Maximizing Etsy conversion rate is one of the most important aspects of a successful Etsy shop.
It is the process of turning your shop's visitors into paying customers. It leads to higher revenue, lower acquisition cost, and faster growth of your shop.
Let's dive right in and see how you can use this to improve your Etsy shop:
Conversion rate is the number of visits that actually make a purchase. You can see those statistics in your shop stats page inside shop manager. Keep in mind it’s visits not views.
(Number of orders/Views) = Conversion Rate
The average conversion rate is about 1-3% on Etsy. In recent years, conversion rate on Etsy has decreased because of more sellers joining the platform. Competitive niches like jewelry and clothing see a wide range of conversion rates among sellers. Top sellers could get the conversion rate up to 5% while others may see rates lower than 1%.
Think about this scenario. You have 1000 visits a month, and the average price of a product is $50.
If your conversion rate is 1.5%. You will get 15 sales and $750 in revenue.
If your conversion rate is up to 5%. You will get 50 sales and $2500 in revenue.
You didn’t even need to increase your traffic and you have improved your revenue by more than 3-fold. Just imagine this is paired with increased traffic!
Higher conversion rate also helps with Etsy SEO, ranking your products higher in the Etsy search engine algorithm, and bringing you more traffic.
Shoppers are most likely to buy when you convince them that:
When all of these factors are fulfilled, the shopper will most likely buy.
And I will show you what you can do to maximise all of these factors.
Etsy SEO is one of the most important ways for your listings to be found by the right people - Your target customers.
2 main things you need to know:
The best place to find them is to use Etsy search bar. Notice when you type in something, Etsy will suggest and try to guess what you are typing?
That suggestion is based on actual shoppers’ data that Etsy collects. Make use of the auto-suggest function to find keywords that shoppers are using.
For example, say you sell wall art. When you type in “wall art”, you will get longer keywords like “wall art canvas”, “framed wall art” and “wall art wood”. Those are keywords that your potential customers searched for. Use the relevant ones in your title and tags to increase your conversion rate.
Long-tail keywords are more targeted and specific. Research shows that the shoppers who type in longer keywords are more ready to buy.
Shoppers typed in “necklace” are probably just browsing, while if they type in “amethyst necklace in sterling silver”, they likely know exactly what they want and are ready to buy.
And when you have “amethyst necklace in sterling silver”, the short keywords like “amethyst”, “necklace” and “sterling silver” are all included as keywords as well. This works the same way for Etsy tags as well.
Because of this, you should find relevant long keywords that your customers use and search for. By doing this, the shoppers who click into your product listings are more ready to buy. So your conversion rate will be improved.
A good listing description serves a few functions:
Before writing Etsy descriptions, you need to ask yourself: Why should your customer care? How can your product improve your customer’s life and solve their problem?
Don’t just think about the color, size or functions of your products. They are still important, but they only appeal to the logical side of your customer’s decision.
If shoppers aren’t convinced that they need your product, they won't care about the features of your product.
So how do you convince them?
Appeal to them emotionally.
You probably can already think of some reasons: improve life quality, feel more comfortable, get fit and healthy. Or on the other side of the emotional spectrum: reducing stress, relieving pain, avoid missing out.
After that, they will have questions and concerns that you can answer. Why should I buy from you instead of your competitor? How long will the shipping be? Why should I trust your shop?
All of these should be answered in either product description, product photos or the shop policy. Think about all the concerns that could potentially stop a shopper from purchasing, and answer their concerns to your best ability.
If your listing can do all 3, your chance of converting a visit to a sale would be a lot higher.
I have listed out my whole process of building high converting listings in this course
Well-lit photos on a clean background is your best bet of a thumbnail photo. Make sure that your product is the main focus of the image, not other elements like background or props.
After that, you can include other photos that help to give shoppers all the information they need to make a purchase decision. Here are some of the types of photos you can include:
Check out this free product photography guide for more inspirations
Etsy policy serves one very important function: Reducing customer doubts and barrier of purchase.
“What if it breaks? Will I get my money back?”, “What if it’s lost in the mail?”, “Will it arrive on time for my son’s birthday?”
A clearly written Etsy policy will cover all of those concerns and more. It will let your customers know the return and exchange policy (which should be easy to understand and use), the shipping policy (what happens in case of non-delivery or delayed shipment), etc.
Don’t be worried to be a bit more generous, for example, giving a full refund and a coupon if the product is damaged during shipping. For my experience, only a small percentage of customers will actually use the policy or take advantage of you.
On the other hand, the increase in sales because of a generous shop policy will likely be more than enough to cover the cost, improving the conversion rate.
Contrary to popular beliefs of many Etsy sellers, lower isn’t always better when it comes to pricing. What's important is that you need to justify your price and convince shoppers that your product is worth it.
Price is often associated with quality. You don’t go to a supermarket and buy the cheapest groceries you can find. Probably because based on your experience, the cheapest stuff is usually not the best quality.
It is the same when it comes to online shopping. If you price your products too low compared to your competition, customers may assume the quality is not on par with your competitors.
If you have unique selling points, you can position your product as a premium high quality one and charge a higher price than the market average. Some extra selling points you can consider include:
Another strategy you can consider is to offer better quality products with the same price as your competition. Or you can be a 'loss leader' and provide same quality product with a slightly lower price.
High shipping cost is one of the main reasons why shoppers abandon their cart. Free shipping helps buyers follow through with their purchase as there are no additional costs during check out.
Not to mention that Etsy is giving priority in search placement in the United States for products offering a free shipping guarantee.
Customer service I mention here includes all the interactions that you do with your customers. Answering their questions, updating them with shipping information, and providing support after the purchase.
Superior customer service and support will make them more likely to buy. A lot of times buyer will message multiple shops, and the shop that answer their question/concern the quickest get the sale. All of these improve your sales and conversion rate.
Friendly sellers also attract repeat purchases. Having repeat customers is one of the most important drivers of your shop’s long-term success.
Not to mention, good customer support can lead to more 5-star product reviews. More reviews give shoppers more confidence in buying from you. Therefore boosting your conversion rate.
So how can you provide good customer service?
Be as friendly and helpful as possible. Etsy is a handmade platform and most shoppers are not expecting formal exchanges with sellers.
Don't be afraid to show your personality, use emojis, use abbreviations, etc. At the end, the most important thing is being clear and helpful.
This allows you to get ahead of customers’ questions. Anticipating what customers are thinking is a type of good customer support.
An automated email series is perfect for building up good relationships with customers so that they are much more likely to return. Provide them with useful info to take care of the product. Ask them for feedback. Learn how to build this email sequence for your Etsy shop here.
The ultimate way of doubling, or even tripling your conversion rate is to know your customers better...
Understand what *clicks* with your customers.
Over the years, I have done over 15,900 sales on Etsy and become top 1% for multiple of my Etsy shops.
I've come up with a system that helps me convert traffic to sales effectively - A powerful system that allow me to plug-and-play, and create high converting sales machine time and time again.
I've included everything I know in the course Etsy Listing Sales Machine to help you build high converting Etsy listings. You can find that inside GYC Etsy Academy 2.0.
