How to Effectively Leverage Etsy as an eCommerce Sales Channel → Dylan Jahraus

Dylan Jahraus: [00:00:00] A lot of people think, Oh, I have to be at 20 or less in order to get, customers or it has to be under 50. I sell products that are over 600. I have a student who sells 15, 000 tables. Okay. From Spain. So you have, it’s not a specific price point, but I would say at different price points, you have to do different strategies to convert someone.

So what someone needs, the information they need to make a decision that is, a thousand dollar transaction, it’s going to be so different than what someone needs to, buy a 99 cent digital download.

Mhm.

Dylan Jahraus: Etsy came out with some announcements about new product categories that they are allowing. And they’re very clear now on their policies, which before there was a lot of ambiguity about what you could sell and what you couldn’t sell. And, when there’s gray area, People push the boundaries.

Mhm.

Dylan Jahraus: We focus really on Etsy [00:01:00] SEO because it is a search engine and. It is improving and it’s becoming more dynamic and fitting, your customer’s previous behavior. And SEO is so essential. You could be selling like, a 500, 000 diamond in a listing.

And if you don’t have the right SEO and you were selling it for 10. You’re right. Such a deal. No one would find it. And it could be on Etsy for a year and no one would buy it because they’re not finding it.

Mhm.

Kunle Campbell: So on today’s episode, we explore how to leverage Etsy as a powerful selling channel to expand your e-commerce brands, reach and revenue.

This is the 2x e commerce podcast hosted by Kunle Campbell.

Kunle Campbell: Welcome to the 2X eCommerce Podcast. I’m your host Kunle. Campbell and today’s episode is tailored specifically for established e-commerce operators, looking to diversify. [00:02:00] And expand their sales channels.

Meet Dylan Jahraus: From Side Hustle to Six-Figure Business

Kunle Campbell: We have Dylan Jahraus with us, a seasoned Etsy expert.

Who has successfully transformed her side hustle into a six figure business. Dylan will share her insights on how to effectively use Etsy to compliment your existing sales channels. Optimize your product listings enhance your customer experience. Whether you’re seeking to tap into Etsy. unique marketplace. Or improve your current strategy. This episode is packed with practical advice. And proven tactics from Dylan. To help you grow your brand. Stay tuned and make sure to follow the 2X eCommerce Podcast on your favorite platform for more expert insights and strategies. And without further ado, let’s get started.

Hey, Dylan, welcome to the 2X eCommerce podcast.

Dylan Jahraus: Thank you so much for [00:03:00] having me. I’m excited to be here.

Kunle Campbell: No, I’m super excited because we haven’t had anybody speak to Etsy. And I know it’s a formidable channel, e commerce channel, which audience would be really looking forward to hearing about. But before we jump into Etsy, I would like to know your backstory.

Dylan’s Background and Journey to Etsy Success

Kunle Campbell: Cause I know. your background predates the last eight years you’ve been in Etsy.

So I would just like to, you to dive in and share.

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. I’m from the Midwest in the United States and I grew up in Minnesota on a horse farm. I think like a lot of entrepreneurs, I had a bit of a tough childhood growing up, some tragedy in the family. I had a sister who actually had a heart attack when she was 15.

She’s two years older than me and she is permanently brain damaged. And then my dad is a drug addict, right? he’s been an addict for over 35 years and a lot of instability. So I’m very driven, I would say by achievement and building a life for my [00:04:00] family.

I went to school on the East coast. So William and Mary studied business, actually studied buying and product development in London, and then got into e commerce. Out of college. worked for Zappos they’re owned by Amazon and then Zulily, which is the flash sale model up in Seattle.

Got married, met someone in the military. You move a lot in the military and started my own thing. we actually just put something random on Etsy from my wedding. And all of a sudden, two months later, it sold. I started applying corporate e commerce background to. That platform and the rest is history,

Kunle Campbell: Wow. What yeah, what to start but I’m glad you sound like you have balance and you’ve found a path. Through e commerce through Etsy for that stability, across the board.

Key Takeaways from Early eCommerce Experience

Kunle Campbell: Now I really like the fact that you worked for Zappos, Zulily, I remember those times early is 2010s, right?

Early 2010s. What did you take [00:05:00] away from your early e commerce experience that has been fundamental? In your etsy journey,

Dylan Jahraus: right? So I would say at Zappos, delivering happiness, that’s a big thing. So I call a customer, the customer experience, the invisible playing field. Cause it’s really hard to replicate and it’s really hard to repeat and it’s hard for people to compete with you and take that from you.

So that is something I took from Zappos. Really creating that bending over backwards for your customers, even as a buyer they put you on the phones at Christmas to handle customer service for a couple hours just to have that experience and to keep your feet on the ground. That customer experience part and really being able to position yourself as a premium brand and being able to charge more because you sell to people who value that experience.

