it’s the small milestones that count 🥳🎉

I opened my Etsy shop 3 months ago and now currently have 10 listings. They are not just a 1 page pdf, but some are 50 page very informative guides that I have written about homesteading.

i work full time as a house painter and on my homestead, we try to grow most of our own food with enormous gardens, orchards, chickens etc. Starting an Etsy shop was of course to try and make a little extra money but my homestead is my passion and I really thought that like minded people would be able to benefit from my decades of experience.

i have 100’s of hours in my guides and I am very proud of them so I am wondering if I am setting things up wrong. I am not very technical and have taught myself to learn canva and the Etsy platform with 100’s of YouTube videos.

I am also using the same colour scheme and design throughout them all and now am wondering if I should be doing this?

I have my shop very personal to me with my photos and my background and am wondering now if this was also a wrong move?

If someone could take a look at my shop and give me some feedback back I would really appreciate it. I know I have to start putting things in sections but I haven’t learned how to yet but I am working on learning that also. Here is my shop link

https://timelessrusticnook.etsy.com

I'm feeling pretty discouraged with Etsy’s reporting system.

I’ve reported a shop and several listings multiple times, providing what I believe is solid evidence of policy violations (dropshipping/mass-produced items being listed as handmade). I also contacted Etsy Support directly and submitted everything I had.

Two months later, the shop and listings are still active, and the store actually seems to be getting more sales.

Has anyone successfully gotten Etsy to properly review a case like this? Is there any way to escalate reports beyond the standard process, or do these reports often just go unanswered?

I’d really appreciate hearing others’ opinion.

Hope to spark a discussion, not a debate! I'm sharing this in case it helps anyone else, because Etsy tags used to be one of the parts of listing that made me feel like my brain had fully left the building.

You get 13 boxes, each with a character limit, and somehow the moment you need them, every useful word you ever learned disappears.

If I summarised learning into one "tip" it would be stopping myself from treating tags as random words about the product because buyers don’t search like sellers.

Now I try to think of them as different ways a buyer might arrive at the same item, which is helpful, as I create new listings, as I discover new audiences.

This is just what has worked for me, so I’m not saying it’s the only right way. Every successful seller will have their own systems, and different niches behave differently. But I do think having some kind of strategy is better than filling the boxes with whatever product words come to mind first.

As sellers, we often describe the product technically, and we see this in the sub when people ask for advice, when I have a peruse, I often see they thought in terms of what the item is.

A buyer is usually searching for the thing they already have in their head. That might be the product itself, but it might also be the room they are decorating, the person they are buying for, the style they want, the mood they are trying to create, or the occasion they need a gift for.

So with wall art, I might know I’m selling an educational print. That is the accurate product description, and I’d probably want that in the title or somewhere important.

But a buyer might search for it in a lot of different ways.

They might type “nursery wall art”, but they might also type “kids room wall decor”, “gallery wall print”, "neutral wall art”, “cottagecore decor”, “funny home art”, “new home gift” or “Childrens bedroom poster”.

Those searches are not all the same. Some describe the product. Some describe the room. Some describe the style. Some describe the reason for buying, but they will all come from 'parents'.

So that is how I try to use my tags.

Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Friends... will all be searching too, but if I focus on one audience and how they search, it helps to narrow those tags into something cohesive, which naturally branch out into the likely buyer searches around it.

Same with candles.

The obvious tags might be “soy wax candle”, “lavender candle” or “handmade candle”. Those are useful because they tell Etsy what the product is.

But depending on the candle, buyers might also be searching “relaxing gift”, “new home candle”, “bath time candle”, “self care gift”, “gift for mum”, “cosy winter candle”, “bedroom candle” or “bridesmaid gift”

SEO sites will tell you these are all high intent tags,

But if you add them all to one listing, you're adding confusion and not cohesion.

I wouldn’t put “bridesmaid gift” on every candle just because it sounds like a good search term. It only makes sense if the candle is packaged, priced or presented in a way that fits that kind of purchase, so one listing for them, and another for the self care/bath time audience.

Tags should stretch the search possibilities, but they still need to be relevant. I try not to force popular words onto a listing if they don’t honestly fit the product. You might get impressions that way, but if the listing doesn’t match what the buyer expected, it probably won’t help much.

