Picture this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You finally decided to take the plunge and started your own online business with Etsy. You are a creative soul and are so excited to share your art, crafts or other handmade products with the world. You\u2019ve spent hours thinking of the best shop name, picking eye catching profile and cover photos, exhausted yourself creating and improving your products, and painstakingly optimized your product listings to look beautiful to both customers and <\/em>search engines. Everything is perfect, or at least it should <\/em>be. There\u2019s just one problem: you aren\u2019t making as many sales as you hoped you would. Now, you\u2019ve begun looking for new ways to appeal to customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does this sound like you? If so, you have probably already heard of Etsy Plus, an additional paid service for sellers on the platform \u2014 but maybe you\u2019re not too sure about it just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s where we come in. Today, we\u2019re going to explore the ins-and-outs of Etsy Plus and give you our official review to finally answer the question: is Etsy Plus really worth it?<\/strong> We cover:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Etsy Plus<\/a> is an additional subscription package available for sellers on the platform. The service is said to help you \u201cstand out from the crowd\u201d and \u201cjump-start growth\u201d but Etsy does not offer any statistics to back up their claims. That being said, some of the benefits and unlocked features do sound rather helpful, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Etsy Plus costs $10 a month<\/strong> on top of the fees already associated with using the platform. However, some of the credits associated with Etsy Plus may relieve some of the preexisting fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Signing up for Etsy Plus is an easy process, which the online marketplace details on their Help page<\/a>. If you are interested, these are the steps you need to take to sign up for Etsy Plus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cost of Etsy Plus will be added to your monthly Etsy bill and your subscription can be canceled at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though you may be balking at the idea of shelling out an additional $10 to Etsy every month considering the platform already bills you, dipping their hands into your profit. Depending on your needs, paying a little bit extra for Etsy Plus could be more than worth it. Here are some of our favorite things about Etsy Plus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Etsy Plus subscription includes 15 free listing credits every month. Of course, it\u2019s not really<\/em> free \u2014 you are still paying the extra $10 for the subscription \u2014 but considering Etsy charges $0.20 for every individual listing, that\u2019s still three dollars worth of extra listings every month. This is great for sellers who do not have a massive product selection because it takes some of the confusion out of calculating listing costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As far as customization goes, Etsy is nothing<\/em> like MySpace. It lacks a lot of freedom despite being a website for artists and creators. Sellers usually only have the ability to change their profile picture and change their banner photos, making them either \u201cbig\u201d or \u201cmini\u201d sized. Etsy Plus subscribers are given a few more options to make their shop pages look more brand cohesive and appealing Etsy plus subscribers are given a few more options to make their shop pages look more cohesive and appealing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Etsy Plus subscribers are given two new types of banner styles. The first is the collage banner<\/strong> style, which is a customized banner made of a mash-up of up to four images of your choosing. However, this option seems unnecessary considering that you could create the same effect with simple editing software (like Adobe Creative Cloud Express<\/a>) without the need to subscribe to Etsy Plus at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The second option, the carousel banner style<\/strong>, is far superior. It allows you to add four different photos, similar to product photos, that your customers can click through and peruse. As an added bonus, banner images in the carousel format can be hyperlinked to specific listings or sections in your shop making. This is a great option because it makes your banner actionable \u2014 you can highlight your bestselling (or favorite) products to interest your customers the moment they click your shop page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sellers using Etsy Plus can also choose to mix up the format of their shop page using featured items<\/strong>. This can be displayed in two manners: for listings or shop sections at the top of the page, all the same size; or, in the mixed grid option, which has five featured items (or sections) with one larger than the rest and the remaining four in a smaller group to the right. Like the new banner styles, featured items put your products front and center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the most useful feature bundled with Etsy Plus. With restock requests, customers that visit your page can click a button to request to receive an email that will let them know when one of your sold out items is back in stock. Once you\u2019ve added the item back to your store, it sends them an email, and voila!<\/em> They\u2019re ready to buy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have found some success with a specific product on Etsy, this is a fantastic feature. Not only do restock requests alert customers whenever your item is available to purchase again \u2014 one that they are legitimately interested in buying \u2014 it creates a sense of urgency. If you know anything about marketing, you know that urgency or the fear of missing out are some of the top reasons that people buy things. Nothing with inspiring buyers a little bit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Etsy Plus does have some great perks \u2014 our favorite being the restock requests \u2014 but it’s understandable if you’re still not completely convinced. In fact, there’s a few things about Etsy plus that we’re not completely sold on, either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps we’re just not the type of people who would buy the coupon books kids cell when they are fundraising for school (why would we pay more just to get a small discount somewhere!? Why won\u2019t the business just give us the discount in the first place!?