Most Etsy market research tools are capable of doing market search on Etsy. The ones that I recommend the most are Alura and eRank. You can read these guides for some basic info on these tools:
Let’s learn how to do market research on each of my recommended tools:
Using Alura Chrome Extension
IMPORTANT: When you are doing market research on Etsy, keep in mind that Etsy shows personalised search results and suggestions that could skew your analysis. I’d recommend using an incognito browser when doing research, and open a new incognito browser after browsing 20-30 pages.
The Alura Chrome extension is especially useful in validating niche ideas. It’s my top choice mainly because I can use it directly on Etsy, and it can compare both the demand and competition level at the same time.
Using the keywords you gathered from the chapter 2, you should search them on Etsy one-by-one. The most important thing you should look for is the Score of the keyword.
The score looks at both the estimated sale number of the listings under this keyword, and also the level of competition. A high score is a good sign as it means the demand is high with low to manageable competition level. A low score may indicate low demand and high competition.
When you hover over the score, Alura will give you the detail assessment of the demand and competition. What you want to look for is high demand with low/medium competition.
It’s normal for the broad keyword to have a lower score than the niche keyword. I would recommend a score of 6 or higher for niche keywords that have the a good chance of success.
When you open the Chrome extension, click the ‘Settings’ button on the bottom right of the extension window. Then choose ‘All listings’ for ‘Listing to load initially’. This allows the Alura to analyse all the listings on the first page, which gives you more accurate results.
Using eRank
Although eRank doesn’t give you an estimate of the sales of Etsy listings, it gives you estimations of their searches and clicks, which is helpful for us to understand the demand of a particular keyword. You’ll also see the competition level of the keyword.
The statistics are colour coded, with green being a favourable result, and red being unfavourable.
Search the keywords from the last chapter one-by-one on eRank. You want to identify keywords that have green colour in all of these statistics:
- Average searches
- Average clicks
- Etsy competition
One of the strengths of eRank is that it also shows you related keywords and their statistics. Scroll down to the ‘Keyword Ideas’ section and look for other closely related keyword/niche ideas that have high searches/clicks and low competition. Keep in mind this feature is only available to eRank Pro users.
After going through all the keywords using either Alura or eRank, you should be left with niches that have good demand and low competition. Those keywords can be brought forward to the next chapters.