5 Steps for Scaling a NEW Etsy Shop in 2024

at the end of February this year in 2024 I decided to try an experiment to see exactly how long it would take to get a brand new shop up to 100 sales because supposedly Essie is dead right you can't possibly see steady growth anymore on Etsy with print on Demand right spoiler alert we're in the first week of June as of recording this and this new Etsy Shop is just a couple sales away from 200 I use the same strategy to scale this shop that I have used for my other print on demand shops including my primary shop that has surpassed 220k in Revenue within 2 years so in today's video I want to break down my exact strategy for you and my fstep process for getting those first 100 or in this case 200 Sales in case you haven't met yet my name is Mandy and I am obsessed with freedom from fulfillment using Etsy print on demand so my goal is to provide you with strategies to simplify the journey so that you can start making progress in your own business to best explain my strategy I've got a five-step process let's call them the five eyes to rise on Etsy first we start with identify this is a foundational step that most sellers Miss it's where the research happens if you are not researching and digging in to understand where there's demand in the marketplace you are not going to make a high volume of sales period this is also the difference between designing and creating as a hobby versus building it as a business if you put in Hobby level effort and simply just design what you like and what you want without any regard for what your customers want and what the market is in demand for you're probably going to get hobby level results I built my six figure as a print on Dem man shop with the intention of building faster and gaining Revenue research is not just about finding a niche with high search and low competition that just scratches the surface and so I do this research in two parts Part One understanding designs and trends that are in demand in the marketplace whenever I'm looking for demand and Trends on Etsy I first always start with broad General searches so things like women's t-shirts trendy sweatshirts and even mom shirts I do this because demand and Trends tend to show up in these really big categories first before they hit some of the smaller niches that you may be trying to search in specifically and I do this to really get a broad sense of what's in style that customers are actively buying the more you do this the more you repeat this process even just little bits at a time the more that you can train your brain to really identify and spot clues for demand and what will ultimately make a bestseller as I'm searching I usually go several pages in I'm looking for not just bestseller badges I'm also looking at popular now badges badges I'm also taking the time to actually click into listings without a badge so that I can spot the listings that are on the rise this is what I call the little red magic words the 20 plus AB USS in the last 24 hours the in20 plus carts the in demand three bought within the last 24 hours these could be listings that don't have as many sales that get them the badge like other items but but are getting active attention from buyers which means we have a chance of spotting demand and trance before they're even best sellers in this process I'm paying attention to styles and colors and themes across a variety of niches and Aesthetics and Target customers and that's intentional because it's these Trends and styles that I can then bring back into my specific niches if you start with just your Niche first or just the keyword first you're only going to see styles that other sellers have already done in that particular Niche and so then part two of their research is actually understanding and going through the process to really figure out who it is that you're going to be listing for generally speaking new sellers are often going to start with a more General shop so that they can test out a few different niches which is totally fine I did that as well I typically focus on just one or two themes to start with though you want to make sure these are themes where you can create a connection with your ideal buyer and that there is room to expand this comes down to who they are what they do and what they get passionate about Hobbies occupations life Milestones pet ownership and personal passions or faith tend to be the top themes that I like to pick from I would then look on Etsy to see if there is demand happening in the themes that I'm thinking about and if so what's already selling well in the marketplace and where can I create something new and different I'm thinking about who my ideal buyer is perhaps you're wanting to design for a younger and trendy demographic I fre L then I'm also searching on places like anthropology or Urban Outfitters or H&M and others where I know that that demographic shops if I'm wanting to go into the bachelorette and wedding Niche I would be looking at where the demand is on Etsy but also heading to Bridal websites and blogs to see what the top themes are for 2024 and watch for new themes to pop up going into 2025 if my research led me to wanting to do an outdoorsy theme I might then research different outdoor activities Outdoor Sports and the Styles and interests of those Target audiences because I'm not an expert in any of those at the moment that means again I'm also exploring websites off of etsy where these same customers might be shopping for example REI or Eddie Bower I also used chat gbt and prompt it for phrases that only my ideal buyer might understand so for example you could prompt it with give me 30 funny phrases that only a social worker would understand I guarantee you this will help you come up with ideas and Concepts to more fully resonate with your ideal buyer remember you need to be able to connect and resonate with their Identity or their passions when you get to the actual designing and listings so the more you can do this upfront with your research and really fill your brain with specific concepts for your specific ideal buyers the more that you can create a connection with your customer in your design whether it's in the