The first thing anyone will see when finding you on Etsy.com is your store front. Setting up an eye-catching store front is fun and easy. Your store should represent your brand in such a way that people want to buy from you. It should make the shopper feel trusting, excited, and ready to spend money with you.
Tell Your Story
Your story about how you started and why you do what you do should be focused toward the customer. As you tell your story, try to put yourself into the shoes of your customer so that you can see things through their eyes. Remember, it’s always about the customer. Even your story is about the customer.
Study Your Competition
Yes, it’s okay. Go take a look. You need to study everything you can about your competition. Look at the images, the words, and consider the feelings they evoke as you shop their store. What do you like? What do you dislike? What can you do better?
Differentiate Yourself
You cannot differentiate yourself without studying your competition. Once you do that, find ways in which you can stand out. Can you stand out in design, photography, copywriting, product and service? If you can, do so. Don’t try to stand out in price because it’s always better to compete with quality than price on Etsy. Etsy buyers aren’t looking for bargains. They’re looking for uniqueness.
Know Your Audience
You must get to know who your audience is, and which people within your audience are the actual buyers. You will have browsers within your audience who do not purchase, and then a small subset who will purchase. Who are these people? What can you learn about them, and how can you best serve them?
Build Relationships with Your Customers
Believe it or not, part of wowing people with your Etsy store front is to wow them on the backend. Provide the best customer service you can so that you can get high ratings. People trust you when you get good feedback and heart-felt testimonials on your page.
Choose a Relevant Username
It might be too late, since Etsy usernames cannot be changed, but if you’ve not started yet, give some thought to how your username and store name can relate. Just because a username is available doesn’t mean the store name is. Keep that in mind as you move forward. The username is important as it will evoke a feeling or thought in the mind of your customer. What does your username make them think about?
Hook Your Audience into Your Store
Capture your audience’s attention with your words, images and products. Even your shipping policies will evoke certain feelings about you and your store. Plus, you do not want to list every item you have to sell all at once. If someone has favored your store and you then add a new product, they will be notified. You want to continually be adding products to your store over time so that you get repeat visitors.
Don’t Cheap Out on the Photography
It might be hard for you to do it, but either learn how to take good product photos or hire someone to do it for you. You might be surprised to learn that you can hire students from your local school inexpensively. Many photographers are happy to charge a bit less for regular gigs. But, you can also learn how to take good photos yourself by reading about how to take product photos.
By treating your Etsy shop like you would a live store front, you’ll create an eye-catching store front that will entice many people through your doors to an enchanted shopping experience that they will not soon forget.
