Market Research
But sellers who already have an Etsy shop can still benefit greatly by going through this step and refining your niche and target customers.
Market research can help you get a better idea of how much demand and competition there are, and whether your product idea is viable on Etsy.
Doing this for your different product ideas can point you in the right direction of where you should put your efforts in.
It helps you answer these questions:
- What products are in demand?
- Does your product idea sell well on Etsy?
- Who are your biggest competitors selling similar products?
- Are there gaps in the market where you can enter to serve customers better?
Brainstorming product ideas
It’s important to first get a list of potential product ideas before analysing them. Here are some ways to get ideas:
- Your own skills & hobbies - Do you have a great amount of knowledge about a topic?
- Your unique advantages - Can you get some supplies cheaper than other people? Do you have your own culture you can take inspirations from?
- Browse Etsy - Use Etsy search, browse related products, check out your customer's favourited lists.
- Pay attention when you go shopping. Look at what’s on display, what things other people are buying, etc
- Browse social media, YouTube, magazines, TV, etc.
These resources can help you with your brainstorming:
Try to be as diverse as you can with the ideas. There’s no wrong answer. List them all out.
But try to avoid these for now:
- Seasonal products (e.g. skiing equipment, Christmas decorations)
- Products with possible restrictions (e.g. nudity, violent themed, etc)
- Excessively large or heavy items (e.g. furniture, dumbbells)
Understanding Demand on Etsy
Before you start, make sure you are browsing Etsy on an incognito mode browser and not logged in to Etsy. So that your results are as neutral as possible. I would recommend open a new incognito window about every 5-10 minutes.
One difficulty of estimating demand on Etsy is that Etsy doesn’t tell you the actual sales of individual listing.
First, search the keyword of your niche. To estimate whether a niche has good demand, there are some indicators on Etsy:
- Many ‘bestseller’ and ‘popular now’ badges in the search results (the discount listings may not show the badge even if they are a bestseller. You may have to click into the listings to see it)
- The niche keyword appears in the Etsy search bar autocomplete function
- Red text ‘In xx carts’ appears in multiple listings (Again, you may have to click into the listings to see it)
- Trending product ideas outside of Etsy, for example, trending on Instagram (be careful of the risk of those product trends being very short-lived, e.g. fidget spinner)
Understanding Competition on Etsy
A bit about the competition level on Etsy, some people will suggest you to stay away from highly competitive categories like jewelry. But in my experience, a high level of competition is not necessarily bad. A lot of times, highly competitive category also means high demand. And because of that, there are opportunities to 'niche down' in that category.
To niche down means to find a segment of customers who have more specific needs and preferences. For example, ‘natural gemstone necklace’ is a niche inside the ‘jewelry’ category. And ‘luxury vegan skin care’ is a niche within ‘skin care products’. These smaller sub-niches are less competitive and give you a better chance to succeed.
Niche Research Using Tools
You can speed up the process above with Etsy research tools. The two I recommend are Alura and EtsyHunt. Both of these can help you estimate demand and competition on Etsy pretty efficiently, and they both have reasonably priced plans that are highly usable.
Choosing Your Niche
After you have analysed your product ideas and niches, it’s time to choose the ones with higher demand and lower competition.
It's also smart to match it with your skills and interests:
- Do you have experience in making any of the products? Are you willing to invest time to learn some new skills?
- What interests you? Which of the products would you buy yourself?
I recommend choosing 1 product idea/niche to start with. It’s better to sell a small selection of high quality products, than to sell a bunch of mediocre products. And it’s always possible to expand your product lines and branch out in the future.
After we have narrowed down your niche, it's time to understand your market and target customers.
"If you selling to everyone, you are selling to no one.”
Understanding your target customer is important for:
- Product development - Create products that solves their problems and satisfy their needs
- Etsy shop optimisations - Craft Etsy product listings that converts shoppers to customers
- Marketing - Know how to craft a clear message that resonate with them on social media, email marketing, etc.
If you have time, you can construct a complete persona profile for your target customer (more information in this chapter), but here are the most important thing you need to know:
1. Target Customer Pain Points (And How to Solve Them)
Etsy shoppers look for items that bring a positive change to their lives. Whether it's solving a practical problem, adding beauty, or saving time, your product has to offer a solution that give customers a positive transformation.
Brainstorm a list of potential pain points your customer may face. For example, cafe owners may face the problem of wanting to easily update menus and social media posts without having to hire an expensive designer.
Once you know their pain points, list out a list of solutions that help solve them. Using the same example, editable menu and instagram post templates can address the pain points of cafe owners directly.
Keep these pain points and solutions in mind as they are useful in crafting powerful messages that resonate with your target customers in your Etsy listings, social media posts, email marketing, etc.
2. Analysing your Competition
Pay attention to your biggest competitors in your niche as they are the ones that your target customers will compare your products to.
Think about it this way: if you sell exactly the same product as them, the chance is, customers will buy from your competitors as they have a more established and trustworthy shop.
So it’s important to:
- Create a comparable product in terms of feature list
- Create a strong USP to give customers a clear reason to buy from you
In order to do that, let’s have a look at your biggest competitors and see what they are doing.
Start by identifying the most successful shops specialising in your chosen niche or selling similar products to what you plan to offer. Pay close attention to these details:
- List of product features - This helps you establish the baseline for your own product offer. For example, materials, functions, sizes, etc.
- Their biggest selling point - What is the one thing that stands out for that product? You can use your own judgement, or find that out in the product description or customer reviews. Understanding what makes your competitors stand out can help you define your own unique selling proposition (USP).
Repeat this process for at least 5 of your main competitors. This market analysis prepares you for the next part - Developing winning products.