Hey everyone and welcome back! In this video, we are going to be discussing how I optimize Etsy Store Profiles to get free traffic from Etsy’s algorithm.
** chatgpt
Plus, I’m also going to show you how I do it, with a bit of help from ChatGPT and Ai chatbots too. Although, don’t worry, if you don’t like using Ai bots, you don’t have to use ChatGPT. I just like to use it because, as you’ll see, it can help speed up the process a lot.
And when I say Store Profile I should probably clarify what I mean by that. So, a Store Profile is the visual storefront that a customer sees, if they click on your store name.
And in my experience, optimizing your store profile is very important, for 4 reasons.
*** give the Etsy algorithm data to work with
The first reason is this: *data*. By optimizing your store profile, you once again give Etsy’s algorithm more data to work with. They can learn more about who you are, and can then potentially match you better with customers that might want to buy from you.
For example: if you put in your profile that you’re a stay-at-home mother, who is using Etsy as a way to bring in extra income for her family, then Etsy can use that to potentially pair you with customers who historically have purchased from other similar stores.
Or you might put in your store profile that you are an artist. Well, Etsy can then use that to potentially pair you with customers who have historically purchased from other artists. It just helps Etsy narrow down even better who might be your best target customer to test your products with.
*** build trust with customers
And the second reason it is important, is that by optimizing your store, you build up trust with your customers.
Because one of the most challenging things about being a new store is that you don’t yet have any store reviews. So, if a customer were to buy something from you: it’s riskier for them.
This is why, as I’ve said before, creating products that fill gaps in the market has been very important to my success when I open a new store. By filling gaps in the market, I create new products that customers want – but that they can only get from me.
This essentially forces them to take that risk and purchase the product from me, if they really want it!
But, it’s still much easier to get them to take that risk, if you optimize your storefront which proves to the customer that you are trustworthy because you’ve taken the time to put effort into your store.
*** optimize your storefronts
And the third reason that it’s important to *optimize your storefront*, is that by doing so, you can actually charge higher prices if you want to.
Yep. Because you see, what a lot of people don’t think about, is that pricing is entirely subjective. We all use our own subjective ideas, to decide how much products are worth. And how much we decide something is worth, is called *Perceived Value*. And there are many things you can do to increase the perceived value of your products.
And one of them is by optimizing your Store Profile, to humanize you, the owner, so that the customer feels like they’re buying from a small, authentic brand – not a big corporation. By increasing authenticity, you increase your perceived value, increase the amount of money you can charge, and increase your profit margins.
Plus, as you can see, a big part of Perceived Value is comparison with others. People will compare your store to other stores. And so if you’ve taken the time to fill out and optimize your storefront, that will help your store stand out compared to others.
*** improving conversion rates
And the fourth reason to optimize your storefront is that by doing that and increasing your authenticity & trust with customers, you will also be *improving your conversion rates*.
And conversion rates are a very important data signal to the Etsy algorithm. The higher your conversions, the more Etsy will show your products to people as a suggested product. And the more Etsy shows your product, the more people will buy it. So, to maximize the money you earn, you want to maximize your conversions.
So as you can see, it is very important and it shouldn’t be skipped yet, I’ll be honest with you. Most new stores I see DO skip doing this.
**** failed store
Yep. For example: I recently found this Etsy store. It has been open for 2 years and in that time, it has only had 19 sales. Which is a shame because some of the mugs in this store I genuinely think are quite clever (laughs). However, this store profile is completely unoptimized. They literally just opened a store, and they just put their products in it, and that is it, they have done nothing else to optimize or brand it. And the truth is, most of the time, this is what new stores do. They make empty, barren store profiles like this and wonder why they get very few, if any, sales. And I understand. It can be very easy to underestimate how important this step is.
But really, from my personal experience, what you want to do, is to not only to put in as much information as you can so it’s not empty like this one is, but you also want that information you put into your store profile to personally represent YOU as well.
**** optimized storefront
So then, to explain, I wanted to show you a very well optimized storefront in comparison. This is a print on demand store that has been very successful. So, immediately you can see that they added in a store banner. This is definitely something that you want to do.
Because here is the thing right. Muggy McMuggins did not put in a store banner. Now, if no one put these in, then sure, they could potentially get away with it. But as we’ve seen, people do take the time to create these.
And a big part of perceived value is comparison: how does YOUR store look compared to others? And so when other stores are putting in this effort to add a banner, it makes Muggy McMuggins feel very low effort. You want to take every chance you get, to make your store stand out in comparison to other stores.
Now of course you might think, well gee Sarah, I can’t draw such an incredible banner as that and fair enough (laughs) you don’t have to. This successful Print On Demand store here has a great, easy to create style of banner that pretty much anyone can make without being an artist. You can see that their banner is just their logo, placed on top of a stock picture and creating a banner like that within Canva is very easy, since it has pre-installed stock pictures already. And you can use the free version of Canva to create this too. I create all of my store banners in Canva.
