How did you make your first sale?

[#1]

Hi there Daily Etsy Sellers!

Browsing through the members list of our team and looking at all your lovely shops, I started noticing we are a very diverse group of shop owners. Some of us have been on Etsy for years, others are just starting off and have yet to make their first sale.

Let's start a discussion on making that first sale. We all know it's that one magical moment, just that one sale, we're all eagerly waiting for when just starting out on Etsy.

So let's share!

It doesn't matter whether you only had a couple of sales or hundreds: please share your 'first sale' experience so new shop owners can be inspired.

Here are some questions that could help share your story with us.

- What things did you try to make that first sale? Share your hustle!
- What effort do you think ultimately triggered it?
- How much time passed between opening your shop and making that sale?
- What lessons did you learn from making that first sale?
- If you could do it all over, what would you do differently?
- What is your best piece of advice for new shop owners?
- What do you think is the best path to follow in order to get that first sale?

I can't wait to hear about it!

- Deb

[EntangledbyHeather]

Hello all! I am new to Etsy. I opened my shop about three weeks ago. I've made a few sales (one being my mom and the other two from my daughters friend mom), but I would love to branch out! Have any of you noticed that by listing your products on the team pages you have gotten increases in sales or moved up in rankings? I play around with tags constantly! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[CastoffTreasures]

My first sale took 5 weeks so I would say just be patient. And, do a lot of practice shopping to see the different ways to describe and photograph items you have to sell.
Hoping to make my 1000th sale today:)

[Former_Member]

Hi-
We are VERY new to Etsy - just finished our first few sales. Mom was our first customer. Because you know, she's the best.

[FairePartBedonaBebe]

.....

[NorthwestVintageUSA]

If I were the team leader, I would use this thread to indentify and remove the people who don't follow the rules. There are so many great teams like this one ruined by trolls who continue to cheat and self promote with out participating.

[Former_Member]

You read my mind, Tim and Shelly! I'm banning everyone who's posting their items here.

[FairePartBedonaBebe]

You are a good captain Debbie! Really glad you cleaned the post.

[juliettesdesigntr]

Hello Everyone,
I am from Turkey. I've been selling my handmade products for more than 6 years in several channel in Turkey and abroad. I got my first order from Etsy 6 month later than I opened my shop here in 2016. I still work very hard to learn about Etsy and rules of selling well.
I am open all your advices to increase my sales.
Thank you

[Former_Member]

I did not make any sales for a very long while. I decided to do some research and figured out that I was doing it all wrong. Once I revamped my titles and tags is when I finally got that first sale that took about a month thereafter.

[Former_Member]

My first sale was through the old BNR rooms we used to have.

[EstragonHelmer]

6 months in - mainly because I launched my shop with only 1 item, so I wasted the temporary boost in search results that new shops get.

I always offer the advice to anyone starting out now - get as many items listed as you can BEFORE launching your shop.

[KatzCornerBoutique]

I made the first sale after two weeks opening as I remember, and the first feedback from an Australian buyer. When I opened my shop, I made some of photo frames, cottage sachets and canvas arts, not long and I changed the product line to hessian and linen buntings. Wow…it has been long time since I made the first sale in 2013. Time flies!!

[waifgoods]

My very first Etsy sale came from a local buyer after seeing a news piece about my work. I was thrilled and encouraged. That was over ten years ago and Etsy has changed alot since then. I had steady but not massive sales activity through the years until I put my shop on vacation mode last year around this time. I took it out of vacation mode about eight weeks later and have not had one single sale since then. Not one....in almost a year! Wierd. What's up with that? I was paying a small amount for promotions and quit doing that to use those funds to pay for the Pattern website, which I do like and get a lot of views. It's someting I can send my craft show customers to. I am not into Facebook unless I can figure out how to do just a business page. I know I need better photos and need to promote etc, so yeah...lots too be done.

[LeesVintageJewels]

Hi everyone!

I made my first sale a week after I opened my shop (5 years ago). In my case, I was experimenting as I'd been trying to sell on Ebay with little success, so I just put out a small mix of items - I sell vintage jewelry and accessories and other vintage stuff, so I guess I just got lucky and made 2 sales pretty quickly.

I struggled a lot the first year and almost gave up a few times until I got some very good advice from a team leader of the first team I joined. I've learned a lot and although my sales are still not as steady as I'd like, the advice I got several years ago, when I remember to follow it, still works - so here it is, for what it's worth - my 2 cents!

TITLES: Should be what a Buyer would type in when searching for something. How would you look for something on the internet? Think how you would do a search for something you sell and then you can come up with titles that get people to your stuff.

DESCRIPTION: Must be Specific - Measurements, Weight, and any thing you can think of to describe the item so someone who is looking for it will know exactly what it is.

PHOTOS: Clear, Bright, Big - the item should Stand Out, not blend in with your background.

IF IT DOESN'T WORK - Change It - Whatever it is, don't be afraid to make changes to your listings if they don't sell - could you title it better? Do your Tags match your title? Do you have keywords from your title in the Description? Are your photos so so? Redo them.

It's work - but it should also be fun - Never Give Up and ask for help if you need it -

Good Luck to All!

Leora (Lee) Pevear

[Former_Member]

I don't know. when I was listing my Xmas items, It happend , I can remember that name. Josh!

[LENNYshop]

I opened my shop in March 2014 with 24 unique listings, all in one piece, as I thought Etsy is a place for unique things. I received my first sale exactly 1 month after that in April. Unfortunately, for a long time, I didn't want to believe, that unique products did not have much of a chance on Etsy, but once I realized that, sales were more regular.

[maryhawkins]

My first sale was to a friend I knew through the internet who also had an Etsy shop. She left me a very kind review and spread the word among her friends. Still, I didn't have many sales and was basically just learning how to photograph my products, do listings and social media, etc for a few months.

