You Can Sell On Etsy Even If You Are Not Into Crafting

Image courtesy of the DaniKfashion Etsy Shop

As the Christmas shipping season starts to reach its peak, it is time to start thinking about next year. What plans are you making to build your business? If you are looking for a new place to sell the items you source at thrift stores or if you make items to sell, Etsy is a site you should consider if you are not already using it.

The Etsy marketplace is growing in leaps and bounds. Sellers have reported a large increase in sales. Those that have been around for a year or more have reported that sales have more than doubled.

Etsy is a fantastic community of buyers and sellers. At first glance, the website looks more like an online store than a community made up of many sellers. This more familiar feel is appealing to online shoppers. Maneuvering around Etsy is straightforward; sellers can showcase their items and are sure to attract the right buyers. The set up of Etsy seems to be more conducive to ensuring that sales are accurate. What is meant by this is buyers get a true picture and description of what they are purchasing. Sometimes other online sales communities do not give as clear a picture.

As a seller, you might wonder if Etsy will draw enough buyers. The proof is in the statistics and the news is great! Small businesses and individuals who sell on Etsy are boasting about their sales. With the holiday season upon us, Etsy is ready and has distinct holiday showcases in place. Buyers are sure to get original, in many cases handmade, gift items for the holidays.

As you review how you sell and where you sell, remember Etsy. Even if you do not make handmade items to sell on Etsy, remember that those crafters need supplies as well. From old sweaters to torn jeans or toilet paper rolls to old books, crafters often use uncommon items for their creations. Take a look around Etsy to see what other items could be sold to this creative bunch.

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Etsy Wholesale to Connect Crafters and Sellers

Image courtesy of DeMoss Designs

As we find ways to build our inventory, we can often find ourselves moving along with the pack. Sometimes we find what we sell is being sold by many other sellers as well. It can be a waiting game. That is okay. But there are other items you could consider.

Marketplace sites like Etsy, Goodsmith, and Bonanza give crafters and other creative artists the opportunity to offer their wares to a large community of shoppers who are looking for something original. This is also an opportunity for you as a seller to find an original product to offer. Many Etsy sellers are offering wholesale pricing on the products when they are sold in lots. You may find woodcrafted items or sewn items that may be great to offer during the holiday season.

For the Etsy sellers who are looking for a little help in getting started selling wholesale, Etsy is creating a wholesale marketplace. While the site has not launched yet, Etsy is accepting sign-up for both wholesale vendors and buyers. Once the site is launched, this will allow you to connect to many sellers in the Etsy community who are looking to connect with sellers. For the crafter, it gives them an opportunity to concentrate on the actual art and not finding the individual customer. For the seller, it is a chance to find unique and uncommon items to offer your buyers. To sign-up, visit this link.

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Etsy Promotes Sellers with Free Google Shopping Ads

Starting in October, those using Google as their search engine may begin to see some different results. This is due to the new version of 'Google Shopping' that the internet powerhouse company has announced. This rebranding of their product search will give higher placement in search results to those that pay for it. Etsy.com will be investing heavily to ensure that their listings remain near the top. Etsy has seen over $500 million in sales so far in 2012 alone and will be investing $250,000 to help their U.S. sellers remain at the top of the Google search results for the rest of the year. This investment will help Etsy better compete with other top online sellers.

After Google's new policy has launched, customers that are “Googling” will see that these new pay-for-placement listings labeled uniquely in the search results and the usual search results will be listed below the paid slots.

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Celebrity Chooses Etsy TO Support Charity

Image courtesy of Rose's Etsy ShopMany of us use online selling sites as a way to create income or support causes we support. I have written in the past about stars who have chosen eBay to run auctions to support their favorite charities. Now a celebrity has chosen Etsy to support her latest cause.

Comedian and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell is now using the site to help raise money for a charity that is important to her and her family. The charity O’Donnell is supporting is The Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation. Her partner, Michelle Rounds, is battling the rare condition. Three in one million are affected by the condition that can be life threatening or even fatal if it grows undetected near vital organs.

The listings are original pieces of art that Rosie created. In the past, Rosie has used eBay to sell these items but currently there are no listing attributed to her eBay account. Rosie has used Etsy in the past to support her charity, Rosie’s Broadway Kids (now known as Rosie’s Theater Kids), which helps to fund arts education to low-income children in New York City.

To view Rose’s listings, visit Etsy. To find out more about this rare condition, please visit The Desmoid Tumor Foundation.

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Etsy Gets Ready For the Holiday Season

There are a few changes going on at Etsy that are in the working to make the Holiday season more successful for Etsy shop keepers.

Recently, Etsy began offering shopkeepers the option to accept credit cards (and not just PayPal) for purchases made in their shops. The direct checkout option is seen as a way of getting more customers to buy on Etsy by using a direct checkout that does not involve PayPal in any way. Many crafters are seeing increases in sales in the few weeks since the credit card option has been available.

With the credit card payments, the money is held in the shop’s account and is scheduled for disbursement to the shopkeeper’s bank account each Monday. Shopkeepers do have the option to schedule a deposit more quickly if they wish. The processing fee is 3% + $0.25 per order.

To help those who are looking to try out the direct checkout for their shop, Etsy is waiving all credit card processing fees for the month of September. To find out if your shop is eligible to sign up for direct checkout, please click here.

With direct checkout as an option, Etsy is bringing on a new selling tool. This fall, Etsy Gift Cards will become available in the US. The gift cards will only be available for use in shops that have the direct checkout option available. Etsy will also use the gift cards as promotional tools for the site this holiday season. The ability to accept gift cards is a feature Etsy sellers and buyers have been requesting for quite a while. The gift card will be a promotional code that can be emailed to the buyer.

In order to develop the system that would allow gift cards to be accepted at any store on its site, Etsy had to add the direct checkout option to its site. PayPal does not allow a central checkout. PayPal checkouts are unique to each seller and cannot accept gift cards. To see what experiences some Etsy sellers have had since adding direct checkout to their shops, click here.


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