The Complete Guide to Successfully Selling Prints on Etsy in 2024
Let’s explore how to sell prints on Etsy.
Our guide offers clear and easy-to-follow instructions, from preparing your store to promoting to a wider audience. Find quality print suppliers and streamline your process with Printify.
It’s much easier than you think. With Print on Demand, you can launch an Etsy business and sell art prints without investment, inventory, or logistics – we’ll show you how.
Explore our useful tips and tricks to outshine other Etsy store owners.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you make a purchase through those links. This comes at no additional cost to you.
What Exactly Is a Print?
Prints are reproductions of art pieces (from fine art to corporate decals) – made by transferring the original artwork onto a printing surface (anything, from humble posters to detailed tapestries).
When it comes to selling prints on Etsy, you’ve got two options:
- Digital products. These include digital images, illustrations, graphics, or fan art sold as a digital download.
Selling digital prints is a hassle-free process. You can easily set up digital download listings independently on Etsy and sell them right away.
- Physical products. Alternatively, you can sell physical art prints transferred onto surfaces such as custom posters, custom tapestries, and canvases.
Selling physical products means partnering with a product sourcing and shipping service. The easiest way to do so is through Etsy’s partnered print-on-demand companies.
In the crafty world of Etsy, anyone can make money selling physical prints – it’s a matter of choosing a print-on-demand fulfillment service, audience, and marketing strategy.
How to Sell Prints on Etsy: 5 Steps to Success
Selling art prints on Etsy is a pretty straightforward process. Let’s lead you through it, one easy step at a time.
Step 1: Set up an Etsy Store
Opening your Etsy store is simple. Either sign in or register for an Etsy account. Then, you’ll see a silhouette within a circle in the right corner – click it and select Sell on Etsy.
After that, fill out all the required details, like language, country, currency, and payment information.
In the registration process, you’ll be asked to add a product. Don’t focus on completing these details at this point – simply create a draft and delete it later.
To learn more about preparing your store, finding the right niche, and the most suitable marketing channels, see our articles on how to make money on Etsy and How to Start an Etsy Shop.
Step 2: Pick and Prepare Your Products
To start selling prints on Etsy, you’ll need products to transfer your art onto. Sign up for a free Printify account to find quality items and start designing your next bestsellers.
Printify offers a wide selection of canvases, posters, and other products you can customize with our Product Creator (formerly Mockup Generator).
A few examples include:
- Framed Vertical Posters
- Triptych Acrylic Prints
- Classic Canvases
- Fine-Art Prints
- Framed Posters
- Matte Vertical Posters
Browse our Catalog of more than 900 high-quality products – you can easily customize them with your original art for your print shop.
Once the designs are ready, connect your Etsy store with Printify and list your products with the click of a button.
You can manage your Etsy print orders from within Printify, including setting prices and adding descriptions. As you publish your products, this information will transfer automatically to Etsy.
Read More. If you’re seeking inspiration from those who’ve already made it on the Etsy platform, check out the success stories of Brett and Daisy and Gina Van De Voorde.
Step 3: Set the Right Price
You’ll need to set prices that are affordable for shoppers but with enough room to earn decent profits.
We usually recommend aiming for a profit margin of around 40%.
A good idea is to check what other Etsy sellers are charging, setting your own price accordingly.
To learn more about tips and tricks of pricing, our article on how to price a product has everything you need to know to set a price that’s just right.
Step 4: Devise a Marketing Strategy
With a well-planned marketing strategy – reaching your potential customers, retaining their interest, and increasing your Etsy sales become much easier.
Before you start marketing, here’s what you need to do:
- Identify industry trends. Find out what products are currently trending. See which prints sell well on Etsy, eBay, Amazon, and social media.
In addition, check what interests people with tools such as Google Trends, BuzzSumo, or Semrush. - Analyze competition. Find your competitors. Explore their social media, product reviews, and feedback. With this information, you can address their customers’ pain points, creating products they want but can’t find anywhere else.
- Find your target audience. You’ll get a good idea of your target customers by analyzing your competitors. Create a buyer’s persona, and match your brand and listings to their needs and expectations.
To get a better understanding, survey your own social network with tools such as Google Forms or Crowdsignal, and collect information from sources like Facebook groups and Reddit threads.
Once this is done, choose a marketing channel that best fits your needs. You can use social media, influencer or content marketing, email, paid advertising, or a combination.
To learn more, our article on marketing your Etsy store has all the information you need to implement the right marketing strategy from the get-go.
