Struggling with lots of views but no sales on Etsy? You’re not alone—and eRank is here to help. If shoppers are visiting your listings but leaving without buying, it could be a sign that something needs adjusting. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most common reasons this happens, along with the first steps you can take to turn those views into sales.
Retail Slow Season
Retail experiences ups and downs throughout the year, depending on the product. For many items, the busy season for retail occurs—you guessed it—during the winter holidays. Sales generally tend to pick up during autumn every year, just before Halloween. For most retail businesses, sales peak in November and December and start declining in January.
Once all of the major gifting holidays are over (usually in April), the “summer slump” begins. This is the least profitable season of the year for most sectors of retail. So, is your shop experiencing slower-than-normal sales during late spring and/or summer? If so, your shop probably isn’t alone!
💡TIP: Use eRank’s Competitor Sales tool to track the estimated daily, weekly, and monthly sales of your competitors’ shops to see how your shop’s sales compare. Competitor Sales can be especially helpful when you’re experiencing a drop in sales to figure out if it’s due to a widespread decline in business within your niche or if your specific listings need work.
Unappealing Photos
Your listing photos are shoppers’ first point of contact with your shop. Customers tend to look at a listing’s photos before they even read its title. Therefore, the quality of your products’ photos can “make or break” their listings.
According to Etsy, your listings’ images should:
- Be horizontal or square. If you use vertical photos, Etsy crops the thumbnail images.
- Be upright—not rotated sideways or upside down.
- Have a significant amount of “negative space” around the items. This way, you’re able to crop your photos without cropping the items featured in them.
💡TIP: Read our article 7 Smartphone Camera Tips for Stunning Product Photography for tips on taking high-quality, professional-looking product photos.
Non-Competitve Prices
Pricing your items too high—or even too low—can effect your sales. If you price your items significantly higher than the majority of other like items in your business’s niche, you run the risk of “pricing out” your target audience. If your target audience cannot afford your products, who will buy them?
On the other hand, if you price your items significantly lower than the majority of other like items in your business’s niche, you run the risk of making your shop look “scammy” and suspicious. Many shoppers expect items that are priced unusually low to be poor quality. If shoppers are suspicious of your items, they won’t purchase them.
💡TIP: Type a keyword that describes one of your items into eRank’s Keyword Tool and click the search icon on the right to look it up. Use the “Price Range” graph under the “Search Results Analysis” tab to view the price range of the top 100 Etsy listings that have this keyword. Hover your cursor over the chart to see the number of listings found at the various price points. If possible, price your item the same as or slightly less than the majority of the listings featured in the graph.
Too Long Processing Times
Shoppers tend to want their purchases as soon as possible and may not purchase an item if the processing time seems too long. This can be problematic for anyone selling handmade goods that take an extended period of time to make. However, keep this in mind as you create your listings. Select a processing time that adequately reflects the time that it takes to create the product and relay in your product description the reasoning for the required time such as by saying “made to order upon purchase.”
💡TIP: Again, use eRank’s Keyword Tool to view to view the different amounts of time that the top 100 listings with this keyword require to prepare and ship, using the “Processing Times” graph under the “Search Results Analysis” tab. Hover your cursor over the chart to see the number of listings found at various processing times and compare to yours. If possible, set your processing time for your item to be in the same range as most of the listings featured in the graph.
Incorrectly Categorized
Categorizing your item correctly is extremely important to ensure the correct shoppers are finding your listings.
Regarding categories, Etsy states in Keywords 101: Everything You Need to Know:
Categories act like tags. Be sure to add the most specific subcategory option available for the item you’re listing. Adding more specific categories will give you more opportunities to match with a search. Remember: When you add specific subcategories to your listings, your items are included in all the categories that subcategory is nested within.
In other words, the more accurately and specifically you categorize an item, the more chances it has to appear in the search results of shoppers who are looking for that specific item.
💡TIP: Use eRank’s Category Tool to identify the most popular and relevant categories for your products. By entering a brief description of your item, eRank will analyze the top 100 listings found for the keyword or phrase you entered. Want to do further research? Try looking up other descriptive phrases that fit your listing and see if they yield different results.
Critical Reviews
Negative feedback or reviews is another common reason why an Etsy listings may have views but no sales. It should come as no surprise that even one critical review can scare off potential buyers.
Fortunately, Etsy allows you to post a public response to any of your items’ reviews within 100 days from when the buyer posted or last edited the review. eRank recommends keeping your response brief and professional when you publicly reply to a review. In some cases (ex: an item isn’t functioning as it should), it may be worth mentioning your shop’s return policy. This way, shoppers browsing items’ reviews can read your responses and see that you care about your customers’ buying experiences.
💡TIP: The best way to prevent critical reviews from appearing on your listings in the first place? Make sure that your listings’ descriptions and images portray your items accurately. Include instructions in each description and upload 10 different images per listing, if possible. Go “the extra mile” to ensure that your customers know exactly what they’re purchasing. Check out Turn Browsers into Buyers with Descriptions That Work for even more tips.
Mis-Targeted Advertising
Finally, your Etsy listings may be experiencing views with minimal sales because you’re not advertising to the right market. Operating and promoting your business involves performing many tasks daily, which can get overwhelming. It’s easy to forget that you need to be specifically targeting shoppers who are actually interested in your offerings.
💡TIP: eRank’s Spotted on Etsy tool shows which of your listings eRank found among the first 100 search results for a keyword. In addition, it lists the specific keywords that shoppers used to find your listings in Etsy search. This enables you to see how popular these keywords are and whether or not any are relevant to your niche, as well discover new keywords to use in your listings to refine your target audience.
Turn Views into Sales
If your Etsy shop is getting lots of traffic but struggling to convert those views into sales, don’t panic—you’re not alone. From seasonality to photo quality, pricing to processing times, there are many factors that influence a shopper’s decision to buy. The good news? Most of them are fixable.
Take time to assess your listings with fresh eyes and use eRank’s tools to uncover what’s working and what needs improvement. Whether it’s refining your keywords, checking how your pricing stacks up, or exploring competitor stats, eRank is here to guide you every step of the way.
✨ Need help figuring out where to start? Bookmark this blog and tackle one issue at a time. Small, consistent improvements can make a big difference in your shop’s performance.
➡️ Want even more tips? Subscribe to the eRank YouTube Channel and follow us on Threads for weekly insights, tutorials, and fresh updates designed to help your Etsy shop succeed.
You’ve got this—and we’ve got your back!
