What to Sell on Etsy to Make Money
by 
Lina Thorne • Updated · Posted in Marketing
Do you want to make money while doing what you love? Well, you can do that on Etsy! So many different things are sold here – from hand-made jewelry and natural cosmetics to digital products. It’s an extremely popular platform that’s visited by around 500 million people every month. Here, you will be able to turn your hobby into something that not only brings you joy, but also money.
However, as you can imagine, on a popular platform like this one, the competition is pretty high. Being a successful seller is an art. And one of the things that this art involves is knowing what to sell. Some categories are more popular than others. You need to know what’s trending and in demand right now.
If you want to know what to sell on Etsy to make money, this article is for you! It will surely help you generate some new product ideas. You will also find out how to optimize listing photos. Afterall, it’s important to not only know what to sell on Etsy, but how to present what you’re selling properly. Don’t worry, image optimization is pretty straightforward and uncomplicated, and there are some online tools that can make the whole process even easier and quicker.
Let’s get started!
What to Sell on Etsy to Make Money: Popular Categories
To build a successful business, you need to know how to do product research. You need to know what’s selling and trending. The competition is high on Etsy, but don’t be deterred by it. Don’t feel like you’re too late and that there’s no room for you. In fact, you can pick up ideas and learn from your competitors by doing some research and using the right tools. Take inspiration from the designs that are popular on Etsy, then get creative and think of a way to elevate them, add a personal touch.
Here’s a tip!
First of all, you can visit Etsy’s website and check out the “Popular Right Now” and “Editors’ Picks” sections to get some product ideas. But! There’s a way to make your research much more efficient. You can use eRank. It’s possible to use it for free and check what the most popular products are. For more detailed research, you can upgrade – $5.99 for a basic plan, $9.99 for a pro plan.
This is also a great tool for keywords and SEO. But if you really want to know what to sell on Etsy to make money, you might need to use EverBee. It has both free and paid version. This tool can help you check how much money an item listed on Etsy is making per month and how many times it has been sold.
The key to success is to strike a balance between creating something that’s one-of-a-kind and something that’s trendy and in demand.
If you’ve just opened an Etsy store or if you want to increase your sales, you can feature a couple of popular products – in addition to what you usually create and sell – to get people to notice you and, thus, get new customers.
Also, if you want to know what to sell on Etsy to make money, you need to figure out who tends to shop on this platform. According to statistics, over 50% of buyers on Etsy are in the 18-35 age range. 60% are in the USA. Over 80% are female. Therefore, the majority of buyers on Etsy are millennial American females. You need to think of what this kind of a buyer might like and want to buy.
What are the popular product categories on Etsy?
Personalized Items
An average buyer on Etsy tends to look for something unique and special. And what could be more special than a personalized item? What’s more, the platform itself is prompting sellers to allow personalization of products. Yes, you can add personalization when creating a listing – you just need to toggle Personalization to On.
What’s great about this category is that it applies to an insanely wide range of products. Not only physical, but digital ones as well. Here are a few product ideas: personalized digital planners, personalized dog collars, personalized T-shirts, personalized notebooks and journals.
Personalized jewelry is especially popular. Think of rings, bracelets and necklaces with a person’s name or maybe the initial letter of the name. After all, jewelry isn’t a necessity. It’s usually purchased to give as a gift or to use as an accessory. Either way, a piece of jewelry needs to reflect some personality of the person who’s going to wear it. For this reason, personalized jewelry is so popular. As you can expect, this niche is quite saturated. But don’t let that scare you. There’s room for new sellers; especially those who can create something personal and one-of-a-kind.
Craft Supplies
If you just want to make money on Etsy, consider selling to sellers. Afterall, people that are selling handmade items require products to…well, make their products. It can be various tools for putting jewelry together, gems, stones and beads. Alternatively, you might go for selling yarn, crochet, ribbons or even knitting patterns.
You can also consider selling products that new entrepreneurs will need for their business. For instance, monthly budget spreadsheet, mockup bundles, digital planners, etc. The beauty of digital products is that they are evergreen and not that challenging to make.