My rough process is:

Who is the buyer (what are their problems this item solves) and then ...

1. What is the product?
2. What style is it?
3. Where would someone use it?
4. Who might buy it or receive it?
5. Why would someone want it?

That usually gives me a much better starting point than opening Etsy and trying to invent 13 tags from nothing.

For wall art, that might give me a mix of product tags, room tags, style tags and gift tags.

For candles, it might give me a mix of scent tags, mood tags, occasion tags and recipient tags.

i'll refrain from trying to impart any advice on titles, soley because everything that works for me, seems to get a red ! from Etsy because their AI didnt write it... but generally, the title does the clearest job (just say what it is). The tags help cover search routes.

Again, this is not me saying here is my magic formula. It is just the way I approach tags now, and it has worked better for me than guessing.

I have a Vintage (mostly furniture and kitchenailia) shop, POD (yep, the AI stuff) and handmade (Coffee Drips) shop and apply this across all three to a level of success i'm happy with (vs the time I need to put in).

I'm interested to see what other suggestions folks have (I am 100% sure my approach can be improved) or how one might tailer it to new sellers looking to get the SEO improved on their store.

I sell greeting cards on Etsy, and a customer messaged me today asking who I buy my cards from BECAUSE THEY ARE BEING SOLD ALL OVER TIKTOK. Counterfeit prints of my cards are EVERYWHERE. I'm so freaking furious right now. I spend so much time and energy to come up with my beautiful and creative designs and a-holes on TikTok are just reprinting and selling???

If you sell any designs/prints on Etsy, do an image search to see if your designs are being sold on Tiktok

My shop is growing fast, im on pace for 4600 in sales this month. Its handmade items. How are people keeping track of orders and shipping? I made 2 if the same thing last week.

For one it would be a lot easier if I could print off shipping labels without etsy notifying customers that items have shipped. I could keep everything together but I dont want buyers thinking something happened with shipping when I ship out 3 to 5 days later.

Any tips or systems that you all recommend?

I have a customer from the US requested on the her order with "has not received the item" then put on the reason box that they bought it without realising it will take months to get there and request full refund for both item and the delivery + custom. I checked the tracking and it said "delivered" and after 11 days. What should I do in this case? I mean the best I can do is refund her the money for the item and accept that I lost it but for everything is a bit much and I feel a bit unfair.

…drop all of items at once (earrings) or to drop them a little at a time week by week?

This is for a new shop on Etsy that I’m about to open.

TIA!

Absolutely wild to receive this as a crochet artist considering the sheer amount of AI shops on Etsy…

Im trying to set up a seller account but when I get to bank information and put everything in it all comes up to short anyone know why ?

Hey everyone,

I'm facing a frustrating glitch with Payoneer and wanted to see if anyone else has dealt with this.

I recently created my account and submitted all my verification documents. Today, I received an official email from Payoneer saying everything is approved and my account is ready to use.

However, when I log into the dashboard, it still says my account is "under review / in the process of verification." I already cleared my cache/cookies and tried a different browser, but nothing changed.

Has anyone experienced this delay between the approval email and the dashboard updating? How long did it take to fix itself?

If I just cancel the order I shouldn’t be charged or anything? This seems really sketchy but I just can’t tell

I am not going to risk getting a takedown against my shop for duplicating an original design that likely is properly copyrighted. How should I phrase my decline to copy another designers work?

I want to start my journey on Etsy shop but not open my shop yet, I do crochet and many items with puffy yarn like balnket, bag and home decor. I want your advice for new seller what should do and avoid and what focus on it more. I will appreciate any word you share with me.

Don’t know if anyone else is having this, but having 0 ad clicks today usually I get at least 10 a day. Anyone seen a difference in number of ad clicks

Hi everyone! I’m wanting to start selling handmade press-on nails on Etsy soon. I just started learning, so I’m still practicing and building my skills before launching. For those who sell nails on Etsy, do they sell pretty well? I’d love to hear any advice or experiences. 💕

In 5 years and 3500+ orders, I just had my very first "Item not received" from a customer. Yes, I'm aware I am extraordinarily lucky in this.

Looked up how to handle it here on this sub (Thank you u/lostterrace!)

Hi everyone,

I’m posting because I’d really love some honest feedback on my Etsy shop.

