Overview Creating great product listings is as important as creating great products themselves. With Ecommerce, your product is only as strong as the way it is presented to your customer. Product listings consist primarily of a written description, often times product variations, and of course photography. In this section I'll guide you through my findings on descriptions and variations, and we will tackle the beast of photography in a later section. Product Descriptions:People don’t read... I hate to say it, but they don’t. Let your photography do the heavy lifting as often as possible. Text in your listing will likely be skimmed, so try not to depend on it. This might mean putting text in an image, or creating an informative graphic. If a selling point of your product is that it's reversible or that it ships free, you don't want to chance that going unnoticed. However, do still include the basics, but keep it concise. Try to answer the following questions: What is it? What is it made of? How is it used? What is unique or unassumed about it? Why should I buy this one instead of another brand? Was it featured anywhere noteworthy that provides credibility? For custom orders (ie. reserved listings), it's essential to differentiate these listings at the thumbnail level rather than just the description. Take advantage of the following resource: Reserved Listing Template Create a listing for reserved and custom orders using this fully customizable Canva template. access now Product Variations:People think they like choices... “The presence of choice might be appealing as a theory, but in reality, people might find more and more choice to actually be debilitating." Read: Too Many Choices: A Problem That Can Paralyze New York Times While giving your customers choices is a great idea, be cognizant of the fact that more choices may not necessarily be better, but can sometimes lead to a lack of confidence, which could cost you a sale. Additionally, customers are much more likely to purchase an item that they can see, versus having to imagine. For example, showing a photograph of a scarf in gray and merely saying you also offer it in yellow, is not the same as photographing it in both gray and yellow. The gray will always have an advantage. My recommendation is to make and shoot your product in any color you plan to offer. It will go a long way to increase your customers's confidence, which ultimately increases the likelihood that they will buy. Having to do the added photography up front will naturally encourage you to narrow down your color palette and product offerings to just your strongest sellers. This makes your overall shop visually stronger, eliminates the unnecessary burden of choice and imagination from your customer, and minimizes your inventory and procurement burdens. Color Chart Template Photographing every product in every color is a huge lift, but you can take the pressure off that task by using a clean and professional color chart in the meantime. Additionally, you may still prefer to use a color chart for some or all of your product variations, and that's okay too. Color Chart Template Offer your finished pieces in a variety of colors with this clean template. Fully customizable to display 6, 12, or 20 colorways in both circles + squares. access now Password: DDCC Upselling Chances are, your customers are likely interested in multiple items in your shop. You can strengthen your listings by guiding your customers to those related items, rather than hoping they'll just stumble upon them. If they're purchasing a hat, you may link them to a scarf that pairs well with it. If they are purchasing a pattern, you may link them over to the hook they'll need (more on selling Maker Tools later). Pro tip: Use bitly.com to turn long and complicated Etsy listing links into succinct links to showcase within your listing. Consider using the following template to showcase recommended bundles. Your customers will appreciate the thoughtfulness, and find confidence in your recommendation. Set Template Showcase your products as sets with this clean + simple Canva template. Choose complimentary products, his & hers, or mama & me. access now Forget the Status Quo If we're not vigilant with our decision making, it's super easy to just do what everyone else is doing. But, what if what everyone else is doing, is not actually the best way? If you were in the business a few years ago, you may recall when pattern sellers used to offer 3, 5, and 7 "pattern packs". The way it worked was that the customer would purchase one of these "packs" and write a note at checkout with the names of the patterns you'd like, and the seller would manually email them to you within 24 hours. The upsell concept was spot on, but the process was...crap. Customers had to wait 24 hours to receive their patterns. Sellers had to manually follow up on all these orders (time is money). It counted as 1 sale on the shop front (rather than 3, 5 or 7 if the patterns had been individually purchased). Higher numbers speak to shop credibility, and give greater confidence to future buyers. It boosted the Etsy SEO of the pack listing itself (which is pointless on its own), rather than the SEO of each pattern purchased. Customers only know about the pattern pack if they happened to see that listing while in the shop, significantly minimizing the chance of an upsell. As a shop owner, your backend data no longer reflects actual quantities of individual pattern sales. (For example, it might say you've sold 5 hat patterns, but you may have sold 500 pattern packs where buyers asked for that same hat pattern). Data that is difficult to understand, is difficult to plan against. When I launched patterns in 2016, I knew I wanted to capitalize on the upsell strategy, but refused to do so with the status quo method being used by the community. I went on to setup my pattern listings with a promo code discount, which is now industry standard. Here's how it solves every issue that the pack listings created: Customers now get their patterns immediately, which increases customer satisfaction. As a seller, it does not require any of my time, allowing me to pour my efforts into other profitable ventures. My shop earns 1 sale per pattern purchased, significantly improving my shop's credibility. It boosts the Etsy SEO of all patterns purchased, putting each individual listing closer to the top of search results. The promo code was listed (in both description and with graphic) in every pattern listing, thus creating the possibility of an upsell with every customer. My backend data is a true reflection of individual pattern sales. Challenge the status quo at each point of your journey. Sometimes the status quo is the perfect, time-tested solution, but other times it will beg for reform. Aim to know the difference, put in the hard work to rethink poor practices, and enjoy the fruits of differentiating your work from your competitors. On Getting Found Now that you have the insights and resources to craft a well-built listing that instills confidence in your customers, I want to briefly touch on ensuring that your listing ranks high in Etsy search results. Below are a few insights from the Etsy developers themselves, based on commonly asked questions: Etsy search is informed by buyer behavior, so results differ from user to user. Reviews are a big factor in determining the ranking of a listing on Etsy’s search results page. Made to order items and ready to ship items are ranked equally. Older listings are not punished based on age. New listings will rank in the top 10 pages for the first few minutes to gain impressions, and then sort out naturally based on buyer reaction. Renewing because it sold will have a greater impact on a listings placement in search than renewing for the sake of renewing. Shipping an order does *not* influence search ranking. After a sale, there is no ranking difference between manually renewing sold items and having an item auto renew. All the words in your title are ranked equally, no matter their position. More importantly: write titles with shoppers in mind. People are more attracted to a title that makes sense. Your title should be short and to the point, utilizing tags to add in more creative (but relevant) variations. Always uses phrases over single words. The Etsy search engine factors in plurality as well as slight spelling differences (so no need to manually include). For more info: The Ultimate Guide to Etsy Search One additional note: Avoid deactivating your listings. Instead, let them sell out. Your listings likely have backlinks, which are outside places that have linked to your product, like a blog post or a pin. If someone clicks a backlink and your item has been deactivated, Etsy will bring them to a page of related products by other sellers. If however, you let the item sell out and then someone clicks a backlink, it will take them to related products currently available in your shop. By letting listings sell out rather than deactivating, you maintain that customer lead.