How did you make your first sale?

[#1]

Hi there,

Making my first sale to a complete stranger was such an indescribable feeling. Up until then, all of my customers had been friends or family members. As soon as I saw the order, I immediately texted my best friend and then rushed to ship the item out.

How did you make your first sale to a stranger? I’m working on a potential article for the Seller Handbook, and I want to hear from you. Was there a turning point in your shop that led to it? Maybe you had an epiphany about how to shoot better product photos or perhaps you revamped your titles and tags. Or maybe you changed course and started selling a new product. Whatever the change, big or small, tell us about what led to your first sale.

If I’m interested in learning more about your experience, I’ll reach out to you directly. Excited to hear your stories and tips!

Thanks y’all,
Tess

[FeltsBazaar]

Hi Im from Puerto Rico
I do not sale nothing but I opened a days ago
I really very anxious for find followers and can sell my creations
Some of my Creations here Please share Thanks
All Orders Free shipping and a Free keychain ;)
Contact Me for more details Cushions/Pillows for special Gifts

https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/524735221/cojin-personalizado?ref=listing-shop-header-1

https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/510981454/llavero-o-colgante-retrovisorkeychain-or?ref=listing-shop-...

https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/510922580/cojines-personalizados-custom-cushions?ref=listing-shop-he...

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone,

it took me approx 2 weeks after opening my shop for my first sale. and that sale was made by a friend, who admires my work all the time.
but after that i am just waiting for new orders. Its almost 7th week now from i opened my shop. Everyday i try to learn new ways to promote my shop and listing. and doing everything i can do.
i click my product picture with so much effort and try represent my picture in unique way.
please suggest me any advice and do critique. i will take it gladly.

Thank you so much all of you..:) :)

[TheFaithfulNest]

So Happy to hear all the inspiring stories! I opened my shop about a month ago officially, and I have not sold to any perfect strangers yet! Still trying to get some traffic, but my listings are going up slowly, so I am thinking I need more of them to seem credible. Please take a peek and if you like my items and favorite my shop I would appreciate the love!! Every little bit counts :)
Happy Tuesday <3

[AlisonsGemstones]

my first sale on easy was about a month after I opened my shop and was to a friend, haha. I was so excited to see a sale there!! The next one came about 4 weeks later and was to a stranger and was absolutely thrilling. I don't spend nearly enough time promoting and still find the majority of my sales come from vendor shows but thats ok. Slowly and surely building an audience using Facebook and instagram and enjoying creating with my gemstones!! Ps the Teams and cross promoting help lots!!

[ClothChapel]

When I sold my first item ( a bonnet) I wasn't so 'social-addicted' I'm right now. :))) I read articels and advices, of course, but I mostly concentrate on my own feelings ... I never sold anything for friends and relatives (they didn' t even know what I am doing or if they know it, didn't understand it), but I agree that they could push up the nr. of sells ... But for me the real feedback is then a stranger love your products and want them.
Never enough to write new advices about methods and tricks of selling based on real experiences. I love them! Exellent idea!

[ClothChapel]

/Just an addition of my previous post / I'm not a tipically 'one-product-type' seller. My first products was the gloves, but suddenly I sold a bonnet :) ( as I mentioned before). So then, if I stopped to create gloves concentrating just on bonnets, selling them all, I could push my selling nr., but never know how my gloves, hats, bracelets, etc works. I don't regret giving chance for other kind of products, but curious about similar souls like me: how they could manage so many kind of products with all of their social-media-trend-hashtags-craziness. :))) Waiting for this new article, I hope finding more wise things about this kind of sellings.

[ClothChapel]

Aw, just one more, but very very important notice for those who are desperate! I've got my first sale after moooooooore than one year after I opened my shop. So, take it easy! Do your best and then rest! :)

[KanelliAccessories]

I have my first sale today! :) after one month on Etsy.

[Former_Member]

not yet

[Former_Member]

I had my first sale 2 weeks after opening my shop from a complete stranger. It was very unexpected as I was thinking I would get my first sale may be after 4 months. The order was completed very satisfactorily. Now waiting for my next sale.

[SportyTreasures]

I opened my shop in Nov. 2016, had only one thing listed for almost 2 months. I was busy making things to add to my shop, took pictures as best I could and February was my official opening. I have not gotten a sell yet and half of my listings have expired. I will renew some items that got more views, hoping this will help. Any advise is greatly appreciated. The first sell is always the hardest!

[TheFabricScore]

My first sale came from my sister. I hadn't talked to her in awhile and let her know that I had recently opened an Etsy shop. I really had no thought that she would buy something and was very surprised when I saw she did. It was good that it was her, because suddenly I was confronted with "now what do I do?" and might have been in panic mode otherwise. So my first customer was also my most forgiving.

[CCsSoapinaPouch]

My fist sale was also from my sister. She surprised me! Soon after that I made a sale to an unknown customer in Maryland and she has been a faithful customer ever since. My sister has been an inspiration to me. She was the one who convinced me to open an Etsy shop. I wish I had opened it when she first told me about it. I would have been much more ahead by now. But such is life. I am happy and blessed to be part of the Etsy community. I have learned so much here and have met many wonderful people. I have customers who are starting to feel like family members now!