That’s really what I took away from that company.

Kunle Campbell: okay, and then yeah zappos Tony shay is he’s the ultimate when it comes to customer experience and I was I was studying jeff [00:06:00] bezos You know the other time and There was a time he was at the airport and, at airport security, where they take on shoes, where you take your shoes off and, put it through the security.

He saw a Zappos poster there and was like, damn, this guy’s a well ahead of us. In terms of the congruence. And I think one of the reasons why he bought Zappos was customer experience in terms of they were well ahead of Amazon from a customer experience standpoint, and they had to integrate a lot of those learnings into the Amazon model.

That is good learning for you. Okay.

First Steps on Etsy: From Wedding Decor to Thriving Business

Kunle Campbell: So you talked about your wedding. What did you sell initially on Etsy from your wedding? Was it like a wedding gift

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. You’re welcome.

Dylan Jahraus: so we did a lot of our flowers for the wedding ourselves and they were artificial flowers. So my husband and I he’s like a, he’s in the military. He’s a submarine officer, very, technical and everything, very much an engineering mindset. So we basically took foam and toothpicks and we put [00:07:00] together a letter J, which is our last name initial, and we stuck flowers into it.

So it was a flow. It looked like a floral letter J. And we, I took a picture of it to send to my mom and I’m like, I’ll just put it online. I think I was thinking about eBay or Etsy. I was like, Oh, which one? Sure. I’ll throw it on Etsy. Open this Etsy account through one picture up. No SEO. No, I can’t believe someone bought it to be honest.

And then it’s sold two months later, we’re leaving for the honeymoon and someone bought it and I thought, Oh no. Now we’re going to have to figure out how to make this in a way we can ship it.

Kunle Campbell: Interesting. And then what was your first year on, on Etsy?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah, between month two, so it took two months to get one sale. But by month four, we were doing over 10, 000 a month. And that was solely by applying everything from corporate e commerce to Etsy. I don’t know why I was treating it like, we call it in the U S like Craigslist Or just like a marketplace where you just [00:08:00] threw something up, like a garage sale online.

That’s how I treated it when I put the first thing up. And then I thought, look this is a marketplace. I should apply everything I know to this. Why didn’t I do that? And then, 10, 000 a month and way beyond in the first year. So about 134, 000 year one.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. And you were selling just one skew, which was the fact that the artificial flowers.

Dylan Jahraus: It expanded into two products. So it was floral letters, all custom, made to order, and then baby mobiles for nurseries.

Kunle Campbell: Okay.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah, it’s like a something that hangs above a crib. You call it like a pram? Or no, maybe that’s a,

Kunle Campbell: It’s a quarter baby court.

Dylan Jahraus: There you go.

Kunle Campbell: Okay.

Etsy’s Evolution from 2016 to 2024

Kunle Campbell: So from year one you’ve been In Etsy for about eight years, how has Etsy evolved where in 2024 which means that you started at about 2016 if my math’s correct, what’s been the evolution from 2016 Etsy to 2024 Etsy?[00:09:00]

Dylan Jahraus: It is. Yeah, exactly. 2016 and 2016. It was not very difficult. I sold something that had one picture and it was maybe like a three word title and hardly any description. there was so much friction in that listing. I can’t believe someone actually bought it. Now you could never put something up like that and have it sell.

It probably wouldn’t even get traffic. So I think the number of sellers has increased greatly. And I think a big shift happened in 2020 where a lot more people were home and just trying to do all the different online side hustles. And Etsy is probably one of the easiest, much easier than Amazon, easier than Shopify.

It was, a low barrier to entry, which kind of flooded the marketplace with some low quality sellers who weren’t very serious. combine that with the stimulus checks here in the U S people getting hundreds of dollars a week, thousands of dollars a month from the government.

Some of them didn’t even need the money and they were spending it on Etsy. They really were. [00:10:00] So after that money dried up and there’s all these sellers on the platform. It looks saturated, but it’s really not saturated with high quality listings. So the landscape is different and also consumer spending is different now.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. That’s super interesting.

Navigating Etsy’s Marketplace and Customer Expectations

Kunle Campbell: And would you say that Etsy is still a handmade marketplace or has it been infiltrated with mass production items?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So last week Etsy came out with some announcements about new product categories that they are allowing. And they’re very clear now on their policies, which before there was a lot of ambiguity about what you could sell and what you couldn’t sell. And, when there’s gray area, People push the boundaries.

And it’s also a less secure marketplace when there’s so much gray area. So now they’ve become much more black and white about what’s allowed and you can actually sell things that are not handmade digital products. Made by a production partner, [00:11:00] even sourced commercially, which is a new category.

