How to Sell Vintage on Etsy, Thriving in the Vintage Marketplace: Mastering Etsy and Beyond

Unlock the secrets of thriving in the vintage marketplace with me, Cindy Fannistock Schafer, on this enlightening episode of Living a Vintage Life by Retro Chalet. Discover how Etsy has transformed from a modest platform to a bustling marketplace with millions of shops, yet still holds tremendous potential for dedicated sellers. I share my personal journey with Etsy and reveal how 25% of shops manage to stand out in competitive markets like jewelry, psychic readings, and print-on-demand products. Dive into the strategies that can help you succeed, including understanding Etsy's ever-changing algorithms and learning from industry experts like Dylan Jarvis.

Explore a world beyond Etsy as we navigate various online platforms for selling vintage and handmade items. From the promising yet traffic-dependent Go Imagine to the fashion-centric Poshmark, we dissect each platform's unique advantages and challenges. Hear my candid thoughts on eBay's customer service and why Facebook Marketplace is your go-to for local sales. As we circle back to Etsy, I provide actionable tips on optimizing SEO and keywords using tools like Marmalead and E-Rank, to help boost your shop's visibility and potential sales.

Maximize your Etsy sales with strategic tactics focused on the buyer experience and efficient shipping. Learn how small items like individual mason jars can save on shipping costs and improve profit margins, and why thoughtful packaging and personalized notes can lead to repeat customers. I stress the importance of refining product offerings, using social media to drive traffic, and making consistent daily tweaks to improve your shop's performance over time. Whether you're a seasoned seller or just starting out, this episode is packed with insights to help you thrive in the world of vintage sales online.

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Chapters

• 0:06 Selling Vintage on Etsy
• 10:14 Exploring Online Platforms for Vintage Sales
• 17:11 Optimizing SEO and Keywords on Etsy
• 31:12 Maximizing Etsy Sales With Strategic Tactics
• 43:24 Building Your Etsy Shop Strategically
• 52:50 Promoting Your Vintage Shop Online

Transcript

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 0:06

You're listening to living a vintage life by retro chalet. Thanks for joining. Here's your host, Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer. Hey guys, this is an episode that I wanted to do for a really long time and today is a perfect day to do it. My blind dog is finally asleep. When she is awake she barks a lot, even though she's very good at finding her way around different places that I take her, she's used to her surroundings, but the incessant barking just for like attention and she needs extra cuddle time really makes it difficult in my spare time to try to do podcasts. So Kendall is finally taking a nap and it's a perfect time to do this podcast. Today I'm going to be talking about how to sell vintage on Etsy.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 0:56

A long time ago I wrote a lot of articles online. You may have seen some if you ever search how to sell vintage on Etsy. They've been on the internet for over 10 years. They've gotten a lot of reads, but things have changed a lot over the past 10 years and I get this, you know, all the time from vintage sellers on how to sell vintage on Etsy. First of all, let me explain. I've had my shop a really long time but I never really did anything with it, because my husband's a barbecue guy. We went all around the East Coast selling barbecue, very, very busy in food sales and catering, and I run a food truck four days a week and, you know, no time for Etsy. That was not my side hustle, it wasn't my source of income, but I would help others, you know, explaining to them how to do it, because at the time I was like a pro. I could list something and it would sell immediately and there was no problems. Now, back in, I'm going back 10 or 11, 12 years, actually 13 years now. Back in 2012, there was under a million shops, under a million shops. So what that meant was Etsy. This is before Timu, before Sheen, and Etsy got millions and millions of buyers looking for items back then and they still do today. But hear me on this. They got millions of shoppers, millions of buyers, and you only had under a million stores competing. Fast forward to now A few statistics.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 2:41

Okay, there's an article by Contimod C-O-N-T-I-M-O-Dcom and they stated that there were over 9 million stores 9 million shops in 2022. Although Etsy listed an annual report back in 2022 saying there were 7.5 million shops. Okay, so 7.5 to 9 million stores. So you're an Etsy seller, you're wondering why you're not selling anything. Well, that's because you are lost in between 7.5 and 9 million stores. However, however, don't despair, you can sell on Etsy. You can be a successful vintage seller because they've got 96.5, I believe, million buyers going to Etsy for things. So, so, in other words, even though, even though there are tons and tons of stores, there are tons and tons of buyers, however, um, etsy statistics actually, um, said that 25% of shops are actually successful. That's one out of four. One out of four. Now, what are one out of four doing? Is it what they're selling? Is it that they've got things down? Well, it's a combination of all these things, and I'm gonna go over with you some of the things that I've learned over time. Now there is a store called Caitlin Minimalist. Last I actually counted, they were selling over 1,200 pieces a day. They sell jewelry.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 4:35

