Skip to Content

10+ best things to sell on Etsy to make money (Beginners Guide)

So, you are looking for best things to sell on Etsy to make money?

You’re at the right place.

I recently came across an inspiring story of an Esty seller who makes over $70000 a month and had to write this post on best things to sell on Etsy to make money along with some basics you would definitely want to know.

… Because let’s be honest. We all want to start Etsy stores but we are all stuck at one simple question: What to sell on Etsy?

and, this post will tell you about the easiest things to sell on Etsy.

In this post, we will go over

  • Best things to sell on Etsy to make money
  • Details and top sellers for each of these best things to sell on Etsy
  • Beginner guide FAQs like what is etsy, how to set up an Etsy shop, how to drive customers to your store and much more.

So, let’s talk about how to make money on Etsy

The post includes affiliate links.

Want to make money quickly? Here are a few platforms to earn up to $25 – $50 in a few minutes!

Top things to sell on Etsy to make money – What sells the most on Etsy?

To give you an overview on what sells the most on Etsy, I’m going to list all the items here.

We will discuss a few of these later in the post.

Top things to sell on Etsy today:

  • Craft Supplies including Planners and Stickers
  • Jewelry
  • Beads and Jewelry supplies
  • Party and Decorations
  • Leather products
  • Clothing
  • Toys and baby items
  • Sewing supplies and fabric
  • Handmade items like wooden boxes, invitations etc
  • Accessories (scarves, hats etc)
  • Wedding things (corsages, invites, veils, hats etc)
  • Home Living (decor, candles etc)
  • Phone cases and covers
  • Bags and purses

It is interesting to know that during this crisis of 2020 and 2021, the best selling product on Etsy were

  • Toys to keep the kids engaged
  • Arts and cratfs
  • Beauty and personal care
  • At home and gym wear. Basically, comfort wear
  • Drinks and barware
  • Hobby products
  • Gardening tools

Thinks of items people would buy to keep them and their kids occupied through a lockdown.

If you closely see these items, they are all the things you could either do yourself like gardening or things you can do with your kids (like toys and crafts)

Pro tip: Look around and see what the world wants right now? Then start your research and find the best item to sell on Etsy store.

Top handmade items to sell on Etsy to make money are:

Some of the best and top handmade items to sell on Etsy are

  • Candles (check out how to sell candles online and make money)
  • Bath Bombs
  • Soaps
  • Lip Balms
  • Jewelry and Craft supplies
  • Stickers
  • Home Decor like wood carved signs, personalised pillows etc
  • Handmade journals and Scrapbooks

Relevant: Top crafts to sell online and make money

Before you decide on the best thing to sell on Etsy, read this.

There are ONLY three type of items you can sell on Etsy

  • Handmade
  • Vintage
  • Craft Supplies

Handmade items to sell on Etsy: If you want to sell handmade items on Etsy, these need to be created by you.

That means, you cannot resell items in this category. Reselling on Etsy means listing an item as handmade when you, the seller, weren’t involved in designing or making that item.

Vintage items to sell on Etsy – these are the items which are at least 20 years old. Reselling is allowed in this category

Craft supplies to sell on Etsy – This category includes tools, kits, materials etc that are used in creation of something. Craft supplies may be handmade, commercial, or vintage.

You can learn about what can be sold as a craft supply.

10 Top Selling Etsy shops and what they’re selling on Etsy

While 62% of Etsy sellers are from the US, they have sellers from 234 countries across the globe.

In fact, it is interesting to know that the top Etsy sellers make $10,000 per year or more.

  • PlannerKate1 -They are the top Etsy sellers in the US and had over 1.2 million sales since opening.

    PlannerKate1 is into stickers and planners. You can check them out here.

  • CaitlynMinimalist – They are into different kinds of jewelry (handmade and handwritten personalised jewelry) and has made over 50,000 sales in the last 30 days. You can check them out here

  • ModParty – They are into Bridesmaid Gifts, Wedding Favors and Decorations and have made over 978,028 sales. You can check it out here

  • PeggySueAlso – They seller graphic designs on leather, suede, and cork leather and has made over 704,882 Sales since start. You can check it out here

  • LittleMiaBella – They sell clothing on Etsy and have over 260,832 Sales since they started selling on Etsy. You can check them here.

