Starting an Etsy Business For Dummies. Gatski Kate

Clothing & Accessories and Jewelry

      ❯❯ Editors’ picks for top Etsy items

      ❯❯ Top shops that are worth a look

      ❯❯ Recent reviews from happy shoppers

      ❯❯ Access to various Etsy blogs

      Source: Etsy.com

       FIGURE 1-1: Etsy’s home page.

      For more information about these and other home page features, check out Chapter 3.

       Understanding your account and your shop

On Etsy, managing your account is easy. Etsy has grouped all the key settings and info in two easy-to-reach places: the You menu (see Figure 1-2) and the Shop Manager page (see Figure 1-3). You access the You menu and Shop Manager page by clicking the You and Shop Manager links, respectively, that appear along the top of every Etsy Marketplace page when you’re logged in to your Etsy account. (If you haven’t set up your Etsy shop yet, you may not see a Shop Manager link.) The You menu contains a series of links that provide access to all sorts of useful info – your public profile, conversations with other Etsy users, items you’ve bought, account settings, and teams you’re on. The Shop Manager page contains links to various shop-related settings and more. For help with navigating You and Shop Manager, turn to Chapter 4.

      Source: Etsy.com

       FIGURE 1-2: The You menu.

      Source: Etsy.com

       FIGURE 1-3: The Shop Manager page.

       Notice in Figure 1-3 that there’s no header bar on the Shop Manager page. That means there’s no easy access to the various links on the header bar. To access those links, you have to switch from Shop Manager to the Etsy Marketplace. To do so, click the Shop Manager link in the upper-left corner of the Shop Manager page. Then choose Etsy Marketplace from the list that appears.

       Discovering what’s for sale on Etsy

      Etsy features unique items – goodies you simply can’t find anywhere else – along with supplies for crafting your own pieces. In fact, Etsy offers an incredible breadth of items for sale, from accessories to ceramics, jewelry to quilts, and everything in between.

       To help you find a specific item, Etsy offers a robust Search tool. You can also use the Search tool to locate a particular shop. If you’re just browsing, you’ll appreciate Etsy’s many browsing-related features. (Exactly which features are available depends on whether you’re logged in to the site.) You access these tools from Etsy’s home page. For additional help, turn to Chapter 5.

       Ensuring your safety on Etsy

       No doubt about it, one of the highlights of Etsy is its thriving community of interesting, arty folk. But you may still find an occasional bad apple in the Etsy bunch. Take a few key steps to ensure your safety:

      ❯❯ To make sure that no one accesses your account without your authorization, choose a strong password. Select one that meets all the following criteria:

      • It’s at least eight characters long.

      • It doesn’t contain your username or your real name.

      • It doesn’t contain a complete word.

      • It differs from passwords that you’ve used in the past.

      • It contains a mixture of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces.

      For an added layer of protection, change your password every so often – say, every 30 to 60 days.

      ❯❯ Be on the lookout for scams. These often involve the use of money orders or cashier’s checks, along with an offer to pay significantly more than is necessary to expedite shipping or to cover some other weird request. If you do get taken on Etsy, contact your financial institution immediately. Then report the situation to Etsy. You may also opt to alert your local law enforcement.

      ❯❯ Before you jump into a forum or team discussion, monitor it for a while. See whether the folks engaged in the discussion are people you really want to interact with. If a discussion goes south, simply disengage.

      ❯❯ Play it close to the vest. Don’t share your digits or other personal details, such as where you live or work, on Etsy’s forums or other public spaces. Oh, and if you decide to meet up with someone you’ve met on Etsy in person, pick a neutral, public place, let a friend or family member know about your plans, and be sure to bring your phone with you in case you need to call for help.

      Chapter 6 covers important safety issues in more detail.

Storefront and Center: Setting Up Your Storefront

      When you set up your Etsy storefront, you can personalize it in several ways:

      ❯❯ Uploading a cover photo and a shop icon

      ❯❯ Including a shop title and shop announcement to describe your shop

      ❯❯ Using sections to organize your goods

      ❯❯ Populating your Etsy profile and your shop’s About section, and choosing a profile picture

       As you set up your storefront, keep in mind that a major reason people shop on Etsy is to feel connected to the artists who make what they buy. If you want people to buy from you, make sure your Etsy shop reflects your personality! For example, do you have a serious bent? Then your shop should, too. Ditto if you’re whimsical, modern, traditional, edgy, or frilly. Let your personality shine through in your choice of cover photo, shop icon, and other visual elements as well as in your bio and other text-based elements. Not only will this increase your sales, but it may just help you make some friends along the way. (For more on setting up your Etsy shop, check out Chapter 8.)

      Oh, one more pointer: As you set up your Etsy shop, you’ll want to clearly lay out your shop policies – how much you charge for shipping, whether you accept returns, and so on. We cover smart policies in Chapter 9.

Sell’s Angels: Surveying the Etsy Selling Process

       Maybe you want to do more than buy on Etsy. Maybe you want to sell. Putting up an item for sale on Etsy is a simple process:

      1. Create (or curate, in the case of vintage pieces) the item you’re selling and determine how much you want to charge for it (with the help of the pointers we provide in Chapter 10).

      2. Photograph your piece.

      You can include as many as five pictures of each piece in your Etsy shop. The photos you provide should convey the shape, size, color, and texture of your