Marketing Tip: I do not have a social media presence so I tried out Etsy's Marketing scheme. I can tell you from this experience that it is NOT a good deal for sellers and, if you are using their marketing, you should take a long hard look at what you're buying. I have not done a complete study and, of course, I don't have access to Etsy's data, but my experience running Etsy shops with around $15K annually in sales, is that this has been a money loser for me as a seller.
The marketing scheme is under "Marketing" and it is the Etsy Ads tab. You can set your daily spending limit at the very beginning. Here is the one crushing drawback: These ads only appear to people who are already logged into the Etsy app. They do not reach an audience wider than that. Period. (If this changes and you find that out, please post the information here so we can reassess.)
In 2024, on 3 separate months, Etsy collected hundreds of dollars more than we made and there was very little to no return on this investment. I ran some rough numbers and our traffic increased slightly but our sales were unchanged when we were running this marketing scheme.
If you have social media, pursue that. But I recommend that sellers steer clear of the Etsy Ads as they scrape your sales for a very limited to literally no return on this investment.
I recently started a Pattern online web site on Etsy. Cheap price for an online website. Going to test it out against Shopify which I am still building. Hoping to have Etsy customers switch over to my Pattern site which would greatly reduce my Etsy fee costs. Plan on putting an insert into all my shipped packages directing them to my Pattern site. Interestingly, Pattern & Etsy share inventory data so that if I sell a one-of-a-kind item, I don't have to worry about it sold again on the other platform as item is already gone. And when I post a new item in Etsy it automatically loads into my Pattern site too. But you have the option of running different items in Etsy and Pattern if you wish. My original thought was to use Pattern for my wholesale site. Now thinking, sell wholesale on both sites, see how it goes. Much cheaper than selling on Wholesale Central.
About me. I typically run 300 or more items on Etsy, couple hundred more on eBay. Just lost 300 listings on Etsy deleted because of a tech problem Etsy had with Google Cloud. Slowly relisting items. Setting up a Shopify store presently. Already started a Pattern store on Etsy. Sell about a $1,000 a week now across all platforms but hope to grow. I also have a small store in a mini mall in Yuma Az with 20 other small shops. I sell a myriad of items but mostly focusing on handmade artisan items from Mexico most of which I have made by local artisans. I am in Mexico weekly with my vendor, artisan, and artist friends. Current project is setting up a wholesale category which will be populated soon across all my platforms. Background: Lived in communes, road with Sin City Riders, had head shops, former boxer, bouncer.
Customer Service Tip: I try to shop Etsy when I can. It is important that we support each other. That said, I have never received an order confirmation from any shop. As a customer myself, I know I feel a lot better when I know that my order was received and what is going to happen next.
When an order drops into my shops, I have a prepared form letter that thanks the person for shopping with us. (I cut and paste the customer name into the form letter from the Etsy order form.) It states that "we are getting your order ready to ship." and gives information about what they can expect in terms of time, shipping, notices, and etc. It is especially important if they ordered something that needs a signature on delivery. This is followed by a paragraph that tells them that if they have any questions, concerns, or issues, to please message me and I will do everything in my power to get them the answers they need.
I have written a process document that covers exactly what I do when an order is received. It is not difficult or over long but if anyone wants a copy I would be happy to send it or even post it somewhere that this group could access. I can also post a sample confirmation letter if that would be something the group is interested in.