Psychic sellers are on Etsy. Now I want to say at one time they were not really allowed to do tarot readings and readings, and I really don't know what happened back then, but I just know that the market was flooded with them. They were doing very well and I guess that's. He just said okay, we're going to allow this because actually it could have been that a that a group of pagans got together and said, hey, this against my religion, to kick us off of here because we use tarot cards and we're into divination. So I don't know. I don't know what the story is there, but there are stay-at-home moms killing it with these psychic readings. Some of them have sold 50,000 psychic readings at 25 bucks a pop and you can do the math on that. You know.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 5:28

There's also lots and lots of print-on-demand shops that are killing it. Personalized gifts are a huge thing on Etsy. These print-on-demand shops are selling in the millions and basically there's a whole bunch of different podcasts out there just to help those type of shops. There are actually people out there that you pay a lot of money and they guide you one-on-one and I have actually heard success stories coming from them. Like you can look up Dylan Jarvis. She ran a successful Etsy shop and also on Shopify and other platforms, and she actually has a great podcast with great information on selling on Etsy and some of that stuff. Even though it's geared to print on demand, some of that stuff can really help the vintage seller. So I'm going to go over the top five things that you need to do to sell vintage on Etsy.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 6:27

First of all, about a year ago there was a big complaint on Etsy about their algorithm that it had changed that. All these people were basically saying and this is from a post I actually read that basically there was one person who was doing handmade sales. Believe it or not. They sold over $5 million in handmade. Now I don't know if that's print on demand, I don't know if that's SVG files I don't know what it is because I don't know what their shop is but they said they sold over 150,000 items and all of a sudden, a year ago, all their sales dropped off and like shriveled up to nothing. Another person on the same post, by the name of Tattooed Geek 1218, said that they had over a million over like five years and then all of a sudden, a year ago, their sales dropped to non-existent. So there's a whole bunch of people theorizing why Etsy, your sales and your views just dropped or plummeted about a year ago. They say the algorithm has changed.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 7:44

Now what I'm giving you is my opinion. This is not fact. But about a year ago, timu and Sheen also blew up. So what you have to understand is if a website like Timu or Sheen blows up. What they're doing is then dominating the search results in Google. Also, people are going crazy over stuff. They're getting on Timu and Sheen because I guess it's cheap and it's trendy and it's cute and they're saving money, so they're sharing it. They're sharing it on social media. So what actually happens is, in the natural way of things, you have a website that grows and grows and grows because the user base is pushing it and it grows bigger and it grows bigger. And the next thing you know, you've got the huge Amazon of everything that's selling by the name of Timu and Sheen and Etsy has like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, drop down in the search results, drop down in the Google. So what they have to do now is reinvent themselves. This is just my opinion.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 8:52

I believe that if you want a company or a website to survive, you have to support it. So before you go out there and you buy something off of Timu that and I'm guilty of it I gotta say I've done it. I bought a sweatshirt. It looked really comfy, it was really cheap. I thought you know, this is really cute, I'm gonna buy this sweatshirt. I get it a month later. The material on the sweatshirt is not like a soft cotton, it's like some kind of like satiny polyester, and the screen print that's on the front of the sweatshirt, you know, basically doesn't look like the screen print I saw in the picture. It's kind of like cheaply done and infused into the fabric and so basically you get what you pay for. I was pretty upset with my purchase but yet I supported them and, you know, got this thing shipped in from another country, instead of maybe supporting the same sweatshirt that I could have got sourced and made in the USA by a print-on-demand Etsy seller, and I kind of learned my lesson.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 9:53

So if you are a vintage seller and you want to sell on Etsy, support Etsyans. So not only are you selling on Etsy, but you should be buying on Etsy, and that's just my opinion. So I can't really tell you. You know what the situation is, but I'm going to give you a few other avenues that people are selling Now.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 10:14