  • PrettyInPinkSupply – They sell colorful crafts supply like Fabric Sheets, DIY Kits, Elastics, Flowers, Bows, Rhinestones, Appliques, Iron-On Decals, Flower Crowns, Tulle, Fabric, Glitter and all sorts of other DIY supplies. You can check their Etsy shop here

  • Beadboat1 is an extremely popular jewelry supply shop which has made over 826,242 sales since the inception and have over 7000 listings. You can check out the store here.

  • Yakutum is another best selling Etsy shop that sells jewelry supplies. Since 2008, they have made over 722265 sales.

  • CaitlynMinimalist deals with jewelry and is known for its minimalist designs. You can check the store here.

  • ThinkPinkBows is into accessories like bows for kids. They have taken the opportunity and expanded to selling face masks as well. You can check out the store here.

Details of best things to sell on etsy

Craft and Supplies

best things to sell on etsy - craft and supplies

Craft and Supplies is hands down the best selling category on Etsy.

If you are craftsy and reading this to find the best things to sell on Etsy, then throw away your worry and wear the craftsy cap.

You can start selling

In fact, crafts and tools is an official category on Etsy which includes

etsy rank top sellers

Some of the top sticker sellers in this category are-

Jewelry, Beads and Jewelry supply

The second best thing to sell on Etsy to make money is jewelry, beads or jewelry supplies. In fact, these are the best selling handmade items you can sell.

If you are interested in selling jewelry, handmade and customised jewelry pieces work the best on Etsy. They are personalised and people prefer to own these pieces because they are unique.

If you don’t want to create jewelry, you can sell beads and jewelry supplies to people who are into handmade jewelry. In fact, there is a market for people who want to buy jewelry making kits and tools as well.

Etsy has two categories for this

  • Crafts and Supplies for jewelry supplies
top selling categories on etsy to make money
  • Jewelry and accessories
handmade items to sell on etsy

A few top stores to check in this category are

Party and decorations

Etsy is known for personalised handmade things. So it is pretty obvious that party and decor items are one of the best things to sell on Etsy.

You can sell different party and decor items for various occassions like birthday parties, wedding parties, baby showers, etc.

If you have a taste for finding cute party decors or can create personalised ones for people, then you should go ahead with it.

Just imagine being able to find decors that are cute and handmade, you will definetly buy them right? That’s why decor and party items are the top selling items on Etsy

In fact, part decor is an official category on Etsy which includes

wedding and party items to sell on etsy and make money from home

The top Etsy sellers in this category are

Clothing

LittleMiaBella is the perfect example on how clothing sells on Etsy.

While there are tonnes of other e-commerce sites selling clothing, people get on to Etsy to find something unique and different from the usual.

So, if you have can arrange a collection of attractive and colorful clothing, your Etsy shop would make sales.

You can also look into baby clothing. That is also one of the best things to sell on Etsy.

In fact, clothing is an official category on Etsy which includes

top selling etsy items on etsy

The best clothing Etsy stores are:

Wedding

Wedding is a multi million dollar industry. Everyone wants their wedding to be perfect and to have unique elements.

In fact, the Etsy store that make the most money are into selling wedding things.

This is where you can make a difference with your store.

You can sell wedding invites, dresses, corsages, jewelry etc. There is just so much you can sell under the wedding umbrella.

The top etsy sellers from this category are

Accessories

handmade items to sell on Etsy

Accessories are definitely the best things to sell on Etsy. Everyone loves them!

You can sell hairbands, cufflinks, anklets, pins, crowns, caps, hats and so much more.

Your Etsy store could also specialise in certain kind of accessories – baby accessories, men accessories or women accessories.

The top Etsy sellers of accessories are

Home and Living

Home and living items are trending on Etsy and it is pretty logical.

Everyone wants their home to look warm and welcoming and they need to buy things to be able to achieve that.

The top Etsy sellers of Home and Living are

In fact, home and living is an official category on Etsy which includes

best things to sell on etsy

Summary: The easiest of all is to sell handmade items on Etsy. That is what Etsy is all about!

