Etsy is a popular platform to sell handmade products on. It gets traffic from millions of shoppers every month! But sometimes sellers get excited to list their products and are then disappointed when the sales don’t come in.

Whether you are brand new on Etsy or are a current seller in need of a boost, here are our top three tips to selling on Etsy.

One: Choose Your Niche

When it comes to Etsy, you don’t have to pick one product and only sell that forever. You can test different products out and pivot when necessary. Start by spending some time looking around the platform and seeing what other people are selling. What catches your eye and lights you up? The more passionate you are about the product and the more excited you are about what it is that you’re creating, the better you’ll be able to market it.

Another question you will have to ask yourself is how involved do you want to be in the process? Do you want to have to handmake the product every time it’s sold or have a third party create most of it? Also, do you plan to sell things that are on the higher or lower end of the price spectrum? That’s going to affect the number of sales you might start off with and your marketing technique going forward.

Two: Have a Proof of Concept & Dream Five

You may have an idea of a product but will it actually sell? The best way to answer that is to try to find the product or something similar that’s already selling on Etsy. It may seem counterintuitive because you don’t want competition but competition proves that there is already a demand for it in the marketplace.

Find 5 other sellers that are already selling your type of product and are successful at it. These are your Dream Five. Look at their branding and notice what sticks out to you. Then copy the URL of the shop into a document somewhere so that you can have those 5 brands in one place. You don’t want to copy any of them. These are brands that you can look up to and use more as inspiration for your own shop!

Three: Check Your Finances

The most important thing is that you know if your product is going to be profitable at the end of the day. You have to take into account how much it costs to make the product and how much Etsy takes from each sale and price accordingly. Etsy has a bunch of different fees so it’s recommended that you refer to the Etsy Seller Handbook.

You also have to know your COGS – Cost of Goods Sold. Before coming up with the final price of the product, know the prices of each piece of material you needed to use, how much the packaging cost, etc.

Before selling on Etsy, write down on a piece of paper every fee for selling on Etsy, the costs of your materials, and how much you want to profit either per hour or per product.

Before ever listing a product on Etsy, first, go through these three tips. Decide on your niche and the product you are passionate about, find 5 shops on Etsy that are selling something similar and check if they’re successful, and make sure to write down all of your expenses so you can ensure you make a profit.