Are you a creative person? You can turn your creativity into a lucrative side hustle, making it a profitable venture.
Well, to do so, you can sell on Etsy, one of the places you can launch your creative side hustle, selling your creativity.
In case you don’t know, Etsy is a popular e-commerce marketplace with millions of active sellers and buyers. It has the perfect reputation for helping you build trust with your buyers.
There are a lot of advantages to selling on Etsy; not only is it popular, it is easy to use and maintain. It’s free to join Etsy, and it requires minimal investment, making it accessible, especially if you need an e-commerce marketplace with low startup costs.
Now, the great news about making money with Etsy is that you can sell without inventory. You can sell almost anything without caring about storage fees or space; all you must do is create and sell.
To learn about the Etsy non-inventory strategy and its methods, read this article to the end.
1. Digital products
Selling digital products on Etsy is a profitable strategy that allows you to sell without the need for inventory. They are popular products, such as printable and digital downloads that you can create. These popular printable and digital downloads that you can create and sell include wall art, planners, party printables, calendars, e-books, templates, music, software, or other digital files that customers can download immediately after purchase.
To get started with this, you must identify your niche by determining which digital products you want to create and target your right audience. You must likewise create high-quality products that are visually appealing to your customers and can offer value, optimize your Etsy listings by writing compelling product descriptions and showing them with high-quality pictures, set up your digital delivery by taking advantage of Etsy’s delivery in-built tools, and most importantly, you have to promote your shop.
To succeed in selling digital products on Etsy without inventory, you must offer variety by creating a range of products to meet customers’ preferences, research your competitors to set competitive prices, and provide excellent customer support for your buyers. You must ensure you have legal rights to any texts, images, or other content used in your digital product listing.
2. Print-on-demand (POD)
Print-on-demand (POD) is another selling on Etsy without an inventory strategy you can earn without investing in inventory or managing shipping. Your products are produced only after a customer orders, eliminating the need for upfront inventory.
It involves you designing, creating, and partnering with a POD service provider and sending the customer’s order to the service. You can design products like t-shirts, mugs, or phone cases. The POD service will then print, package, and ship the product directly to the customer.
The advantages of trying out POD include not worrying about inventory and low startup costs, as you only need to pay sellers on Etsy when your products are sold, and you can focus on designing without logistics concerns.
When choosing a POD service, you must consider factors like their product range, print quality, pricing, and customer support.
3. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a retail fulfilment method where a store purchases products from a third party and has them shipped directly to the customer. On Etsy, you can sell products without inventory or shipping; all you have to do is find a supplier, list their products on your Etsy account, and process orders from customers.
When a customer places an order, you forward it to the supplier, who then supplies the product directly to the buyer. You keep the difference between the wholesale price and the retail price as profit.
This method offers you some advantages, such as low startup costs, a wide product range, flexibility, and remote management. For you to succeed in dropshipping, you must focus on niche selection, reliable suppliers, excellent customer service, effective marketing strategies, and product research focussing on high demand and low competition. Focusing on these aspects can increase your profits.
4. Reselling
Reselling on Etsy involves you buying products wholesale or secondhand and reselling them at a higher price, as long as you follow the Etsy marketplace’s policies and guidelines. It is quite similar to the dropshipping method. The key guidelines you must adhere to include disclosing that the items are not vintage, unique, or handmade by you and that they are resold.
Other marketplace guidelines you must obey are providing accurate information about the materials used, not using stock images, not making any changes to the product, choosing a niche, sourcing reliable suppliers, ensuring product condition, researching competition, offering high-quality product photos, and handling shipping and returns professionally.
While reselling on Etsy, you can encounter some challenges, such as competitiveness, lower profit margins, and time commitment due to the time-consuming process of sourcing products from thrift stores, garage sales, or online marketplaces, listing them, and shipping these items to buyers.
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Recap
Etsy offers you four main methods for selling without inventory: digital products, print-on-demand (POD), drop shipping, and reselling. For you to succeed, you must focus on specific products or customer groups, create high-quality listings with compelling descriptions and images, optimize SEO with relevant keywords, provide excellent customer service, and promote your shop through social media and other marketing channels.
