How to create a digital listing on Etsy
Just getting started on Etsy with digital products? Welcome to the world of passive income! I love selling digital products on Etsy. There’s no shipping costs, physical products to hassle with, and not to mention the costs are low! Win win! In a sea of other digital listings on Etsy, make sure you stand out. I’m going to walk you through – step by step – on how to create a digital listing on Etsy. Let’s get started!
You’re ready to create your first digital listing on Etsy and you want to make sure you do it right. If you haven’t started an Etsy shop before, you will find out real quick that it’s required to create at least ONE listing before you can complete the shop signup process. And if this is the case, skip down to ‘adding photos’. If you already have a shop set up and you haven’t created a digital listing yet, then you can begin from the very start with me.
Navigate to add listing page
Sign into Etsy and click on “Shop Manager“. At the left of the screen, click on “Listings“. Then on the top right, click the “Add a listing” button.
Adding Photos
We’ll be working from top to bottom of the listing page. The first thing to do is to upload a photo (or more! You have up to 10 to add). I’ve said before that your listing photo is absolutely crucial. The first photo is your listing photo. It must be really good. All other photos are not seen in search results. The additional photos will only be seen if users click on the listing itself and then filter through the rest of the images.
Etsy recommends the listing photo size to be 2000 pixels on the shortest side. I personally make my listing photos for my digital products to be 3000px wide by 2400px tall and at maximum quality. These proportions also happen to be the exact proportions for the thumbnail. The thumbnail is basically a smaller version of your main listing image that shows in search.
You’ll see when you upload your image, that you’ll now have a thumbnail section within the photo section.
Because of the proportion of my image, the thumbnail does not need adjustment. If you have different proportions of your image, or you’d like your product to be larger within the thumbnail, then click on the ‘adjust thumbnail’ button. Here you can use the slider to zoom the image in to better showcase your product. I do this for my vinyl decal shop on Etsy – I zoom right into the product and leave very little of the background/props out of the frame that may be distracting.
Something that I’d like to point out in my listing photo is that I make it very clear that it is a digital download. I made a “instant download” graphic in the corder of the photo. And I also put all the file types along the bottom to show what it includes. This makes it clear and easy for shoppers to know what product they are getting before they even click on a listing to purchase.
Listing Details
The listing details section of creating a listing on Etsy entails quite a bit of information to fill out.
Title
The first box to fill in is the Title. The title should be direct and precise as to what the product is. The title also should include keywords that buyers would use to search for your product. I like to create my titles in the following format:
Product Name – Keywords keywords keywords – More keywords keywords keywords
I entered my title like this: Love Bites Shark Valentines Design – svg dxf png eps Digital Cut File Instant Download – Boys Valentines Day Love kids tshirt shirt craft
About the listing, Category, Renewal Options, Type
Following the title with keywords, Etsy wants to know more about the listing. This includes who made it, what is it, and when it was made. Click the appropriate choice in the drop down menus of each one.
Then you have the category. Start typing out what the general product is and Etsy will come up with suggestions of which category to place your product in. For mine, I typed in ‘svg cut’ and it pulled up my appropriate category which is “Clip Art & Image Files” that in nestled under the “Crafts Supplies & Tools” categories.
After the category you’ll have the renewal options. Each listing is good for four months or until the listing sells out (if you had a quantity available). Every time it renews, you’ll have a .20 cent listing fee. Keep in mind that every time you sell your digital item, Etsy will renew it. So even though the digital listing is created, it will charge you .20 cents EVERY time it renews. For more information about Etsy’s fees – see my post about just that; Etsy’s fees explained!
Alternatively, you can set the listing to ‘manual’ and you can renew the listings yourself. I have always used the automatic option myself. It’s one less thing to worry about and I know my products are still available all the time.
For the Type, choose “Digital” because we are providing a digital file that buyers will be able to download after completing their purchase.
Description
Next we have the Description section. Now let me say that in my experience, most people do NOT see this area. I feel Etsy does it’s buyers and sellers a disservice by hiding this area. On all platforms and devices, you have to click open the ‘item details’ section to open up this description area. If you’re on a web browser on a PC or Mac, then you’ll be able to see the first part of this section. However, a buyer still has to open it fully by clicking the ‘learn more about this item’ button.