Step 5: Learn and Adjust
When your store is up and running, embrace the power of statistics. With Etsy Stats, you get a unique perspective of your store’s performance, where the traffic comes from, and how shoppers engage with the prints you sell.
By clicking on Stats in Etsy’s Shop Manager, you’ll see a wide range of information:
- Metrics overview. View Etsy shop-level data, including visits, orders, conversion rate, and revenue at any selected timeframe.
- How shoppers found you. See how much of your shop’s traffic comes through Etsy search, ads, marketing, or social media.
- How many shoppers viewed your listings. Find how many shoppers ordered your products, their views, favorites, orders, and sales revenue.
Analyze this data to gain insight into what works well and what doesn’t. Look for patterns and trends so you can refocus your efforts and make adjustments to increase the number of Etsy orders.
Sell Prints Today
What Are the Best-Selling Prints on Etsy?
Personalized products remain one of the cornerstones of Etsy’s Marketplace Insights.
Explore these best-selling items and gain inspiration for creating popular art prints:
- Original artwork. The DIY style captures artistic independence.
- Vintage posters. A historic niche – rustic and nostalgic artwork.
- Canvas holiday prints. Personalized framed prints as holiday gifts.
- Large gallery art. Affordable statement pieces for home decor.
- Decadent and cozy patterns. Waves, wiggles, and abstract forms.
With this broad range of customer favorites, there’s plenty of room for you to get among them. Pursue your passion and start selling art on Etsy today.
Sell Prints on Etsy With Printify
Printify helps people make more money with less effort by creating art with quality print techniques.
We offer a print-on-demand service that seamlessly integrates with Etsy, allowing you to start your own business without any upfront investment. You can also avoid the hassle of creating a website or worrying about sourcing products.
After you sign up for a Printify account, choose high-quality products from our Catalog and personalize them using our beginner-friendly Product Creator.
Whether you want to start selling framed photo prints or one-of-a-kind artwork transferred onto a stretched custom canvas, we’ve got all the tools you need.
When a customer purchases from you, we take care of everything else – printing, packaging, and shipping.
Start Making Money Selling Prints Today
5 Tips to Successfully Sell Prints on Etsy
Your Etsy shop and prints need to stand out, attract the right customers, and leave a lasting impression.
Explore our tips on how to get ahead of your competition.
1. Brand Effectively
Maintaining a positive brand image is essential for successfully selling prints on Etsy, as it separates you from the crowd. It helps people recognize your Etsy shop and the quality of prints you offer.
Include these components in your shop:
- A shop icon. Create a logo for your business on Etsy to represent your store across the marketplace. Design an icon that conveys something meaningful about your brand, reflecting the heart of your business.
If you need help creating an icon, use Canva or other free graphic design software to produce quality images for your brand visuals. - A professional banner. Your shop’s banner is your greatest branding asset – the most prominent graphic people see when visiting your store. Make sure it’s captivating and of top quality.
- Store information. Share your story, add a shop owner photo, and tell people about your business. This will give them greater confidence in your products and inspire brand loyalty.
- Perfect your policies. Set realistic expectations with your shop’s policies. Outline information your customer will find useful, such as shipping estimates, payment options, and order returns policies.
Explore Etsy’s guide on how to set up shop policies to find more information. - Add a FAQ section. With a frequently asked questions section, you can demonstrate your expertise, providing valuable information to customers to make their journey easier.
As always, check out what your competition is doing – adopt the successful aspects of their approach, alter the less-appealing ones, and add your own unique twist.
2. Optimize Your Store
Optimizing your store is essential for successfully selling prints on Etsy. It can help you appear in search results, gain customers, and increase sales.
Explore these optimization tips:
- Use high-quality photos. Create Etsy listings that feature beautiful product photos from varying angles. Place the best photo first since that’s what buyers see in search results. Follow Etsy’s guidelines for uploading images.
- Include keywords. Add relevant keywords in product titles, descriptions, and alt-texts, placing the most important ones at the beginning.
You can find the most popular keywords using tools like Sale Samurai and eRank.
- Use all 13 tags. Every tag you add is an opportunity for your product to match with more search results. Add tags that describe what your product is and who it’s for.
Try to use language that sounds natural, including multi-word phrases, such as custom digital art prints — it’s contextual and fills only one tag.
- Refresh your listings. To keep search results fresh, Etsy’s algorithm reviews how recently an item was listed or relisted. If possible, try to update your listings once in a while.