There’s something to keep in mind, though. People go to Etsy for something that they won’t be able to source anywhere else. You can focus on providing eco-friendly materials. Custom beads or sequins. Maybe some exclusive sets of tools. Here’s another product idea. Some people might simply want to try their hands at creating something. So, you can sell DIY craft kits. If you provide one-of-a-kind and high-quality craft materials, you will surely be successful on Etsy.
Printables
This might be a bit surprising, but printables are insanely popular on Etsy. Basically, they are digital products that people buy, download, then print themselves. As you can imagine, selling printables has a lot of advantages. First of all, it’s not that hard to create them. You don’t have to worry about getting the supplies to print and ship them. This is an amazing source of passive income. And there are a lot of different things that fall into this category. Budget planners, day planners, social media content planners and all other kinds of planners. Things that can keep people organized and save some time. On the other hand, you can also consider creating printables for special occasions like invitations and gift labels.
Clothes and Accessories
Some people care about having a style that reflects their personality. They tend to look for the kind of clothes that you are less likely to see on a stranger. In other words, not something mass-produced. Handmade and vintage clothes are usually one of a kind. Unsurprisingly, both handmade and vintage clothes are extremely popular on Etsy.
So, if you know where to source great vintage clothes, try selling it on Etsy. If you are great at knitting or crocheting, or maybe you’re an aspiring designer, you are in luck as Etsy is the place where you can make some money and start building your brand and business. Various accessories are pretty popular on Etsy, too. For instance, scarves, hair bands, bags and hats. Get creative and offer people unique items that they won’t be able to find anywhere else.
Also, you don’t really need to be a fashion designer to offer something unique. You can easily create a digital customizable design and put it on a T-shirt!
Here’s a tip! Don’t focus just on adults. Pet clothes and pet accessories are also rather popular on Etsy. And if people don’t have pets, they might have babies. Baby clothing is quite in demand, too. People care a lot about their children and pets, thus, usually want something special for them and won’t mind paying a little extra for the uniqueness.
Home Décor and Kitchenware
Naturally, people that tend to dress uniquely usually also want to decorate their homes with something special, too. Home is a place where we wind down and recharge. This is a place of comfort. But that comfort needs to be created. So, people come to Etsy for handmade and unique items that can make their homes feel a bit more comfy and special.
Millions of shoppers search for home décor items daily. This category is popular because people like to decorate their own homes as well as purchase this kind of items as gifts. You can sell vintage or handmade goods for home decorations. Plates, bowls and other dishware are extremely popular as well as various textiles – bed sheets, pillows, curtains. It might be a good idea to offer a few tumblers in your Etsy store since people need something that can keep their drinks hot during cold months, and when it’s hot in summer, drinks need to be kept cool for as long as possible. Mugs and tumblers are a rather popular choice for gifts, so you might also want to make them holiday-themed or personalized. Jewelry holders, candles, photo books. The list of products here is pretty much endless.
Wall Art
Since the home décor category is so popular, it’s no wonder that wall art is also in high demand. It’s a simple and elegant way to add a touch of personality to a room.
A lot of different products can be found in this category. Posters, acrylic prints, affirmations and various designs, canvas prints, photos. If you are a photographer or a digital artist, consider creating an Etsy store and selling some of your creations as wall art.
There are two approaches here. You can offer a printable version – for instance, a customer can purchase a digital file, then print it wherever they want. Alternatively, you can sell prints – you print a photo or a design yourself, then ship it to the customer.
Both of these approaches have their pros and cons. Say, you are a photographer and want to sell your photos on Etsy as wall art. If you sell a digital version, there’s a risk of piracy. In other words, people might pretend that they took this photo and even create some products with it. But the advantage of this approach is that you won’t have to do a lot of work like printing and shipping yourself. On the other hand, if you sell printed versions of your photos, the risk of piracy is low. But you will need to invest some time and effort into printing, packing and shipping your prints.
Here’s a tip! Print on demand might be of great use to you. The beauty of printing on demand is that you just need to create a digital design or a photo, choose a product that you want your design/photo to be printed on, then make a listing. The printing company will take care of the rest – it will print your design or photo, pack and ship the item with the print to the customer. Basically, you pay the company for their work and materials and keep the rest of the money to yourself. This makes selling prints so much easier!
Party Decorations
People are willing to spend some extra cash and purchase something beautiful for special occasions just to make them a bit more special. It’s no wonder that the category of party decorations is pretty popular on Etsy.
