If you’re an Etsy seller, you probably know that conversion rate is important, but there are a lot of things that people misunderstand about how Etsy uses conversion rate information.
Conversion rate can help you understand what the demand for your listings is, and where to improve things in your shop.
Table of Contents
- What is conversion rate on Etsy?
- What’s a good conversion rate on Etsy?
- Etsy conversion rate calculator.
- How to increase conversions on Etsy.
What is conversion rate on Etsy?
Conversion rate on Etsy can refer to the ratio of your overall shop sales to shop visits, or to the ratio of sales of an individual listing to listing visits. The conversion rate that Etsy reports in the shop dashboard is the overall shop conversion rate, but the metric that they use to rank listings in search is the individual listing’s conversion rate. Conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of sales by the total number of visits, then multiplying by 100.
Because whole-shop conversion rate is the number that’s displayed in the shop dashboard, most sellers focus on that.
However, Etsy doesn’t use whole-shop conversion rate in any meaningful way as far as search placement goes. The listing conversion rate is the important number for listing quality and search placement.
Listing conversion rate is the number of sales of a listing divided by the number of visits to the listing, multiplied by 100.
This is an indication of how well a listing sells compared to the number of people who have looked at it, and Etsy does pay attention to it. The more a listing sells, the more it will be shown in search, so the more that it has the potential to sell.
In a private communication to an Etsy seller I know, Etsy tech support confirmed that they pay attention to the listing conversion, but not the shop conversion.
I participated in a Q&A with the head of the search team and he said that listings that don’t sell don’t penalize a shop overall.
The listing conversion rate is a much more important signal to Etsy than the whole-shop rate, because Etsy wants to show LISTINGS that people want to buy.
What’s a good conversion rate on Etsy?
As a general rule, a good Etsy conversion rate is expected to be between 1 and 3%. This number can vary depending on the type of shop or product, but a conversion rate of 1 to 3 sales for every 100 customers who visit the shop is normal on Etsy. Anything over 3% is considered “high” even though that seems to be a low number to most sellers.
Overall shop conversion rate is the main metric that people look at, but it’s important to look at individual listing conversion rate for several reasons.
Drilling down into the listing stats is the way to improve the overall shop conversion rate because improving listing sales will increase the shop conversion.
If you have one or two listings that constitute the bulk of your sales, they might have a high conversion rate, but this might not be good in the long run.
If your shop is relying on sales of a small number of products to provide the bulk of your traffic and revenue, that could be bad if that item stops selling.
It’s better to have a higher conversion rate on multiple items to raise your overall revenue, but it also provides insurance that your income won’t disappear if that one item stops selling.
Looking at your listing stats will tell you the conversion rate for that listing. To find this information, go to the stats for the individual listing, either through the listing manager or by clicking “stats” on the desktop listing itself.
In the listing manager, click on the gear icon and then on “see stats.” Find the numbers for visits and sales, and calculate the conversion rate using those.
If the number is between 1-3% or higher, you’re doing fine. If it’s a lot higher than that, you might want to see if there are additional items that you can design to capitalize on the popularity of that listing.
If it’s a lot lower, you may want to check to see if there’s something in the listing that needs to be addressed. If customers visited the listing but didn’t buy it, there could be a reason for that.
Etsy conversion rate calculator.
The formula for conversion rate on Etsy is Sales/Visits x100=Conversion rate, or the sales divided by visits times 100 to get the percentage. Listing conversion is calculated using individual listing statistics, and whole-shop conversion is calculated using the overall shop visits and sale numbers.
You can calculate conversion rate by using a calculator, or by using this Google Sheet and entering the sales and visits for an individual listing.
You can download the file and open it in excel or google sheets to compare 15 listings at a time. You can add the listing name in column E to have it next to the conversion rate next to the listing for easy comparison:
How to increase conversions on Etsy.
To increase conversions on Etsy you need to get visits to your listings, either by organic search or direct traffic, and make the listings enticing for buyers. Things to consider are SEO for search, listing titles, listing photos, clearly written descriptions, shipping prices, and policies that are easy to understand. These are all factors that will make the customer feel comfortable and will increase the likelihood of converting the visit to a purchase.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and basically means making the listing easy for the search engine to find and understand the listing.
SEO on Etsy involves using clear titles and tags, accurate descriptions and categories, and all of the attributes that are appropriate for the listing. The more information that you provide in those sections, the easier it will be for Etsy to categorize the listing and show it to the right customer.
Your listing photos are a major factor in attracting customers to your listings. If your photos don’t show your listings off well, or if it’s not clear what’s being sold, customers probably won’t be attracted to them.
The right keywords will bring your listings up in search results, but if the photos aren’t interesting to people customers won’t click through to the listing.
Another factor to think about is how clearly the titles are written in terms of how easy it is for the customer to read and understand quickly without the customer having to read things multiple times.
Write your titles in sentences that aren’t confusing and flow well, but that also include keywords that describe the listing accurately. A jumble of keyword after keyword with no flow to them will feel “off” to customers and can cause confusion.
Descriptions factor into the Etsy search placement algorithm, but they also give customers who are interested the details about the listing.
Etsy sellers say that nobody reads the descriptions, but the fact is that the small percentage of people who do are the ones who are really interested in potentially buying the item.
If they get to a description that doesn’t tell enough about the item, or is hard to read, they won’t buy it. Providing a clear and thorough description for buyers is important, and can increase your conversion rate tremendously.
Your shipping prices also play a role in your conversion rate, because high shipping costs deter people from purchasing.
Adding the price of shipping into the item cost in order to offer free shipping is the best way to handle this because customers won’t see an extra, unexpected charge at the end of the checkout process.
If that isn’t possible for pricing reasons, you can use Etsy calculated shipping if it’s available to keep the shipping prices as low as possible.
Having polices that are easy to understand is also a good strategy for increasing conversions. When a customer is faced with a long list of rules and regulations, it starts to make them feel nervous, and they’re likely to go to a different shop.
Keep your policies as clear and concise as possible, and try not to make them too restrictive. Make sure to be thorough and answer common questions, but try not to sound too punitive.
If you’re driving your own traffic to Etsy through your social media channels or by using a mailing list, the SEO part of the equation is irrelevant.
The other factors will still play a role, however, so don’t neglect them. The important thing is to understand what YOUR customers want to know about your listings and to write titles and descriptions to answer those questions.
Create a seamless experience that draws a customer in through the photos and continues to the checkout. Increasing sales on your own can nudge the Etsy algorithm to show your listings in search results more, and conversions will rise naturally.
For a free workshop on how the Etsy system works, sign up for the Navigating Etsy’s Stormy Seas workshop on my Teachable site: Navigating Etsy’s Stormy Seas
Thinking of opening a new Etsy shop? Use my affiliate link to get 40 free listings.
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