They’ve become very clear on is sourcing things commercially and reselling basically. So there’s different ways to do that with like gift baskets or supply category, event items. And this I think is great for sellers because it will. I would say weed out the low quality, ugly designs and it’s just opened up a new playing field.

Kunle Campbell: Speaking of our customer experience. What is going into the head of an Etsy shopper, what are they looking for when they get into Etsy? Certainly not the same mindset when they’re on Amazon, right? So do you want to describe that experience they’re expecting, their expectation when they’re browsing through and what really pisses them off?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So what pisses customers off

Kunle Campbell: Yeah.

Dylan Jahraus: you’re saying? [00:12:00] Yeah. So basically Etsy customers, they are different than Amazon and there’s a different set of expectations. So Amazon, they expect free returns, right? you expect on Amazon, you can use a product and return it if you didn’t like how it performed.

And that is not going to fly on Etsy because every Etsy shop, they own their own policies. You don’t have to accept returns. You can be very stringent on your policies and buyers know that. They typically don’t try to pull some of the same behavior that they do with Amazon sellers, which is great.

But also Etsy customers are more patient. They don’t expect, this to be at their doorstep in 24 hours. This is not the Amazon prime expectation here. Now they still will value, Fast shipping, but they value the uniqueness of the product more than the turnaround time. So if you can do things like personalization if you can do things that are unique custom made to order [00:13:00] your customers, they’re willing to be patient and they’re willing to pay a lot for that.

Kunle Campbell: Makes sense. And then from the. I think I’ll probe more into the customer’s expectations. Are they looking for, are they always looking for handmade items for artisan items, things that you see in a pop up market, town markets, or are they more open to other categories?

Dylan Jahraus: They’re very open. And, we even see a large category of a B2B market on Etsy where maybe it’s digital products for other business owners. I had a student because now we teach this to Etsy sellers. And I had a student, she has a very, I would say, Kind of an engineering background.

She worked full time and she started an Etsy shop with spreadsheets. So these are high utility items. They help people save time and make money. Great things to sell online. If you can save time, make money or save money for someone. And within six months, [00:14:00] she’s making 25, 000 a month with spreadsheets.

And these are low price point items, a digital product. So yes, it takes time upfront to create that, but it just keeps selling.

Kunle Campbell: Yeah, that’s really impressive in regards to, selling digital products and especially digital products that appeal to a very mass market. I’m sure with her, is she doing a bit of advertising outside of Etsy to push people through to her store?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So no ads actually. And yeah. So my big thing is growing organic first, as big as you can with organic It does have an ad interface that you can use. It’s Etsy ads, but it’s probably one of the worst ways to spend your money. They don’t even allow you to set, your maximum bid.

They don’t allow you to allocate different spend for different keywords, nothing like that. So it’s little control. You just. Put in money and they spend it how they want to. So no targeting, nothing like that is happening. If you needed [00:15:00] to do ads, like we would recommend Facebook ads or something with meta first.

But no she did this all with organic methods. SEO primarily is, that’s a huge part of being successful in Etsy.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. And is the SEO for Etsy search or is the SEO for Google search?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So the SEO, we teach it for both because we definitely, there are products that will be great for what they call offsite ads, which is where Etsy is promoting your products through Google. We want to make sure you’re ranking appropriately there and that you will fall under the terms they’re bidding on.

But we focus really on Etsy SEO because it is a search engine and. It is I would say improving and it’s becoming more dynamic and fitting, your customer’s previous behavior. And SEO is so essential. If you could have the perfect product and I told someone, I think yesterday, you could be [00:16:00] selling like, a 500, 000 diamond in a listing.

And if you don’t have the right SEO and you were selling it for 10. You’re right. Such a deal. No one would find it. And it could be on Etsy for a year and no one would buy it because they’re not finding it.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Makes sense. And then what about price points? What is the mindset? How much is an Etsy shopper looking to spend at individual sessions, do you have, is there a range, a typical range in mind?

Dylan Jahraus: a lot Of people think, Oh, I have to be at 20 or less in order to get, customers or it has to be under 50. I sell products that are over 600. I have a student who sells 15, 000 tables. Okay. From Spain. So you have, it’s not a specific price point, but I would say at different price points, you have to do different strategies to convert someone.

So what someone needs, the information they need to make a [00:17:00] decision that is, a thousand dollar transaction, it’s going to be so different than what someone needs to, buy a 99 cent digital download.

Kunle Campbell: in fact, the table next to me, just thinking about it, I’ve bought it from Etsy and, I spent a few hundred, a hundred pounds, on, on it. I think that, yeah, I spent just under 500 pounds for the table. And yeah, it just felt very artisan if that makes sense. So you’re right.