And again, a wide range of products fall into this category. All kinds of decorations, handmade items, party games, invitations, wreaths, etc. Even if you know how to make jewelry, you can create something that can be used as a decoration – for instance, handmade napkin rings. There are different kinds of special occasions, too. Birthdays, graduations, baby showers, St. Valentine’s Day, Halloween.
Wedding products are especially popular. Afterall, wedding market is one of the most lucrative in the world! That’s because nobody wants something generic for a wedding. People don’t mind splurging and buying handmade jewelry, unique bouquets and corsages, personalized decorations and beautiful invitations. Some even shop for wedding dresses on Etsy! Think of various ideas for parties and special occasions and try to search for them on Etsy. You’ll be surprised by how many products you can find.
Optimize Product Photos for Etsy
No matter what product ideas you come up with, remember that it’s important to optimize your product photos for Etsy. Your images need to look professional, sharp and clear. There shouldn’t be any blurriness or pixelation. Plus, your images need to look good not only before, but also after you upload them. And for that they need to meet Etsy’s size requirements:
Aspect ratio – 1:1. Etsy allows uploading a horizontal photo with 4:3 aspect ratio, but it’s better for your photos to be square.
Image size – 2000 x 2000px or at least 1500 x 1500px. This will ensure good image quality.
What if your images are not big enough? Their image size is quite small, their quality is only somewhat decent, and they lack sharpness. In this case, you’ll need to upscale images. For instance, if you have an image with the size of 400x400px , you can easily turn it into a 1600x1600px image. What’s more, a good image upscaler will not only maintain the quality, but improve it, too! As a result, you will get an image that’s bigger, sharper and clearer than the original.
The aspect ratio can be changed with the help of cropping. For example, you can turn a 4:3 photo into a square one. What’s more, an Watermarkly’s photo cropper allows you to enter specific pixel dimensions, so you will be able to change the aspect ratio as well as resize your images – all in the same online app! Within minutes, your images will be well-optimized and ready to be uploaded onto Etsy.
Also, it’s vital for your images to have a small file size. When your listing is opened, the images in it need to load as quickly as possible. No one’s going to wait around to see your product images. A potential customer can wait two or three seconds, then they will leave and go to a different seller. So, it’s your job to provide great customer experience. For your photos to load quickly, they need to have a small file size.
How can you strike a balance between good quality and small file size? With image compression, of course! By compressing an image, you can dramatically reduce its file size with little quality loss; you won’t really notice the difference! Watermarkly’s image compressor can help you with this. You can simply upload a batch of Etsy images – yes, our app supports batch processing – pick the “Better Quality” or enter a specific file size, then it will take a couple of minutes for the app to compress your photos.
It’s also important to make sure that the image format is correct. Etsy supports only JPEG, PNG and GIF; animation and transparency aren’t supported, though. If your image is in any other format, you’ll need to convert it. For instance, you can convert WEBP to JPG. Fortunately, there are plenty of online image converters that produce great results and are easy to use.
Should I Watermark My Photos for Etsy?
Generally speaking, whether to watermark your Etsy photos or not is up to you. Watermarks can help deter lazy thieves, but they don’t guarantee 100% security. There are some things that you can do to improve the protection of your photos. For instance, you can place your watermark on a part of a product. But this might make it more difficult for people to view an item properly, which is definitely a drawback. Plus, if someone is determined to remove a watermark from your photos, they will be able to do it and there are some AI tools nowadays that can help with that. Not to mention that there have been cases when people took a screenshot and re-used someone else’s product photo even with a watermark!
However, when it comes to brand recognition watermarks are fantastic. If a thief stole your product photo without removing your watermark, then great, they advertised your shop for free! Additionally, Etsy doesn’t always give enough credit to shops – they tend to promote products. So, if you want to promote your shop, it will be a good idea to add watermarks to your product photos. Brainstorm some watermark ideas that can help you stand out from the crowd and make your brand more recognizable.
Conclusion
Hopefully, now you know what to sell on Etsy to make money. It’s an extremely popular marketplace with millions of active shoppers and sellers. Several categories that include a huge variety of products are in high demand. And there’s room for new sellers. So, seize this opportunity! Do a little bit of product research. Brainstorm some ideas. And start creating!