How to start selling on Etsy: a beginner's guide

Step 1: check that your idea fits Etsy

Etsy says its marketplace is for items made, designed, handpicked or sourced by the seller. Before you open a shop, Etsy points you to its rules on what you can sell, its Creative Standards, its Prohibited Items Policy and its seller policies, and asks you to confirm you are in a location where Etsy Payments is available. Read them for your category, because a listing that breaks a rule is a problem you can avoid at the start.

Etsy does not require a business license to sell, but you still have to follow the laws that apply to a small business selling online where you live. What that means for you, taxes included, is a question for a qualified local professional.

Step 2: open the shop

You need an Etsy account first, and you must set the shop up in a desktop web browser at etsy.com/sell, not in the app. After that you can manage it from the seller app. The setup asks for:

• Shop language: the language you describe items in. You cannot change it later (you can add translations), so pick one you are comfortable replying to buyers in.
• Country and currency: the country you run the shop from and the currency you price in. Currency conversion fees may apply if your bank's currency differs.
• Shop name: 4 to 20 characters, no spaces or special characters, no profanity, not already taken, and no trademark infringement. You can change it after opening.
• Payments and billing: connect a bank account to be paid, and add a debit or credit card to pay your Etsy bills.

Step 3: build your first listing

The listing form has seven tabs: photos and video, category, item details, item options, pricing and delivery, how it is made, and settings. The parts that decide whether anyone finds and buys it:

• Photos and video: up to 20 photos and 2 videos of 5 to 15 seconds each.
• Title: up to 140 characters. Etsy advises using fewer than 15 words, stating clearly what the item is and its key details, and avoiding repetition.
• Tags: up to 13. Use phrases a buyer would type when searching for something like your item.
• Renewal: choose whether listings renew automatically when they expire. Each listing has a fee, so know which you picked. Our fees guide shows what that costs.

Step 4: take photos that work

Etsy recommends listing photos of at least 2,000 pixels wide and tall. The first photo should be at least 635 pixels or it can show up lower in search, and it should be horizontal or square, because it sets the shape of the thumbnail and the photos that follow it. Etsy supports .jpg, .gif, .png, .svg and .heic files, but not animated GIFs or transparent PNGs (transparent areas turn black), and images over 1 MB may not finish uploading on a slow connection.

What a good set of photos shows is covered in Etsy views but no sales: 7 things to check: scale, the item in use, real colour and the details a buyer would otherwise ask about.

Step 5: price it so you make money

This is where new sellers lose the most. Your price has to cover materials, packaging, your time and Etsy's fees, and the fees come out of the price you set. Work it backwards from the margin you want, as in how to price Etsy products without losing money, and check a real order in the Etsy Profit Calculator. If Offsite Ads are on, remember they take a further share of orders they bring in.

Step 6: be found, then be bought

Search brings visitors, and photos, price and trust turn them into buyers. A new shop has no reviews, so expect a slow start and do not change everything at once. If you get visits but no orders, the seven checks in the views-but-no-sales guide go in order from cheapest to most expensive to fix.

A first-month checklist

1. Confirm your items are allowed and that Etsy Payments works where you are.
2. Open the shop on a desktop browser, with a shop language you are happy to keep.
3. Connect your bank account and add a card for fees.
4. Photograph each item at 2,000 pixels or more, landscape or square first.
5. Write a clear title under 15 words, and use all 13 tags.
6. Price each item backwards from the margin you want, with fees in.
7. Decide on renewal and on Offsite Ads with your numbers in front of you.
8. Check the stats after a couple of weeks and change one thing at a time.