What Are the Best Selling Items on Etsy?

Every platform has its own unique niche, and Etsy has established itself as the marketplace for handmade items, vintage goods, and craft supplies. That may seem like a pretty narrow niche, but when you take a moment to think about it, there are so many items that can fall into these categories.

If you’re thinking of selling on Etsy, you may be wondering which items you should list. Keep reading to find out more about the best selling items on Etsy, what popular products are consistently a hit with buyers, and learn a few insider tips for selling on Etsy.

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Overview of Etsy and Its Best Selling Items

Etsy is an ecommerce platform modeled after traditional craft fairs, with different categories for every type of item, and a storefront for each seller. Every category will have its own popular items and leading sellers, which means that you’ll need to do your homework before listing your items on Etsy.

Is it Worth Selling on Etsy?

Before listing an item on Etsy, you’ll need to decide if it’s an item worth selling on the platform. Assuming it meets the criteria for a handmade, vintage, or craft-related item, you’ll want to make sure that it’s an item that’s both sought after by buyers, while also being unique enough to have relatively little direct competition.

Popular Product Categories Sold on Etsy

Home décor is by far the most popular category on Etsy, with jewelry and accessories coming up as a distant second. The home décor category spans a variety of items and prices, ranging from digital downloads of decorative prints, to furniture, bedding, and silverware.

The jewelry and accessories category includes handmade and vintage jewelry, bags, watches, scarves, and more. This category is just as varied as the home décor category, with many sellers vying for buyers’ attention and money.

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Top 10 Best Selling Items on Etsy

It may seem daunting finding the right thing to sell on Etsy, especially with such fierce competition on the platform. It’s important to remember, however, that Etsy was founded as a marketplace for small sellers selling their own unique pieces, which is exactly what buyers are looking for when they shop on the platform.

Buyers want something special, not something they can find on the bigger ecommerce platforms like Amazon. As a seller, this is your advantage – list unique items, and buyers will come flocking.

1. Handmade Jewelry

While the jewelry categories are quite competitive, unique handmade jewelry has consistently been something that buyers come specifically to Etsy to find. Unique handmade jewelry can be a great choice for selling on Etsy, and since it’s your very own creation, you won’t have to worry about other sellers selling the exact same item and undercutting your price.

2. Vintage Clothing

Vintage clothing is another unique category with a similar edge – you’ll be the only seller (or one of just a handful) who offer a particular item. This means less direct competition, and more focused buyers who are willing to pay a premium for the exact item they want.

3. Handmade Home Décor

Starting to notice a pattern? Handmade home décor pieces are unique to you and one-of-a-kind. You can create your very own quality pieces, and even matching sets, ensuring that buyers will keep coming back for more.

4. Art Prints

Art prints are another way of letting your creativity shine while offering buyers something truly unique. Plus, art prints have an additional and major advantage – you can offer them as physical prints that you ship out to your buyers, or as digital downloads that buyers can print out at a print shop on their own. This can save you a significant amount of money, hassle, and customer service on logistics and shipping-related issues.

5. Craft Supplies

In line with Etsy’s artsy vibe, buyers on Etsy are oftentimes creative types themselves. As such, craft supplies are always in demand. Offer your buyer quality supplies – anything from your own hand-spun yarns to one-of-a-kind sewing patterns – and you’re sure to establish a steady customer base in no time.

6. Handmade Accessories

Handmade accessories can range from small leather goods to handmade keychains, enamel pins to temporary tattoos. With such a wide range of knickknacks to choose from, you’re sure to find buyers for practically any unique accessory you sell.

7. Handmade Bags & Purses

Whether it’s eco-friendly cotton totes, quality leather goods, or even unique handmade diaper bags, well-made bags and purses are always in demand on Etsy. Everyone needs a way to carry their stuff, which means you can choose from various types of bags and purses to sell on your Etsy store.

8. Personalized Gifts

You can always count on buyers to be on the lookout for unique and personalized gifts for their loved ones. Whether it’s for a birthday, a holiday, or any other special occasion, a personalized gift is one that buyers will be willing to pay a premium for. Personalized gifts include anything from his and hers t-shirts with embroidered names, custom pyrography pieces, to custom clothes, meaning that your options are essentially endless.

9. Wedding Accessories

For their big day, buyers are willing to splurge on details big and small, and they’re always on the hunt for the perfect addition to their wedding day or bachelor(ette) party. From custom centerpieces to the perfect tiara for the bride-to-be, you can offer buyers a myriad of unique wedding accessories that can quickly become best selling items on Etsy through word of mouth.

10. Custom Pet Gifts

For so many people, pets truly are family, which is why buyers will be more than happy to skip the big box stores and go straight to Etsy for a custom gift for Spot or Mittens. From custom collars to unique personalized name tags, quality pet beds with an embroidered name to a customized crate, animal-lovers everywhere are always on the hunt for the perfect custom pet gift for their furry family member.

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Tips for Selling Popular Items on Etsy

As many online sellers already know, just having a good quality product that’s in-demand is not quite enough to bring customers through the proverbial door. To make sure your items become best-selling items on Etsy, you’ll need to adhere to a few guidelines. Below, we’ve put together a few tips to make it easy for you to give your Etsy store the best possible start.

Research Popular Products

The first order of business is to figure out what’s worth selling on Etsy. The categories we listed above are consistently ranked highly on Etsy, but it’s not an exhaustive list of popular products. It’s also important to know what not to sell – while Etsy does have an electronics category, no one is looking to Etsy when they want to upgrade to the latest iPhone.