You’re very right. It depends on what you what you’re in the market for. And that price into furniture is very high price point. I also buy Natural skin and hair products. So coconut oil for one kilo cocoa butter and another one I just combined them.

Yeah it’s interesting. It’s a very interesting marketplace. Okay. So with working with this new policy of Etsy, how do you think it’s going to change? And I’m speaking to the policy of using [00:18:00] suppliers as against manufacturing the product yourself which I believe Many sellers were doing anyway.

Dylan Jahraus: Now, yeah, many sellers were doing this anyway, and they were actually like drop, drop shipping. For example, some furniture stores, I actually know a guy in the UK who was just drop shipping pre manufactured furniture. Selling it as handmade, and that’s we don’t want to do that.

Now, there are certain areas that are, Allowed to be, where you can source products and resell one is the gift box, gift basket category where you can source supplies for that gift box from different suppliers. You’re not hand making anything, but you’re curating it. So Etsy is really giving.

I would say the power of curation to sellers now, and it is an art. It still is a skill. I would say to put together something that is cohesive and that can be at the right price point to convert someone. Gift baskets, gift boxes, but also. [00:19:00] The traditional supply category, which I played in, it’s like craft supplies where I was just selling artificial flowers.

So I buy a flower for 30 cents and I would sell it for 2 and 99 cents. And then someone in Germany, they want to pay 20 to ship this thing. And that’s a real story. And. That’s category. It’s still there, but they’re much more clear on the event occasion holiday category, which is where you can basically buy holiday decor and resell it.

And you don’t have to do anything to it.

Kunle Campbell: Interesting. And what do you think the marketplace would look like? If you look at eBay and you look at Amazon say, I’m searching for an iPhone 12 on Amazon’s a singular. Product listing, and that would have loads of sellers latched onto it. While on eBay it’s a minefield, you’d have pages upon pages of different types of the same [00:20:00] product of the iPhone, whatever 11, if you search for it so how in Etsy, How’s that? So if GC is. From a shopper’s perspective or user perspective, do you see repetition in the listings or does Etsy clean? It’s listings up to to optimize customer experience.

Dylan Jahraus: Yes that’s a great call out. With Etsy, it is a little different than Amazon in this way, because with Amazon people, even customers, they say, where did you get your iPhone? Oh, I got it from Amazon. If they’re not going to say, I got it from seller, China, one, two, three, whatever they say, I got it from Amazon with Etsy.

It is very much where you own your brand. So I don’t see Etsy ever getting to a point where they are combining multiple suppliers onto one product page and giving you the option at that point, I believe, it really comes down to a little bit of a price war and reviews and. [00:21:00] If it’s the same product, the only way you’d have bad reviews is really, if you were, doing counterfeit things.

So with Etsy, I don’t see them doing that. But it is something where, yes, there’s going to be people side by side who have something very similar. Now it is never a good strategy Etsy and then try to copy it or do something very similar because you’re always going to be chasing success. And that is not a business model that you want to plan.

Kunle Campbell: Yeah. Yeah, that is so true. Chasing success is a business model. You don’t want to follow it’s a no. Cause it would eventually come back and bite you. You just never will get there. We never ever get there.

Strategies for High Revenue on Etsy

Kunle Campbell: So hypothetically speaking on behalf of my audience of the 2x e commerce audience, 2x as me now, if, Someone listening now wanted to get to, to, to Etsy, get into Etsy.

And they have [00:22:00] a target that by about this time next year, they would be looking at generating a hundred K per month through Etsy. How would you map out, how would you coach them to that? level, what do they need? What set of skills do they need to have now? And access to capital they need to have now to get to a hundred K per month in 12 months or less consistently.

Dylan Jahraus: It’s going to take the longest to get you to 20, 000 a month. And then once you’re at 20, 000 a month, it’s really a matter of pulling levers at that point to get you to a hundred K per month. And the constraints in the business are going to be different at different stages.

So the 20 K to a hundred K, a lot of times that’s people. Inventory bandwidth, right? A little bit of marketing spend, but at that point, your customer in the zero to 20, 000 a month you’re getting feedback. You’re trying to learn which products are going to have the highest order velocity.[00:23:00]

Which products also increase your average order value or encourage multi item orders, right? Which customer set you’re targeting would have the strongest LTV within your shop? Cause you don’t want to be getting to a hundred K months by acquiring new customers over and over and being very transactional.

We need to grow this with a compounding effect. So what I would say is you need to pick probably four to five customers to target in one shop. Okay. Not competing customers. I say like farmers and brides, right? We don’t want to not those in the same shop, but four to five kind of complimentary customers, and then we build our product mix strategically.

