Etsy sellers are known for their passion and creativity which makes it the perfect platform to sell print on demand products.
Whether you’re an artist looking to make your passion a full-time job or an entrepreneur interested in adding a new revenue stream, Gooten’s integration with Etsy helps you scale your business by completely taking care of order fulfillment, high-quality production, and shipping to your end customer.
Why Choose Etsy as your eCommerce Platform for your Print on Demand Business
Etsy is an eCommerce website that allows business owners to sell their handmade or vintage items, including print on demand products. Etsy offers a free and $10 per month plan, the latter of which allows you to send notifications when products are back in stock, get your own URL at a discount, and get more listing credits, which bumps your products to the top of customers’ results. With both plans, you pay listing and transaction fees, along with offsite advertising fees, all of which Etsy charges for every sale. Etsy also offers discounted shipping and postage for their customers along with a customer reviews feature.
Print on demand business owners can sell on Etsy, but per Etsy policy, you must disclose in your store listings that you are working with a production company, and you must use your own designs. All sellers must meet seller service level standards to sell on Etsy. With Etsy, you can publish two variations per product per listing, 13 tags with each product, and 10 photos per listing. Gooten’s integration with Etsy meets their requirements while helping you build your business.
How to Sell on Etsy with Gooten’s Integration
Step 1: Signup for free
The first step to is to create your Gooten account. With Gooten, there are no setup or monthly fees, you determine your pricing and keep your profit.
When you log in to your account for the first time, you’ll land on your “Home” page. The Home page is there to guide you as you get set-up with Gooten!
Step 2: Connect your shop to Gooten
If you used Gooten before to create your products in the Product Hub, or to connect your Shopify store, getting started with our Etsy integration will be a piece of cake. The process is essentially the same.
After you’ve created your account, the next step is to go to the Product Hub.
From there, click on the Etsy tab. Once you submit your store name you can then connect your shop to Gooten.
Step 3: Add your business information
After you’ve connected your Shopify store, make sure you navigate to the “Settings” page within Gooten and fill out your business information. Gooten needs a credit card on file to secure the account, but there are other billing options available.
Step 4: Design, create and publish a listing
Once your store is connected to us, you can go ahead and start creating and publishing your products.
You should reference the print specs on the product’s catalog page while creating your design files. Gooten accepts .png or .jpeg files in RGB format with 300 DPI.
Watch this tutorial for help with that part of the setup:
Step 5: Connect an existing listing to Gooten
If you already have a listing in your store that you want to have fulfilled through Gooten, you can easily link it for automated fulfillment.
Check out this short tutorial video on how to link products:
Now you’re in business!
Once your listings are published and connected to Gooten, you’re ready to start selling! Orders will automatically flow into Gooten for all products you connected.
You’ll be able to see all of your orders and manage them in Etsy and the “Orders” page in Gooten.
Things to keep in mind
A large platform like Etsy has a number of guidelines you should be mindful of – from the number of tags you can publish to your store, to the number of photos you can have under each listing.
Here are tips on working around some of those limitations:
- The maximum number of tags you can publish for each listing is 13. Tags serve the function of keywords, so the more tags you have, the bigger the chance that more customers will find your listing. We recommend always publishing all 13, and choosing them carefully.
- You can only publish up to 10 photos to each listing, so choose wisely. If you create a product that contains more than 10 mockup images in Gooten’s Product Hub, only the first 10 will be pushed to your store due to the maximum amount of images you can post under the same listing in Etsy.
- If you already have product previews in your store and you don’t want to replace them with our mockups, you can turn off the option of publishing our mockups to your store on the Save and Publish page in the Product Hub.
- Etsy allows two variations per product, meaning that you can offer up to two product options within the same listing. For example, let’s say you’re selling a t-shirt and that you’re offering various sizes and colors. Those would be specified in variations. Note that Gooten allows up to 3 product options, so if you add all three in the product creation process from our Product Hub, one of them won’t be transferred to your Etsy store.
Marketing on Etsy
There are many things you can do to set yourself apart from the competition and drive traffic to your shop. Getting the attention of the 35 million active buyers on Etsy depends on having the right strategy in place to reach sustainable growth.
Focus on how you name your listings
Giving your listing an easy-to-find title is essential! Don’t be afraid to use keywords, attributes, and tags to show off your products. Do some research and check what comes up once you search for the product you’d like to sell and find out how you can make your product stand out.
Use as many of 140 available characters as you need to add relevant keywords to your listing’s title, and start with the most important ones. You can always add additional information to your tags or description. Experiment with different keywords and tags occasionally, and make them all matter – you’ve only got a limited number of fields.
Use Search Engine Optimization results to your advantage
Your chance to pop up in more search results is increased by using more than just generic words in your title – spice it up a bit and bring it closer to your customers by describing what’s unique about it and your artwork. Be bold and use strong keywords to boost your visibility. Relevant keywords will bring your listing higher on the list of results once your customer types in a few words that describe what they’re looking for.
Don’t skip important details
Start with completing the category for your listing – it’s a requirement for a good reason. By selecting appropriate categories and subcategories, your item will show up in the search results as if you’ve added them as tags.
Use compounds when writing tags – remember, you’ve only got 13 of them to add to your listing and make it appear in the search results. Each tag can have up to 20 characters, make them worthwhile! If your design is related to a bachelorette party, a baby shower, or a gift for her/him, make sure you tag it like that so your buyers can easily find it.
Put some thought into product previews – why only show a mockup of a dog bandana without your dog wearing it? Take your pet for a walk and snap some awesome shots with your custom made design!
Include a detailed, but short and simple description of the product so your customers could feel as if it’s in their hands. Present your product the best way you can and remember that they can only see it on-screen, not feel it. Portray the feel of the fabric and why not – direct them to another product in your store that would go perfectly with it!
Stay up-to-date with current trends
Make sure you’ve got products currently in demand – if it’s summer, switch the main products on your page from hoodies to t-shirts. If it’s Christmas season, make Christmas tree skirts and stockings the most visible. Add all the Occasion attributes applicable to your products.
Offer your customers the freedom of customizing your product! With Gooten, it will only take a moment to create, and with our worldwide network of high-quality print vendors, their order will promptly be delivered. Fulfilling a request such as that will delight your customers, and lead to even more sales.
Support when you need it
We invite you to get started with Gooten’s Etsy integration today, and if you have any questions along the way, contact us 7 days a week at partnersupport@gooten.com. For your larger promotions, work directly with one of our dedicated success Account Managers.
With over five million orders processed through Gooten’s system, you’ll have peace of mind knowing you’re working with the best in on-demand fulfillment.
