The answer to what is a good conversion rate on Etsy is very complicated to answer. There are so many factors that could affect conversion rates that it is almost impossible to answer.

The average conversion rate on Etsy varies between 1% and 5%. This varies greatly across different categories of products, price points, devices and countries.

Shopify, one of the biggest eCommerce platforms has an average conversion rate of 0.9% for mobile traffic and 1.4% for desktop traffic.

The top 20% of Shopify stores have a 2.2% conversion rate for mobile traffic and 3.3% for desktop traffic.

With that being said, Etsy is a very different animal in the eCommerce world. With the focus on handmade products, it can’t really be compared to commercial mass-produced products.

To access whether your Etsy shop and your Etsy products have a good conversion rate depends largely on how it relates to similar products.

That is all that really matters.

Etsy’s algorithm will compare apples to apples and decide what is the best listing to show more often and to give more preference to in search results (and even in paid Ads).

Ultimately Etsy wants to give visitors the best possible shopping experience by giving them what they are looking for.

They will not waste any of their valuable digital real estate on listings that do not interest shoppers, that don’t give shoppers what they are looking for or that don’t convert into sales.

It makes a large percentage of its money from the commission they charge on sales. Their primary interest is in driving sales. It is as simple as that.

Etsy Clickthrough Rates and Conversion Rates

Firstly, what is a conversion rate really? A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your shop or product page that completes the desired goal (or a conversion).

On Etsy there are two conversion rates that matter A LOT.

1. Clickthrough Rate

Clickthrough rate refers to the number of views that result in a click. Every time Etsy shows your product in a search result it counts as a view.

The digital real estate on Etsy is very valuable. They do not want to show listings that people don’t click on.

If people don’t click on the listings then they don’t even make it to the product page where they can buy the product.

Once you understand this concept you can start thinking a bit more like Etsy and a bit less like a shop owner on Etsy.

They want to serve customers as best they can by showing them listings in the search results that are relevant, popular and likely to result in a purchase.

Getting people to click on your listings is super important if you want to show up higher in Etsy’s search results.

If your listing shows up above the fold on search results you are far more likely to get the bulk of the clicks and traffic for that search result.

There’s a saying in SEO that the best place to hide a dead body is on page 2. The same goes for Etsy.

If you are trying to sell a men’s leather wallet for instance then the first page of the search results is what will get roughly 80% of all the clicks for that search phrase.

When you create a new listing, Etsy will give you “a chance” by showing your listing on the first page to see how it performs.

If you can get some high initial clickthroughs then you will gradually get a bigger share of the first page views.

While the clickthrough rate is important for the amount of traffic (clicks to your listings) you can get from Etsy it also affects conversion rates.

People tend to trust the first page of results a lot more as it usually has more sales history with better reviews.

Working hard on optimizing your Etsy clickthrough rate is really important. You can not make sales on Etsy if people don’t see your products.

It’s as simple as that.

So what is a good clickthrough rate on Etsy?

A good clickthrough rate on Etsy search results is 2%. That means that for every 100 Views (impressions) you get 2 clicks.

If your clickthrough rate is below this benchmark then you need to work really hard at improving it. Improving your clickthrough rate on Etsy will increase your traffic dramatically and this will result in more sales.

Here are 5 quick tips to help you improve your clickthrough rates on Etsy.

→ Be Highly Relevant

Trying to rank for keywords that are not super relevant to what you are trying to sell is the biggest mistake most people make. If you show someone a product that matches exactly what they searched for then they are far more likely to click.

It is tempting to go after big keywords because they have more search volume but they also tend to be quite broad.

People who search for a men’s wallet is not nearly as targeted as people who search for a men’s leather wallet or even a men’s leather wallet with RFID.

Make sure that your product titles target keywords that are accurate and highly relevant to your product.

→ Product Thumbnails

The product thumbnail will be the number one driver of clickthroughs. It is what people will see first and usually the only thing they really look at.

Your thumbnails need to be “punchy” and really grab people’s attention. Clear, high-quality photographs with bright colors and a dark background tend to stand out most.

Photographs that show people using the product without including a face tend to work really well – but that depends on the product.

You also want to tap into the “vibe” of the product. An organic product with props and other visual cues in the photo will also get RIGHT people’s attention.

→ Free Delivery and Bestsellers

Etsy places labels on products that offer Free Delivery and products that are Bestsellers. These labels make the listing stand out and can get your listing a bit more attention than the rest.

While you can’t just get a Bestseller label overnight you most certainly can get a Free Delivery label. If you don’t offer free delivery at the moment it is well worth testing (and bumping your product price to make up for the shipping).