So you want to front load with loss leaders because Etsy’s algorithm works Where you need a high order velocity happening. So that’s number of transactions or orders per day in order to rank higher. And then we wanna also have products in your shop.

Balanced Product Mix for High Revenue

Dylan Jahraus: If you’re trying to get to a hundred K months, I would say you need products in there that are over a thousand dollars per product.

Yeah. So it’s a balanced product mix. You might have a loss leader in there that’s $5. You might have [00:24:00] something that’s a thousand dollars. And a good example, I don’t know if you know of anthropology. Do you know them?

Kunle Campbell: I know anthropology.

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So they have wedding dresses in their store and they have, we call them little like grandma grabbers at the checkout, lip balms and things

Kunle Campbell: Yeah.

Dylan Jahraus: and their core, candles that they’re known for, they can sell kitchen utensils and wedding in the same.

That’s what you want to think about your business.

Kunle Campbell: Interesting. Really interesting.

Importance of Product Curation

Kunle Campbell: How much of this requires like supply chain prowess because it seems like from a front end perspective if you get a shopify store, you most definitely have to get your you know Your products in order, but what’s most important for success is brand And your ability to track traffic performance, marketing, what have you bringing traffic into the store and then converting with Etsy.

It [00:25:00] sounds like that front end in terms of bringing traffic is sorted most of the time through SEO. If you optimize really well for SEO, you’ll get that visibility. If your listings, optimized, you get the traffic in. So how much of your time.

From a percentage standpoint, do you focus on product curation with an Etsy store, especially in this trajectory of getting to the 100 K per month versus marketing, the products or listing the products.

Dylan Jahraus: Without the product curation you’re going to fall flat when it comes to building a brand and you’re not going to get to 20 K months. So that’s a bit of a problem. So you can’t just do sales and marketing without the focus on product curation and making sure there’s product market fit.

You can’t even do sales and marketing if you don’t have product market fit to begin with. So curating the right product mix and focusing on a profitable product mix. And getting your costs down and building those supplier relationships, [00:26:00] it’s going to be so key. So I’d probably say your first, three months, it might be 60%, 70 percent on the product side.

30 percent maybe on the marketing and sales side. And then that will shift. Once you have things that are getting traction, then you can focus on the marketing and sales and just, pulling the lever where you have leverage really.

Running an Etsy Business Without Making Products

Kunle Campbell: And do I need to make the products or can I run an Etsy business by just being a really good buyer?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. If you can spot margin opportunity in something, you can do Etsy. You don’t have to make products. I have people who are like digital nomads. They bounce around. They do Etsy. They don’t ship anything, right? You definitely don’t need to be shipping anything, making anything, but I would say you still to be picky when it comes to what you allow in the shop, because it’s not like a, an Amazon [00:27:00] or, it is, I would say it’s more like Shopify than Amazon because you still want to curate that brand,

Kunle Campbell: and with, in that scenario where they’re not touching inventory, are they strictly working with localized suppliers or would they still ship from outside the country?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So let’s say you are doing what’s called print on demand. that would be like using a production partner. Now people think of print on demand and they think printify, printful t shirts. There’s so much more to it than that. And you could use a production partner that is more local.

And let’s say you have one in the UK. Who’s, more local, they do embroidery or engraving or something. And then you have one in the U S you have one in Canada, and basically they’re all making the same type of product, but they’re local to that market. So you can find your own production partners.

And that’s sometimes one of the best ways to have a competitive advantage because then you can get products and you have [00:28:00] access to opportunities that printify and printful. It’s not available on their site.

Kunle Campbell: What about non price and demand, products like, as you said, like the flowers you did, or if I was selling mugs or just jewelry and I had really good suppliers, would I, should I keep the stock in it with me or can I have the suppliers ship and what’s the threshold there?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So you have to do some, I would say, very careful diligence around this because you need to be able to prove that you somehow had your hand in the design. So let’s say it’s jewelry. you orchestrated, what the final outcome is, maybe it’s a jewelry manufacturer, but you had them create a specific design for you.

They can ship it for you. It’s the same thing of using a production partner. It’s not on demand, but they are [00:29:00] still your production partner. And you probably want to list them in your shop. Mary from, this factory is the, Production, person on this product. So you want to be really transparent.

You don’t want to do anything shady. And I always recommend having your own packaging or at least having your hand on the packaging. Cause the last thing you need is, using someone in China where the customer gets it, it’s, this ball of plastic wrapped in duct tape, that’s not a good look, for your brand.

Kunle Campbell: Absolutely. You need to control that customer experience. As you said, I’m going back to your very first tip. It’s so important. Okay. It Makes sense.

