Handmade lingerie isn’t just an intimate indulgence. It’s a statement of elegance, a celebration of sensuality, and a surprisingly lucrative venture.

But how do you enter such a market?

Let’s journey through this delicate category where cuteness meets sexiness, and creativity becomes a profitable art form.

How big is the handmade lingerie market on Etsy?

Lingerie is a must-have item in any woman’s wardrobe that allows for the expression of personal style and taste. It’s a popular gift to celebrate intimate moments or romantic milestones. At the same time, it can also be an everyday confidence boost.

As one of the most popular platforms for handmade and authentic goods, Etsy offers an extensive range of unique lingerie gems.

Naturally, this niche is well-developed, competitive, and attractive.

To get a better understanding of the market size, we analyzed three core metrics:

• Number of active listings on Etsy
• Level of competition
• Search volume

Each of these reveals valuable information about the lingerie space.

Let’s dive into our findings.

Number of active listings on Etsy

The first indicator of a large and lucrative market is the number of active listings that rank for broad niche-related keywords.

A quick search on Etsy for “lingerie” reveals a total of 224,820 listings. Some of the most popular subcategories include lingerie sets, kimonos, and even pyjamas.

This indicates that the potential of this diverse segment is substantial. It also signals that there is sufficient demand for all of these competing listings to satisfy.

To confirm our theory, we looked further by analyzing essential insights from Sale Samurai.

Level of competition

Using the Product Search module in Sale Samurai, we quickly uncovered how competitive the keyword “lingerie” is.

According to the tool, the competition level in this domain is 220,070.

Compared to other categories, this number is significantly high. What this means is that entering the lingerie space is likely to be more challenging than other alternatives.

However, to confirm whether the market is as aggressive as it appears, we must examine shoppers’ search behavior.

This will enable us to determine whether there is more demand than supply.

Search volume

Based on insights from Sale Samurai, it appears that a total of 352,251 buyers search for “lingerie” every month.

This is a tremendous demand that represents an extremely lucrative niche to target. Best of all, the search volume is higher than the competition level.

This confirms that the demand exceeds supply, making it easier for new entrants to take a piece of the pie.

However, to stand apart from the crowd and ensure that your listings sell like hotcakes, you’ll need more data.

The most popular lingerie keywords

One of the key factors to observe is the most popular keywords among consumers.

While lingerie is considered a niche on its own, there are multiple sub-niches that we recommend considering.

The more specific your products are, the higher the chances of attracting a narrow target audience. This is a sales strategy that improves listings’ visibility and boosts rankings, resulting in sales.

Using Sale Samurai, we extracted the keywords that accumulate the highest search volumes:

• cuckold lingerie – 127,512
• femboy lingerie – 125,469
• pvc lingerie – 119,405
• boudoir lingerie – 79,968
• intimate lingerie – 79,629
• halter lingerie – 77,621
• sissy lingerie – 77,098
• seethrough lingerie – 73,218
• lingerie harness – 72,783
• garter lingerie – 70,023

This list reveals several key findings.

First, lingerie products are an Etsy trend, with nearly 130,000 searches for terms like “cuckold lingerie”. This proves that users actively browse for diverse lingerie types, creating diverse opportunities for sellers.

Second, the data shows that the majority of searches are related to particular styles. For instance, “femboy lingerie”, “boudoir lingerie”, and “sissy lingerie” are all representatives of this.

Third, a lot of shoppers search for specific materials and fabrics, like “PVC lingerie” and “seethrough lingerie”.

All of these discoveries are valuable as they can help sellers craft products of high interest. When optimized for high-search-volume keywords, your listings will be equipped for success.

The dominating tags in the market

Apart from keywords, sellers can also optimize products via tags – words that live in the backend of your listings, influencing rankings.

Etsy permits a total of 13 tags per listing. Selecting the right ones will inevitably shift your items higher up in search results, making them easily discoverable for buyers.

The leading tags in the lingerie space are:

• Lace
• Sexy lingerie
• Vintage lingerie
• Bridal
• Wedding lace
• Black bra
• Wide lace
• Honeymoon lingerie
• Lingerie set
• Embroidered lace

Right off the bat, it becomes clear that lace is a trending lingerie fabric, with “lace”, “Wedding lace”, “wide lace”, and “embroidered lace” present in the list.

It’s also easy to see that bridal lingerie is frequently sold, according to the “wedding lace” and “honeymoon lingerie” tags.

Tying the data from the keyword list and the tags list can empower sellers to craft the ultimate product.

For example, producing a sissy lingerie item with embroidered lace is bound to yield results. In this case, an appropriate optimization practice would be featuring the discovered words “sissy lingerie”, “embroidered lace”, and “honeymoon lingerie” in your listing title.

The results?

Thousands of buyers eye-balling your product because of the high-search-volume phrases used.

Lingerie prices on Etsy

So far, we’ve established that the lingerie market is worth your efforts as a seller due to its vast demand and versatile nature.

But how should you price your products for maximum results?

The best way to find out is by exploring the lowest, highest, and average prices in the segment.

For lingerie items, these are the numbers worth knowing:

• Minimum price – $0.76
• Maximum price – $334.00
• Average price – $33.85

Keep in mind that there are no written rules that you should abide by these discoveries. At the same time, pricing above the average will likely make your listings unaffordable. Meanwhile, positioning them under the minimum price can create assumptions of poor quality.

To avoid these scenarios, we recommend asking for a price that’s close to the average of $33.85. This strategy will put you at a competitive edge, enabling you to quickly gain popularity in the niche.

What some of the bestsellers are doing to attract sales

Now, let’s take a look at a real-life example.

Browsing through the lingerie category on Etsy, we discovered one of the top performers – “Embroidered lingerie set,Floral lingerie set,Mesh bra,Garter belt,Embroidery lingerie,Floral mesh lingerie,Floral bralette,Lingerie flower”.

This product is sold by ChicLingerie at a price of $34.80. It has attracted a total of 55 customer reviews, while the entire shop enjoys more than 1,800 ratings.

Examining the title, we can see that the seller has intelligently used popular keywords, like “embroidered lingerie”, “floral lingerie”, “garter”, and “bra”. The title is extremely keyword-rich and offers diversity.

This inevitably leads to more traffic as the product is relevant for a broader variety of searches.

In addition, this lingerie set is priced at $34.80, which is slightly below the average in the market ($37.69). As noted above, this is a technique that often yields fruitful returns.

Overall, the ChicLingerie shop specializes in lingerie items, with a total of 883 products in its portfolio, featuring:

• Mesh lingerie
• Lace lingerie sets
• Floral lingerie sets
• Nude lingerie
• Corset lingerie
• Bridal lingerie
• Harness lingerie
• Erotic lingerie
• Transparent lingerie
• Embroidered lingerie sets

What’s interesting is that the seller has separated their products into categories, some of which are top-searched-for keywords.

For example, we discovered that “lace lingerie”, “bridal lingerie”, “transparent lingerie”, and “embroidered lingerie” are all categories shoppers are actively browsing for.

This structure enables the shop to satisfy a significant demand and enjoy tremendous gains.

In a nutshell

A deep dive into the lingerie market on Etsy confirms the potential of this niche.

With a broad range of sub-niches to choose from, this segment remains open for new entrants. Despite its competitive nature, the lingerie space hides attractive money-making opportunities.

To perform to your fullest capacity, take advantage of the insights available in Sale Samurai. Make data-driven decisions and strategic moves throughout your journey to success.