Go Imagine is a new, newer website and they actually allow vintage supplies, but they don't actually allow vintage. It's just basically handmade or vintage stuff like that. But you can't sell vintage like a cookie jar. You can't sell a vintage medical jar. You would have to sell supplies for jewelry making and things of that nature that are vintage. The problem with Go Imagine and I did sign up and I did try it out I want to say like I actually wrote an article about it, because they're super easy to use. Their fees are very comparable and less than Etsy, in a nutshell, but there is no traffic. You have to drive it yourself. It's almost like a Shopify store. It's actually, in my opinion, way less expensive than a Shopify store, but you have to set up your shop and drive your own traffic to it, and that might be a good place if you're selling, like you know, vintage looking art, vintage assemblage art or vintage supplies, assemblage art or vintage supplies. Poshmark is a great place for vintage clothes, used clothes, newer clothes, handbags, jewelry and that sort of thing. Macari is a good website, got a little bit of everything going on almost like a flea market type deal and there's really no if-ands or rules as far as if you're going to sell vintage, handmade or supplies.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 11:47

Ebay, unfortunately, has been out there a really long time. You know I was one of the first users on eBay. I used to sell a long time ago on eBay. I just don't like it anymore. I've had a lot of problems getting my products from buyers. They've switched almost, and I know a lot of companies have. They've switched to like some AI type, standard customer service and stuff.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 12:12

And I actually had a dispute where I had a package for my dogs it was actually some type of medicine for my dogs and it got delivered by UPS to the wrong house but the system just kept denying my request to dispute the item Because even though I told the seller I took a picture of my house and I told the seller, hey, this isn't my house the system kept denying it because there was a valid tracking number by UPS. So you know, you have to call, you have to call 50 places, you have to get somebody to listen to you and they just weren't cooperating. I had to go through PayPal. They denied it because it actually had a valid tracking number and it wasn't until I actually got a human being on the phone at PayPal that I explained to them. Look, this is not my house. I don't care what your AI system keeps closing out.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 13:04

I paid 30, some bucks. I don't have the item. Unfortunately, I don't even know whose house this was, that it was delivered on or I would walk over and get it myself if it was one of my neighbors, but it's not and you know this is not my home and I can't get ahold of anybody Like. I couldn't even complain to UPS because this is so strange. It was an eBay purchase but it was an Amazon seller. So the seller used UPS, but UPS wouldn't touch it because it was delivered by an Amazon truck. So it's just the weirdest thing ever and I really think that, and shame on eBay's customer service for just going down the tubes.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 13:41

So if you're going to sell on eBay, you know, buyer and seller, beware, because there's a lot of glitches going on right now and it's not the same eBay that it was 10 years ago. In my opinion. I do shop on eBay but I've had a lot of bad apples lately and the worst part is that seller, you know, wasn't a very good seller because I kept telling them that it is not my house. It is not my house. Now I've got 20 years of eBay feedback and it's all positive, 100% positive, but they did not believe me or they were just tricking the system and they didn't care. All they had to do was call UPS, say it was delivered to the wrong address, call their courier and get their refund so that I could get my refund. But they didn't. So if you're going to sell on eBay, don't be that type of seller and listen to your customers.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 14:33

And then, of course, there's Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Marketplace guys, it is what it is. I have recently went through my storage unit and cleaned out everything humongous and huge and gotten rid of it on Facebook marketplace for at least what I paid, or just a little bit cheaper, just to get rid of it. And that's pretty great because I could set it outside, they could stick the money under the mat and we don't actually have to see each other and I can use my work location to do that, which is great. But here's the thing. The reason I got rid of big, big bulky stuff is because selling vintage on Etsy means you're shipping stuff. The bigger it is, the more it costs you, the less your profit margin gets, especially because, selling on Etsy, they really, really, really push you anything over $35. They want you to offer free shipping in your shop.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 15:24

Now, I've read a lot on this. Some people are doing it, some people aren't. They claim you're going to get higher in search results. You're going to get better placement if you do that, but some people have actually said that they haven't seen any difference at all. So it's just another thing whether you want to offer that to your customers or not. So now let's get through the top five things and some mistakes. You know how to sell vintage on Etsy.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 15:55

