So you started your store and you are getting no sales on Etsy? There could be a lot of reasons why this happens and most of the time it is merely because of impatience. New Etsy stores take time.

Etsy is a huge marketplace with millions of buyers and thousands of sellers. Entering as a new seller with a new store does not entitle you to sales. New Etsy stores start at the bottom of the pile and you have to earn your way to the top.

You need to build trust before Etsy will start giving more traffic and more sales. You need to prove that what you are selling has a demand, that customers love it and that you will ultimately make Etsy more money.

Starting an Etsy store will very rarely make you an overnight success story. It takes time and consistent effort.

While patience is the key there are some telltale signs that your store will probably never make it. This is the tough part. Knowing whether your store is doomed to failure or whether you should just be patient.

As a rule of thumb, you need to allow your store at least 6 months of consistent effort before you decide if you should pull the plug. You need to constantly add new products and new variations of products.

You also need to do everything you can get sales on your own. Even just getting a few sales can get the ball rolling and start getting you more impressions, more clicks and ultimately more sales on Etsy.

1.Products & Niches

You need to identify the top Etsy sellers in your niche and really look at what they are doing.

If there are no successful stores in your niche then it might be a clear sign that there is not a big enough demand on Etsy for your products.

It goes without saying that if very few people are searching for what you have to offer then there simply is not a demand. Etsy is a marketplace and people can only find your products by searching for them.

You need to also sell the right products. If your product does not offer what customers want to buy then you will not make sales.

You could be in a great niche, have great listings but customers are not interested in your products which is likely why your etsy sales are low.

2.Bad Listings

The way you structure your listing can also be a big reason why you don’t get sales on etsy. You need to focus a lot on keywords and structuring your titles, descriptions and tags to target the right keywords.

Keywords are incredibly important. If you just write product titles that sound good or just describe the product it is not enough. You need to include keywords that will allow people to find your listings when they do a search.

Your listing also needs to have great product images – preferably several images for each product/listing. Be sure to include images of people using the product as that resonates best with most customers.

You also need to check your pricing. Are you pricing too high? Is your shipping rate too high? That can be a big reason why you get no sales or even why your sales are down.

If you sell print on demand products, make sure that you create your own mockups that look amazing.

If you can, take your own product photos as much as possible. Mockups can be great but there is nothing like real photos.

3.Poor Store Setup

Your store setup matters. At the worse end you store name, description and profile is incomplete. That is a big no-no.

Make sure that your store name reflects your products and injects some personality into what you sell. Also try and include your basic keywords that relate to your products in your store description.

An incomplete or poor store setup does not give potential buyers a lot of confidence in who you are. Always remember that people on Etsy buy on there because they want to buy something that has personality.

The more your store can appeal to buyers looking for handmade and authentic products that are not mass produced, the more success you will see.

4.Seasonality

Are you selling products that have strong seasonality? Some products are strong in winter or summer or certain sporting seasons ec. – it all depends on the product.

If your Etsy sales are down, check if seasonality can have an influence. An easy way is to type your main keyword into Google Trends and view it over a 5 year time frame. This will clearly show what the annual trends are.

If you are in a down trend then there simply is not enough demand. Your sales will pick up again.

If you can, expand your product catalogue to try and appeal to your customers during your off season.

5.Trends

Trends come and go all the time. If you hit a trend in the early stages then you can ride the wave for some time. Trendy products however never last long.

If your Etsy sales are tanking you can also check your trend on Google Trends to see if it is in a decline.

It is okay to ride the wave of trendy products but know that they will die out. If you jumped on to a trend too late then you may be hitting the tail end which is why you see low sales on Etsy.

Another big problem with trendy products is that there are far too many people who ride the wave of trends. Competition usually stack up very quickly and then it becomes a race to the bottom.

You do not want to be part of this.

Cut your losses and move on to the next niche or product (or both).

6.New Stores

New stores on Etsy need time to start seeing decent sales. Even if you have everything in place for a very successful store, you need to build up sales history on Etsy.

New stores will never rank high in search results. Etsy will drip feed impressions to you and as you start getting clicks and sales you will start climbing up the rankings.

If you store is less than 3 months old, don’t worry. Keep at it and try everything you can to get sales – even if you have to do some marketing yourself outside of Etsy.

Getting sales is the best way to build your credibility with Etsy.

7.Saturation

If you are seeing no sales on Etsy it may be that you are in a very competitive niche or market. If you are trying to compete against dozens of very well established Etsy stores then you may be fighting a losing battle.

Saturation is always relative though. In huge markets like moms & babies there is a massive demand. It takes a lot for these niches/markets to become saturated.

Selling the same (or very similar) products as 20 other sellers is also a sure fire way to hit saturation.

One of the biggest problems on Etsy with products like mugs and T-shirts is that as soon as a product becomes successful there are 100 copycats. This dilutes your success very quickly.

The lure of simply making “copies” of products that are hot sellers will always be there. This is not the way to achieve long term success on Etsy though.

Always be original. Do not try and go for 1-hit-wonder products. Instead, aim to build a store with many products that bring in lower numbers of sales CONSISTENTLY.

Etsy Sales Down? What To Do When Sales Slow Down

If your Etsy store has been doing well for some time and you suddenly see a drop in sales it can be very discouraging. There can be a lot of reasons for this.

Worse case scenario, someone else reported your product for some sort of infringement. Etsy reserves the right to remove and product or even any store without notice. They also rarely reverse their decision.

If your product(s) went from consistent sales to zero then this is most likely the case. Contact them and try and find out what’s going on.

When sales merely slow down then it could be a number of reasons already discussed. It could be that a copycat is selling something similar and they are outselling you.

You should be able to find them quite easily by doing a search for your product and see what shows up in the search results. Reporting them to Etsy will most likely fix that problem.

This is fairly common for print on demand products. Unless someone copied your design 100%, you will probably have to live with this competitor as you do not have a leg to stand on if they merely did something similar to your design.

Seasonality and saturation are big factors in Etsy sales slowing down. It is worth checking this if you are seeing a slow down in sales.

If your store gets a lot of negative feedback then you could also see a slow down in sales across all your products.