[joeyandaleethea]

My first sale was in 2006, way back in the early days of Etsy. It was a custom order, so the customer contacted me via convo and requested some very specific items, none of which I had in stock. So I had to go out to BabiesRUs and purchase a mauve baby onesie and other items for her so that I could embroider them. While driving there I really thought I was on a wild goose chase -- and I thought if I took too long to get to the store or to reply to her convo that I would lose my first potential sale. So until she paid I was biting my nails! Then when she actually checked out of my shop and paid for her item, I was ecstatic!! Then the nail biting began again until she left her feedback for me. It was a great experience and from there I improved upon my process, photos, listing description, SEO, built a website, joined several teams, etc. You know, to keep me busy and proactive instead of nail-biting between sales. It worked out pretty nicely!

[ApuDApu]

My first sale happened within 1 week since i opened the shop on etsy.
it was an incan sun calendar pendant necklace bought by a costumer in north america. It made me very happy and i still remember with pleasure that moment of joy. When i saw that email saying "congrats, costumer xxx bought your item", i literally jumped off the chair. Athat time i had 10 or 13 items in my shop and items were only payable on paypal. it was the beginning. Now i improved a lot, i almost feel shame on me for such low design items i had in the beginning.

[Zeldasbuttons]

I joined Etsy in 2007, when no one had heard of it, few people were selling on it, but it looked interesting. It's hard to remember how fast the first sale was, but I'm sure it took a while. When I told people that I was selling buttons on Etsy, they would always ask "What's Etsy?" My husband was the one who thought I should sell buttons online. I collected buttons for myself and never thought about selling them. One day we were at a garage sale, and the man told me (after my husband asked if he had any buttons,) that he had a box full. When I looked at them, they were sewing buttons from the 1970's, all in paper bags with the color and year stamped on them. I asked my husband what he thought I would do with regular buttons, since I was a "collector," and he said, "You could sell them online!" When I looked for a website where I could sell them, I did a search and found Etsy. I practically gave away the buttons, but was soon out of certain colors, so I started looking for other buttons to add to my shop. I took three years off starting in 2014, but started again this year. It's a slow start, but I'll keep adding buttons, and now I'm selling some of my collectible buttons too.

[KrupaParanjape]

After working for more than 12 years in a home furnishing industry as a textile designer then a consultant and colorist I decided to take a break from my 9 - 5 job when I met my love in 2009 who was living in California.

I was going to move to a new country leaving a successful career behind and was going to be on a dependent visa ! looking at it as an opportunity to sit back & relax from the hectic routine really helped in getting where I am now.Still have a long way to go ..but getting there slowly!

When I had work permit & my business license in place I first started selling locally through Cranberry Hill mercantile a craft mall in sunnyvale,Ca.
My products got great appreciation & sales were good as well and that is when one of the members at the store suggested that I should sell through etsy.
All excited started my shop in Feb 2015.
I created a fb page and told my family and friends about it.

I did not sell till Nov 2015! although my stats looked good.

I was convinced that selling online is not my cup of tea & I should stick to selling locally as I had great response there. I was all set to give up on my etsy shop and just then saw an email from etsy with sub : congratulations on your first sale !
My first sale happened after 9 months and I was back into action just in time for Holidays :)
I still feel it is much easier selling in person than online ..but I am getting there and not giving up learning the tricks of the trade!

For every one out who have not yet made there first sale ..just hang in there and don't give up!

Thank you etsy team for all the support and great emails with cool tips !

[Former_Member]

I actually just made my first sale last week to a friend, and they gave me a really nice review which I'm hoping will help me to get my first sale to a stranger :)

[MARLEstore]

I opened my shop again on May 8 this year. First sale I got four days later. It was very big surprise, because I know, I am not the only one, who offers embroideries.
I follow Etsy in my phone app and always, when I have a sale, there is a sound like cash mashine has opened. For first time I got scared, because I didn know, what that sound was. But know its my favourite sound and it makes me smile.

[Former_Member]

My first sale was from a person on Instagram. They visited my page and purchased a choker. I packaged it that night and shipped it out in the morning. Never received a review or herd a word back.
Just joined the Etsy Teams so hopefully this works for the both of us!
-Josh

[handmadeByArtita]

Hello and from me! i have a good- 10 years- experience of craft fairs,festivals,wholesale trade shows etc ....but no online experience at all.
i am a new seller on etsy :)
i start to set up my shop before a month and my first sale came before 10 days by a stranger, a young arabic student who lives in usa.This exotic beautiful girl gave me a Newfound Happiness!

[DeepSeaDayDreams]

well, my real first sale was a year ago and i kind of fell out of managing my shop and let everything expire :( but in the past month or two ive gotten back into it and gradually renewed all my listings (ive read that etsy favors active shops so i thought staggering my renewals might help with seo) Ive also started actively posting on my facebook and instagram pages. I dont get a lot of interest on facebook asides from friends and family but i get a decent amount of activity on my instagram posts. I started chatting with another candlemaker in the comments on both of our pictures and she decided to place an order! She gave me a shoutout in her instagram story as well and left me an awesome review and it was very much appreciated! I think instagram will be a really good tool for my etsy shop in the future

[FlowerandPearlStudio]

My first sale was to a shop that I recently favorited. It was slow going and hard to be seen. Then I joined the Etsy Mud Team. Some of them started buying from me first and it has been a steady up-hill climb ever since. The team still helps me with SEO and promotions etc... I think it really helps to find a good team to join.

[SYLVIELINING]

I made my first sale 1 month after opening my shop. I was so happy someone took the time to purchase items I enjoyed creating!!

[Former_Member]

I had my first order last week and I'm still super excited about it.
It's my first sale to a stranger on the other side of the world. At first I was worried about the digital nature of my articles but I believed it all the way, advertising on various social and trying to offer the best. Now I look at the buyer's review with optimism :)