The first thing is most important is your SEO, niche SEO, search engine optimization. You have really got to take time on your listings to make sure they're gonna get found by the millions of buyers that are searching for them. Now this kind of goes hand in hand with my number two, which is my keywords, because your SEO has to do with the way you're listing and your keywords. I've said this in all of my articles. It is your first four to five words in your title that are very search engine friendly, seo optimized for, like Google listings and things of that nature. So if you're selling a cute vintage reindeer, a stife plush, okay, you basically don't wanna say cute, adorable, christmassy vintage reindeer, because now your first five words are just pretty much the only one that really is going to make any sense to the SEO is the word reindeer. Okay, now you have lost the four other words, and sometimes it's four, sometimes it's five, just depending how long your words are.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 17:11

Now the Etsy title area is pretty freaking long, lots of characters. So you want to put your first, most important words in the beginning of your title. So in this case, steve, reindeer, christmas ornament or decoration, that's what I would pick, so it would flow as a sentence. It wouldn't be choppy, but it would be people that are out there searching for Stife or Steve. I can't even say it, but that would bam. You would be in those search results Reindeer bam, christmas, not Christmassy, not cute, adorable, those are wasted words, okay. So again, seo in your title is very, very super important. And number two, your keywords.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 17:59

Now, it used to be back in the day that you could think like a buyer and you could think up 13 really important keyword tags for your Etsy shop. So, for instance, if I was selling a vintage toy plastic boat, my first word would be vintage, my second word would be toy, my third word would be plastic, my fourth word would be boat. Maybe I would pick nautical, maybe I would pick gift. Maybe I would say dad, no, no and no. That has all changed. If you have any one word tags, get back in there and fix them, because that is hampering you. What Etsy did a while ago is talk about these long tail keyword searches and basically that's when you go to Etsy and you type in a phrase.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 18:46

Now there's a couple of ways that you can actually figure this out. Okay, first of all, you can go to Etsycom. Make sure you go to Etsycom, not through your store or anything, but go to Etsycom and search plastic, vintage toy boat. Just start typing it in and whatever is popular should auto-populate. So let's say, I type in vintage toy, bam bam, bam, bam bam. All these things are going to come up which are trending or popular searches, search terms. That's one way of figuring out, kind of how to label Another thing.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 19:27

What you want to do is kind of split it up. So my first tag would be vintage toy, my second tag would be plastic boat, my third tag would be boating antique. My fourth tag would be gift for him. So in other words, these tags are two and three words. As long as they're less than 20 characters, they should fit. They should fit. And so what's going to happen then If I have one tag that says vintage toy and I have one tag that says plastic boat.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 20:05

If somebody is looking for a vintage toy plastic boat bam, it's going to come up. If they're looking for a vintage boat bam it's going to come up. If they're looking for a toy plastic bam, it's going to come up. If they're looking for vintage plastic bam it's going to come up. So, in other words, by just having one word keywords you are limiting yourself and you are losing possibility on the combo searches. And Etsy talked about this in one of their updates a while ago. And look, I got to tell you I don't read all the Etsy updates that they post and I should and you should, because there's important stuff in there and it tells you One time they talked about shipping how to reduce shipping costs, or it would, you know, impact your searches, or you know how to do these long-tail keywords, or it can impact your searches and they give you all the tools you need, but you just have to take the time to read it.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 20:58

Now, what I do on one and two for my SEO niche and my keywords is you can use either a service called Marmalade or you can use this Etsy rank tool, e-rank. It's called E-R-A-N-K. Now I use E-rank. You know why. You get like five free searches per day for your shop For free. For free, okay. And now it's not like all the high end stuff, but it's enough stuff that you can tailor your stuff.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 21:29