Things you cannot sell on Etsy

There are several things that you cannot sell on Etsy. To give you an ideas, they are

  • Alcohol, drugs, tobacco and the like
  • Dangerous items or hazardous materials
  • Hate items
  • Illegal items
  • Internationall regulated items
  • Pornography
  • Violent items

Best things to sell on Etsy – FAQs

What is Etsy?

what is etsy
Copyright @ Wikipedia

Etsy is a global online marketplace, where people come together to make, sell, buy, and collect unique items.

The motto is to keep the human touch alive and to boost creativity amongst people.

You will be surprised to know that Etsy had over 2.5 million sellers at the end of 2019 and generated a total sales volume of  $4.97 billion

But thats about selling on Etsy.

It is worth noting that there are over 60.27 million buyers on Etsy today and more than  40% of Etsy buyers purchased more than one item in 2018.

Is Etsy worth selling?

I think the above statistics make it clear that is worth selling on Etsy.

That said, I would recommend Etsy for people who want to sell handmade or personalised items over mainstream products

Some of the reasons to pick Etsy to start selling are

  • Easy to set up shop
  • A ready audience you can start selling to
  • Low fee to list the products
  • Allows you to test products at a very low cost

We will discuss more about the pros and cons of selling on Etsy, so read more to learn why (or why not) is it worth selling on Etsy.

How to start selling on Etsy and make money?

Is it easy to sell on Etsy? Can I simply start selling on Etsy? – So many question.

First off, it is simple to start selling on Etsy. Here is the process overview

Step 1 – Create or sign in to an Etsy Account

Step 2 – Click Sell on Etsy 

Step 3 – Click Open your Etsy shop.

Step 4 – Select your shop language, country, and currency, then click Save and continue.

Step 5 – Choose your shop name, then click Save and continue.

Step 6 – Select your shop’s language, country, currency, and time commitment:

Shop Language – This is going to be your default language for the shop. If you want to translate into other languages, Etsy provides you an option to enrol in other languages once you have opened a shop.

Country – This is where you shop is going to be located

Shop Currency – This is your default currency for the shop

Time Commitment – You will need to select whether selling on Etsy is your part time job or full time job. This is just for informational purposes and won’t affect anything.

Step 7 – Start adding things to sell on Etsy here.

Step 8 – Choose how you want to be paid for sales. If you are in eligible list of countries, you can use Etsy payments.

Step 9 – Set up billing for your Etsy shop. You can use a debit or a credit card for this.

Just like in any other case, you may see an authorization charge to verify the card you entered on file and once it is verified, the charge is dropped from the bill

Step 10 – Click on open shop and you are done.

Etsy has some amazing guides on how to start selling on their platform. You can find them here –  Beginner’s Guides and the Seller Handbook 

What does it cost to sell on Etsy?: Overview of Etsy fees

Before you start selling on Etsy or even look into best things to sell on Etsy, it is important for you to understand the costs associated with selling on Etsy.

When you make any sales on Etsy, the fees are automatically deducted.

Let’s discuss what is costs to sell on Etsy and what fees you will need to pay

Listing Fee:

For listing each and every thing on Etsy, you will pay $0.20 per listing. So, if you list 100 products, you are going to pay $200 just for listing them on the platform.

Listing fee is added to your payment account when an item is listed.

You need to understand that this fee needs to be paid whether or not you make a sale and expires in 4 months.

So, if your item does not sell within 4 months, you will need to pay another $0.20 per item to keep it listed.

Auto Renewal

Just like we said, if an item does not sell, it renews. That means, you are paying $0.20 per listing again.

Multi Quantity fee

If. you sell multiple quantities of a listing, you will need to pay a multi – quantity fee for each additional unit.

You have already paid $0.20 for first listing but you will need to pay this for every additional unit you sell for this product.

Shipping label fees

The amount of shipping label fee depends on your selection when purchasing Etsy Shipping Labels.

Etsy Shipping Labels are available to sellers in certain countries only.

But, what are shipping labels?

Basically, with shipping lables, you can buy postage on Etsy itself. All you have to do is print and place it on the packaged item. It will include all the necessary details like buyers address

Not only does it save you tonnes of time at the post office, but you also get some postage discounts for using this

Transaction fees

The transaction fee is levied at 5% of the total item costs (plus shipping and gift wrap) in your designated listing currency.

