Maximize your chances for a successful holiday shopping season on Etsy by being proactive in making your shop more discoverable and attractive for holiday shoppers. No more waiting for orders – today, you are going to take your Etsy Success into your own hands. Pull out your notepad & dive right in to learn actionable things you can do in your Etsy shop to bring more traffic and increase your conversion rate!

1. Copy your listings to target holiday shoppers 

Yes, you read that right; I said copy. You probably know by now that Etsy’s algorithm loves when you are publishing new listings to your shop. It can improve the visibility of your listing in Etsy search results. Besides creating new products for your Christmas collection, boost your chances of showing up in Etsy search results by taking advantage of the work you already did. Let me explain: Can your existing products be gifted as a Christmas gift? Perhaps you are selling personalized aprons all year round. Well, for Christmas, you can sell them as a personalized Christmas gift idea for grandma or mom.

Think about who would buy your product for who as a Christmas gift and create a new listing with the same product to target Christmas shoppers specifically. To do this, simply duplicate your listing, update your thumbnail photo for a Christmas-themed photo & target Christmas shoppers with Christmas keywords in your title, description and tags. This will not only boost your chances in Etsy search but will also attract Christmas shoppers to your shop even if you are not specifically creating seasonal products! 

2. Bring on Holiday feels with holiday thumbnail photos

Fact: Your thumbnail photo either wants Etsy shoppers to click on your product, or not. People buy with emotions, and during the holiday shopping season, they are in a holiday mood. Using seasonal thumbnail photos that bring on holiday feels can help convince them to click on your product over your competitors. Consider including photos that show your product in use that help shoppers imagine how it would be to own or gift your product, which can help to make their purchasing decision faster.

3. Make shopping easy

Try to make holiday shopping in your shop “no-brainer”. What does it mean?  

• Offer holiday gift wrap & include it in one of your photos to show shoppers that they can purchase a gift wrap and send your product as a gift with a personal note, stress-free, directly to their loved one
• Consider offering rushed shipping upgrades for last-minute shoppers
• Fill out your shipping profiles & return policies, so shoppers have a clear idea of how long are your dispatch times and when they can expect your product to arrive. (Hint: shoppers love fast dispatch times, so if you don’t have a lot of orders, consider lowering your dispatch times – this can give you a competitive advantage with other sellers)

4. Organize your shop strategically

Organize your shop with holiday shoppers in mind. They are likely shopping for several people. Keep their attention by keeping your shop organized and easy-to-navigate-through. 

How to do this?

• Move your holiday products to the first page & into the featured shop section
• Consider creating holiday shop sections for your holiday listings and name them with keywords your customer would use when shopping for this product (For example: Christmas gifts for dad, Christmas gifts for mom). When you make it easy to find gifts for their loved ones in your shop, they are more likely to buy more products, which increases your average cart value.
• Include links to related product listings at the bottom of your product descriptions. (For example: If you are selling Christmas Tshirt for mom, at the bottom of your description, you can include a link for a matching T-shirt for dad)

5. Schedule holiday sales events

There is no doubt that people love good deals, especially during holidays when they are shopping for gifts for their entire family! A lot of Etsy sellers participate in holiday sales events, including Labour Day, Black Friday, Cyber Week, and Boxing Day sales. Etsy puts a lot of marketing efforts and $ into bringing shoppers to their platform. Take advantage of these hot shopping dates & consider scheduling a short-term sale in your shop. Why short-term? Because when your sale is about to expire, it shows underneath your listing in Etsy search results, which creates urgency and makes shoppers want to buy now, so they don’t miss out on a sale. Do you have a social media account for your Etsy shop? Don’t forget to share your promotions there as well!

6. Put more efforts into your social media marketing

You don’t have to rely on the traffic Etsy brings to your shop. Especially when you don’t have consistent orders yet, you can take things into your own hands and utilize the power of social media to market your products. Consider creating reels and Tik Toks to feature your holiday collections and gift ideas to bring more traffic to your shop. You can even schedule Pinterest pins to target people who are looking for Christmas gift ideas on Pinterest.

Need more help? Download my Free “5 Steps to Etsy Success” cheat sheet and start improving your Etsy shop today. Oh, and if you found this blog post helpful, make sure to follow along on my Instagram at @smallbizbabescommunity for daily tips and small business motivation. 

Xo & talk soon,

Michaela