Hey fellow Etsy shop owner! I see you, you are out there listening to all this advice from online Etsy coaches. They are usually sharing their strategies on boosting your sales and using SEO to reel in potential customers. However, there is something that is not talked about enough and that is how to optimize your Etsy workflow… This guide will only be about digital products as my shop only sells digital and I want to speak from an experience standpoint.
If you are an Etsy seller, chances are that you are going at this alone and there is a lot of information you need to be on top of! You have to work on your products listings both the visuals and writing, SEO, developing the actual product, customer service, and much more (oh believe me, I know…). And if you have a team or someone helping you such as a family member or a virtual assistant, you have to coordinate all the product output as well. With so much information, it can be very easy to get lost. Staying organized is your secret weapon. It is the most important tool to help you succeed and scale your shop.
Typical Activities In An Etsy Digital Downloads Shop
If you own a digital product Etsy store, you are most likely carrying out the following activities:
- Creating the digital products that you will be selling.
- Creating mock-ups or listing photos for each of your products.
- Writing down a detailed description of the product itself.
- Managing your digital product inventory.
- Promoting your products through a social media channel.
The Ultimate Tool To Optimize Your Etsy Workflow
Use a project management tool to manage every single aspect of your shop. My tool of choice is Airtable but if there is a different tool you know how to use or prefer go ahead and use it. In my point of view, you cannot manage your shop without a project management tool, especially if you are uploading one listing every day. The best part is that a lot of these tools are actually free. Take advantage of your resources!
Ultimately, this is important because you want to create an external record of each of your product listings. These are some of the benefits of using a project management tool for your shop:
- You have a library of your products outside of Etsy so you have the freedom to manage the backend information how you see fit. If you choose to sell on another platform, you can easily pull the information from each listing.
- You have a one-stop spot where you have all of the information for your product. This includes file links, pricing, descriptions, and more.
- It will help you optimize your inventory management, again because you know where everything is.
- You can quickly copy and paste information onto other similar items when you are listing them.
- If you are working with a team, you all have access to the information regarding each product and can easily communicate.
- Downloading reports from these tools is easy and allows you to analyze information when comparting them to your Etsy analytics.
8 Ways To Optimize Your Workflow
Using your tool of preference, you can start creating your own workflow. However if you want to save some time, you can purchase my Airtable template below and jump right into organizing your products!
1. Create A Record For Each Of Your Products
Firstly, you must remember that you want to track each and every product in your Etsy shop. In order to do so, you must create one record per product. Essentially, you will create an external library of every element of your product in your project management tool. This can be key elements of information such as the price and product descriptions. Don’t create more work for yourself, you don’t have to include absolutely all of the information in your Etsy listing such as the size of the item, you will simply add things that are relevant to your shop, information that you will need to reference later or that you can use in other listings.
The easiest way to create a record is to do it in a project management tool but you can also create a spreadsheet to track all the information for each product. The important thing is to keep all the information about said product in one place for easy reference.
2. Manage Your Inventory Effectively
Just because you don’t sell physical products, doesn’t mean that you don’t have inventory to manage. A great starting off point is to assign an SKU or inventory ID number to all of your products. The great thing about selling digital downloads is that you don’t have physical products to store and oversee. However, it is very important to know where all of your digital files are located and monitor them periodically. You will also most likely need a cloud service where you can store them such as Dropbox or Google Drive if you don’t have enough space in your computer.
A great way to manage your digital inventory is to keep track of all of them by SKU and product description in a spreadsheet and/or your project management tool. It seems like a lot of work to set it up but trust me, it will make all the difference when managing very large volumes of digital files and products.
3. Have Your Product Files Handy In One Place
Your digital files can get crazy if you don’t organize them. You can learn more about organizing your digital files here. A great way to know where your files are stored is to link your file link to the product record. Once you export all your files and upload them to your file library, you simply copy the link or file location where they are stored. Then you paste it into its respective product record.
This also applies to any Canva projects you work on. If you are searching through all of your files each time you need to work on them, you will waste a lot of precious time. Having file links with their product record will help save time.
4. Save Your Research Notes
A lot of time is spent researching Etsy SEO Keywords, phrasing to use in your product descriptions, notes on similar products and market research in general. You don’t want to waste all that precious research. Make sure to store it in a safe place and as organized as possible. Consider using a digital or physical storage system to keep your notes organized and easily accessible. This will save you time and effort in the long run.
My favorite note-taking tool is OneNote which is a nifty tool if you are a Microsoft Suite user. It is essentially a digital notebook that allows you to find your notes quick and organize them effectively.
5. Batch Create Your Designs
This may seem like an obvious tip but it is definitely worth mentioning! You don’t want to create one product at a time. This can lead you to waste precious time and it can make you feel a little discouraged. Instead try sitting down to create multiple products at once. You can batch create digital designs for your Etsy store by using design software such as Adobe Illustrator or Canva. First, create a template for your design. Then, customize the template by changing the text and graphics to create unique designs. Finally, export the designs as individual files and upload them to your product files to later upload to Etsy.
6. Create Product, Mock-up, And Description Templates
Just as you batch create your designs, make sure to create templates for your products and mock-ups. It is a good idea to create templates of your written product descriptions as well. Remember to make your templates and mock-ups visually appealing and consistent with your brand. This will help your products stand out and attract potential customers on Etsy. Canva is a great tool to create these mock-up templates.
7. Create Similar Listings At The Same Time
Once you have all your files, descriptions, and mock-ups ready, you can upload them to Etsy and just leave them as drafts. If you are planning to post one listing per day, try creating several listings beforehand and have them ready to post. Etsy doesn’t support scheduling but you can leave them ready as drafts and post each day.
You can also create similar listings for your Etsy store at the same time by using the “Copy Listings” feature. Simply go to your shop manager, select the listings you want to copy, and click “Copy Listings”. Then, you can edit the details of each listing as needed.
8. Follow A Listing Calendar
Creating Etsy listings can sometimes feel daunting, and you may not feel motivated to keep at it. However, planning ahead can really set you up for success. Consider following a calendar for your Etsy listings. You can start by creating a schedule that includes important dates, such as holidays or seasonal events, and plan your listings accordingly. Experts recommend that you launch seasonal items 2 to 3 months before the holiday to reach the trends.
For this, you must stay very organized. A great way to plan them is to use a project management tool that allows you to create a calendar view and assign a date to each listing. This way you assign a date and have all of the product information in one place. (Psst. you can do this using my Airtable Template).
With an ever-changing, fast paced world, we must remain very consistent and keep up with our posting schedule. It doesn’t have to be difficult if you take some time to plan ahead and it just takes a few minutes to set up your calendar. Just as you follow a calendar for your Etsy listings, consider doing the same for your social media marketing.
Next Steps
Now get out there and manage your shop’s workflow. You are a professional business owner even though you might not feel it yet. Corporations and larger companies have their Standard Operating Procedures in place as well as strategic workflows. If you feel you don’t need anything of the sort, you are not thinking big enough… You must think like a large company no matter the size of your business as you will grow! If you have everything organized ahead of time, you will minimize those growing pains. Good luck on your business endeavors!
Any questions or comments, feel free to drop a comment below or email me at reachme@sarasplanner.com. I am always happy to hear from you!