I got really busy for a month, was just shipping whatever people ordered and didn't pay much attention to the shop. When I game back to power up, I realized that the product that was selling the best was a weird thing that I really just made for me and didn't regard as part of my product line, but helped an underserved niche. I also realized that people wanted larger packs. I pivoted. Now I make a handful of sales each day and I have repeat business.

[DeeanasDesigns]

Oh my goodness, I just had to scroll back to remember! Things have changed sooo much. I would say for anyone just getting started, to be flexible and hang in there! I started with one vision that wasn't very clear and over time it completely changed but also became very clear. I sent out blasts to everyone I knew. While some people will tell you to get all your stuff together before the big launch, for me it was better to just jump in, because I'm the kind of person that would have never gotten it perfect and failed to ever jump. So just doing it was the best thing I could have done. Five years have gone by and I work full-time (plus) on this. Stay flexible, learn all you can about the platform, how to promote yourself and your business and be realize that there are enough buyers for everyone. God Speed everyone!!

[hollyzhobby]

I made my first sale back in 2009. Etsy used to have these chat rooms that were very engaging and a lot of fun. I actually used to purchase a lot more from that venue as well because people's shops and items were so much more visible then. I would find things I didn't even know I needed or wanted. This was how my shop became more visible as well and most of my quilts sold from those interactions and exposure. Once the chatrooms were removed, it basically took the wind out of my sails ( and sales).

[StuffFromJane]

Hi there!

My first sale (from a non family member) was back in October of 2017- about a week after I opened my shop! :) The piece that sold was a very unique bamboo beverage pitcher from Italy so I think its rarity is really what got me the sale so quickly! The customer also left me a 5 star review so if I could go back and change anything- I wouldn't haha.. it was an exciting, encouraging and great experience!

As a relatively new shop owner myself, the advice I'd give to true newbies is to remain positive, be patient & really utilize the Etsy teams pages!! :)

[3greensisters]

Hello

I really do not remember my first sale. We have had the shop for over 10 years now. It was not until three years ago that we decide it was time to
take ETSY seriously. We had a website on Shopify, which was not doing well and was expensive. We decide to transfer our products to ETSY, shut down Shopify, and use ETSY exclusively. We are still learning, but very hopeful. I spend hours a week on ETSY but our products are one of a kind,
which heightens the difficulty.

Best to all of you and good luck,

Suzanne
3 Green Sisters

[LadyLyBoutique]

My first sale was a vintage monogrammed handkerchief. It happened very quickly after opening my shop. My effort to make the sale was staging the item to get a good photo. My recommendation is to take good photos and promote you best items on various social medias. Also be sure that your prices are correct for the items and list more items to get more visibility. I would not change anything. Good luck everyone!

[FelixandFelicityShop]

I made my first sale by having good SEO and getting found through etsy search, however if you want tips on how to make more sales, here goes: I promote on Instagram (run giveaways, post coupon codes, post in stories and posts,and collaboration with other ig'ers), facebook (share my work in Facebook groups and have a business page), and pinterest (I pin to my personal page and about a dozen group boards and I try to do it DAILY.) Only 25% of my shop traffic is people finding me through etsy search. 36% of my traffic comes from pinterest, so that is where I focus most of my effort, but sellers have had success in all platforms, so you have to find what works best for you. Lastly, keep at it and don't get discouraged. It takes time to build up a successful business learn how to run an etsy shop and if you keep working at it and adding product to your shop, you will eventually make regular sales.

[standingoaccessories]

Hi everyone!

I own a jewellery shop and (as you can imagine) it was very hard to stand out amongst so many jewellery makers.

My first sale was exciting but also a little disappointing. It was one of the cheapest items I had posted and I had spent so much time taking the right pictures from different angles and showcasing the pieces as best as I could. The nice thing was that it was and international sale from the USA!

What I’ve learned is that images are very important. I now sell higher quality pieces than when I started, which really scared me at the time to invest in better products as I wasn’t sure people would pay the money. That’s why taking quality pictures is key. You cannot expect someone to pay the price of a good quality piece if the brand does not showcase the same aesthetic.

You have to believe in yourself and DO NOT undervalue you work. This is very important. Otherwise you are working for free and you won’t make it. You also bring the rest of the community down who are trying to make an honest living.

Furthermore, I did a lot of research and played around with the Etsy site to make sure my listing descriptions and keywords made me visible to the community. Think of what you would type in the search field to find an item. Find other makers and see what they’ve used or check the first theee pages of featured listing similar to your items and pay attention to how they’ve made their descriptions or keywords they’ve used.

Instagram is another great marketing tool. This is my key marketing platform and it helps a lot! I use shots for my shop and my Instagram to showcase my pieces. My handle is: standing_o_accessories

One other big tip is you have to make sure you have a good amount of listings to be found in the community. I noticed that when I had 70+ listings my sales went up.

And lastly, don’t be afraid to promote yourself! Have an email account, or a few? Add a link to your shop and what you do at the end of every email. You never know who will find it via email threads and click on the link.


Best of luck to everyone!!

- Sofija

[KnitbyEli]

My 1st sale was around 3 weeks after I opened my shop, I was very nervous but I received a great review. All my sales have been from strangers, I think because I give gifts to my family they haven't purchased my items.

It took me a while to get the hang of things such as shipping, listing items.

I don't dedicate as much time as I know I should on pictures and uploading new items.

I have had 13 sales on my Etsy shop and each one still makes me a bit nervous. For the 1st few years I was selling off line to people I know in person. I would give a gift to my children's teachers and they would order me more for their family member.

I have my shop as a hobby something I love to do but would love for it to go further in the future.

I have read other posts and will take their advice, see how it goes.