Optimizing Etsy Listings for Higher Conversion

Kunle Campbell: And then let’s jump into the listings, the actual, listen, what is the, what’s the anatomy?

What’s a breakdown of a really good Etsy listing page?

Dylan Jahraus: Okay, just cut out.

Kunle Campbell: what is the anatomy or structure of a really good Etsy product listing [00:30:00] page?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes, so you want to make sure you are using all of the listing photos. So there’s 10 photos and a video and you want to have 10 different types of photos. We actually have 18 types of photos that will give you a higher conversion rate because this is a sales page. Don’t think of it like a product page.

Think of this like a sales page. You have to convince someone to buy without getting them to overthink or overanalyze. That’s really the goal. So that’s what your photos, photos are really, I would say over 50 percent of the thing here video, important video. If you’re listing has reviews, you want to really be showcasing those because proof in that track record, social proof.

So important to showcase in your photos, not just under the reviews. And then I would say your SEO, that’s going to be essential using all text on all your images, of course, having all the appropriate tags built into the backend, but in a description that is your place [00:31:00] to convert someone else.

You need to make sure your photos are good enough. To where they don’t read the description and it’s enough information for them to buy. Okay, so some people don’t click the button that says read more to read the description. In a description, you need to have all these different sections. You also want to be linking to other listings, right?

Which is site merchandising, but There’s different sections and you don’t want it to be a just overwhelming text people. This is, I see this all the time, especially in the last two, three years, they’re using chat GPT to come up with these descriptions. It’s like a novel. No, one’s reading that they think longer is better.

you need concise bullets. Think of it like a third grader is reading it. And if they could be understanding what you’re saying, then that’s good. if a third grader can’t understand your description, you’re going to lose them.

Kunle Campbell: Because what I’ve seen in on Etsy listings really is the [00:32:00] reviews. Normally you have image, the gallery, the product, and then under you have it description of sorts for Etsy, straight up reviews and yeah.

And then lots of options. So where is the description text actually placed? Is it under the reviews typically or?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah. So it’ll either be, it depends on what device you’re on. If you’re like on mobile or, web but it would usually be to the right, under the pricing and the option. Sometimes they will put it right under the picture, but they’ll only show one line of the description. yeah, Etsy’s not really pushing descriptions.

They’re really, you’re right, they’re pushing reviews more than descriptions.

Kunle Campbell: so the optimization is where in just the title and the alt image text

Dylan Jahraus: No, it’s much, much more than that. There’s so many places in your shop that you need to have SEO. So title, all text, that’s part of it. Internally there’s tags that you’re putting in as well. And then on your main shop, there’s also many places [00:33:00] on your shop homepage to be having your SEO. Now a description, to optimize your description, you need to have key details.

Materials, care instructions, links to other listings, social media. So all of these different sections there’s probably at least half a dozen that we have in our template that we give you, but it’s essential. You cannot just put a generic paragraph. No one like that’s going to be really low conversion.

And what we see is I had this girl three months and she was making, she made 444 per conversion rate was only one and a half percent after three months of updating this. She didn’t add new products or anything. It was just updates on what she had for products. It was 7, 400 in revenue and a 7. 5 percent conversion rate in that conversion rate change, that’s what we look for.

Kunle Campbell: And what was most important thing she changed on her listing?

Dylan Jahraus: I would say her [00:34:00] SEO cause her traffic did increase significantly and she got in front of more of the right people, low conversion rate, it could be there’s friction in the listing or it could be you’re not even getting in front of the right buyer.

Kunle Campbell: do you ensure you’re getting in front of the right buyer?

Dylan Jahraus: So you can actually look at your listing stats and see what people are searching to find your product.

You can also look at if you have any buyer, what else are they favoriting? Is that the type of person you want to go after? So there’s things you can look at. We always want to look at that on Etsy and not third party software.

Kunle Campbell: Interesting Okay.

Top Categories to Sell and Avoid on Etsy

Kunle Campbell: What about categories? What are your top three categories to you, you tell your students to jump at? And what are the top three categories to avoid in Etsy?

Dylan Jahraus: Let’s see. Oh, it cut out top three categories to sell on Etsy.

Kunle Campbell: Yeah. So I’ve said, what are the top three [00:35:00] categories to you, your advice new students to get into, and what are the three top categories you advice against?

Dylan Jahraus: Yeah, how about I’ll start with the ones not to get into maybe we’ll start there. Number one would be AI wall art, where it’s just either digital or print on demand, where you’re just taking images from mid journey and throwing them up. things can start to look really sloppy really quickly.

wall art, it’s not something that people change out. Frequently, it’s also not really a giftable product. So I really wouldn’t get into that. And it’s very oversaturated. So you’re not going to see the margins that you want there. it’s really an uphill battle. Another thing I would not get into is print on demand t shirts.