→ Price

While price does not have a huge impact on your clickthrough rates it definitely does play a part. Some people do price shopping – especially is there are many similar products in the search results.

If you have a truly unique product then the price does not matter much. If you sell a white 11 Oz. mug then you are competing with hundreds of thousands of listings that sell the same.

Trying to sell it for $22 while everyone else sells it for around $12 is a complete mismatch of pricing.

Why?

Some people might click just to find out why yours is so expensive but unless there is something really unique and special to justify the price most people will not be interested.

Always try and be within 10% to 20% of the average prices you see in competing search results.

I also recommend you price your products with round numbers. Make it $20 instead of $19.95. You are not selling on Walmart. Etsy shoppers are different.

2. Conversion Rate

The conversion rate on Etsy refers to how many clicks convert into a sale. Keep in mind that Etsy’s main goal is to get people to buy.

If your product turns views into clicks and clicks into sales then they will show your product more often.

Conversion rate is really important because ultimately it will be the determining factor in where Etsy shows your product(s) in search results.

While it is great to have a high clickthrough rate, if the clicks don’t convert into sales then Etsy is not really interested in pushing you further up the search results.

A high conversion rate is the ultimate proof that your product gives people what they are searching for on Etsy.

What Is A Good Conversion Rate On Etsy And Why Does It Matter?

A good conversion rate on Etsy depends on a lot of factors. A good conversion rate varies from 1% to 5% and can be as high as 8% for some stores. It really depends on what you are selling.

A digital download that costs $10 (and zero to ship) will have a much higher conversion rate than a $1000+ piece of furniture.

Conversion rate is all relevant and depends on the product. There are no hard and fast rules and the benchmarks vary greatly across products and countries.

The important thing is that your conversion rates be better than your direct competitors.

Unfortunately, there is no way for you to know what that conversion rate is. If you are selling a mid-range product between $30 and $75 you should aim for a 2% to 6% conversion rate.

Anything below 1% is just not good enough.

What Affects Your Etsy Conversion Rate and How To Improve It

1.Traffic

Everybody seems to want more traffic to their Etsy listings but that rarely helps. It is not about getting more traffic as much as it is about getting the right traffic.

It is all about being relevant. You want to make sure that your product titles and product tags accurately relate to your product. Don’t try and manipulate your titles and tags just to get more traffic.

You want to make sure that your product delivers on the “promise” of your listing.

You need to be congruent. Your product thumbnail also needs to accurately represent what someone will find when they click on your listing.

2. Product and Price

When someone lands on your product page, what they see and read about your product will have the biggest impact on whether they decide to buy or not.

As far as price goes there’s a lot of very interesting psychology involved. I would urge you to NEVER try and be “the cheapest”. If you are trying to compete by being the cheapest option then you will be fighting for pennies.

It is far better to go after the higher end of the market – especially on Etsy. People are willing to pay a premium for high-quality handmade stuff.

Product pricing is a very important part of your success or failure on Etsy. Most of the time I’ve seen better results from increasing prices rather than decreasing them.

This only works if you are genuinely selling quality stuff.

If you show the right product to the right customer at the right price, they will buy it.

3. Perceived Value

This relates closely to product and price and comes down to the fact that people don’t pay what something is actually worth. People pay what they perceive the value to be.

What’s the difference between a $1500 iPhone and $600 Google Phone? In terms of the specification, there is no real difference. The only difference is in the perceived value.

Most people have the perception that an iPhone has a higher value. This comes down mostly to marketing and how they position themselves in the market.

Your products never live in isolation. There are always competitors and others selling something similar.

If a customer has to choose between your product and those of your top 2 competitors, why would they choose you?

Your listing needs to “ooze” value. Everything about your listing needs to speak directly to the needs and desires of your ideal customer.

4. Reviews

Etsy want to give shoppers a great shopping experience. A big part of this is that shoppers are satisfied with the products they buy.

This is where reviews come in. If someone buys something on Etsy and they are not happy with it, they will blame Etsy. They won’t blame the Etsy shop.

This is why Etsy fierce police the quality of products being sold on their platform.

Reviews play an incredibly important role in Etsy’s algorithm.

Shops with a history of positive feedback will have more trust with Etsy. They will show up higher in search results and get a bigger share of the traffic.

From a customer point of view, the reviews play an incredibly important role in how potential customers trust you.

The nature of reviews is that is “transfers” trust. If people just like me like this product then I will probably also like it.