So basically, you can go in there, you can look up the niche, the keywords, you can get it to do like an audit on your Etsy listing to see you know what is trending and what's not. It'll give you green, it'll give you red. It's really super easy to use and so I have went in there just once a day and tweaked up to five of my listings and, little by little, if you have a lot of items in your store or you're listing new items in your store, go back the next day, go into the eRank and make sure you've done it correctly and it will help it. Actually, you know, really brought up some words that I didn't even consider or I didn't even think about. So the days of let's make up what we think buyers are looking for in tags is over and done with. You have to go by what's really searching out there, and the only type of tools to help you are the Marmalade and the E-Rank. There is another service I've heard advertised recently called Etsio, where you pay per listing and they actually use some kind of AI bot and they pull all this data and they list it for you. And it's kind of crazy. They'll rearrange your titles, They'll tell you what tags to use and they'll list the listing for you. So I mean, I don't know, I haven't went there yet. I'm actually using the eRank for free and doing the SEO and the keywords and I'm also searching on Etsy and I'm seeing, like you know what items pop up quickly on my search, like you know what items pop up quickly on my search and what other. You know what the sellers, how they have their titles compromised, composed, et cetera, et cetera.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 23:12

Now, when I kind of want to put this out there, there are a few shops that don't have to follow this rule. There are a few shops that don't ever have to follow this rule because they're selling so many items that they can say cute little beads for crafts and people buy them, because those particular shops have millions of sales, they are supply sellers, they have been around for a really long time and vintage supplies. I mean, let's face it, people who shop on Etsy like to make a lot of things. They like to make a lot of crafts. They like to make a lot of handmade. So if I'm, you know, thinking, should I sell these beaded necklaces, these vintage necklaces, and try to get 12 bucks, or should I take them all apart and sell the vintage beads, and would I sell them quicker that way? You know, you have to really kind of think of that. There are a few shops that sell so many things. They have so many people following their shop. These people buy from them every day. They check back every time they list new stuff. So these titles and tags and all this stuff, you know, I don't really think it matters to them, but to us it's going to matter because you have to build up to that point.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 24:27

Number three is your photos. Etsy actually has like an AI bot now that if your photo's too small, if your photo's too dark, if your photo is not clear enough, they will actually put this little explanation point on there and they will say, hey, there is a factor impacting your search results and it'll say picture too small, redo your picture. Blah, blah, blah, blah. So then, what you can do if you're really in love with that first picture you had, you can just reorder your pictures and hopefully another picture that you took is a little bit better in the Etsy eyes, or you can try to crop it, maybe brighten it. There was a time when, like, really dark and gloomy photos were like the thing, and now they really have to be bright and crisp and clear.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 25:15

And there's a few reasons for this. You know, if Etsy is ever going to pick you for the front page or curated Etsy pic, they're not going to pick a small picture, they're not going to pick a junky picture. They're not going to pick a yard sale picture. They are going to pick a picture that you would see in Country Living Magazine or Art and Antiques magazine or something like of that nature. So just try to take the extra time, take good photos. You don't need like a professional camera.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 25:47

Your iPhone can do it, but just maybe crop out your background. Or, if you don't want to do that, enlarge your iPhone photo and crop it in a way that you're really focused on the item itself and it's in good detail, that you're really focused on the item itself and it's in good detail and it looks really pretty. They also say when you're doing pictures that you should show the item in use in your home. So I see this a lot with vintage. They might actually have the first picture completely cropped out, but then the second picture is in a collection, it's on somebody's shelf or it's in use in the home, and you know I've never been one to crop out my backgrounds. I always show the picture as it is, against something like a book background or sitting on a shelf or of that nature. So photos are very important, and that would be number three.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 26:40

So, going back to one, two and three, so what you now have is you're tweaking your titles, you're tweaking your keywords and you're tweaking your photos, and this, hopefully, is going to up your views and conversion rates. Your conversion rate is how many visits based on how many orders and a way to way to compute that is. I don't want to get this wrong. You want to divide your orders into your visits? Okay, and it'll come out to something. They say that average is one to three. Good is two to five percent conversion rate.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 27:17

If you don't want to do that, you just go into your Etsy shop stats and they should actually show you something. Now I want you to be really careful. Etsy actually gives you your shop address to share out there on social media. And if you drive your own traffic, you will get like a little discount back on your listing fees and your final fees and all that stuff. So here's the problem. Like my shop this would be my code Retro Chalet dot Etsy dot com. That's the link that I would use. So let's say, your store, your store dot Etsy dot com. So when you link your shop you don't want to do the HTTPS Etsy dot com forward slash, shop, forward slash. You know Retro Chalet dot com. You don't want to do that. So what you want to do everywhere, on your Facebook, on your Instagram, on your TikTok, on your link tree is RetroChaletetsycom. Of course, maybe put the HTTPS first, but you know yourstoreetsycom.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 28:27

