We finally started an Etsy store! We couldn’t believe it and were so excited to start listing products. But, it turns out it isn’t all that easy to open a store.
You need to have one listing ready to go and you have to list it during the onboarding process. You also need to connect your bank account which either involved giving your bank credentials to a third party (no, thank you!) or adding the information manually. We opted for that but then you need to wait until a $.01 payment shows up to confirm your account. This usually takes one business day so if you are planning on creating an account on Friday just know it will be Monday or Tuesday before your bank credentials are confirmed! So, we had to sit tight and wait for that to happen, which took a day.
After that, we created a listing, skipping a lot of the info just to be able to start messing around with Etsy! It really could have been easier but I guess the process limits bots and any fraud accounts.
Once we were finally all onboarded we got to work listing products. But, it turns out there are a TON of options for each listing. For POD, you list your printing partner and how they work. You have to include weight, size, keywords, tags, descriptions and so much more! We were not prepared for all of it but finally got two listings up!
Once those were up, we decided to start some Etsy ads. Oops, turns out you have to wait 15 days to run ads! This was so frustrating but what can you do. So, we are waiting for two weeks before really listing all of our products. We will be starting with 10 or so and then ramping up from there. We also heard that you should plan on your Etsy shop getting shutdown in the first month or so because they think you are suspicious so we are waiting for that. Hopefully, it’s easy to get reopened.
We also really got into a new podcast, the Print on Demand Playbook, be sure to check them out!
Summary: Finally opened Etsy store which was more complicated then we knew and we couldn’t use the full features of Etsy for 2 weeks!
Cost: $5.00 for 25 listings at $.20 each