***** store anouncement
You can also see that MuggyMcMuggins does not include any store announcement. So the top section of the store is very empty. Whereas for this store here, they have a store announcement. And if you read it, it reads like it was personally written by someone from their perspective, by including little details, like the smiling face. This personal perspective also helps to lift the perceived value of the store. A mistake I see a lot of new stores make is that they might take the time to add in a store announcement, but they write it in a very impersonal, corporate style.
And so then, if you struggle to write something with a more personal touch, then honestly, ChatGPT can be a great app to help draft out an announcement, welcome message for you. Tell ChatGPT what you are trying to achieve, and tell it what information you want it to include in the welcome announcement message, and tell it that you want it written with a personal tone of voice.
#+caption: create a welcome message for Etsy store using ChatGPT
You can then take what it gives you as a draft, and modify it to make it your own. It seriously makes the whole writing process so much faster. Coming up with copy like this used to be so much harder, it’s crazy how much quicker it makes it now! And I just used the free version of ChatGPT here, I didn’t use the paid version. Google and Microsoft’s chatbots would also be great at writing this too.
** add profile in about section
And so then, if we come back to their store profile and scroll down, you’ll also see that the About Section looks completely different to Muggy McMuggins. So, in KinderPlanetCompany’s About Section, you can see that the artist has added a photo of herself. This is a great idea because it personalizes the store again, to humanize it and make it feel more authentic. And if you don’t feel comfortable showing your face, you don’t have to.
I’ve seen plenty of stores instead show photos of themselves, but from a perspective like this, where it is them from behind, where you don’t see the store owner’s face. This still helps to personalize and humanize the store, but no one can tell in the photo that it is you. It is really just about having a human in at least 1 of the store photos, that makes a big difference.
Because, well, in studies, humans are drawn to other humans visually in photos. It’s thought this might be due to the psychological phenomena of mirroring. So when we see other humans in a photo, we mirror them and can better imagine ourselves in their place. So, if you think about it, you’re more likely to buy from a store that you are mirroring, because you can imagine how good it would feel for somebody to buy something from you
*** use pixabay to get extra photos for the about page
Plus, in addition to a photo like this, you also get to upload 4 other photos. This artist uploaded photos of her computer as she was working on designs which was a great idea, and photos of her products. But you can also come to the free photo library, Pixabay, to find some photos. So for me, if I wanted to add a photo for a store that sells gifts for baristas and coffee lovers, I could find some photos of someone making coffee and add it in here too.
The artist has also added in a written store blurb as well, which is very, very important. In this store blurb you can see that she is an illustrator, a painter, and that she really loves retro, groovy designs. And, I think that this is a really great, well optimized blurb, because you think about it, this gives the Etsy algorithm a LOT of data to work with.
Because you think about it, some people like buying directly from artists. So, Etsy now has data that shows it would be good to pair her with customers that have a history of buying directly from artists. And some people also really like retro designs. So, the algorithm also now has data that it would be good to pair her store with customers that have a history previously of buying items like this.
**** use ChatGPT to help you sound more human
And this is again where ChatGPT can help if you like to use it because it is very easy to make this sound very corporate and in-personal when, really, being vulnerable and giving it a personal touch will help add authenticity which is, again, great for helping increase conversions and perceived value. So, what you can do is tell ChatGPT what you’re trying to write, and give it some information to include, and get it to write a draft for you. You can then modify this draft and change it to suit your personality, but it gives you a great springboard to work from. And for this here, I again just used the free version of ChatGPT. The free chatbots like ChatGPT and Microsoft and Google’s work great at coming up with draft store copy like this.
And then, if we come back to Etsy and come down here to the Shop Members section, you can see that the founder of the store has included herself, as well as included and listed others that are help her run her store, which helps to again humanize the store and lets you know that you are directly supporting someone when you buy from it.
Whereas Muggy McMuggins does not even include any Shop Members which, again, makes the store feel a lot less authentic and trustworthy, because you don’t know who you are buying from.
And you think about it right. It particularly adds trust and authority to your store when you put your name on a store because, well, by doing so, your reputation is essentially on the line. You are showing the customer that you are willing to bet your own personal reputation on your brand.
So, if you can, including your name and a photo can really help push people to give you a chance and to be willing to trust your store, even though it is brand new.
*** using a FAQ
And of course, if we scroll down, you’ll also see that as part of their optimization, they have further filled out their store by adding in Frequently Asked Questions. Not only is this super helpful for customers because it gives them important information that they want in one place, but it also shows that the people running the store know what they are doing, which is why they already know what questions to answer.
Whereas, for Muggy McMuggins, they did not fill this in and did not answer any frequently asked questions, and so this section is empty, which makes them look a lot less experienced.
And so all of these questions here that this store has answered, are great ones for you to answer too.
And I’ll be honest, I feel really bad that I have criticized Muggy McMuggins in this video because, again, I genuinely found some of their designs quite clever. Which is why, even with an unoptimized store, you can see they still sold 19 copies of this funny mug. So you know, this is further evidence that what I say about designs being the most important part of a store is true. Even in a very unoptimized store, they still made 19 sales.