elements or the words the more you can do that the more likely they are to click into your listing and convert to a sale so then once you are equipped with research it's then time for the second eye which is infiltrate once you have that strong Foundation it's time to start working efficiently to get enough listings up that will give you enough data this is where my batching comes in I think of this as working in Sprints a lot of sellers make the mistake of creating only one or two designs in one Niche then another one or two designs in another Niche and then maybe three or four over in another Niche and the problem with that is you're not going to be driving enough traffic to your shop to make datadriven decisions on any single one of those niches your handful of listings as a new shop will get buried against shops that have an established track record instead work towards listing at least 15 to 20 different designs per ideal buyer that you're targeting if you follow my Channel at all you know that I'm kind of All About Time blocking batches and so this is where I work in those batches so that I can scale efficiently which means I can knock out an initial section for an entire niche in just a couple batches now Within These batches I focus on having different designs within a niche so that I can determine which ones will eventually perform the best I don't want to create 15 to 20 listings but then five of them are all the same design you need to use these batches as a way of testing and validating before you start scaling a single design if you want to see a recent example of my batching process I'll link last week's batch designing video for you as well some new sellers will take a single design and then immediately turn that into 50 plus designs for 50 different niches and you can totally do that however with my specific strategy I'm focused on working in batches so that I actually focus on several different designs for the same Niche or theme at one time because remember I've already researched this Niche and I know that there's good potential there so now I need to focus on really trying to infiltrate the market with some new and different options for this Niche another reason that I batch in this particular way is so that when I get to creating listings in printify and finalizing them in Etsy with specific keywords and tags I can essentially again infiltrate that Niche that I just got done researching with a bunch of designs to start getting an idea of what's going to stick and attract a buyer for that Niche versus list one shirt for one Niche separate listing in keywords for another Niche and so forth it ends up being a lot of back and forth I want to be able to strategically test and validate not only designs but also these individual niches and sub niches as I go so I batch the designs I then batch mockups then I batch getting them all into printify and then I batch finalizing them in Etsy I carry one batch through all the way from beginning to end and then I move on to the next one from there we iterate or build out in this stage we're building out your shop section by section using these batches if you have a general shop this might be finding multiple niches that have strong potential if you have more of a theme to your shop for example Hobbies this will mean batching and creating additional sections in your shop that are related for example if you have a sports mom or coach shop you might have a batch of 20 listings for dance mobs another batch of listings in a section for volleyball moms another section in your shop for cheer moms or cheer coaches and so on another example if you have an initial Bachelorette focus on your shop you might have a section for Camp Bachelorette and another section for Vegas bachelorettes and then eventually with this building out you might start thinking about how else you can serve a similar audience to drive additional traffic see you might have a section for his and her matching shirts for engagements or honeymoons you might also have a section for wedding party gifts with designs geared towards the maid of honor or Mom of the Bride or groomsman this is a strategic way of testing different concepts and themes but doing it in a way where there's still cohesion and keeps you focused Without Really diverting and going in a million different directions which can start to feel really overwhelming and since you've done some of the research already in the earlier stages right you may be able to carry through some similar Concepts and themes but by doing it section by section you're able to efficiently batch as you go and this Focus again helps you rein in the temptation of shiny objects and feeling overwhelmed by trying to create listings for 10 different niches all at the same time as you build out I recommend creating sections in your shop based on your researched niches and sub niches I also highly recommend picking just one or two product types to focus on at first when you are building out building out like this is all about efficiency and trying to reach your ideal buyer so that you can learn the design styles that will perform the best for them become an expert in designing for your one or two products first then worry about scaling to other products once your designs actually start selling because then you will have a proven design and you won't feel like you're spinning your wheels build up a section for a niche so that there's again at least 15 to 20 listings then move on to the next by the time you get a few sections into it you can then go back and start looking at some data and this is where you investigate in this stage of the strategy it's all about assessing what is working and determining if you have landed on niches and Designs where you can continue scaling or if you maybe need to go back and make some adjustments and keep iterating this ensures that you don't get so far down the path of hundreds or even thousands of listing before realizing you've got some major changes that you need to make I accomplish this process in a few different ways the first is with your shop stats turn on your individual listing view in your shop manager so that you can see individual listing