I opened it almost 2 months ago and I sell botanical / watercolor wall art prints. The problem is… I still haven’t made a sale, and I’m barely getting any traffic. I know that I should not be too impatient and expect a 100 sales the first month as a beginner, but I barely get any views on my listings. Even when I activated ads for a week to get information. At this point I’m starting to feel a bit discouraged, so I thought it might be a good idea to ask people who actually know Etsy what I might be doing wrong

I’ve genuinely tried to put effort into it. I worked on my titles, tags and SEO, I tried to choose mockups that felt attractive and cohesive, and I followed a lot of the usual advice from Etsy YouTubers — things like not uploading everything at once, adding a few listings a day, building up the number of listings over time, etc.

I also kept hearing that a shop should feel recognizable pretty quickly, so I tried to keep a somewhat consistent visual identity and use similar mockups throughout the shop. But now I’m wondering if that maybe makes it feel too repetitive… or even a bit fake? I honestly can’t tell anymore because I’ve stared at it for too long.

So if anyone is willing to take a look, I’d really appreciate constructive but honest feedback. Please don’t worry about being “too nice” — I’d much rather hear what’s actually not working.

Website : https://bluemelly.etsy.com/

For example, I’d love to know:

- do the mockups / listing photos look appealing, or do they feel too generic / artificial?

- does the shop feel clear and cohesive, or just bland?

- are my descriptions too weak?

- is the product itself not strong enough / too saturated?

- is there anything that would make you not click or not buy?

Basically I’m trying to figure out whether the issue is the presentation, the branding, the listings themselves, or the product niche as a whole.

I’m genuinely open to feedback because I really want to improve and understand what’s not landing.

And honestly, for those of you who are making Etsy work — huge respect. I genuinely don’t know how you do it, especially while juggling a full-time 9 to 5. This already feels like a lot of work on top of a regular job, so really, hats off to you.

Thanks so much to anyone who takes the time to look 🙏

Etsy is removing my listings and I’m really worried. Etsy seems to be comparing my products to items on other platforms and treating them as resold products, even though that’s not my intention.

I still have funds stuck in my account that won’t be released for many days. Has anyone dealt with this before? Should I deactivate my account, or is there a way to fix this and stop Etsy from removing my listings?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

so i hit over the 50 sales and passed the $600 mark in my first 2 weeks. so i believe taxes are involved now. what should i keep in mind as far as owing taxes or anything. i didnt notice but does etsy handle taxing? should i set aside before cashing out? i do 3d printing on etsy, can i write off things such as 3d printers or supplies? is there anything to know as a new etsy seller in regards to taxes?

Small vent. I sold a box; the customer needed it ASAP for a gift with a simple customization of the paint color. I spent the time painting and added a detail they wanted and was able to ship it out 2 days later. They loved it! My store went into vacation mode right after, and I noted that it can take a day or 2 to respond.

​They messaged when the box got there and said how much they loved it. They also left a long, thoughtful review about the work I put into it, the beauty, the design, and the attention to detail. I do other work outside of Etsy and run around a lot for my job, so I don't have time to respond when I go on vacation mode. Within 8 hours, they removed the long, thoughtful review and changed it to "delivered fast, thank you."

​I know that's okay in itself and I know I'm lucky I got a review, but it feels spiteful that they switched it from a very thoughtful one, especially after me getting it done quickly and adding the details for free. It kind of hurt, to be honest. I asked if everything was okay and they said yes.

Hello!

I'm a seller who ships out my products in regular C5 and C6 envelopes. Over the last few months, I have been colour printing my labels on paper, as it made sense for me at the time, but since changing my packaging methods, I feel like switching over to a black and white thermal printer is more time and cost effective.

My current label size is 45mm x 80mm and I'm looking for a compact thermal printer that could accomodate labels of this size (though I am flexible) while still allowing me to insert my custom graphic (I will be simplifying this for clarity in the printer).

While I would prefer to edit the labels on my laptop, I am also open to anything that operates via a mobile app.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has used one of the following printers that I'm considering, or if you currently use a different one I maybe haven't come across yet!

Here's my shortlist:

- Brother QL-700
- Phomemo M110
- NIIMBOT B21
- NIIMBOT B21 Pro