Now, be very, very, very, very careful when you go to your shop to work in it. That's not how you get there. Go into your Etsy seller app or go into Etsycom and sign in. The reason I'm telling you this is if you were like me and you used to always use the old way of going in RetroChaletetsycom, that is, counting as maybe a visit, you don't want to keep having all these visits and no sales. If all these visits are coming from you, you don't want to have a very low conversion rate, because then what's happening is you are basically telling that system that you drove 80 people there, when it's really you listing in your shop the wrong way and basically your conversion rate now is going down, down, down, down, down, down down. And what the system? Maybe it's AI, maybe it's the ranking, maybe it's just Etsy, I don't know, but you're going to lose quote unquote points and it's going to hide your store. So again, go to Etsycom, sign in the regular way, work in your shop that way. Do not go to RetroChaletetsycom and work in your shop that way, if that makes any sense. That's something that I learned, because I only know this because I checked my visits and I turned off my ads and I turned off this and I looked and I and I figured this out. And if I'm wrong about this, let me know. If there's any real Etsy people that work at Etsy, let me know. But I'm pretty sure I figured this out not to do it that way.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 30:04

Um number four would be your pricing and your shipping. And again, going back to what I said earlier, you know Etsy expects you to do the free over $35. Now, why, why would you do this? Well, I'm going to tell you why. You've got Timu free shipping over a certain amount. You've got Amazon free shipping over a certain amount or with Prime. You know, unfortunately these are viable stores that you're competing with viable websites and they claim that people are more apt to buy something that's a little bit more expensive with free shipping than buying something cheaper with, say, a $6.95 shipping cost. So now what I've done in my store is I pretty much standardized all of my shipping to, say, $3.95, which is under a high price point, because if you do $5.95 or $6.95 or $7.95, Etsy will actually tell you to review your shipping costs that they're higher than the average, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then I've got it to where, if you spend $35, this stuff is free.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 31:12

So how did I end up doing this? I ended up getting rid of all my bulky and heavy stuff because, even though they have ground advantage packages now, which I got to say does save you some money it is just impossible for me right now to sell a whole vintage set of heavy, expensive dishes vintage dishes because I would have to wrap them very, very well, the box would be humungo and the shipping would be outrageous. And remember, I'm gonna have to price it over $35 and then you're gonna have to get your free shipping. And then what am I gonna make on this sale? Practically nothing. So I have retailed my shop to smalls. Or if I am selling glassware like, I just sold one single mason jar. Now, with that mason jar, I wrapped it good, I put it in a box, I double boxed it, I marked it fragile, I did a UPS ground advantage, I believe they got free shipping and I paid about six bucks. So yeah, I made some money off the mason jar.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 32:18

But this is the way you have to revamp your store. If you're going to compete against Amazon, if you're going to compete against Sheen, if you're going to compete against Timu, you know you're going to have to really think twice. Now. Books if you're a vintage seller, books, you can ship media mail. I don't suggest it. It's not trackable, it really kind of sucks. And the whole buyer experience, you know, is number five. My number five how to sell vintage on Etsy the whole buyer experience. So what I'm saying is you, the seller, wants to make some money on the book, so you're going to pick the $3 media mail shipping versus the $6 ground advantage. Don't do it. Do not do that. You want your buyer to have the book early or in their hands. You want to wrap it. Well, I put a nice little note in there.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 33:15

I have so much crafting ephemera and stuff because wherever my husband and I went to sell barbecue, I would like visit local flea markets that day or see stuff on the side of the road for free old magazines. I would grab them and snatch them and basically I've got like a warehouse full of stuff. So what I personally do is I send a little thank you pack to every customer. If they're buying crafting stuff for me or vintage stuff for me, I send them a free art pack Like this is stuff that's just sitting around. I'm not getting around to making art anytime soon. It's been practically sourced free or in lots. I don't know if you've ever went to the Goodwill or if you went to the Salvation Army and you bought a bag of stuff even if it's like broken jewelry or something because you wanted like one or two pieces in there and then you have like 80 pieces that are no good to you but they might be good to someone else. So I send them a little package in with every single order and I try to make that that buyer. I really write them a note and I say really I really hope that I've earned your five star feedback. It helps my little Etsy shop and and one of the key components on survival is getting good feedback being a star seller on Etsy. And then, you know, making that experience with the buyer a warm and fuzzy experience, and then maybe that buyer will favorite your store or come back.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 34:40