stats for the last 30 days look for visits and favorites visits are a clue that your listings number one are showing up and that people are clicking on them this means that you're getting visibility so that's one part of the puzzle favorites on the other hand are a clue that there's interest in what you've actually created these are going to be your first signs of where you can potentially Focus your attention when you're working on new batches or themes where you can potentially expand on further this can take a little while for these numbers to start to climb when you're a new shop you need enough data in order order to make a datadriven decision which is why I like to speed things along with Etsy ads yes I know Etsy ads nowadays are kind of like a bad word but here's the thing new businesses need a marketing strategy and when they're just starting out they invest in paid advertisements to start bringing in potential customers and to test the market similarly I use use ads in a very strategic way to get more data when building out a new shop as long as I have done my homework in the first part of the strategy meaning I've done the research I've put in the time to study design Styles and I'm doing my best to use research niches and keywords then I turn on ads not because it's going to be making me more profitable in the beginning it won't Etsy ads when done early like this are an investment in getting number one more data for your shop and number two creating sales velocity and early momentum to start boosting your listing quality scores faster in the form of sales and reviews Etsy ads can boost your views boost favorites on some of your listings and yes ideally get you those first sales if you see these boosts happening from your ads that means you're on the right track pay attention to the additional benefits of this added traffic pay attention to those visits and favorites and where you're seeing more traction in that ad data per listing if you aren't seeing an added boost meaning you're going for 45 days or more with no sales and minimal traffic in your shop turn off your ads for now and go back to your strategy you can experiment with different design Styles or perhaps explore and research different niches I will also link my video for you on some specific fixes that you can experiment with based on the data that you're seeing on your individual listing stats ultimately don't just keep throwing money at something that isn't working that's no longer an investment that's a money pit use it as a sign that you need to keep researching and refining your strategy sometimes that lack of results is a result in and of itself if you'd like me to do a deeper dive on my ad strategy specifically especially as a new shop let me know in the comments and then finally Advanced Data as you start to scale there are more sophisticated tools out there that can give you a much better picture of your Shop's profitability and where you can have the most potential one of the tools that I'm using right now is called profit tree this is actually a newer platform created by an Etsy seller for Etsy sellers that just recently launched this year and as a total visual data nerd I of course had to try it out on this new shop and I'm kind kind of geeking out with it what this tool has allowed me to do is look at my data from Etsy as well as my costs from printify and see my exact profit beyond that though and what I'm finding to be most helpful as I start to get sales and I'm trying to identify where to scale is that I can see where my top selling products are and I can see my most profitable products as an example when I have top products that are my top sellers in this shop I want to make sure I'm paying attention to those similarly I might have a product that is selling really well but it's not as profitable so I can think about are there ways to scale this design to perhaps a different product where I can still reach the same customer but increase my profitability or I might just need to consider a j buting my prices on that top selling item so that I can really maximize its potential when I talk about looking for Clues on what to assess and where there is the most potential to scale data like this paints a beautiful picture then from that data regardless of how many layers of data we're looking at we can then intensify our efforts once you start seeing data and where there is the most potential double down on those if you're seeing listings in one sub Niche get more favorites or sales than your other sub niches double down on that one visit a handful of big General Shops look at the listing counts for each of their niches if they have them by sections often times we'll look at these big General shops and think gosh they went after all the niches and they're being really successful at it but if you actually look closely many times these big shops will have sections or themes that have significantly more listings than other sections and this is where they've doubled down on what is working they see the data they see what their customers want and they make more of it and this is where I like to think of that as really in intensifying that effort they're probably still getting sales on some of those other different niches and categories but they've recognized where they're seeing the best performance in their shop and they're intensifying those efforts age of my shops are no different in my general shop I have lots of niches that's how I got my start with it but what I predominantly sell and where I have more volume of listings because I scaled them and intensified based on the data is really in just a few themes another example is my dog shop I don't add a ton of listings there anymore because the only people really going there are you guys because those searches are resulting in low conversions but for those first six months or so when it was a really performing well I started to see which breeds got more attention and where more more sales were occurring and I made more of those for those customers in this new shop again same thing I tried a few different themes and products and have been able to start seeing some patterns and Trends with traffic that allow