Just like the seasons, the buying habits of Etsy shoppers are ever-changing. Prior to the 2021 Holiday season, we polled over a thousand real-world Etsy shoppers. We found out what holidays they were most likely to buy gifts for on Etsy. It comes as no surprise, that the Christmas season was the number one response (66.5 % very likely). Among the high-ranking runners-up were Birthdays, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Black Friday and Father’s Day.
We know these holidays are hot traffic times for Etsy, but what should we do to plan for them? What can we do to make it a smooth experience for us as sellers, and our shoppers? With Mother’s Day approaching quickly, now is a good time to make sure you’re ready. Read on to learn our six tips.
Tip 1: Look at Your Inventory Supplies
Running out of materials during a busy time for your shop can be stressful. Look at your previous season to help estimate the supplies you need. Estimate how much of each material was used to create the items you sold. Then, purchase at least that amount.
Don’t forget to consider your shipping and related supplies. This will help make sure that you have what you need to get orders out the door. You don’t want to get to the packing stage realize you are missing things.
Tip 2: Build A Holiday Inventory of Products
Now that you’ve looked at your inventory, it’s time to consider what to keep on-hand. This depends on a few factors. The first factor will depend on whether your items are fully custom or not. For example, if you make custom sized handbags, you won’t be able to keep an inventory of products. However, if you make predetermined sized handbags that are personalized, you can create an inventory of the bags and personalize them as they are ordered. This will save a lot of time.
The second factor is available space in your shop. Do you have enough space to carry an inventory? We all know how valuable space can be, especially if your shop has a small footprint. Holding too much of a product inventory can cut into valuable production space. Being thoughtful about how much space you have and your dedicated inventory storage are important.
Tip 3: Review Titles, Descriptions, Photos and Tags
Search engines thrive on written content. Taking the time to review all the written elements of your listing is critical to being found. Before the holiday rush is a great time to do an audit of your listings. Make sure they are using your top keywords. Hint: eRank has excellent tools to help you with keyword research and trends.
This is also a great time to look at your photos and tags. You can even replace them with holiday specific photos or tags. For example, if you are selling personalized jewelry, you could add a photo of the jewelry item in a Mother’s Day themed package. You can add a tag like “Mother’s Day Gifts” or similar.
Tip 4: Setup and Review Your Snippets and Auto Responses
To save time you can set up snippets (saved messages) in Etsy’s messenger to create responses to common questions. This can be a huge time saver. To take this a step further, you can also set up auto responses to handle certain questions automatically. Just be sure to check in on these messages to make sure they are providing what the customer needs.
Tip 5: Review Your Shop Announcement and Message to Buyers
Do you use the shop announcement and message to buyers’ sections? If so, you can add a holiday specific message. Be sure to review the content in those areas regularly to make sure they provide accurate and up to date information. These are great places to communicate any shipping delays, return policies, or other important information for buyers.
Tip 6: Review Your Shipping and Processing Times
Leading into a holiday push is a perfect time to take a look at all of your shop’s shipping profiles to make a decision on whether you need to make adjustments to accommodate for the likelihood of an increase in order volume. One other thing to consider is adjusting your handling time if you make use of that. Also, you may want to consider looking at your favorite shipping carrier’s current delays. Anyone who shipped products during the 2020 and 2021 holiday seasons knows how painful large-scale shipping delays can be.
Let’s Get Selling!
Now it’s time to get ready for those Mother’s Day sales and smiles! To avoid overwhelm (as much as you can), use the six tips outlined above. With your game plan laid out, sit down, take a deep breath, and know that you are ready for all those exciting orders.