Etsy is a huge online marketplace for handmade goods. If you make things by hand, you've probably heard of it. You can sell almost anything on Etsy, as long as it's not mass-produced.
In this article, Anastasia an entrepreneur from Chelyabinsk shares with us how she made $24 000 on her Etsy store called Veresk, which allowed her to get a comfortable living while doing what she loves.
How I Got Started on Etsy and My Initial Struggles
Back in 2019, I lost my job at a bank and felt pretty down. I wasn't sure what to do next. One day, I remembered how much I enjoyed drawing and decided to do it just for fun, to keep myself sane.
I started by painting pictures of flowers because I liked the freedom of not worrying about rules and perfection — I just wanted to create something beautiful. As I painted more and more, I wondered what to do with all these artworks. That's when I got the idea to try selling them for a small price. That's when I found out about Etsy.
I signed up, came up with a store name, connected PayPal, added a little bit of info, and put up one or two products. Then I waited for sales. After three months of feeling hopeless and not even checking my store, I heard a cha-ching sound from my phone — an Etsy notification telling me I'd sold a painting.
My first sale brought in $100 for a painting that was 50 x 60 cm. It might not have been much, but it made me dance with happiness! Truth be told, I actually lost money on that sale — $40 for shipping and packaging, and $70 for materials. But with time, I got better at figuring out the right prices for my art.
I realized that I needed to pay more attention to how my store looked and how I listed my products. I read a lot, started learning English so I could communicate with customers, and worked on improving my store. But the biggest thing I learned was that people wanted affordable art.
What Is Cheap Art and How I Made a Profit
Art comes in all shapes and sizes, and art made by professionals can be expensive. But not everyone is looking for that kind of art. That's where my target audience came in. They wanted art that wouldn't break the bank, something unique to decorate their homes without spending a fortune.
The prices for my paintings started at $165 for smaller sizes, going up to $900 for larger pieces. A majority of my customers, around 60%, were from North America. About 35% were from Europe, and the rest came from places like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UAE. In those countries, the average salary ranges from $1 300 to $2 500, so buying a painting at those prices wasn't a big issue for them.
Cheap art doesn't mean it's bad or won't become valuable over time. The only difference is that it might not be widely recognized in the art world when you're selling it. I always used high-quality materials for my paintings, and that was one of my strong points.
Growing My Store
As I got more into the art world, I started studying painting, taking courses from professional artists, and making my work better. I didn't stop there — I thought about what else I could offer to customers to boost sales.
Here's what I did to move forward.
Etsy Ads
In the beginning, not many people were visiting my store. So, I tried using Etsy Ads, which is a way to advertise within Etsy. It's easy to set up — you pick the products you want to promote and set a daily budget. It really helped me at first, but later on, it became less effective because my products were already showing up at the top of search results.
Here are my ad stats from October 2020 to October 2022.
You have received $680 from your Etsy Ads campaign
Views: 92 177 Clicks: 1 347 Orders from the advertising campaign: 5
Your budget was $3 when you stopped the advertising campaign, so you spent $315.61 on advertising.
Selling Small Items
Some Etsy users liked my work but couldn't buy a full painting for different reasons. Some didn't have enough space or money, while others wanted smaller pieces for gifts. That's when I came up with the idea of painting tiny pictures on magnets and selling them for $25 each.
People loved them and sometimes bought one, and other times bought several at once. For example, one customer ordered 14 magnets for $350 to give as wedding gifts.
These magnets also helped boost my store's ranking on Etsy. The more sales you have, the higher your products show up in search results. Thanks to the magnets, my products started appearing on the first pages of Etsy's search, which brought in more visitors and sales. Although I only made $1 860 from magnets over two years, they had a big impact on my store's visibility.
Using Pinterest
Just relying on Etsy's search wasn't enough, so I decided to promote my products on Pinterest. I heard it's a great platform for promoting stores and websites. I posted pictures of my paintings and created appealing boards. This led to a 50% increase in visits and orders.
Here are the visit statistics for all time:
Visits due to Etsy: 51% Visits due to you: 49%
The best part was that it was free traffic, and it kept bringing in new customers without me having to do much.
