Etsy remains a $12.5 billion marketplace in 2024, with over 95 million active buyers and more than 8 million sellers.� By mid‑2025, personalization and gifting still drive platform-wide growth—even as overall Gross Merchandise Sales (GMS) show signs of normalizing.

Understanding which categories account for ~87 % of total sales is crucial; Etsy’s rhythm, from Q4 gifting to Q2-event spikes, centers on a handful of consistently high-volume categories.

Therefore, if you are launching in a low-content niche—journal, planner, digital sticks, or gifting—you not only want to know what sells, but also when and why it sells.

Etsy’s Top 6 Best‑Selling Categories (And What That Means for Your Product Plan)

According to May 2025 data, roughly six categories make up ~87 % of Etsy’s GMS.

Category	Share of GMS	Why it’s popular	How to tap this using Sale Samurai
Home & Living	~34%	Personalized décor, evergreen wedding, housewarming gifts	Keyword Search; Competition Tracker
Jewelry & Accessories	~18%	High-margin, bite-size gifts, custom name, zodiac themes	Listing Creator; Tag Suggestions
Apparel	~14%	Trend cycles (Y2K, cottagecore), customizing, kaizen-friendly	Trend Spy; Inventory Insights
Craft Supplies & Tools	~9%	Year-round DIY hobby buffs, digital & physical kits	Keyword Volume; Tag Analytics
Paper & Party Supplies	~8%	Weddings, graduations, seasonal occasion needs	Listing Creator; Tag Overrides
Toys & Games	~4%	Nostalgic & educational toys for gifting	Trend Watch; Dynamic Pricing

In short, focus your design energy where buyers are already spending—and use high-leverage tools like Sale Samurai’s keyword insights to carve smarter niches.

Common Growth Drivers in Etsy’s GMS Leaders

A. Personalization + Gifting Supercharge Jewelry & Home Decor

• 44% of Etsy’s purchases now relate to gifting, out‑pacing sitewide growth.Etsy
• Products such as custom name-wall‑art, zodiac rings, pet portraits, wedding signs, and pet‑loss gifts anchor strong sales year‑round.

B. Seasonal Demand Sets Party Supplies & Paper Goods Apart

• Back‑to‑school launch (August), spooky themes (September), holiday orders (November): these are evergreen spikes in Paper & Party Supplies. Create Pinterest boards, tie your products to Pinterest “Mom bento tables”, and place those keywords early in photos & tags.

C. Trend‑Driven Appeal in Apparel & Home Design

• “Galactic metallic”, “literary girl”, “Messy Coquette”, “Châteaucore”, and “Maritime Living” remain Etsy favorite aesthetics.
• Vintage Y2K styles or nostalgic fandoms drive design cycles that boost Apparel crossover into Home & Living (graphic tumblr totes, kitchen kitchen towels with DT art, bedroom poster sets).

How Sale Samurai Helps Turn Category Data into Listing Strategy

Feature snapshot:

• Real Etsy search volume data, competition & price insights.
• Chrome extension overlays showing keyword metrics, related terms, shop previews, pricing, and views per listing
• Tools like Competition Tracker, Keyword Monitor, Listing Creator, and Bulk Uploader participants in Etsy or POD integrations.
• Shop analytics for top sellers in your niche—not just headlines, but live metrics for product density and relative performance.

Here’s how to use them to match Etsy’s top categories with your design and listing process:

Product Strategy Workflow: 5 Steps to Amazon‑Like Precision

Step 1 – Explore & Identify

Use Sale Samurai’s Basic Keyword Search with seed terms: aesthetic themes like “coastal wall art”, functional gifts like “custom planner 2026”, or evergreen “pet ornament personalized”. Export long-tail suggestions with true volume & competitiveness.

Pro tip: When you’re exploring trends, filter for long-tail terms under 5K/mo and B–C grades (even C+ to D if it’s up-and-coming).

Step 2 – Validate With Competition Tracker

Load your top 10–20 keywords into Competition Tracker. Watch:

• Ranking curves: discover which terms are stable vs. spiking
• Shop Review Velocity: see how often new listings are getting reviews
• Price Spread: discover what the marketplace average pricing is

Example: comparing “custom pet ornament” (35% vertically) vs. “animal lover gift” (decline trending) can inform which to double-down vs. retire.

Step 3 – Create Your Optimized Listing

Within the Listing Creator:

• Front-load your primary keyword (e.g. Custom Pet Ornament Christmas 2025)
• Let auto‑suggested tags surface 13 relevant terms that align with both search & related categories
• Use real‑time SEO grade feedback (duplicate terms, missing plural forms, etc.)
• Copy‑in your price and shipping to get guidance on range vs. other sellers in category

Step 4 – Scale With Bulk Uploads

If you’re doing multiples—like color or size variations, or switching overlay designs (e.g. zodiac sign series)—prepare your CSV with title/tag structure and push the upload. Sale Samurai handles mapping to Etsy properly for bulk. This is especially smooth for design-heavy things like best-selling printables or sticker sheets.

