Etsy is a vast online marketplace specializing in custom, vintage, and handmade goods, with more than 92 million active buyers and an annual revenue of $2.7 billion.
If you sell custom or handmade products, your customers are likely looking on Etsy.
Although the marketplace is large, that’s no guarantee that your Etsy sales will be. You can, however, use your Etsy conversion rate to monitor performance and apply tactics to increase sales.
Learn more about your Etsy conversion rate, how to find it, and five tips to help you improve yours.
What is a conversion rate on Etsy?
Your Etsy conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your Etsy store who make a purchase. It’s directly linked to sales: Increasing your shop's conversion rate can help you generate more sales without increasing traffic to your online store.
Why conversion rate matters
Monitoring conversion rates can help you evaluate your store’s performance. A high conversion rate suggests that you’re attracting the right people to your store, that your product pricing is competitive, and that your Etsy listings communicate product value. Low conversion rates indicate the opposite: You’re attracting the wrong types of shoppers, charging too much, or not effectively promoting your products.
Etsy sellers often track conversion rates alongside other key metrics like site views, site visits, orders, and revenue. Here’s how Etsy defines each:
- Visits. The number of unique visitors to your Etsy site in a given period.
- Views. The total number of times all site visitors view your Etsy shop or listing. If one person visits your store three times, they’ll contribute one visit and three views.
- Orders. The number of orders your store receives in a particular period of time.
- Revenue. The total income from all orders in a given time period, minus shipping costs and taxes.
You can use this information to identify weaknesses and make improvements. Consider the following scenario: Your store has a strong conversion rate, but your revenue is low. If your site visits are also low, you can focus your marketing efforts on boosting traffic. If your site already has substantial traffic, you might revisit your pricing strategy and raise prices to increase revenue.
How to calculate your conversion rate on Etsy
You can view your Etsy business’s conversion rate by visiting the Etsy Shop Manager and selecting Stats. Your Shop Stats dashboard will display conversion rates, visits, views, orders, and revenue. You can also isolate a specific time period, or analyze conversion rates for a particular listing instead of your whole shop. You can find order and visit information for a specific listing in the Listing Stats section of Etsy Shop Manager.
Alternatively, if you want to calculate conversion rates manually, use this formula:
Conversion rate = (number of orders from your Etsy shop / total number of people who visited your shop) x 100
Factors that influence your Etsy conversion rate
The Etsy Seller Handbook defines a good Etsy conversion rate as anything between 1% and 5%, although it varies widely based on product category and price point. Here’s an overview of factors that influence your conversion rate:
Industry
Average ecommerce conversion rates vary by industry. Etsy doesn’t publish average conversion rates, but sellers can use general ecommerce figures as benchmarks. For example, general apparel companies have, on average, a conversion rate of 2%.
Total site traffic
Imagine that one of your social media posts goes viral, boosting site traffic by 700%. If order volume grows by less than 700%, your conversion rate will drop. As long as you didn’t spend more to earn the traffic than you gained in increased revenue, the lower conversion rate isn’t a problem.
Marketing strategies
Highly targeted marketing strategies can boost conversion rates by ensuring the people you drive to your site are likely to convert. Broad marketing strategies can decrease conversion rates by attracting shoppers who aren’t a fit for your business or aren’t ready to purchase your products or services.
Either approach, however, can produce positive results. If a broad marketing strategy delivers a stronger marketing return on investment (ROI) than a targeted approach, you might accept a lower conversion rate in exchange for more orders and revenue.
Pricing strategy
Lowering prices can boost conversion rates—but it can also reduce profits. Businesses that charge premium prices may have lower conversion rates but higher revenue than competitors that sell at lower prices.
5 tips for improving your Etsy conversion rate
- Optimize listings for search
- Use high-quality product photos
- Adjust your pricing strategy
- Improve shipping options
- Earn more reviews
Boosting your conversion rate involves attracting the right people to your online store and optimizing your site content and pricing strategy. These five tips can help you convert more browsers into paying customers:
1. Optimize listings for search
Search engine optimization (SEO) tactics help you attract the right people to your online store, which can raise your conversion rate by increasing the likelihood that each visitor will make a purchase. David Sandusky, co-owner of stationary brand Idea Chic, says that an SEO strategy is key to success on the platform.
