There’s much to learn from your competition on Etsy. If you come across a shop that’s similar to yours that’s thriving, it’s important to not get down on yourself. Comparing yourself to others isn’t always productive. It does come productive when you can learn from your competitors. There are 6 main facets of your competitor’s Etsy shop that you can learn from.

#1 What keywords is your Competition on Etsy using to get found in search?

Take a look at one of your competitor’s featured items. It’s likely that this item is one of their top-selling listings. Click into the listing and view the title, are they using keywords that are attracting a wide range of shoppers?

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the listing, you can see what tags they are using, they will be listed under the header “explore related searches”, and “explore related categories.”

When you look at the combination of the keywords your competitor is using in their title and tags it gives you a good indication of the words they are ranking for in search.

#2 How is Your Competition using Social Media?

Do you wonder if a shop has a large presence on social media? Are they sending much traffic from their social accounts to their Etsy shop? On the shop’s main page look at the about me section and see if they’ve linked their social media accounts. You may be surprised that their social media accounts aren’t as thriving as you think they need to be. Perhaps they are spending most of their time on their Etsy shop and less time curating beautiful social accounts. You may be able to see how they are connecting with their community to drive followers to their Etsy shop.

Angela the owner of the successful Etsy shop Minty Paperie has less than 150 followers on Instagram, yet she has over 200,000 sales. Don’t assume that all successful shops have a large social media following!

If you want to have a presence on social media; however, you don’t want to spend hours thinking of social media posts, download one month of Instagram posts for Etsy sellers, here.

#3 How Does Your Competition on Etsy Photography Look?

How does the shop’s photography look? How are they using the photo spot they have in each listing? Photography is the number one reason a customer ultimately decides to purchase on Etsy. Is there anything you can learn from their photography?

#4 How Many Variations is Your Competion Listing and What are Their Most Popular Items?

What material choices and sizes are they offering? To see what options are the most popular you can sometimes look at a shop’s sold items. Navigate to the storefront and click on their number of sales, if they have chosen to display sold orders you can see what they’ve sold. If you can’t see this, check out the shop’s reviews. What are the most common types of listings that people are reviewing?

When you take a look at BabyKDesign’s reviews you’ll notice that the Christmas shirts are really popular. You can learn from what items your competition is getting the most reviews on, it’s likely their top-selling items.

#5 What Does Your Competition on Etsy‘s Pricing Look Like?

Navigate to one of your competition’s featured listings. What does their price range and pricing on variations look like? Do they offer a sale that’s enticing customers to purchase more than one item? Is the shop offering free shipping? Is the pricing much lower or higher than yours? Look at how their materials used may affect their price

#6 How is the Shop Guiding Shoppers Through an Emotional Journey?

How is your competition telling a story of the problems they are solving? What emotional connection is the seller creating? Take a look at one of their featured listings and take a look at the photos and description. How are they solving a problem for the customer and how are they creating an emotional response. You can also see the shop’s about me section to learn more about the shop to see how they are creating connections with the customers. An emotional journey can increase the conversation rate and quickly turn browsers into buyers.

Now that we’ve gone through the 6 things you can learn from your competition on Etsy, you can identify what’s working for your competition and learn from them. You want to differentiate yourself and ensure that your listing is optimized. If you would like a checklist to ensure your Etsy listings are optimized download the ideal Etsy listing guide here.