Look at your Policies and Shop Announcement
Does your Shop Announcement start with
"WELCOME TO MY SHOP! I'm so happy you stopped by! yada yada, etc, etc" ?
When you're writing your Shop Announcement, there's actually a little blip on that Etsy Admin page that shows how it's going to show up truncated in the Google search return summary. Think about how you search on things. In your search return of "60,472,371 items matched your search," if the summary doesn't clearly match what you're looking for, you don't go fishing to see if that particularly friendly online presence just happens to have what you were looking for. You only have a little space to make that first sentence or two work for you - make it count!
Go back to your target market, your "solution" and benefit that you figured out from those exercises. Remember the succinct 1-2 sentences we suggested you find to describe your "so what"? Here's where you use that. After you get that part written, then you can go into the other welcoming spiels that fit your style.
Have something really REALLY important to say? The kind of thing that you're sure is exactly what they were thinking about when they named that section "Shop Announcement"? Yeah - not so much. Something important like shipping times dramatically being altered, trips away from the shop that will delay filling orders, etc. Good to put here, but also include them in your listings. Surprisingly few people actually read the shop announcements and absorb the implications of what is said there... But it is a FANTASTIC place to get some solid keywords mentioned for your outside search results.
"FREE SHIPPING!!" is a great eye catcher in your announcement. But did you know it'll drop you from ranking in Google Shopping searches? Again - if you're using that as a draw to get people to buy, include it in your listing description BUT do it using synonyms. (ie never ever use the actual words "free shipping" - but "ships for no additional charge" would work just fine. Or "Postage paid". You get my drift.)
Coupons in your announcement are, as a practice, not picked up, either. True Story - last Christmas I did a discount AND a free shipping with a code I included in my banner and my announcement. Of 50+ orders, only 1 used it. It simply wasn't noticed.
POLICIES:
Beware of playing the "I am not responsible for ...." card.
There are certain things you are responsible for whether you claim that responsibility or not. There are other things that disowning responsibility as a preemptive measure just gives a potential customer the heeby-jeebies.
Not responsible if it's lost in the mail? Sorry - Etsy and Paypal will side with the customer who never gets the package almost every time. So you might as well put it up front that you're happy to work with them if there should be any trouble! (gosh, love that customer service!!!)
Long-winded explanations of refunding actual postage against estimated postage and the formula you use should be avoided at all costs! If you refund for over payment, keep the explanation simple and customer friendly.
When it comes to your policies, Look at some of the basics and put people at ease by showing you've thought about it and have a standard way of addressing it. There are some really great tips in these Etsy Blog posts:
https://blog.etsy.com/en/2012/service-tips-for-sellers-creating-policies-that-work/and some updated aspects for our European colleauges:
https://blog.etsy.com/en/2014/what-etsy-sellers-should-know-about-the-european-unions-new-online-sel...But the crux of the point is this - your Policies page should be filled in and it should be done with some thought. If yours is already good to go, awesome! If you did a perfunctory run when you opened shop (or didn't do anything at all), it's time to revisit that.
Looking forward to your updates, questions, and sharing!
