Etsy Insights: Using discounts to help meet your business goals | Etsy Success

AllTheAmazingThings · 2022-12-06T19:12:57.083000Z

Hi there! I’m Stacey, and I’m a staff product designer working on the Shop Opportunities team here at Etsy. I design features to help enable, guide, and make it easier for sellers to grow their businesses on Etsy through new and improved tools and personalized recommendations about reaching more buyers and getting more orders. With all that said, I’m excited to share some tips around the best ways to help grow your business with discounting. Did you know that you have a toolbox full of strategies you can use to meet your business goals? One of those tools is discounting. Discounts, coupons, and other kinds of special offers can help you catch shoppers’ attention, clear out unsold inventory ahead of the new year, and encourage holiday shoppers to keep coming back. Today I want to break down the discounting tools available on Etsy as well as share some tips for making discounting part of your marketing strategy. Factoring discounts into your pricing strategy Before creating your discounting strategy, you should first know your profit margin. This helps you understand how much profit you make from each item you sell. It’s common for a new business to have a lower profit margin as they’re starting out and spending more on customer acquisition (often through advertising and discounts), and then to see an increase in profit margin as they grow. Learn more about determining your profit margin in the Seller Handbook and be sure to check out our handy profit margin and pricing worksheet. Different discounts for different business goals Etsy offers a few different tools that let you offer discounts to your customers. Plus, many of these tools let you set up discounts and offers that can be sent automatically to your customers—taking one more thing off your to-do list! Want to build buyer loyalty? Try a thank you coupon. Thank you coupons let you offer your customers a discount on their next purchase in your shop. They’re automatically sent to buyers after their order ships. Sending this kind of discount can help you build buyer loyalty after their initial purchase and start a lasting relationship with the customer. You can offer a discount of anywhere from 5 to 70% off, a fixed dollar amount (like $5 off your order), or free shipping. Create a thank you coupon Want to turn browsers into buyers? Try abandoned cart or recently favorited offers. Encourage potential customers to convert by automatically sending them a discount. Etsy’s targeted offers tool lets you create a discount that can be automatically sent to shoppers who recently favorited one of your items, or shoppers who added an item from your shop to their cart but didn’t check out. Just like a thank you coupon, you have multiple options for the type of offer you send, so you can choose the option that works best with your profit margin. Create a targeted offer Want to clear out excess inventory or capitalize on seasonal traffic? Put items on sale! Unlike a coupon or promo code, sales are a little less targeted—they’re visible to anyone who visits your shop. Discounting specific products is a great way to clear out excess inventory so you can focus on your best sellers. Running a sale during peak shopping occasions like Cyber Week can also help you take advantage of increased traffic to Etsy. Start a sale Note: As an Etsy Seller, pricing is at your sole discretion. This means that you are responsible for making your own pricing decisions and are free to set prices as you wish. That said, remember there are also legal considerations to be aware of around pricing and discounting. Sellers cannot mislead consumers on discounted prices. The original price has to be a true price that was in practice for a substantial amount of time, so you can’t artificially increase a price and cut it down just to make it look like you’re running a sale.

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Etsy Insights: Using discounts to help meet your business goals | Etsy Success | Etsy Community