And by that, exclusively doing t shirts. A lot of people, they see tutorials on t shirts, but that’s how they make their decision of what to sell because they saw a tutorial [00:36:00] for it. And that means everyone else saw that same tutorial and the margins with t shirts and apparel.

very low. The third thing I also would not get into. Oh, this is tricky. I would say anything that is a frivolous item. So anything that if you’re just starting out, if it doesn’t help someone save time, make money, save money, solve a pain point or bring a solution and gifting can be a solution.

I wouldn’t sell it. So for example, like a pillow with a dog on it would not ever do anything like that. I would not recommend that. On the other hand, three things to get into. That I would recommend digital products with a high barrier to entry, where there’s some skill that went into that. So not just something mid journey spit out.

This could be spreadsheets website templates. anything with utility inventory tracking systems, things like that. think about what you use in your [00:37:00] business. Are you tracking your inventory on a spreadsheet that you put together? Put that on Etsy.

So that’s one digital products with high utility and a higher barrier to entry. The second thing would be, furniture and higher price point products that are for the home. I know a lot of people are afraid to get into large products, but people are willing to pay more for large products.

They’re expecting to pay more. It’s easier to sell, a table for a thousand dollars compared to a necklace for a thousand dollars. People feel like they’re getting more so large and expensive pieces. And then the third thing I would get into would probably be the gift box arena, and this is so consistent year round because there’s gifting seasons all throughout the year, you could build really nice, high, consistent income.

And this would be the new sourced by a seller category where you are curating these.

Kunle Campbell: So for the gift box, are we talking about like hampers or are we talking about customized gift boxes? What’s the configuration that really works on Etsy?

Dylan Jahraus: [00:38:00] Yes, so it would be I would say an exterior vessel, whether that be like a cardboard box type of thing, or maybe something a little more unique, like a, see through clear bag with a zipper, and then putting things in it. That are, for a specific theme, for a specific customer.

One example would be, a gift box for people who love reading. So a book lover gift box. And you have a mug in there, you have a bookmark, you have a pen and a little notepad. Maybe a candle. You could do skin care gift boxes. You could do candle gift boxes, get well soon gift boxes, things like that.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. It makes a lot of sense. Reminds me of subscription boxes, but these are one offs.

Dylan Jahraus: Yes.

Kunle Campbell: Okay.

Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value

Kunle Campbell: And then final question is really CLTV. We’re all about two things in this podcast. One’s cross functional growth, which is. synergizing supply chain with marketing and making sure everything [00:39:00] is in sync, really fits like a glove.

And then the second bit really is CLTV, maximizing CLTV. How do you, so my personal story, as I said earlier, I buy share butter. I buy cocoa butter and I buy coconut oil. I make a concoction with it, which is, I don’t use like. Artificial skincare. I don’t use all the skincare products with that sort of mishmash and some other Sort of essential oils mixed into it.

So there is an etsy seller. I go to I buy them in the kilos So there’s a specific etsy seller I go to, you know without fail anytime I run out of stock and essentially i’m their customer for life So long as they sell those products, I will continue to buy it So long as I need to keep my skin my family’s skin healthy nice and healthy.

I’ll just buy those products from Etsy. That’s a wonderful, that’s probably the main reason I go to Etsy. And then off the back of that what then happens is then I then impulse purchase, from those visits. So [00:40:00] how do you ensure that customers are not just one time customers, like the table I bought, although it’s a very high.

probably made the same amount of money or if not more in comparison to the chaps I buy, I spend just under 50 pounds, every time I work with them. So what are your tips for maximizing customer lifetime value and what’s the trade off? Would you just say, okay, if you’re selling a very high ticket item, there’s a trade off to be made there or how would you really play it?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes. So we do this through a couple of ways. One is when you have a transaction, this is your chance. This is a first date with someone. You do not want to mess this up, right? This is your chance to win them for life. And it’s about the experience. And sometimes it’s communication. That’s part of it.

And when I say over communicate, it’s not about a volume of communication. It’s frequency. Yeah. So thank you so much for your order. It just went out. Hey, it’s going to be there tomorrow. Did you receive it? I just want to make sure it [00:41:00] got to your doorstep. There is a frequency as well that really helps with that experience and really taking care of your customers and creating that kind of four seasons, five star customer experience.

And we look at fancy hotels, fancy restaurant chains, even things like Chick fil a it’s a, chain in the U S where. They do anything for the customer. And so look at great examples of customer experience and other sectors and other fields, and then apply that to your shop.

