Whether you’re a brand-new Etsy seller trying to establish your shop or the proud owner of an established one, one of the most important things you think about is your shop’s overall performance. For instance, everyone needs to know how much profit they will make on a particular sale, whether their products are competitively priced, and if their shops are getting good reviews.

Part of this process is making sure that when people visit your shop, they are likely to buy something. The percentage of people visiting your shop or viewing your products who buy something is called a conversion rate. As a percentage, the conversion rate reflects the number of purchasers out of 100 visitors.

Over the past few years, Etsy has made it easier to access this number. Specifically, you can find the conversion rate in your analytics dashboard. But what is a good conversion rate on Etsy? Let’s find out.

A good conversion rate varies based on niche

According to multiple sources, a good conversion rate on Etsy varies between 1% and 5%. That’s a lot of variation, but depending on your shop’s niche, the average runs about 3%.

The truth is that absent any other factors, what you sell makes a huge difference in your conversion rate. For example, a recent study by Oberlo found that arts and crafts product listings across e-commerce sites have an average conversion rate of just over 4%. On the other hand, the conversion rate for electrical equipment averages less than 1.2%. Fashion does better, at about 1.5%.

Naturally, fashion and crafts are major segments of Etsy’s business. For crafts, the findings on Oberlo should be relatively close to accurate, but the data is not necessarily as accurate for fashion because of Etsy’s emphasis on vintage items. Similarly, fashion items on Etsy tend to be unique rather than modern cookie-cutter products.

Let’s look at another Etsy niche — printables. On Etsy, a printable is anything where you purchase a digital file, download it, and print. These can include wall art, recipe books, patterns, homeschooling curriculum, or even household organization lists. And according to printables expert Gold City Ventures, the conversion rate for these products is between 2 and 4%. Importantly, printables are something that is mostly sold on Etsy.

Other factors that can influence your conversion rate

Of course, the types of products that you sell are only a small portion of what determines your shop’s conversion rate. Instead, if you understand various factors that can affect your rate, it’s possible to maximize your performance. In other words, if you manage your shop well, then you can achieve a significantly better conversion rate than average. Likewise, a poorly-run shop will likely have a far lower conversion rate than average.

Several factors can make or break your shop conversion rate.

Product descriptions

No matter what you sell, customers want to know and understand what you are offering before they will consider buying it. While this statement may appear obvious, there’s more to a product description than simply stating the basics. For instance, if you sell yarn for knitting, it may not be enough to say how thick the yarn is or how many stitches per inch the average knitter can achieve with that yarn. There are other factors, such as the smoothness of the yarn or any special attributes like being a little shiny, that can help a customer determine if your yarn is what they need for their project.

In this example, some people will decide, based on the description, that this is not the right product. However, they might learn from a different product description in your shop that a different item is perfect for them. Likewise, the description will help your yarn “find” the right buyer.

Photography

If there’s one thing about most products sold on Etsy, it’s that appearance matters. Certainly, there are crafts where the item for sale will ultimately be hidden in a project. Iin some cases, the item only needs to be functional. But in these situations, most customers will want to examine photographs to determine if an item is appropriate for them.

Similarly, the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” is especially accurate on any e-commerce site. People can’t feel your products in their hands or examine them for particular properties, so you need to show them upfront. And finally, quality photography can help you create a connection with the potential customer. Many products can have emotional importance, such as a gift for dads and grads. Similarly, items sold for weddings will benefit from a romantic vibe in the pictures.

Overall value

The world of e-commerce has made it easier than ever for consumers to get the most value for their money. Long gone are the days when people would go to the store and automatically pay the price as provided. Instead, modern pricing must be competitive with your competition.

That’s not to say that you must always have the cheapest price. In fact, that can sometimes cause more damage to your conversion rate than having an excessively high price. However, people need to feel that they have gotten the right product for the right price. This means that you need to price your products in a way that is competitive with the competition and demonstrates value for the consumer.

One of the great things about Etsy is that customers are looking for something unique, and they’re typically willing to pay for it. So, go with a price that is fair for both you and the customer. You might even consider charging a slightly higher price and providing free shipping, which can help your offer stand out from the competition.

Competition

Generally speaking, if you have a hot item that is unique, you will likely have a high conversion rate. In other words, you won’t have to work very hard to sell your item to customers because everybody wants it. On the other hand, if what you sell is common or less popular, then selling it will be more difficult.

Similarly, some items won’t be sold until the right buyer finds them. This is a major factor in niches like vintage clothing and accessories because not only does someone need to like it, but the item must be the right size.

Shop reviews

Finally, let’s look at a frequent elephant in the room — shop reviews. As with eBay and other selling platforms, the reviews that people give of your shop can be highly influential on your conversion rate. To put it bluntly, you can work very hard at bringing people the right products for the right prices, but if you get too many bad reviews, then customers may seek out the competition. Fortunately, a large percentage of bad reviews can be avoided by having a well-run shop, dealing with customer questions or complaints in a timely manner, and employing sound business practices.

Just remember, at the end of the day, you cannot please everyone. Often, it’s how you deal with customers when there’s a problem that makes the difference. If you do a good job with a cranky customer, then you may get a better reputation than ever.

Final thoughts

While it’s hard to determine what is a good conversion rate on Etsy for a particular shop, we do know a lot about averages. Ultimately, a solid conversion rate across product lines is around 3%, but it can be a lot more or less depending on what you sell.

Fortunately, there are many more factors that influence your conversion rate besides products. For this reason, there are several ways you can improve your conversion rate without changing your product line. And, using research tools like Toolsy, you can more easily meet the demand for the hottest products on the platform.