Why Your Etsy Sales Have Dropped? This is not going to be the wishy washy reasons you may have heard from other people like ‘Your photo’s are bad’ ... we already know that! I'm going to share real statistical reasons your why I see a lot of Etsy shop sales go down!!

1.You Store is Inconsistent & Always Changing

I see people making lots of changes to their shop and that they are not tracking what those changes are. If this is you, How do you know what changes, are making a difference to your sales?

It makes no difference what platform you are using to sell your products... Amazon, EBay, Etsy, your own website or another platform. If you're constantly making changes you can effectively measure your performance.

The algorithm (every platform has its own) needs time to process and analyse your listings.

The most common changes people make that can affect the algorithm is, your titles, tags, descriptions, image alt text, attributes and materials - these all impact the algorithm.

On Etsy it takes between 60-90 days for your changes to start to take effect. If you are in a saturated niche with a ton of traffic that time frame can actually go down. If you sell something very niche that may not have as much search traffic, it may take longer for Etsy to give you a listing quality score or to rerank your listing. 

Make changes based on facts and NOT feelings, it's so important. Look at your stats and use this to guide you, not just randomly one day when you're feeling in a really rubbish mood, thinking I’m going to change everything in my shop just because you feel like it that day. 

• Don't keep making changes 
• Study your stats to identify what is working and what needs changing 
• Only make changes that are backed up by your data

2. Trust Your Gut

Don’t listen to the wrong people, trust your gut when something doesn't feel right.

I can't tell you how many people in my Facebook Group, The Successful Handmade & Creative Business Etsy & Online Shop Help Group, have said to me I listened to this coach with 50k plus subscribers on YouTube and they don’t have an active Etsy Shop, I bought their course and followed their advice and it totally tanked my shop! 

Whether you follow me or another coach just listen to your gut instinct and don’t get sucked in by the flawless marketing tactics. If you are not sure, stop and take a breath and assess if that person is for you?

Before you follow any advice from a coach make sure you do your due diligence and trust your gut instincts. 

3. Not Dedicating Enough Time and Rushing The Process

I see this a lot, I get messages from people saying my Etsy shop has been open a month and questioning why they've only got 2 sales. My honest answer is ‘Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day and if you are getting any sales in the first 6 months I would say that is pretty good!!’ 

Their business hasn't got that proven track record yet, the world of E-Commerce it’s not about opening up your shop and the sales will come pouring in.

The shop needs time to bed in, you need time for your target market to know you are a legitimate business, to get to know your products, to gather great reviews...only then will they trust you and know they will have a good experience making a purchase from you. 

To build that know, like and trust, it takes time! If you ask me “How long should i be waiting before i give up?” Honestly I would say a year! There are some shops who might get sales straight away but there are others who that will take a little bit of time. 

You need to be prepared to work and work and work for a year, before you are going to see those big returns coming in for you. 

4.Your Shop Doesn't Have a USP

Another reason your sales might have dropped is because you don’t have a Unique Selling Point.

You might have had a think about this before and thought "yeah I kind of have one".

Honestly it is NOT enough, it has got to be front and centre of your brand, it is no good you saying hey here’s an Etsy shop that sells tumblers with words on, I can do that too and then just copying the idea and thinking I can do that too without really having any Unique Selling Point for your business.

For example your unique selling point could be around a charity you support, it could be your story, how you design your products or the colours and styles that you use or the personalisation techniques you utilise. 

You don't need to reinvent the wheel but at the very least you want your USP, the thing that makes you stand out from most competitors out there is the thing that you talk most about. 

How Can You Avoid Your Sales Dropping Off? 

• Don't keep making random changes to your shop 
• Study your stats to identify what is working and what needs changing 
• Only make changes that are backed up by your data NOT feelings
• Choose the right coach for you, trust your gut instinct and do your due diligence 
• Be prepared to work hard and play the long game, it takes time to build a successful business, have patience it will be worth it. 
• Shout about your USP, make it front and centre of your brand to stand out from the crowd. 

Don't forget to join my Facebook Group with over 10k members The Successful Handmade & Creative Business Etsy & Online Shop Help Group,

I have a great video explaining more about what you can and can't change in your shop without affecting the algorithm, you can find that here.

If you'd prefer me to visually teach you this blog post, then you can watch it HERE.

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