Day 2: Check in on Your Competition

Once you have an idea of products you’d like to list and what shoppers are looking for, it’s time to research what your competitors are selling. While you don’t want to copy everything that they are doing, taking a look at the types of products and tags they are using is a good way to be inspired.

Competitor Sales

Tracking competitors is a great way to keep an eye on traffic patterns in your niche. If your shop is seeing a slow period, the first place to check are your competitors. If they are also seeing a slow period, then you can take some comfort in knowing that it isn’t just you; it’s a slow time for others as well.

If you are already keeping an eye on your competitors with eRank’s Competitor Sales, head over to that tool and choose one of your competitors to dive into.

For sellers who haven’t researched competitors in their niche, check out our blog post, How to Track Your Etsy Competitors With eRank for a step-by-step guide.

💡For visual learners, Coach Starla walks you through the process in this video on eRank’s YouTube channel.

Once you’ve chosen a competitor to research, click their shop name to open up the Shop Info tool.

Shop Info

This page displays a wealth of information about any active shop on Etsy. It shows an overview of metrics such as number of sales, global rank, average sales per day, and more. Basic, Pro, and Expert members also have access to the Sales History graph, showing the number of sales each month for the past 12 months. This graph is great to have when you want to learn about a specific shop’s sales pattern over the span of a year.

Even without the graph, we can see that this shop typically averages two sales/day, but got 17 over the past seven days. While this isn’t a huge spike, it is higher than average, signaling that this shop is busier than usual. Check on a few other shops within your niche to see if they too are seeing more activity than average.

💡Sometimes your competitors are still getting a usual amount of sales, but your shop has slowed down. That is a good time to turn a critical eye on your shop and listings and find ways to improve. Our team has a number of blog posts with ideas for how to polish up your shop and get some momentum back, including What to do When Sales are Down and How to Improve Your Etsy Shop.

For now, we’re focusing on the holiday listings and tags your competitors have in their shop, and if they are relevant to your business as well. Scroll down the Shop Info page to see the Top Tags for that shop. Keep in mind, these are just the tags that appear most often in their listings. They may not be the tags that bring the most traffic to their shop.

If any of their keywords are relevant to your products, or you’re considering adding them to your listings, click the star to add them to your Keyword List for later. If you’re a Free member, keep track of them in a spreadsheet or even a notepad!

Price Comparisons

For this step, we are going to move over to eRank’s Keyword Tool. Choose a keyword that accurately describes your item in three words or less. Some examples might include “coffee mug,” “digital journal,” or “sweatshirt for gamers”. Keep them broad but relevant; don’t try “gift for mom” or “birthday present.” This example is for the keyword “christmas ornament.”

As shown at the top of the tool, this keyword has a promising amount of searches, but very high competition. Traffic began to creep up towards the end of the summer, then really took off in October, with the largest spike in November.

Scrolling down, click Search Results Analysis to learn key metrics from the top 100 listings that rank for this keyword. Today we’re focusing on Average Price. For “christmas ornament,” the average price is between $17-18.

Below this, you’ll see the Price Range graph, showing how many of the top 100 listings fall within price ranges. This gives you an idea of how to consider pricing your items, so that you fall within the average range among your competition. Keep in mind your materials and time when pricing; you need to be paying yourself for your time as a maker and also earn back the money from your supplies. Consider the quality of your product in relation to the other top 100 listings. If your quality and craftsmanship are above others in your niche, price towards the higher range.

💡Etsy is not a race to the bottom. In the eyes of shoppers, lower prices may mean lower quality. Handmade items should cost more than mass-produced, and many shoppers are happy to pay a little more for that extra personal touch.

‍Today’s Tasks:

• Learn when your competitors saw their sales peak last year (or see if they are experiencing an increase now!)
• Check your pricing strategy against others in your niche
• While researching your competitors, write down at least one keyword to research