Quality Photos and Search Optimization
None of the other strategies would have worked if I didn't have good photos and proper tags, titles, and descriptions for my products. In an online business, photos are crucial. Since customers can't physically see the items, the photos need to leave no doubts. That's why I took realistic pictures of my paintings on walls and close-up shots to show details.
I spent time finding the right tags, analyzing stats, and choosing the best ones. My English skills helped me write better tags than translation tools. If an Etsy store isn't getting traffic, often the issue is with the tags, titles, and descriptions.
Building Store Reputation
A positive store reputation matters a lot. People are more likely to buy from a store with good reviews. Throughout my time, I had only one bad review out of many five-star ones.
The bad review was because a buyer misunderstood what they were purchasing:
I always aimed to be polite and resolve conflicts in favor of the buyer. I made sure orders were shipped on time and even helped customers with customs tax information.
My availability and commitment to customer satisfaction led to repeat business and positive feedback.
Income and Expenses
Let's discuss the financial side of things. My Etsy store was up and running from May 2019 to February 25, 2022. During this time, I officially earned $24 000 on Etsy. On top of that, I made around $10 000 from orders originating in Russia. However, these Russian orders aren't factored into the store's official statistics since they were paid directly to my card and didn't go through Etsy or PayPal. This happened because you can't place orders on Etsy if both the seller and buyer are from Russia.
Visits: 46 000 Orders: 142 Advertising Effectiveness Metric: 0,3% Revenue: $24 086,24
For now, I'll focus on the numbers related to Etsy so that we can better understand how expenses and income relate. There are fixed costs associated with Etsy, including a 5% transaction tax, a $0.20 listing fee, and an extra 1.5% VAT calculated based on the transaction tax. For instance, if someone buys a $100 product from me, the transaction tax is $5, and the additional 1.5% VAT on that would be $0.075.
There's also a VAT that the buyer pays, which is deducted at the time of purchase and shows up as a negative amount on the monthly statement. For example, if a product costs $100 and the VAT is $15, my actual earnings would be $115, but the statement would show — $15, which I need to pay later.
Let's talk about expenses using data from 2021. I earned $7 133 during that year, which was a decrease of $3 500 or 30% compared to 2020.
Visits: 21 700 Orders: 44 Advertising Effectiveness Metric: 0,2% Revenue: $7 132,5
Out of that, I paid Etsy a total of $1 063:
Advertisement: -$32,20
Tax: -$368,95
Transaction: -$350,65
VAT (Value Added Tax): -$115,71
Advertising and Promotion: -$194,70
After considering all these costs, my net income was $6 070. However, it's important to note that this isn't exactly the net income since I haven't factored in expenses for materials and delivery. To give you a clearer picture, here are a few examples:
- Medium-sized paintings: Canvas — $12,5, oil paint — $10, delivery — $14,5. These paintings typically sold for $200 to $380.
- Magnets: Each canvas magnet costs $0,5 for the base and around $1 for paint. Delivery always came out to $3,5. I sold these magnets for $25 each.
- Large custom paintings: Handmade canvases from the St. Petersburg workshop "Dragonfly" measuring at least 100 centimeters cost $35 for the canvas and $36 for paint. The selling price ranged from $365 to $730 on average, with an average delivery cost of $10.
The Current Situation with the Store
Now, as for the current situation with my Etsy store, it got blocked on February 25, along with many other Russian stores. The day before, PayPal announced it was leaving Russia, making it impossible for me to receive money. Unlike in other countries, Etsy hadn't introduced its own payment system, Etsy Payments, in Russia. This led to the suspension of all Russian stores indefinitely.
Your account is suspended.
Over the past six months, Russian Etsy sellers tried various methods to overcome this, such as setting up stores through Turkish addresses, using fake documents, buying new stores through intermediaries, and more. However, no single solution has been successful for everyone. Some managed to open new stores that worked, while others got banned shortly after their first sale.
Despite the challenges, I'm not giving up and plan to try opening a new store soon. I'll share my experiences and what I've learned in a separate article.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, let me put it this way: what matters most is that the business I adore has earned me a decent income. I didn't have to stress about money, though I didn't become a millionaire. The key takeaway is that Etsy is a platform that can turn your hobbies into a source of extra money, just like it did for me.