Besides that, there is a Shipping transaction fees

This is different from shipping label fees and is calculated at 5% of the listed shipping cost of an item

VAT

Depeding on where you stay, the VAT charges may vary. VAT is imposed on

  • Processing fee
  • Seller services

Other fees to sell on Etsy

  • If you use pattern, then you are charged with a fee
  • Etsy payment processing fee (imposed on sellers that yse Etsy payment services)
  • Advertising fees

How much money can you make with Etsy?

A lot of you must have this question – Can you make a full time living on Etsy? How much can you earn with an Etsy store?

See…

Sky is your limit, my friend. Top Etsy sellers make $10,000 per year or more.

That said, the the money you can make with Etsy will depend a lot on your efforts and how well your Etsy shop performs.

You can read the journey of Handmade Journey here. She talks about how she made over $50000 in the first year of her Etsy shop.

All this is great, we all hear the amazing stories of Etsy sellers making over and above an average household income

But, according to this extremely honest review,  up to 65 percent of those sellers earn less than $100 per year from their Etsy shops.

Again, this is the extreme side of something not working out. So, I jumped on my favorite Reddit (because let’s be honest, reddit guys are brutally honest, eh) and found some good experiences:

Here are a few screenshots to give you some motivation and reality check

how much money can you make on etsy
thing
make money with etsy stores
t
do people really make money with etsy stores

How to sell on Etsy and make money?

In this section we will talk about how to sell better on Etsy.

There are over 233 million sellers on Etsy and when you are starting out, you need to put in time and effort to make the store visible.

That means, besides utilising the inbuilt audience that Etsy has (using SEO), you need to use other channels like social media and paid advertising to drive traffic to your store and make sales.

Let’s get started with a few ideas on how you can find customers for your new Etsy store

How do I find customers for my Etsy store?

Etsy SEO

As a beginner Etsy store owner, you should focus on learning how to optimise your store on the platform.

.. Basically, learn Etsy seo which can help your buyers find you with keywords.

This is also called Query Matching. That means, when a use enters a term in the Etsy’s search section, the algorithm tries to match it with various aspects in the store like titles, tags, categories, store name, attributes etc.

Here are a few things you should do

  • Try to choose your store name in a manner which has a keyword in it. So, if you are selling jewelry, you can use jewel. If you are selling party items, you can use decor, party etc.

    If a store name is clear, it gives your buyer an idea on what they can expect to find in your shop.

  • Determine keywords and use them – It is important to us key terms throughout the store. For example, you can include the keywords in store name, tags, or product description.

    While the best way to determine keywords is to think like a shopper yourself, you can also use certails tools like eRank, Marmalead etc which specialise in helping Etsy store owners improve SEO.

  • Don’t overuse the same keywords – You need to understand that Etsy does not show more than 2 -3 listings from the same shop. So, if you are using the same keywords again and again, you are competiting with yourself to rank.

    Instead of this, find new keywords and use them.

  • Use all 13 tags for each listing and use a variety of them. For example, use baby headbands and infant headpiece instead of using baby headbands and infant headbands both.

Pinterest

Pinterest works really well for Etsy store owners. So, if you are looking to drive the initial traffic to your store, learn how to use Pinterest.

While you should focus on creating beautful pins, keyword rich pin descirptions and boards, don’t forget to claim your Etsy shop from business account settings.

It will allow you to pin directly from your Etsy shop. You can find some tips on driving traffic from Pinterest to your Etsy store here.

If you want to learn, i recommend you check out this course. It helped me drive more than 25k sessions to a new website.

Instagram

Instagram is a visual platform and hence, it works best for Etsy store owners.

Start a creators account and post your products with detailed descriptions enouraging buyers to check the Etsy stores.

A few ways to get maximum exposure

  • Use reels to get maximum reach for your account. Get creative and use trending music
  • Showcase products on stories and use engagement stickers
  • Research hashtags and create 5-6 buckets. You can use a mix of these hashtags for each of your post.
  • Try paid advertisement and promote your products
  • Don’t just post product photos, sell a lifestyle. Place your product in an attractive setting and then click pictures.