me to double down or intensify on some of my efforts if you have a design style that is consistently getting lots of favorites or is consistently selling Double Down on that design style add it to a complimentary product type as well as experimenting with that design style in another related Niche that fits within your shop if you have a theme or Niche that is doing well intensify on serving that customer so that you can keep them coming back for more all of my shops have utilized this strategy and results in multiple repeat customers even at a brand new shop this is how you strategically Scale based on what's working or not working and then from here I constantly repeat this cycle of identify infiltrate iterate investigate and intensify research and demand along with intensifying efforts based on my actual shopid data are always the bookends of my strategy and they work hand inand which leads me to the question that I get asked all the time how many listings do I need to start getting sales the truth is that it differs for everyone it's not about a specific number there isn't a magic number and there's also no magic guaranteed time frame for getting sales it's about the action that you are taking to get those results it's about the research the iterations and the learning that you're doing along the way you have to have all of that together if you're just blasting through hundreds of listings for the sake of volume thinking that it's going to magically start working you've completely missed the point you're missing half the steps and you're not really thinking about what the market or your customer customer really wants if you're going to do this do it right now a few other new shop insights in case you're curious the very first listing went up on February 22nd I tried out a couple different themes and styles within my batches my first listing that sold in this shop was from that first series of batches listed on then February 28th and on March 3rd the first one sold I have zero personalization in this shop I have zero social media or email marketing for this shop there are two main product types all designs start on apparel first and then when they sell they go on a totee bag because it's a complimentary product for these Target customers I am using Comfort colors T-shirts from printify and I'm using Swift pod as my go-to provider as I always have for the last two years I also experimented with the really trendy baby t's for a few niches though I will say Comfort colors is still out selling anything else I have had requests for the comfort colors boxy te's which are slightly cropped so I've started adding in some of those as well for some of the designs that are selling well interest inter inly enough one of the recent insights emails that I get each month on printify indicated that across their merchant these box CS have seen an increase of over 100% month over month so this could be a sign of a product Trend that I'm keeping my eye on the totes that I'm using in this shop are different than my other shops that you probably heard me talk about I'm actually using the canvas bags from Monster Digital and the reason that I'm using these instead of my usual go-to duum versions is because I wanted to be able to offer a black color but I still wanted it on that really kind of natural feeling canvas material now there's one thing I want to make clear in all of this today is not my day one of print on demand and when I first opened this shop at the end of February that was also not my my day one of print on demand I have been doing this for over two years now and I have been a Etsy seller for almost 7 years now I think it's really important that new sellers not set their day one bar at the height of a day 730 seller it's not the same my skill level today particularly for Designing is not the same level it was two years ago when I first started with print on demand my first shop did not hit 100 sales that quickly because I had not built up the expertise in any niches or expertise in spotting demand or expertise in design skills I was a beginner just like you are right now my friend and those are all skill sets that have to be learned and practiced repeatedly but being new is not an excuse for saying that Etsy and print on demand doesn't work if you want to start and scale a business in 2024 do it make each step count focus on less doubting and more doing put your head down do less Doom scrolling of all the clickbait videos about Etsy and print on demand and more taking control of your own path and your own dreams of running a business turn down the noise of I can't or this won't work or it's slow right now and amplify your how can I and your let's go I hope this has been helpful for you if you're looking for additional strategies resources and accountability on your print on demand journey to help you stop the overwhelm and start making progress consider consider this your personal invite to join me over in the simply Thrive Club in addition to all of the resources templates nich and Trend reports and group coaching that's packed into the membership each month I host a new master class to cover the biggest topics related to operating a successful print on demand business you can learn more right now by heading to Simply Thrive club.com in the meantime be sure to check out my free print on demand course in the description as well as my time blocking series here on my channel for an even deeper dive on the critical steps for Success thanks for watching I'm so glad you're here and I'll see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: SimplyPOD with Mandy

Views: 7,914

Keywords: print on demand, Etsy seller tips, how to start print on demand, how to start Etsy, Printify help, how to sell on Etsy, etsy profitable niches, etsy print on demand, print on demand etsy, printify and etsy, how to make money online, selling on etsy for beginners, what to sell on etsy, how to list on etsy step by step, etsy print on demand tutorial, how to create a printify listing, etsy coach, etsy success 2024, print on demand 2024, first 100 etsy sales

Id: klAGV5h1-hs

Length: 30min 52sec (1852 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024