping your product and setting the customer’s expectations.
First, you need to contact your buyer. You can do this by going to Account > Shop Manager > Orders and Shipping. From there, you can thank your buyer and tell him what is going to happen next.
You can use the Shipping tools on the platform to help you out. The platform has shipping calculators if you are a seller from the US or Canada. Study the shipping rates, and see if you can offer to ship for free. Etsy stats indicate that buyers are more likely to buy if the product has no shipping cost.
Once you have shipped your item, make sure you notify the buyer. If you have a packing slip or a shipping label, scan it and send it to the buyer. Tell the buyer the expected delivery date. If there is a tracking number, make sure the buyer gets that.
The last thing you want is a misunderstanding between you and the buyer. If this happens, the buyer may ask for a refund or cancel the order. Be a responsive seller—answer inquiries and be proactive in communicating with your buyers.
Understanding Your Etsy Stats
Etsy provides analytical tools for its sellers. You need to visit your stats as you can draw important information from this dashboard. Successful sellers pay attention to their stats and make adjustments according to what they see.
Here are the Etsy stats you need to pay attention to:
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- Visits – this refers to the number of times went to your Etsy store
- Orders – this is the number of orders people made over time
- Revenue – the amount of money you earned
- Conversion rate – the percentage of orders against the number of visits
- Listing views – the number of people who viewed a product
- Listing views per visit – this is the ratio between the number of visits your site gets against the number of actual views of your listing; the higher it is, the better
Here are some tips on how you can use the stats to your advantage:
- If your conversion rate is low, it means that people are visiting your store, but they are not ordering. Maybe your price is high, so investigate your competitors.
- If your revenue is low, but your order is high, it is possible that you are pricing your products to low. You can either increase your price or create bundles to improve your revenue.
- If your visit count is low, you need to check your SEO, such as how you title your products; you also need to check if your marketing strategies are working or not.
- If your listing views per visit is low, it means that people are going to your Etsy woodworking store is getting visits, but people are not paying special interest on your products; assess the quality of your images and pricing
You also need to look at other stats, such as the performance of your Etsy Ads, traffic from inside Etsy, and traffic from an external source like Google or social media channels.
To visit your analysis dashboard, just click on Account > Shop Manager > Stats. From there, visit the statistics I showed you and analyse which areas you need to work on.
Final Thought
Today, there are over 2.5 million sellers on Etsy. While this sounds incredibly scary, you should not be afraid of the competition. There are eight billion people in the world ready to buy your woodwork. Etsy also has 39.4 million active buyers worldwide.
That is a ratio of 19 buyers per 1 seller. As a woodworker, there is a demand for your product. Make sure that your items are creative and unique—that people will never find your products in department stores. This is a great way to work and make from home.
There are many ideas on what projects you can see on Etsy – here I list 17 Profitable Woodworking Projects to Build and Sell.
Happy Woodworking
Regards
Ben @ Been A Tree Wood