Now, on that, there's a fun fact. You know, people spend a lot of time and I was guilty of it doing the whole branding thing, you know, perfecting your little image logo, perfecting your shop banner, perfecting everything that you got going on. Stop doing that. Stop doing that right now, because this is wasted time. A fun fact. That's out there and you need to dig to find out the percentage. But I know I'm pretty sure from my recollection and I don't have the stats to give you the exact but over 50% of buyers never actually go through your shop. They're actually just out there doing a long tail keyword search on Etsy. For instance, they're typing in vintage beer bottle, schlitz, and that's how they're getting that item in your store. They are not going to retrochaletsecom and browsing around to see what I got today, unless they are one of the shop people that have favorited my shop and one of the people that are repeat buyers with me and I do have a few of them, but in general, in general, that is not the way they find you.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 35:56

So stop spending all that time on your branding right now, until you get to the point where you're a Caitlin minimalist and you're busting out 1,200 orders a day. Then you can worry about how pretty your shop looks and all that stuff. Why would you so? The funny part is I also used to really, really, really be so strong in social media. Every time I listed an item, I would go to Pinterest and I would go to X and I would well formerly Twitter and I would go to Facebook and I would share it on Instagram, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you know what? I just stopped doing all that. I stopped doing all that because sharing that one listing to five or six places and plugging it was time that I could spend adding another item into my shop. Okay, so I have actually found this little key tip that works better for me. Actually found this little key tip that works better for me.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 36:57

So the time spent I'm going to say this to you again the time spent promoting yourself in all these different social medias. And I mean, let's face it, you could just throw up the stuff into Instagram. But it's not going to work unless you really put a good picture on Instagram, put your key tags, your little keywords, and put a little blurb, and then you got four minutes into that. Then you got five minutes into your ex and six minutes into Pinterest and seven minutes now you're on Facebook. So by the time you're done, you've just spent 10 minutes promoting one listing, when you could have spent 10 minutes listing another item.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 37:29

Now I'm going to tell you that 10 years ago I would have told you, when there was only less than a million shop owners, to do the social media versus the listing. But now I'm changing that. Now I'm telling you don't do the social media, do the listing. So, case in point my store only has maybe under 100 items, but every time I list a few things, they're gone, they're sold. So I can't even get to the point. I haven't even had the time to pump in their 500 items. Because I'm doing quality over quantity now, quality SEO over quantity of junk listings. I'm cherry picking what I decide. I'm going to list.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 38:16

Today I'm going through my storage, going through my bins and changing the way that I run that little side hustle. Now I'm at the point in my life where we're going to retire from the catering and barbecue business in a year, so now is the time that I'm moving more into my store and I'm pimping up my listings and I'm putting my stuff in there and I'm hoping that my buyer has such a great experience with my little thank you pack the fact that I've really rushed their item out the best way for them that I've given them the free shipping because they spent over $35. I've wrapped it up even though it's not a gift and it's not Christmas. I've wrapped it up because I have a plethora of old papers and stuff that I can use and I just think it's so much cooler when you get something and it's like ooh pretty, I got to open it, I got to go through the whole unboxing. It's like I'm really giving them a great experience. I'm hoping they do the social media for me. I'm hoping they heart stuff, they pin stuff, they share stuff, and that's how people like Caitlin Minimalist and these huge supply store sellers got so big because their customers do the social media for them.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 39:35

Now, another thing that I have learned from listening to different podcasts is these Etsy ads. If you're having a problem in your Etsy shop, they suggest, while you're starting out, to spend the money on the Etsy ads. Etsy ads you cannot do for less than a dollar a day. A dollar a day over the course of 30 days is 30 bucks, so you have got to sell more than 30 bucks in order to make this worth it. I'm kind of at a catch-22 with that. I don't know what to tell you. I'm just going to throw it out there that, yes, it does help. I have seen where I have spent a dollar a day and my views have gone from 20 in my shop to 700 in a day. Is it worth it? Yes, because they say that you have to have hundreds and hundreds of views before you have a conversion, which means a sale of views before you have a conversion, which means a sale. However, there is a way to go in and you're going to probably I don't know if you can do this on mobile, I think you can through the Etsy seller app. If not, go through your laptop, just to be safe.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 40:46

