So you’ve got your shop full of items and your pictures are eye-catching, what’s next?  How about using some great Etsy Features to get organized and direct your customers to exactly what they’re looking for?

Let’s face it, we’ve all been to the “discount” brick and mortar stores that are a jumbled mess, and while sometimes I do enjoy unearthing that incredible buy, I much rather prefer to shop in stores where merchandise is well organized.  Your Etsy shop is no different.  The key is finding which style works for you and your potential customers.  The best part is you can experiment until you’re happy with the results!

Shop Sections

Use Shop Sections to categorize your items. Some effective styles are to:

Organize by Theme – For Cardmakers and shops that cater to party planning and decorating, a great way to organize your shop is by theme. Most of your shoppers will probably be looking to buy for a special occasion such as birthday, anniversary or holiday.  Tailoring your sections according to theme, like inkylivie does should help guide them directly to what they need!

Organize by Size – Most shoppers really appreciate being able to hone in on the exact size they are looking for whether they are buying jewelry, apparel, handbags or shoes.  Save your customers time by using the sections to group your items by clothing size or even small, medium and large works well or non-apparel items.  Cite fuzz labels her hats by size for quick reference.

Organize by Type of Item – Paper crafters like myself can benefit from organizing their stores by type of item.  When shoppers visit my store they can instantly see what type of paper crafts I specialize in, whether it’s an Altered Journal, my “Get Scrappy Kits”, a Greeting Card or a Mini-Scrapbook Album.  This style also works for hair accessory makers and those with a variety of different items for sale.  Lil’ Princess Bow and Mary had a Little Party have their shops wonderfully organized by type.

Organize by Price – Bath and body sellers, or other sellers that make use of gift baskets or groupings, can get a lot of mileage from using their shop sections to organize by basket and price.

Organize by Color-  If you make similar items in several different colors, you may help your visitors narrow their search by grouping like colors together.

• Group items by color, size, materials, price etc.
• Move older stock to the front again
• Create theme based pages
• Create great mixes for pages
• Put a highly viewed item first
• Promote full pages on social networking sites like Twitter & Facebook so that the “new” page always looks new

Now you’ve got your shop super organized, did you know you can create your own “window display”?  You know, the prominently displayed merchandise or “eye-catchers” that make you want to do more than just window shop?  With the “Featured Listing” tool, you can designate which items (up to 4) you want to appear front and center to visitors.  Change these daily to give your shop a new look!  Which items should you feature?

The Featured Item works well for:

Designate Your Featured Listings in Your Etsy > “Currently For Sale” by  clicking the star under the “Featured” Column next to your chosen item.  View and manage your featured items in Your  Shop > Items > Featured Listings.

Kimberly is married to her “dream come true” husband and is mommy to 3 beautiful children.  She left a 15 year career with the government to stay home with her kids and along the way started her paper crafting business!  As a little girl she used to proudly present family members with little handmade paper cakes on birthdays.  Who knew all these years later, those same skills would turn her slight obsession with all things paper into a career!  Her Etsy shop has blessed her with many intangible benefits, such as allowing her to work with incredibly talented Moms and paper crafters worldwide and to become involved in planning major fundraisers for the Special Olympics.

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