Negative reviews will affect your conversion rates because people on Etsy read reviews and they trust the reviews because they know it is authentic.

5. Free Shipping and Bestsellers

We’ve already talked about how Free shipping and Bestsellers affect your clickthrough rate. It goes beyond that and also affects conversion rates.

When people see “Bestseller” it immediately perks their interest. If other’s buy this then maybe I should too.

Free shipping can also have a massive impact on sales. Thanks to Amazon, many people now expect free shipping.

Shipping costs is also seen as a hidden cost by many and they simply click away when they realize that what they thought they were going to pay for the product is not the actual cost.

Offering free shipping is not a guarantee to higher conversion rates because you will have to bump your product prices to absorb the cost. BUT, the word free tends to appeal to most people on a psychological level.

If you are not offering free shipping then it is well worth testing it to see how it affects you.

6. Listing

If your listing leaves customers with unanswered questions then they will most probably not buy. I see so many listings on Etsy that is just way too “thin” with not nearly enough information.

You need to answer ALL your customer’s questions in your listing. You need to take great care in describing every aspect of your product in great detail.

The real challenge is that with our own products we tend to be so familiar with it that we don’t see it through the eyes of a customer.

We assume some information is obvious. We overlook some details.

Most shoppers do not part with their money that easily. They want to know exactly what they are getting. Your job is to make sure that your listing tells them exactly what they will get.

Apart from detailed descriptions, you also want to describe the products in an exciting way by using exciting and emotionally charged words.

Pay very close attention to the questions customers ask you and pay very close attention to the feedback you get on products.

Use this information to refine and improve your listings.

7. Seasonality

Most products have some sort of seasonality. Clothing is the obvious one and very few people will buy carves in summer.

Apart from the obvious seasonality, there are also seasonality in shopping. Over the Xmas period sales spike. Gift giving and a general spending mood tends to drive sales up significantly.

During the Xmas period and on special events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you will most likely see spikes in both traffic and in conversion rates.

During the January, February, and March “lull” you will most likely see a decline in both.

This is normal and once your shop has been around for 2 or more years you will start noticing these patterns.

It is important that you always access your store’s performance against previous years for it to be accurate.

If your product is affected by seasons then you can always expand your products to offer something relevant in summer or winter.

If your sales take a big dip in February, you should consider special sales campaigns to incentivize shoppers to buy.

You should also make full use of special holidays by offering relevant products. You can relate almost any product to holidays like Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Independence Day etc.

8. Sales and Coupons

The Sales and Coupons feature in Etsy allows you to directly target people who have shown interest in your store or your products.

If you set up the Abandon basket campaign then Etsy will automatically email users who have gone through to the checkout with your product but who did not complete the purchase.

These are very “hot” customers and often a small discount can convince them to buy.

The Recently Favourited campaign work on a similar principle and Etsy will automatically email users who favorited your shop or any of the products in your shop.

These customers are not as hot as those who made it to the checkout but at least they have shown interest. You might need to give them a slightly bigger incentive to purchase.

Both these campaigns are designed to squeeze more sales out of people who are already interested in what you have to sell.

9. Special Offers

Etsy’s Special Offers feature is quite limited in comparison to shopping platforms like Shopify. I don’t see this as a bad thing because special offers and discounts can quickly become spam.

By using sales very selectively and sparingly you can genuinely see some nice bumps in conversion rates.

If you have a sale on every product every week then people become deaf to it. If you put your best products on sale every 4 to 6 months then people are far more likely to act on it.

You can also use sales and coupons by tapping into trends and holidays. If you have a reason why you offer a sale it will get more interest.

An independence day sale, a Halloween sale or a Labour Day sale means much more than just a sale for the sake of it.

10. Return Customers

Return customers will be the highest converting customers on your Etsy shop. These are people who already know, like and trust you.

If you sold someone a product that they love then they are very likely to either recommend your shop directly to friends and/or they are very likely to come back for more.

What Is A Good Conversion Rate On Etsy – Conclusion

A good conversion rate on Etsy depends on a lot of factors. Improving your conversion rate is the single biggest step you can take in improving your Etsy shop.

A higher conversion rate allows you to get more sales from the same amount of traffic. It will also get you more traffic from Etsy since they ultimately want to generate sales and not just have window shoppers.

What is a good conversion rate on Etsy? If you sell at the average Etsy price point of $30 to $50 I would aim for 2% to 3% but that is a very generalized goal.

While the average conversion rate on Etsy is 1% to 5% you need to always look at your shop and your products in relation to your competition.

Ultimately that will be the determining factor in what Etsy regards as a good conversion rate.