So, you’ve taken the leap and opened up an Etsy shop! Congratulations! You might be seeing people clicking on your listings, and maybe even generating some sales. You might also be getting inquiries from potential buyers that are curious about your work.

Sometimes, shoppers want a more customized, personal touch when buying from Etsy. Luckily, there is a way to do just that by curating private listings in your shop. This option is great for any seller who has the means and desires to make a product that closely aligns with the shopper’s personal vision.

How Do You Create a Private Listing on Etsy?

1. Go to your Shop Manager
2. Click Settings
3. Click Options
4. There, enable your Custom order requests
5. Click Save

Now, anyone who comes onto your Etsy shop will see the option to request a private listing.

There are lots of ways to make your shoppers’ experience more personal, and a private listing is just one of many. Buckle up, buttercup, because today, we’ll be discussing how to manage and make private listings, and all the good things that come from them.

What Are Private Listings?

Let’s say you sell ceramic cups with a cute and bubbly Kawaii theme. Let’s also say that a customer messages you saying they want to gift their daughter one of your cups but with her as a chibi character and her name in Japanese on it.

First of all, you better start learning kanji! Second of all, you might be wondering how you might go about making that customized listing.

You could make a public listing with the header “RESERVED for XYZ”, but anyone can buy it, and it might upset the customer to have their name displayed on your shop. So how do you avoid that?

Well, that’s what private listings are for. Etsy allows all sellers to make private listings that are only visible to them and the buyer that has requested them.

One thing to note is that private listings cannot be created for digital items, only physical goods. Also, the maximum processing time for custom orders is 6-8 weeks, so make sure you can abide by this policy.

How Do You Create A Private Listing?

There are a series of steps involved in enabling private listing requests and making custom private listings. Let’s go through them one by one:

1. Go to your Shop Manager
2. Click Settings
3. Click Options
4. There, enable your Custom order requests
5. Click Save

Now, anyone who comes onto your Etsy shop will see the option to request a private listing. This is just the first part of the journey.

If a customer requests a private listing from you, the message will appear under your Custom Requests folder.  Alternatively, if a customer messages you directly asking for a private listing, you can make one through the messages.

Make sure to get specific on what the customer wants and clarify the details. Afterward, it’s time to make the listing. Let’s break that process down:

1. Go to your Messages
2. You’ll see two options- Start building a custom order and Make this a custom order
3. After selecting one of those, you make the listing- include things such as clear and polished product photos, title, price, processing time, shipping time, and more
4. Click Publish
5. Once the listing is created, the buyer gets an email with the link to purchase the custom listing as well as a message on their Etsy account
6. Once they buy the listing, it will appear on your Sold page, where everyone can see it

Sounds easy enough. There’s no limit to how many private listings you can make, and the listing fee is the same for private listings as all other listings- $0.20. The listing will last four months, and you won’t be charged the $0.20 fee unless the listing is sold.

The cool thing about private listings is that you don’t have to do keyword research and tag it like other public listings because there’s already a person waiting to buy it. How convenient!

You can access your private listings by going to your Shop Manager, then Listings. The order will be labeled as Private.

Once the listing is sold, it will be able to be seen in your Sold Items page, where anyone can see it.

Why Should You Create A Private Listing?

While there are ways to personalize items in your shop by color, size, and even by adding custom text, private listings go a step beyond that and allow you and your customer to really deviate from your available listings and make something entirely original and unique to them.

There’s no limit to what a private listing can do- while regular listings are limited to two kinds of customization options, a private listing can have a combination of customized attributes and characteristics.

This means that if you are selling that cute Kawaii ceramic cup, your customer can ask for a larger size, different glaze, customized etching, and all that jazz.

Building private listings allows you to keep a detailed log of all your custom orders, and to make sure that a shopper doesn’t buy a reserved listing- cause wouldn’t that be awkward?

Private listings are also a great way to broaden your horizons and experiment with different designs and styles and collaborate with fans of your shop.

Not only that, but private listings are an opportunity to make a little more money since they are personalized. Of course, this will be negotiated between you and your customer beforehand.

Lastly, your conversion rate might increase after you have sold some private listings- this is because the shopper clicked on your link, then bought the product. This might help your shop get more exposure from Etsy.

Overall, making a private listing is a great way to foster connections with buyers and go the extra mile to make their shopping experience special and memorable. If you haven’t already, give private listings a try and make your shoppers’ day!