“Etsy’s system is very SEO-oriented,” he says, “and it’s gotten much more competitive.”
David recommends that shop owners consult the Etsy Seller Handbook, which contains tips for optimizing pages, images, and keywords.
He also points out that an effective Etsy SEO strategy can improve your search placement in both Etsy search results and other relevant search results (like Google’s search engine results pages). This can boost traffic volumes by improving your shop's visibility to customers.
“The strategy to be successful on Etsy works for Google and for Pinterest,” David says. “If you have something that the algorithm identifies as a great listing, [Etsy] will boost it in other places too.”
You can improve your Etsy search rankings by optimizing site content. Consider all the keywords a target customer might use to find your products, and incorporate relevant keywords into listing pages. You can also use Etsy keyword research tools like Keywords Everywhere or Alura to identify keywords with high search volume and low competition.
2. Use high-quality product photos
Etsy search results include images, so clear, high-quality product photography is particularly important. The platform displays your first listing photo in the search results grid and lets users scroll through additional photos on the listing page.
An eye-catching primary photo that accurately represents your product can boost traffic to a listing, and additional listing photos can encourage purchase decisions.
3. Adjust your pricing strategy
Competitive pricing can attract more customers and boost your conversion rates. However, slashing prices or offering discounts isn’t the only way to increase sales. A premium pricing strategy, in which you raise prices, can increase the perceived value of a product and differentiate your business from competitors.
Research different pricing strategies, browse Etsy to determine the average price of products like yours, and experiment with higher or lower price points based on what you find.
4. Improve shipping options
Offering free shipping, reduced shipping prices, or flexible shipping options can encourage potential buyers to convert. One option is signing up for Etsy’s free shipping guarantee. You’ll roll shipping costs into product prices, and Etsy will offer free shipping on orders of $35 or more. The Etsy Marketplace also prioritizes shops with free shipping guarantees in search results.
You can also expand your shipping strategy and offer multiple options to meet a range of buyer needs—such as more expensive options for customers who want their items in a hurry and cheaper ones for price-conscious consumers.
5. Earn more reviews
Etsy displays a shop’s average review rating in search results and posts full reviews from past customers of your online store. Positive reviews can increase brand trust and lower potential customers’ reluctance to purchase—both of which can boost your conversion rate.
You can earn more positive reviews by maintaining a high-quality customer experience, using post-purchase emails to ask that satisfied customers leave reviews, or incentivizing reviews with coupons or discount codes. Pay special attention to repeat customers: They’re particularly likely to review you well and may be able to provide insight into multiple product or service offerings.
David also recommends using the Shopify app Judge.me to replicate Etsy reviews on platforms, like your brand’s online store.
“The ability to transfer reviews from Etsy to Shopify is important,” he says. “Our reviews on Etsy to Shopify are probably three-to-one, so I want to own those reviews on our site as well.”
This strategy ensures that the brand doesn’t lose access to its social proof if anything were to happen to its Etsy store or to the Etsy platform.
Etsy conversion rate FAQ
What is a click-through rate on Etsy?
Your Etsy click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of Etsy shoppers who click on an Etsy listing after viewing it in search results.
How can I increase conversions on Etsy?
Here are five ways to boost your Etsy conversion rate:
- Offer discounts
- Offer free shipping
- Optimize your listings for search
- Invest in high-quality product photography
- Earn more reviews
Why is my conversion rate so low on Etsy?
According to Etsy, a strong conversion rate is anywhere between 1% and 5%. Average Etsy conversion rates vary by price point and product category, and they tend to be lower for new stores or stores in highly competitive niches like craft supplies. To boost your conversion rate, consider optimizing your listings for search, including high-quality photographs, and incentivizing reviews from happy customers.