<\/em>) but the quote \u201cdiscounts” that come with Etsy Plus really just are not that useful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Etsy Plus offers three different types of discounts through third-party services: custom shipping boxes, business cards\/printables, <\/strong>anddomain names<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Custom shipping boxes<\/strong> are<\/em> a great idea, and many shoppers and sellers on Etsy would love to have them \u2014 who doesn’t love it when an adorable pink package arrives in the mail for you? Companies like SoKawaii are proof that custom shipping boxes are not only exciting to get in the mail, but also a useful marketing tactic. Many of their customers take photos with their boxes and products, which you can check out on the SoKawaii Instagram account<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, custom shipping boxes might be an unnecessary expense for you. Etsy Plus is not clear about how much this discount is worth. If you’re a new seller or have small profit margins, you do not need to focus your efforts on fancy boxes just yet. Additionally, the Etsy Plus discount is only available for sellers in the United States, Canada,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, this discount is only available to sellers in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. If you are a seller based in a country not on that list, you will not receive this discount even if you subscribe to Etsy Plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the same arguments apply to the Etsy Plus discounts on printed materials<\/strong> like business cards, stickers, and other marketing materials. The service offers a 30% discount to the printing company Moo<\/a>. This is a solid discount, but it might not make much of a difference because Moo is very expensive compared to other printing companies. Even though Moo receives rave reviews for the company\u2019s high-quality printing services and large product selection, you will likely be able to find a better deal elsewhere, even without the Etsy Plus discount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could definitely find a discount on website domain names<\/strong> without the help from Etsy Plus. The platform partners with Hover<\/a>, where you can purchase domains that direct to your Etsy shop for up to 50% \u2014 which is not bad \u2014 but it can only<\/em> link to your Etsy store and the discount is only valid for one year<\/em>. Besides, registering a domain through Etsy feels sketchy and you should be cautious about it, especially if you plan to open your own standalone website in the future. If you cancel your subscription, what\u2019s stopping Etsy from purchasing your domain so you can\u2019t use it or have to pay them to get it back? Maybe we\u2019re paranoid, but it\u2019s worth considering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That just simply isn\u2019t fair! <\/em>Since Etsy Ads are cost-per-click (or CPC) you have to be the highest \u201cbidder\u201d for your ads to gain any real traction on the site. With so many sellers gunning for the coveted ad spots at the top of every search page, Some report shelling out up to $1 per click \u2014 no sales guaranteed! As you can imagine, that $5 Etsy Ads credit will not<\/em> go very far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Short answer: no. Long answer: maybe, if you don\u2019t mind shelling out an extra ten bucks just for a few features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best Etsy Plus feature is the restock request.<\/strong> We love it because it reminds buyers of the products they wanted to buy and may have forgotten about, had it not been for the restock notification. As an added bonus, the restock notification starts a fire under your customers, who already know that your product will<\/em> sell out \u2014 so they had better hurry up and buy it before it’s gone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n We also like the extended customization options that come with Etsy Plus. Well they still don’t allow you to tailor every single aspect of your Etsy shop, it does offer a few actionable ways For customers to interact with your product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These two features alone might <\/em>make Etsy Plus worth it for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if you are still struggling to turn a healthy profit or are on a tight budget, we wouldn\u2019t recommend it. It is unlikely that any of the Etsy Plus features will help you make more sales if you aren\u2019t making very many in the first place. Until you have enough customers interested in your products to warrant adding the restock request button, Etsy Plus is just a glorified coupon book that you will pay an extra $10 for every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, like every seller out there what really matters is getting those sales as quick as you can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re looking to sell your products quickly on Etsy, you might want to start by looking of etsy. Now what does this mean? We mean that you should consider crosslisting to different marketplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can try a crosslisting app by SellerAider<\/a> <\/strong>for free to list your etsy products to other marktplaces such as poshmark, ebay and much more! This boosts the amount of visibility your items gets and increases your sales as a result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Crosslisting is the secret weapon for top etsy sellers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to learn more tips on increasing sales on etsy read our full post here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Picture this. You finally decided to take the plunge and started your own online business with Etsy. You are a creative soul and are so excited to share your art, crafts or other handmade products with the world. You\u2019ve spent hours thinking of the best shop name, picking eye catching profile and cover photos, exhausted …<\/p>\nWhat Is Etsy Plus?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How Do I Sign Up for Etsy Plus?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Etsy Plus: the Pros<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFree\u201d listing credits every month takes some of the guesswork out of listing. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Advanced shop customization<\/strong><\/a> helps you further personalize your Etsy shop.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Let your customers know you have their favorite item for sale with restock requests.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Etsy Plus: The Cons<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The discounts that come with Etsy Plus are largely useless.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Only $5 worth of Etsy Ads Credits? Really?<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Our Review: Is Etsy Plus Worth It?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to sell your Inventory Faster<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n