By Quentin Patterson

If you are good at crafts and have handmade items that you want to sell but have no access to avenues in which you could sell them, consider opening an online store on Etsy at etsy.com. As a social commerce site, Etsy allows you to sell handmade items, vintage items, art supplies, and crafts supplies. More than this, Etsy makes your goods available for purchase by a global audience. In this article, you will be led through each of the steps in opening your own store on Etsy.

  1. Fire up your Internet browser (e.g., Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, etc.). Type etsy.com in your browser’s address bar.
  2. At the upper-right corner of the Etsy homepage, click on the “Register” link. You will be taken to a registration form. Type in your desired username. You will be stuck with this username, so make sure it is not only unique but also creative. Your username will also be your unique subdomain name on Etsy. All Etsy members are given subdomains that look like yourusername.etsy.com (where “yourusername” is your username, as you might have already guessed). Etsy doesn’t want you to compete with its name, so you are forbidden from using “Etsy” in your username. You are also forbidden from using racist or inappropriate terms in your username.
  3. Fill out the other fields on the registration form.
  4. Read the Terms of Use and understand them. Make sure you check the box for “I agree with the terms of use,” and then click the “Submit” button.
  5. A confirmation email will be sent to the address that you provided on the registration form. Read the email and follow the instructions that it contains for activating your Etsy account. After activating your account, you can now log in to Etsy using your username and password. From the Etsy homepage, click on the “Sign In” link at the upper-right corner and type in your username and password. Click the “Sign In” button.
  6. Once you’re logged in, you can now set up your store. Since you’ll be selling on Etsy, click on the “Sell” tab from the row of tabs, then click on “Sign Up to Sell” button. You will see a form that will ask for important details such as your personal information, as well as billing information. Your credit card information is also required for validation.
  7. Set up your seller profile, which is publicly viewable. So, make sure your profile is not just accurate but also informative and attractive. Click on the “Public Profile” link on the left sidebar to set up your profile. You can upload an avatar, provide your geographic location, and write a short bio about yourself. Make sure click “Save Changes” after you’re done.
  8. From here onwards, everything is very much easy. You can customize the title and banner of your shop’s homepage. You can post Shop Announcements that will appear at the top of your homepage. You can save a canned Message to Buyers that gets automatically sent to other Etsy members who buy from your shop.
  9. You can also set up different Shipping Profiles. Each Shipping Profile contains specific information for shipping specific types of items. You can apply different Shipping Profiles for different items in your listings.
  10. You can also organize your shop into sections. You can define up to ten sections for your shop.

Etsy is a very user-friendly site. Being so, you can focus more on selling your crafts, handmade items, and vintage goods instead of wasting precious time in getting to know the site’s features.