The last quarter of 2021 saw Etsy acquiring 13 million new buyers representing a 76.7% increase on the same period from the previous year.

Representing a 118% increase compared to the same period in 2020, this year’s festive season is likely to exceed all expectations. Considered the year’s “gold rush”, the December holiday season leading up to Christmas and New Year is a time when many Etsy sellers make most of their sales.

There are a couple of things you can do to take full advantage of this lucrative time frame. And we’re here to tell you all about them.

Things to do in preparation for Christmas on Etsy

With a massive market of buyers on Etsy, competition is at an all-time high. Many sellers are trying to position themselves as best as possible on the platform by following certain industry best practices that are specifically related to the Christmas season.

Get stocked up on items and gift-wrapping materials

It goes without saying that many customers start looking for Christmas gifts before December and Etsy sellers who are ready with their inventory and production processes are those that thrive.

For instance, ensuring that you have the basics in place well in advance is a great way of staying organized, avoiding burnout, and preventing poor customer service. Examples of items you should have stocked up on in October already include envelopes, boxes, packing tape and materials, shipping labels, etc.

All this is in addition to the actual inventory you need to create your products.

Add Christmas-themed pictures to your product listings

But having the products ready and available for sale is not the only strategy. For example, in addition to having all the right stock in place, many sellers opt to display their listing in a more creative, seasonal way to draw attention to their products.

When shopping for Christmas gifts, buyers are more likely to be drawn to pictures presenting your items in a Christmas setting. That could be your item wrapped as a gift in red and green colors, the product lying under the Christmas tree, or a depiction of a family exchanging your product as a gift in a room with a Christmas decor.

Obviously, the pictures will differ based on the type of item you sell. However, this tactic is advisable for any and all listings in your Etsy shop.

Add or Edit a Shop announcement

Updated shop announcements are also a big plus. This comes in handy and helps improve customer service.

Etsy Shop Announcements – Everything You Should Know

This way sellers are able to clarify how long the production process normally takes, the shipping time, and whether they’re able to ship before Christmas. By anticipating what your customers want and need beforehand and giving them access to this information, you’re much more likely to create reasonable expectations.

In fact, research shows that sellers who follow this practice are much more likely to get five-star reviews from their customers than those who don’t.

Offer gift wrapping

Gift wrapping is another major selling point that adds to the personalization of the gift and is an option that Etsy offers sellers. In fact, sellers can add their gift wrapping service in the back-end of their seller platform and ensure that they reach an audience who wants an extra special touch to their gift.

Boost marketing efforts across the board

Successful sellers usually begin to optimize their marketing efforts several weeks before the start of the festive season. They use a combination of social media, email, blog marketing, and paid advertising to ensure that they’re top of mind for consumers in an increasingly loud marketplace.

As a quick tip here, make sure to include Christmas-related messaging and imagery in all your marketing efforts in addition to the increased advertising volume.

Etsy SEO: Ultimate Guide To Helping Customers Find Your Shop

Offer discounts

Dropping your prices is another crucial strategy to follow. While there is no quick and easy formula for how far you should go with this, studying the market carefully and ensuring your prices hover around the average is the smart move to make. Once you’ve done that, it is a matter of dropping 10-20% below that.

For those who think that this involves endless hours doing calculations based on competitor listings, we’ve got good news for you. Sale Samurai offers an instant overview of the average price for each category of items you can think of.

Listing optimization is the best way to prepare for Christmas

Finally, there is the listing optimization process. You may have done everything mentioned above absolutely perfectly only to leave this process to the last minute. This is a big no-no because all your efforts will be in vain.

Instead, this needs to be one of your biggest priorities in the build-up to and the closure of the season.

So, what have Etsy sellers done right? Here’s a brief breakdown for you:

Back-end keyword optimization

We start with the 13 back-end keywords that Etsy allocates to every seller to help its algorithm rank each listing appropriately. These 13 keywords are like a free gift to you; an opportunity to outrank the competition. Therefore, they should be used wisely.

Because you’re promoting Christmas and holiday-related products, it is imperative that you feature the keyword “Christmas” in your back-end keywords. But you need to be creative here and use long-tail keywords, as well. And if you need any help in figuring out which keywords will be most successful in your case, let Sale Samurai come to the rescue.

Title optimization

Once the back-end has been taken care of, it’s time to focus on what your customers actually see on the front-end of the marketplace. The very first piece of information that they will see is your listing’s title. You only have 140 characters to accurately describe your product. This means incorporating intelligent and high-search-volume keywords in a natural way that makes sense to your audience.

Description optimization

The last part is creating your description. This is where you lay out what your product is, how it is made, what materials it consists of, your shipping policies, your requirements for personalization (if you offer this), how long it takes to manufacture the item, and how soon the customer can expect to receive this.

Yes, you can use keywords in your description as well. But you should also be aware that it needs to be as detailed as possible for buyers who are seeing your listing for the first time and need to be convinced that they want to buy from you. Hence, you need to provide as much information about your listing as possible and not only anticipate, but answer any questions they may have. The more clarity you provide, the better you’ll be able to manage expectations and provide stronger customer service.

Why is this important?

It’s not only that you’re much more likely to get repeat buyers. But you can also expect to generate many more positive reviews, which help with your rankings and sales process.

Examples from successful sellers

A seller that has followed the above strategies and bestselling practices is HomebyLiv. Selling over 170 linen, dinnerware, collectibles, kitchen items, toys, books, and more, the seller has earned over 800 sales. HomebyLiv is one among many sellers who offers gift wrapping as a service and this, apart from following some of the tips mentioned above, is one of the possible reasons for the hundreds of sales generated.

Another important practice that many star-sellers are following is adding the estimated arrival date to their listings. This means buyers can better plan their shopping and is likely to lead to more customer satisfaction. If you didn’t know that this option existed, now you do. It appears right underneath the seller name on the Etsy results page under each listing.

Other successful sellers that are aiming to make big sales over the holiday season are also offering discounts with some going as high as 40% off. The practice of “price dumping” can be quite a successful one during this period of the year but it should be carefully guided by informed research, which you can access through Sale Samurai.

Our tip list of efficient tactics to get ahead

There is a holistic process to ensuring that you make the most of the holiday season’s sales on Etsy this year. This process means ensuring that you take care of the following:

• Keep your inventory organized and get prepared for the holiday rush in advance
• Decorate your product images in the holiday theme to draw more attention to your listings
• Update your shop announcements
• Consider offering gift wrapping as an extra service
• Use all marketing channels strategically
• Drop your prices so that you’re better able to compete
• Beautify your images and use high-quality photos
• Optimize your listings through thorough back- and front-end keyword research

In a nutshell

The upcoming Christmas period presents a myriad of opportunities for Etsy sellers. This is the ultimate time of the year for boosting your sales efforts. And the results will surely be worth it if you follow a holistic strategy and unified approach.

To ensure you do this and that you get ahead, in our experience nothing in the industry compares to the functionalities and opportunities that the Sale Samurai platform offers.

From in-depth research to carefully studying your competitors – Sale Samurai is positioned to help you skyrocket your Etsy business. For only $9.99 per month, this is a practically negligible investment in your side gig that you’ll never look back on.