Facebok ads

If you have the budget, it is a good idea to use Facebook ads (especially video ads) to drive traffic back to your Etsy store

Influencer marketing and Sponsored Content

Find out a few macro and micro influencers with an audience who would be interested in your product and collborate with them.

These influencers could be on Facebook, instagram, YouTube or may have a blog.

You will have to pay them a certain amount or give free products for them to review and talk about on their platform

Tips to seller your items faster on Etsy

Product images

Etsy is all about how good you can make the products look… the more enticing they look, the more you can convince buyers to buy from you.

So invest in

  • Good product photograhy gear
  • Lighting
  • Backgrounds and props

Pro tip – You should place the item in a setting that makes people want to buy it.

Product description

You know how important Etsy SEO is to push your store from 0 to consistent sales every month.

So, take sometime in writing lenghty and beautiful product descriptions. Not only should it have keywords, but it should also make a buyer feel they want the product.

Competitive pricing

It is important to have competitive pricing for your products.

You should not lower product prices to compete (this will raise your cost of selling)

Focus on after sales service

If you are an Etsy store owner, you should focus on providing good sales service.

Be responsive and fast to your customer queries and problems.

If your customers are happy, they will leave you good start ratings and feedback which can ultimately help get more customers to your Etsy store.

How to find best selling items on etsy

While Etsy is the best tool to find the best selling items on Etsy, you can also use

Marmelead

best things to sell on etsy

It is one of the popular Etsy SEO and market research tool for serious sellers like you.

It is known for its ability to help you with keywords, tracking and optimising your listings to attract visitors.

You can start with the free trial they offer

eRank

easiest things to make money on etsy with

eRank is another Etsy SEO tools that can help you find

  • Long tail keywords
  • Tracking your competitors and understanding how your shop measures upto it
  • Tracking keywords you are ranking for

You can start with their free plan.

Sales Samurai

how to find top selling items on etsy

Unlike other two, Sales Samurai is not free of cost.

You can find keywords, optimise your store and drive sales.

Pro and cons about selling on etsy

Pros for selling things on Etsy

Market to an already built audience

Etsy already have a built in audience that loves handmade, personalised and crafted items.

All you have to do is find the best thing to sell on Etsy, launch your shop and drive the traMarket to an already built audience using Etsy SEO and Keywords

In-built data analytics

Etsy dashboard provides you detailed insights on

  • the kind of traffic you have for your store
  • the number of times buyers have favorited items
  • Orders
  • Revenue for each item etc

These analytics can help you take informed decisions on how to grow your Etsy store, boost sales and make money

Testing ground

Starting your own ecommerce store is pretty expensive and Etsy gives you a ready made testing ground to try your product, sell them and make money

Besides all of this, the benefit of selling on etsy are

  • Easy to set up shop
  • Availabillity on most countries
  • Payment processing is easy and integrates with various things
  • Credible platform and trusted by users

Cons for selling things on Etsy

Sell only handmade items

It is against Etsy policy to resell commercial products or even handmade products that are not created by you.

In short, if you have created items, then Etsy is a place to sell and make money online.

Too high fee

While the list fee is just $0.20 for each product, they have tonnes of other fee which we discussed above.

This eventually makes Etsy an expensive platform to sell

Saturated

While there are many many success stories, there are many many and many Etsy stores that fail due to market saturation.

Research the best things to sell on etsy, analyse competition and make an informed decision beore diving it.

Free courses on how to sell on etsy

You can find tonnes of good courses online to learn how to sell on Etsy. To start with, sign up with Skillshare and find tonnes of video trainings here.

If you are ready to invest a bit, you can find some good courses on Udemy

You can also find some good tutorials on youtube, like this one –

Best things to sell on Etsy – Conclusion

Etsy is a known platform to sell things, especially handmade, craft supplies and vintage items.

So, if you want to sell items in this category, you should definitely go ahead and start selling on Etsy to make money.

Start by researching compeition, feasibility of the item you want to sell, and then go ahead to launch your shop.

But, it doesn’t end there. you will need t learn Etsy SEO and use other channels to create a buzz and create brand awareness.

Hope this post helped you out on finding the best and easiest things to sell on Etsy.

What to sell on Etsy + Best things to sell on Etsy to make money