Optimize Your Listings for SEO

The golden rule of selling online: make your listings attractive not only to buyers, but also to the platform on which you’re selling. Optimized listings are the best way to get your listings to rank highly in search results, helping your shop stand out from the rest and ensuring that buyers see you before they see your competition.  

Focus on Quality

No matter what you’re selling, quality items made from quality materials are always a worthwhile investment. The best selling items on Etsy are those that buyers consistently come back for, those they purchase for and recommend to their family and friends, from sellers they feel they can trust. Offering your buyers quality items ensures that they’ll not only keep coming back for more, but will also refer their friends and family.  

Offer Variety

While it’s important not to cast too wide a net and focus on a certain niche, it’s also important to offer a variety of items within that niche. Even if your Etsy store sells only handmade jewelry, make sure you offer an interesting selection of each type of jewelry. Give your buyers the option of choosing from a variety of earrings, a selection of necklaces, and a multitude of rings, so that they don’t take their money to the competition when they don’t find what they’re looking for on your Etsy store.

Take Great Photos

High-quality photos attract buyers to your items, and low-quality, poorly lit photos will have the opposite effect. Invest some time (and if necessary, money) to take good quality, well-staged, and properly lit photos of your items, and take as many as you can. Offering buyers a variety of angles of the item you’re selling, as well as a photo of each color (if applicable), makes them much more likely to buy.

Offer Discounts and Free Shipping

You can offer discounts in the form of periodic sales, free shipping, or by sending coupons to buyers who’ve favorited or carted one of your items to encourage them to complete check out. The more attractive your terms of sale are, the more likely buyers are to buy.

Promote Your Products

Sometimes, your items may need a bit of a “leg up” to get their footing on Etsy. A great way to do this and make a name for your store is by promoting some of your products. This means promoting either a selection or all of your products through Etsy Ads, which you can configure directly through your Etsy account. Promoted products have a better chance of being seen by buyers, and are much more likely to sell when compared to products that are not promoted on Etsy.

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Final Thoughts

Selling your items on Etsy can be challenging, and requires a bit of homework. If you do your research, pick the right products to sell, and employ the proper optimization and promotion strategies, you too can own a successful Etsy store, and sell some of the best selling items on Etsy yourself!

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FAQ for Selling Popular Items on Etsy

We’ve put together some common questions we get from sellers looking either to begin selling on Etsy, or to improve the performance of their items on their existing Etsy store. Check out a few of these popular questions, and get a better idea of how you too can best sell your items on Etsy.

Q:  What are the most popular items on Etsy?

As a marketplace, Etsy focuses on the unique, handmade, and vintage. As such, the most popular items on the platform are handmade home décor, art prints, handmade bags and purses, custom and handmade wedding accessories, personalized gifts, craft supplies, pet gifts and accessories, vintage clothing, handmade jewelry, and other handmade accessories.

Q:  How do I optimize my Etsy listings for SEO?

There are a few guidelines to follow when optimizing your Etsy listings, and as long as you stick to them, you’re sure to improve your items’ visibility on Etsy searches.

Firstly, you’ll want to ensure that your shop’s name is descriptive and relevant to the items you’re selling. If you’re selling handmade jewelry, for example, you can name your shop [Shop Name] Handmade Jewelry. You’ll want to make sure your shop name is unique, so take a moment to plug shop names into Etsy’s search box to ensure you’re not inadvertently copying the name of one of your competitors.

Secondly, you’ll want to utilize keywords in your listings correctly. Avoid cramming as many keywords as possible into your listings; instead focus on the location of the keywords and the quality of your content. Keywords should be placed towards the beginning of the text, not buried in the middle or tacked on at the end, and should only appear where relevant.

Additionally, you’ll want to take full advantage of Etsy’s product tags. Etsy allows sellers to utilize up to thirteen tags per item, and you should always strive to utilize them all. Product tags help buyers find your item by associating it with categories, and the more descriptive and thorough you are with your tags, the better your item will rank in a variety of searches.

Finally, make sure you’re keeping your listings fresh. If your listings have not been updated in a while, Etsy will prioritize them lower in search results, causing your items to slowly slip in ranking and become more difficult for buyers to find. Avoid this by keeping your listings fresh and up-to-date with new pictures, fresh descriptions, and relevant sales/promotions. If you’re selling a handmade ruby ring, you could update the listing as you approach Valentine’s Day to be more specific for the holiday. This keeps your listings fresh, and helps you snap up buyers looking for a Valentine’s Day gift.

Q:  What tips should I follow when selling popular items on Etsy?

The three golden rules of selling on Etsy are: optimize your listings, take high-quality photos, and know your competition.

Optimized listings are the starting point for an Etsy shop that is visible and easy to find for your target audience, while quality photos ensure that buyers will be more likely to purchase your items once they find your listings.

Knowing your competition is of course not only relevant for Etsy, but is good practice across the board. Do your research on your competitors, and take note of all the things they did right, as well as all the things they did wrong. Take a look at buyer feedback to get even more information on ideas you can implement and mistakes to avoid.

Q:  How can I make sure my products stand out on Etsy?

When selling on Etsy, you’ll want to cultivate a cohesive look for your brand that makes your items stand out from the rest. This means a consistent photography style, editing, and fonts, as well as a general template for how your listings are constructed. This not only gives your shop and brand a cohesive feel, but also ensures that buyers immediately recognize an item as yours when shopping on Etsy.

Q:  How do I ensure I'm creating quality products?

Quality products begin with high-quality materials, which is a must if you’re going the handmade route. But quality materials are worth very little without equally high-quality craftsmanship and techniques. No matter what you’re selling, don’t pinch pennies on the quality of your materials or the quality of your craftsmanship. Good quality products result in happy customers, and happy customers create more sales for you.