Researching the Research Tools
I’ve been learning a lot about the business side of running an Etsy store over the last couple of days. This post is about me trying to make sense of what I’ve learned and figuring out how I can apply it to my store.
One of the most important things I’ve learned is that successful Etsy sellers start by doing quantitive research up front. They use Etsy itself and an Etsy seller tool to figure out what sells at the moment. Then they design their product based on that plus their personal skills. They also base the product listing on their research.
What sells at the moment varies from month to month. But there are some parameters that stay the same over time:
Etsy’s algorithm favors listings that convert at a high rate
Product photos drive click-throughts and conversion rates
Etsy shoppers love customization and personalization
Stores with a story and photos sell better than those that are anonymous
New stores need to find ways of driving traffic to their store from outside Etsy
To get really specific, what succesful store owners don’t do, is to design a product that they like. Then list it with a couple of photos and hope it will sell. Which is pretty close to what I did with my latest listing for Scandinavian wildlife cards. That’s also what I was planning on doing for my Equinox cards. 🤦🏼♀️ Time for a new approach!
I already have a long list of things that I’ve been thinking I could sell. So I guess it’s time to enter it into one or more Etsy seller tools and see which one wins, if any. The first question is which tool or tools to choose.
Seems pretty professional and has lots of features. 14 day free trial and $20/month after that.
Not as fully featured as Marmalead but also $10 cheaper per month. Might be a good place to start. Free trial is only 3 days. OTOH I like their flat pricing structure.
Appears to be a useful tool to test out keyword ideas and improve listings. Three tiers at $6, $10 and $30/month. Some negative reviews about blinding users with data without helpful analysis.
If they haven’t already been sued by Atlassian over their logo, they will. That alone makes me skeptical of this company. They also have a freemium business model, something I’m not a huge fan on. Who knows. I may change my mind later. They do have some positive reviews.
I signed up for a free account, but it’s limited to 10 searches per month. They’re also pushing their upgrades pretty heavily, which puts me off.
Free tool to analyze your current tags. Useful supplement to more generative tools.
Not getting good vibes from this company.
They don’t accept Gmail addresses, so I guess they don’t really want my business. 🤷🏼♀️
I have RL business to take care of right now, but I’ll get back to this evaluation in my next post.