Marketing - Sales, Discounts and Offers 11/16/2025
Let's share our Marketing with Etsy experiecence.
There are several types of sales, discounts and offers that can be set up that can drive business to your shop. When you see so many items in buyers carts or you notice several items trending with views and likes and saves, do you act on that or do you just say, oh that is nice?
Offering a discount, even a small one, 10% might bring that buyer to purchase your item. For abandoned carts, Etsy offers to mail a coupon, that you set up, to the buyer. You can stop and start these as you want and see if they bring in a sale. We let etsy mail these for a few days, then stop them and watch to see if we have actions on them. The last two yielded 5 sales.
On offers/ Coupons, we have several repeat buyers and we setup a THANK YOU coupon for them for a small discount to use when they purchase their next item. So far this coupon has had no takers, it is applicable for 1 calendar year.
On Sales, I run an end of quarter sale with 10 - 15% off for 7 day cycle on selected items that meet my marketing criteria and there is some business from that, but not much unless the discount is over 20% and that is only on my high profit items that I can do that.
SO, what do you do and what is your success rate on Marketing with Etsy sales and Discounts?
Have a great selling season
Lifestoriess
·9 months agoHi all, I am new here and bit late to the game to this discussion.
My shop is on sale almost everyday for the whole year. Different products will be on sale at 20% or more depending on the season at different times. I often use the strategy of setting a 24 hour sale even though the sale is stretch to a few weeks long. This creates urgency to customers that really want the product an place order straight away without hesitation. I find this strategy work every time.
It's great to be here in this group to learn about other seller's strategy that I can adapt to my shop.
SundazeDesignsUS
·9 months agoAt SundazeDesignsUS.etsy.com im doing 35% off until Christmas!!
JewelBoxAndAttic
·9 months agoEtsy always suggests discounts of 25% on sale items. If I did that I wouldn't make a profit. I run a 10% sale at Xmas time. My marketing strategy is to sell at a fair price and sometimes a little less than competing products. Buyers use my Thank You Coupon regularly, but I've never had success with the Abandoned Cart Coupon. I might try it again, at your suggestion.
TheCollectaholic
OP9 months agoWe have been doing the cart coupon in December and had 4 sales from it. SO, it can work and it cannot. I stopped sending after the third sale as I started to see an increase in people putting items in carts for the holidays. It is good to see that it is working for you. BUT I agree 25% and the fees make that a percent that is almost impossible to do, unless you are raising your price beforehand. I have seen that, a shop running a 50% off but the starting prices were unrealistic and at 50% they are in range.
TheCollectaholic
OP10 months agoWe are doing the Cyber sale for 15% and have had six sales from it. We also did two abandoned carts in the past 15 days so they still are valid. Since November 20, we had 26 sales. I am not good at math to figure out the percent but less than 2%. Yes it brought in sales and yes, it cost me a little but It gave my shop exposure, I think.
uncostumed
·10 months ago · EditedIf coupons are not being sent out consistently when they should, does anyone message all their potential customers that favorited their items or shop (you can't tell whom has and hasn't received a coupon and you can't see who abandoned their carts) in case they didn't receive a coupon? If so, what do you say to not sound desperate or spammy?
In the same vein, I've been told the best tool to convert potential customers to actual or repeat customers is to set up a newsletter. Does anyone collect customer emails for this purpose? Does Etsy allow this? What are the rules?
TheCollectaholic
OP10 months agoI thought I replied to this but can not find it. So I think reaching out to customer outside of Etsy is not appropriate but I am not sure of Etsy Rule and I feel it is spamming. Sending through Etsy from an order might be ok. I am a one time buyer and would not want a seller sending me coupons and newsletters UNLESS I asked.
uncostumed
·10 months ago · EditedI was totally wrong. I just learned ( https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036985673-Why-Aren-t-My-Targeted-Offers-Sending-to-Shoppers?segment=selling ) one reason a seller may have fewer item favorited or abandoned cart coupons sent than their number of favorited items or abandoned carts is customers may not be receiving target coupons is because they opted out of targeted ads. That means sending them a friendly coupon message through Etsy after they liked your item may not be appropriate. I'm glad I have never done this. While your comment was not directly tied to this, it got me thinking/researching. Thank you. I love how we are all supporting each other to be our best.
For anyone who's looking for something to read: The above link explains in detail how targeted offers work and when and when not they are sent to customers.
uncostumed
·10 months ago · EditedI know I'm replying to myself (LOL), but I just visited the shop of a former staff member and in their about section text they had a Mailchimp link. The about section is more flexible and allows more emojis and direct links where as other places in your shop do not. If anyone wanted to offer a newsletter to collect customer info so you don't lose it in the event that you close/move/expand this seems like a legit and unobtrusive way to offer it. That way things can be more seamless for your customers and you can be in control of your customer list vs someone else.
TheCollectaholic
OP10 months agoWell - I launched another abandoned cart coupon, my second. I just check, as a sale came in from it, and now I see that the coupon sent in October, my first, has netted over 200$ in sales with 6 sales from it. It was a 15% off. The second coupon has netted 1 sale at 45$ in revenue. SO, it is working as designed. BUT I have stopped the send to see what happens over this selling season.
lchinault
·10 months agoI offer discounts for abanded carts, thank you's and favorites. I do a craft Booth twice a year , and pass out a lot of business cards I get calls for custom items
OneStopTreasureHunt
·10 months agoI rarely run sales, but I do offer coupons for items in customers' carts and for repeat customers. Approximately 25% of my sales include a coupon for items in the cart.
PinkCoyoteJewelry
·10 months agoI offer discount coupons and run sales. The powers-that-be often forget to send coupons. My other point is that buyers forget to look for coupons.