Step 5 – Monitor & Refresh

Use Keyword Monitor to watch thresholds like ranking drops or volume jumps. If competition spikes + search volume increases > 20%, it’s time to refresh tags, adjust descriptions, or create variant listings.
Competition Tracker also helps identify selling gaps: e.g. if only 3–4 top listings are dominating a niche, you can re-enter with a better price or bundle offer and capture traffic.

2025’s Big Gainers: Trends That Translate to Listings

Etsy’s Spring/Summer Trend Guide (Feb 2025 data) highlights categories with explosive growth in search interest including: “book embossers” (+30%), “coquette bows” (+500%), “fruit necklaces” (+500%), “zodiac jewelry” (+400%).

How to act:

1. Search these terms in Sale Samurai to determine competition & pricing (e.g. “book embossers personalization” is often under 30 sellers listing terms—a quick entry point).
2. Build a cross‑category bundle: e.g. name + illustration + Zodiac silhouette done for wall art, then extend that same style as a matching enamel keychain (adds up-sell potential).
3. Combine categories: add your “galactic metallic” pattern as a print for Home & Living plus star-themed zine or planner for Paper & Party Supplies buyers (higher average basket size).

TRACK IT: sample 6 popular Etsy categories below and suggested long‑tail terms worth monitoring early:

• Home & Living: “minimalist bullion pillow”, “macramé wall stencil”
• Jewelry & Accessories: “galactic resin ring”, “zodiac hoop earrings”
• Apparel: “vintage Y2K slip dress”, “messy coquette skirt”
• Craft Supplies: “DIY crystal kit”, “fringe earrings kit”
• Paper & Party Supplies: “2026 tote bag party favor”, “adult coloring book floral”
• Toys & Games: “8-bit puzzle nostalgia”, “weighted sensory toy animal”

Add these to Keyword Monitor now—then act if they spike near Q3–Q4.

Sample Listing Walk‑Through: Holiday Tiered Launch Strategy

Product: “Personalized Book Embosser” (Home & Living crossed with gifting)

• Search Volume: ~3,400/mo, C+ grade—potential for strong visibility
• Step‑by‑Step:
  1. Plug the term into Sale Samurai: export related suggested terms: e.g. “book embosser gift for mom”, “blind date book box”
  2. Add “book embossers” & a dozen long-tails into Keyword Monitor
  3. Use Listing Creator to front-load “Custom Book Embosser – Literary Gift 2025”, auto-generated tags, and optimize based on price range ($28–$42), delivery days & free shipping threshold.
  4. If your design template expands to 50 colors or fonts, use Bulk Uploader to push all versions at once.
  5. Promote early bird discount on launch, then monitor rank in Competition Tracker vs. “book embossers”; if rank drops, refresh with newer adjacent terms like “book embosser wedding favor” etc.

Once launch is live, you can clone your listing to Paper & Party Supplies as a scrapbook embossing kit—use same tags set to fine-tune.

Seasonal (Q3/Q4) Optimization Tips: Be There When Etsy Buyers Are Looking

• Start Now (June–July): Export long-tail gift keywords using “2025” suffix: Teacher Planner 2026, Wedding Thank You Cards 2026, Pet Memorial Journal
• Mid-July: Expand your best-performing listings to Q4 tags via Listing Creator; update shop banner with holiday imagery
• August–September: Upload digital downloads or printables (PDF planners, stickers, greeting card templates) using Bulk Uploader; offer discounts and set up coupon codes
• October–November: Add holiday‑specific tags into titles (“Ugly Sweater 2025 Design”), adjust shipping times for holiday cutoff; monitor sales spikes via Competition Tracker, and launch last-minute buys.

Sale Samurai’s trend tools help you flag consistent top-sellers and high-conversion niches before competitors saturate them.

FAQs & Pitfalls to Avoid

• “Why isn’t SEO grade always an A?” Many trendy terms spike quickly; but SEO grade only reflects current competition—not volatility. Always revisit listing performance weekly.
• “Should I enter every category Etsy lists?” No. 87 % of sales come from six categories. Just because a niche has low competition doesn’t mean there’s demand; use real search volume as guide.
• “Can I rely solely on one bestseller item for my shop?” Studies show shops with 200+ active listings consistently outperform those with under 50. Inventory diversity matters.
• “Is print-on-inc. worth it on Etsy?” Only if your product fits the trending category and you monitor price + tag drift. POD can help diversify, but only when paired with good SEO and data.

In Closing

If you want to match or outrank Etsy’s best-sellers, you must design with demand, optimize with data, and iterate with insight—not guesswork.

Sale Samurai gives you the tools you need to:

• Identify profitable categories and trends
• Validate pricing, supply gaps, and competitor patterns
• Build optimized listings that rank and convert
• Scale efficiently with Bulk Uploads
• Monitor and refresh dynamically

Focus your creative energy where buyers are already choosing—and use Sale Samurai to stay aware as Etsy’s trends shift. Start with one high-potential category—like “Home & Living” or “Jewelry”—and apply the five-step workflow. From there, branch out.