And then once you have that, you need to get them off of Etsy. So once you have a transaction, you’ve got to get them to your social media. That’s where you nurture those customer relationships and. They will become followers and like true followers of you and your brand. If you nurture them there, so we nurture through social media, but you have to get them there when a transaction happens and then from social media, you can drive them to your website, you can drive them to your email list, you can drive them anywhere, but driving them to social media versus an email list, it’s going to be the least [00:42:00] friction.

And then it allows you to really nurture in a more personal way. So that’s a couple of big recommendations in terms of, the lifetime value of your customer. Let’s say you bought this table. How do we make sure that, let’s say I sold you that table. How do I get you to come back?

What else would you buy? For that table. Maybe there’s a special oil or something that you need to take care of the table with. maybe there’s chairs that go with it or a collection of bookshelves that match that tables would green exactly. Maybe there’s tabletop like a riser for your laptop.

So there’s. Think about how can you serve your customer for at least four to seven years and give them everything in one shop.

Kunle Campbell: I like that. Four to seven years. Yeah. Okay. Super interesting. And then customer, which brings us to the question of customer data. Amazon clearly would not share, their customers, emails. And in many cases, even the address, if it’s been fulfilled by Amazon what is [00:43:00] Etsy’s policy in regards to customer data?

Dylan Jahraus: You have access to it all, but you’re not supposed to use it unless they opt in. So basically you have access to their emails. You have access to their addresses, but you do not own it unless they opt into something. So that’s why my recommendation is get your customers to your social media because you Do have more power there and then I would give them an opt in there.

So be pushing an opt in on your social media, either with something like many chat or just in your stories, right? Linking something that has, free value, a checklist or something that would fit their needs. That’s my recommendation. Some people take the emails right from Etsy, but you’re really not supposed to do that.

Kunle Campbell: Interesting. And what’s the methodology for pushing them to your social how compliant are they to transition from Etsy through to socials? How would you do it?

Dylan Jahraus: Yes, so we have a, what I call a golden message series and it works so well, so [00:44:00] consistent. I’m afraid to give it all away, but one of the big things is luring them into social media, not with a discount code, not with, follow us for new products. No one, they don’t care about that. You want to say, follow us on social media and I’m going to share a sneak peek of your order.

They will absolutely be watching. So you need to give them value and really call them out. So every something we do and we teach is every time you have an order, even if you’re not fulfilling it yourself, even if it was shipped by someone else, you put that on your stories and you say, Sarah, your order is on its way.

I love that.

Kunle Campbell: Very personable. Dylan, we can go on and on.

Final Thoughts and Resources

Kunle Campbell: I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m glad I had you on the show to share, your insights on Etsy. We certainly haven’t covered everything extensively. I think we’ve just gotten into the first principles of what you need to know to get started with Etsy.

[00:45:00] I’m not an Etsy, seller myself. So people who are listening to us right now they’ll be interested in finding out more. And I believe you host a regular webinar and you also have a training program, You have a very high value webinar. Is it free or paid to get into the webinar?

Dylan Jahraus: It’s a free webinar. Yes. And we can maybe link it here. really helps you target profitable customers on Etsy and shows you how to really increase your traffic in your sales in your first 30 days on the platform. If you are looking at Etsy or maybe you’re already on Etsy and I maintain it is one of the fastest places to build your brand.

So Definitely check this webinar out. It gives you a ton of actionable steps to take that you can try for yourself. Yes.

Kunle Campbell: link to the webinar. It’ll be the only thing I’ll link to in the show notes. I’ll also link to your LinkedIn. I’ve sent you a LinkedIn request. Dylan it’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the two X eCommerce podcast. Really [00:46:00] appreciate, your insights.

Grateful for you just being open with with getting on Etti, I’m actually thinking about or. Doing something with my wife because she likes she, she’s arty. So yeah we’ll have another side conversation after this one, but yeah, thank you. Thank you so much.

Dylan Jahraus: Thank you for having me. Great to be here.

Kunle Campbell: All right. Cheers.

Mhm.

Thank you for tuning into this episode of the 2X eCommerce podcast. I hope you found our conversation with Dylan Jahraus, insightful and inspiring. If you want to dive deeper into the topics we discussed today, you can find the show notes at subscribe. Dot 2X eCommerce dot com. Before we wrap up, I have an exciting announcement for you. We’ve refreshed our weekly newsletter designed to be your go-to resource. At the intersection of commerce, healthy living and the mindsets of actual ordinary leaders. If you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve. Get valuable insights and be inspired every week.

[00:47:00] Make sure to subscribe. Simply visit subscribe dot 2X eCommerce dot com and sign up. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to elevate your business and personal growth until next time folks keep growing. Keep learning and keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. This is Kunle Campbell signing off cheers.