With that being said, I make the information in the description section to be very generic so that it can be that same for all of my digital listings.
Within the description, I make it immediately clear that it is an instant download/digital download and no physical product will be mailed. I let the buyer know exactly what they will receive. I tell them how they can use the files. Along with some other information, I give them some legal information of in what ways they can use their products (commercially, alterations, etc). If you’d like to see exactly what information I give them, you can see my digital shop here.
Production Partners, Section
Next, Etsy wants to know if you have any productions partners. A production partner is someone that helps you create your item that is not directly related to your shop. For example, I work with another Etsy shop where I create their vinyl decals for their wood signs. I am a production partner for them. If you do not have anyone that helps you with the creation of your product (that isn’t directly related to your business), you can skip this step.
The next area is the Section! The section is directly related to your shop only. You can choose how to categorize your own listings within your own shop. Because in this example I am creating a valentines product, my listing will go under the “Valentines / Love” category. As of right now in January 2020, you have 20 sections to utilize within your shop. When I first started on Etsy in 2014, it was only 10 sections!
Tags
After the section area comes the Tags. Tags are keywords. Keywords/tags are how customers will find your product when searching within Etsy! You get 13 tags to use and each tag is limited to 20 characters. Use every single tag. Seriously, use them all.
If you need help knowing what tags to do, go to Etsy’s search and type in what you think a customer would type in to find your product. Etsy will do an autofill and try to guess what you are looking for. Those autofill words are keywords/tags! Repeat the process on Google. Those autofill words on google are also keywords. Use those to help you come up with ideas. You could also go to other similar sellers and see what kind of tags they are using to give you more ideas.
Materials
Lastly is the Materials section. I personally leave this part blank. I’ve seen other sellers use it to put in more keywords – so you could try that if you want. But since we are creating a digital product on Etsy, it doesn’t have a physical material, it’s fine to skip this one.
Inventory and Pricing
Price, Quantity
The Price area is for the price that the customers will pay for your digital product. Because we do not physically ship an item to them, we don’t have to worry about factoring in those costs. Keep in mind any fees you pay, your time, and other costs that are associated with creating your product when pricing.
Search your competition to see what they are offering. DO NOT be the lowest price or the highest price. Find a happy medium that will fit within your pricing structure. I’ve been the lowest price before with my first digital products and you know what happened? Low sales. Customers don’t trust a really low price. Price competitively that will be fair to both you and your customer.
The Quantity is how many items you’d like to list automatically. Here you can go up to 999 quantities – which is what I do. That way, I don’t worry if my quantities are low and the product sells out. I do a shop review occasionally to make sure items are available and take out listings that don’t sale. I only need to renew it if those quantities are sold out.
SKU, Allow restock request, Personalization
SKU‘s are only for your use and if you have them. I don’t use SKUs.
Allow restock requests is a newer feature for customers. If you did run out of the 999 (or whatever you specified in the quantity section), then customers can sign up to be notified when it’s back in stock.
Personalization is also a newer feature that I LOVE. If you had a digital item that required information from the customer to create that product, you can toggle the personalization option on and write out what the customer needs to fill in when they go to place the order.
For example, let’s say you sell birthday invitations that you make to order. The design is generic, but the personalization is where the customer can enter all the information needed on that birthday invitation. It makes it super helpful to get all of this information on the actual order instead of hassling with messages between you and the buyer.
Digital files
We have reached the last and final part of creating a digital listing on Etsy. And that is the actual file upload! The file you upload here is the file(s) that the customer will get upon purchase. I like to put all of my files into one ZIP folder. The ZIP folder contains an SVG, DXF, PNG, EPS file of the design. As well as instructions and a little flyer about this blog you’re reading right now.
Preview and Publish
Now that everything is filled out and uploaded, it’s a good idea to click the “Preview” button at the bottom to see your listing in (almost) real life. If you aren’t quite ready to publish, you can “Save as draft” to come back to later in the “listings” section of your shop manager. Or, if everything looks good, click “Publish”!
Now you know how to create a digital listing on Etsy. Yay so exciting!! Your digital listing is now up and ready for purchase! If you’re dying to know any and all tips about using Etsy, then you’ll find it all in the Etsy section.
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