Small changes can bring big results. If you want to learn more, our article on how to get noticed on Etsy provides a few tips and tricks.
3. Add a Video to Your Etsy Listing
For many shoppers, descriptions and photos aren’t enough. They want to view the product in a more visually appealing way – in the form of a video.
With video listings, you can:
- Get more sales. Show shoppers how the product looks in real life, presenting in-use demos to boost purchasing confidence.
- Build trust. Establish trust by humanizing your store and creating a stronger connection between your brand and customers.
In addition, Etsy video listings are great for showcasing the best qualities of your prints.
Explore these tips for stunning Etsy videos:
- Pay close attention to the whole frame. Consider the entire arrangement of the frame. If you want to sell prints on Etsy, both the physical art and the background will influence purchase decisions.
- Follow Etsy’s guidelines. Video listings can be five to 15 seconds long, with an ideal resolution of at least 1080px or full HD.
- Stabilize the camera. Unless your hands are really steady or you’re editing a dynamic shot, use a tripod or even a stabilizer.
- Have good lighting. Try to create the video in a well-lit environment without changes so that potential buyers can see your print clearly.
Etsy listing videos are a great way to stand out as a professional and reliable seller. For more, see Etsy’s guide on how to add a listing video.
4. Sell Smart Using the Print-On-Demand Business Model
The greatest benefit of Print on Demand is its convenience. There’s no need to print anything, keep inventory, or worry about logistics – trusted partners do it all for you.
What’s more, manufacturing only begins after you sell an item. This means you can add as many different products as you want to your Etsy shop without any additional investment apart from Etsy’s fees.
5. Engage With Your Target Audience
Building meaningful relationships with your customers is essential for engagement.
After identifying who they are and what type of content they may like, create and align your strategies to engage with them.
Explore these tips to help build and maintain a good relationship with your customers:
- Thank buyers for their purchases. Show gratitude by leaving a short thank-you note for your customers. Also, provide helpful information, such as the standard shipping time.
To set up this message, go to Shop Manager, Settings, then Info and Appearance. Scroll down until you see the Message to Buyers field. Write something nice, then click Save Changes.
- Advertise yourself. Your shop’s About Me section is a great place for promoting your blog, website, or social media sites.
- Interact with your customers on social media. Respond quickly to your followers and build hype around your store through discounts, giveaways, or promotional deals.
Implement these methods right away. If done well, customers will be more likely to return and purchase from you again and spread the word about your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you make money selling prints on Etsy?
With the print-on-demand business model, anyone can start a profitable business without up-front costs. Sell prints on Etsy with Printify, where you can curate your design and create listings, and we’ll take care of fulfilling orders.
While Etsy has listing and sales fees you’ll need to cover for each order, signing up for Printify and designing products is 100% free.
Is selling prints on Etsy profitable?
You can definitely start making money online with Etsy. As with any business, your profit potential depends on your store’s popularity, pricing, how many prints you sell, and your marketing strategy.
How much does the average Etsy seller make?
The average profit may range from a few hundred dollars a month to a few thousand, depending on how much work you put into the venture. That said, successful Etsy sellers can make over $50k a year.
How can you sell prints on Etsy?
While Etsy offers its own custom-printing service, selling prints on Etsy with Printify offers unparalleled product variety and customization. To begin your entrepreneurial journey, follow these steps:
- Open an Etsy store.
- Sign up for a free Printify account.
- Pick your next bestseller from our Catalog.
- Connect your store with Printify.
- Start marketing and earning money.
Printify has all you need to prepare any type of artwork you wish to sell:
- Explore how to make digital prints to sell on Etsy with our digital art guide.
- See how to sell canvas prints on Etsy with Printify canvas prints.
While it’s easy to start, you’ll need to create unique products, promote them, and build a loyal customer base to become a successful entrepreneur.
Selling Prints on Etsy: Closing Thoughts
Whether you choose to sell physical or digital prints, get your art out there by starting on the right foot and planning your business strategy beforehand.
Here’s a quick recap of the steps you should take:
- Set up an Etsy store.
- Prepare your products using your best prints.
- Set the price.
- Devise a marketing strategy.
- Adjust and optimize your Etsy store.
With the right mindset, design ideas, and print-on-demand services, turn your passion into a thriving business without any up-front costs, inventory, or logistics. Partner with Printify to become an Etsy artist and offer prints effortlessly.
Start Your Own Print-On-Demand Business Today
Written by
Leon Walker
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