Are you thinking of turning your hobby of making gorgeous jumpers for your pals into a lucrative venture? Or maybe you have a collection of vintage items and you’re trying to figure out where to find buyers.
Whichever vintage items you may want to sell, loads of research and careful planning are two essentials that determine whether selling on Etsy will be worthwhile. What this means is that you’ll need to sit down and work out how to price your vintage, calculate expenses- delivery costs and selling fees, and such jokes. All reputable vintage sellers on Etsy started there, though it can seem difficult for sellers who are starting.
This is why this guide to selling vintage on Etsy will come in handy when you will be switching hustles to start selling on Etsy. To help you get up and running, this guide brings along all the essential information you must know about selling vintage on Etsy. Read on.
Selling Vintage on Etsy
Just like in any other business, you should be aware of the products you’ll be dealing with. So, decide what to vintage items to sell on Etsy. Let’s start from there.
Select Your Main Category
Deciding what to sell on Etsy is not a difficult task as all you need to do is to sit down and see what you have, what you can create, or what you can sell best. Think of Kitchenalia, clothing, papers, books, jewelry, or all of them. You see, you can also get extra creative and hardworking by choosing to sell almost everything vintage. After all, all you need is to diversify revenue streams and increase sales. Chances are that you can make more income from selling a host of items instead of specializing in only one category.
Once you’ve chosen your main category and subcategories, proceed to open an Etsy account-it’s as simple as picking a username and some personal information such as address and a credit card to facilitate payment of monthly bills. Choose a username that matches your social media usernames. Oftentimes, you may find it hard to find a username that hasn’t been taken already, but as usual, it’s important to get a bit creative.
Etsy doesn’t come with hidden charges- they don’t charge sellers for setting up seller accounts! As a seller, you’ll only be required to pay 20 cents for every item you list on the platform. Also, Etsy will allow you to attach 10 free images along with the item. The 20 cents will cover the listing charge for up to our months- a very awesome bargain.
Also, you’re free to choose the payment option you want to use for your transactions at the platform. Most sellers use PayPal because it’s an easy and quick option as compared to other methods. Make sure to set up your payment method while filling in your profile page and tax information section. And then utilize the profile page to tell the world something about yourself.
What Does Etsy Allow People to Sell?
Besides handmade items (jewelry, clothing, fine art, and leather goods) and craft supplies (raw materials), you can also sell vintage items on Etsy. We’re talking about ready-to-use items classified as vintage. Etsy describes vintage items as any item that is 20 years old, or even older than that. Such items include almost anything you can think of, but they mostly allow clothing, computer games, and office supply items. Vintage must not be handmade or even functional, but they must meet the 20+ years requirement as at the time they are being listed.
Understand Financial and Legal Issues
Almost anyone can set up an account and sell on Etsy free of charge. While the idea of venturing into something new and lucrative is exciting, it’s overly important to put that excitement aside a bit. This will allow you to give yourself ample time to learn the financial and legal realities that Etsy comes with.
As you’ll realize, Etsy demands that you fulfill numerous legal and financial requirements, so it would be in your best interest to learn about all the options. For example, you should read through their policies, terms, and conditions to see whether you should opt for a sole proprietorship or a basic partnership arrangement option.
Etsy Tax Breaks
If you want to make a killing out of the Etsy platform, it’s important to fully understand all the tax breaks and other tax implications. You see, as an entrepreneur, you understand that there’s a huge difference between that sets income from profits, right?
Understanding what your business is and isn’t responsible for remitting in income tax is extremely important, at least if you want to achieve success in your venture.
Governments offer business tax breaks. This, along with with with subsidies, credits and government incentives are just but a few opportunities that business owners shouldn’t fail to grab whenever they come up. It’s all about seeing how you can increase profits.
Talk to a business expert or tax professional to educate you more about business tax obligations, breaks, and to also help you clear up your tax questions.
Define Your Brand
Establishing a brand while curating a vintage shop is probably the biggest hurdle for most Etsy sellers, especially those who are starting. First of all, do you have an aesthetic for your items? Sell items from which era?
See how you can make your shop luxurious and reliably stunning. Also, ask yourself if the look you are trying to create can be expressed through photography as well. If you have a fun collection of vintage, make sure to photograph items against an awe-inspiring backdrop. Just look for creative ways to make your collection stand out from the rest.
Or you can choose to separate men and women vintage items to make it easy for buyers to browse through. You see, potential buyers wouldn’t want to browse through loads of items, right? So, see how you can make the whole experience more fun.
Start Selling Vintage on Etsy
Though it’s free to set up an Etsy account, there are a few types of fees you may need to think about:
Listing fee of $0.20 plus and 10 free photograph slots for vintage items.
The shipping transaction cost of 5 percent of the shipping fees. However, you can avoid shipping costs by including them in the total price and then labeling the item as “free shipping”.
$2.5 currency conversion fees if you’re listing your vintage in foreign currency.
3% fee for processing payments
5% transaction fees. This fee is drawn from the total sale price plus delivery.
You can also purchase subscription packages if you want to grow your shop rapidly. The Plus costs $10 per month and it includes customizable options for your Etsy shop, advertising credit, and bonus listings, plus several other tools. The Premium option has yet to be launched.
Understand the Market
Researching the market will give you an in-depth understanding of the available vintage items, pricing techniques, and whether or not there’s a good market for what you intend to sell.
Attach High-Quality Photographs
As they say, a picture is worth more than a million words. This means that it’s essential to provide clear, high-resolution photographs of the items you’re selling. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the number of people who will fall in love with photos. Again, good photos are interesting and they’ll push potential buyers to browse through your listings.
Optimize Your Shop Through Keywords and Tags
In a world of search engine analytics, optimization is a key ingredient when it comes to directing traffic to your Etsy shop. That being said, make sure to optimize your Etsy listings and shop for Etsy shop.
Use keywords and tags that match with popular searches and use search analytics tools at Etsy to find out how people found your listings.
Next, …
Market and Promote Your Etsy Shop
When it comes to promoting and marketing your Etsy shop, you’ll be spoilt for choice as there plenty of options to choose from. If you don’t fancy social media posts and sponsored posts, you can still opt for paid advertising- there are many ways to boost your visibility online. Alternatively, you can choose to do sales discounts or offer a few coupons to your loyal customers. This will go a long way to boost sales.
In Conclusion
Selling vintage on Etsy is easier than you think. You just have to navigate to the Etsy homepage and hit the “Register” button. Enter your name and email address and then create a strong password. Update your public profile under the “Account Settings”. Write a few lines in the bio area and add a profile image before clicking “save changes”.
Next, start selling vintage on Etsy. Hit the “open your Etsy shop”. Select your currency, country, and language and save changes. Now, the final step is to stock your shop by adding listings and a payment method (credit card, debit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Etsy Gift Card, iDeal, Klarna, Sofort, and PayPal). To price your listings, factor in all the expenses and consider your target customers.