Basically, there is a way to turn off listings, turn off ads on certain items. So, for instance, if I have a lot of five bucks, six bucks, seven bucks, eight bucks stuff, I do not want the Etsy ads running on those items. I mean, why? Why spend a dollar to advertise something? Five for 30 days straight. No, turn off all the little listings and only if you're going to spend that dollar a day little listings and only if you're going to spend that dollar a day. Advertise it on the high money items. Okay.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 41:17

So, for instance, like my porcelain glove molds, which are just awesome. They're industrial glove molds. They look so cool for halloween. They look great to drape jewelry on. Actually, jewelry sellers buy them because they they hang their necklaces on them and that's how they take their photos. Um, and I have them price pointed at 58aces on them and that's how they take their photos. And I have them price pointed at $58 with free shipping and that's expensive, right. But I also give the Retro10 coupon code so people can save 10% off. They get the free shipping and then I'm spending that dollar a day advertising that glove mold versus advertising that cute little reindeer that's five bucks. Or the little jar of beads that's three bucks.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 41:57

Now, the reason I have some lower priced items in my shop. The reason I have that is something called the sale conversion. So, in a nutshell, without sounding too technical, what happens is the more items you have, the more sales hopefully you'll have. That's if you have them listed correctly. Like I've told you, with your SEO, use your E-rank, fix your keywords, fix your photos, fix your pricing and shipping, get the good customer experience and then it starts to snowball for you. You have a happy customer, you have a sale.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 42:31

Bam, you kind of maybe jump up 10 points. Then you've got more items, more items. Seo is good. You're getting more sales. Bam, you jump up 10 points. Now you're going to have that one buyer in your store which I had the other day. She stayed in my shop and she bought like three to four items in my shop. That's three to four sales. That counts as four sales. Bam, bam, bam bam.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 42:52

So now that one buyer is looking around the store, she's trying to get to $35. She's trying to get to free shipping. Well, if you have a lot of little items like $4, $5, $6, she's going to have to buy four to five items to get the free shipping. Why wouldn't she? And she's seeing some cheaply priced stuff that, at this point, I just want to get rid of. I just want to, you know, go minimalist. I just want to clean out the house and you know. So there you go. That is a little trick for you.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 43:24

So, essentially what you're doing, and I want to tell you these big print and demand people do this all the time. They sell these expensive tumblers and they sell these expensive sweatshirts and t-shirts, but then they'll throw in a keychain. They'll throw in a cute little keychain for five bucks just to kind of get their sales up. So, in other words, now you're buying a tumbler and you're buying a sweatshirt, but you're going to throw in that five buck keychain just because it's cute and it's personalizable, and blah, blah, blah, blah. So this is how they do it, and then it, and then it helps them. It helps them because SECs are selling three things instead of two. Right and again, if any of us knew the secret of the algorithm, we would be wonderful. But what? I think? The secret of the algorithm is slowly climbing that ladder.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 44:14

Okay, if you have 500 items in your vintage shop but you're not selling anything, then I'm guaranteeing that your SEO is out of whack. Your titles can be revamped, your tags can be tweaked and actually I didn't say this prior but also fix your description to repeat your good keywords in the first couple sentences of your description. I don't know if you've ever actually bought anything on Etsy, especially if you're using your phone, but you can only really see the first sentence or two of the description on your phone. You have to actually put read more, expand more to actually see the whole description. So you want to have the most important things in the beginning to snag that buyer's interest. So hopefully with all these changes, you can either fix your existing Etsy shop or start a new one of vintage and really try to follow this and don't get frustrated. It's going to take a while to climb the ladder, to get your points, to build a reputable store. To build a reputable shop.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 45:21

For me I was actually choosing only one social media and I use TikTok. Now this is really funny because you know you have to be really careful on TikTok. You can't be like go to my Etsy store to buy this item because they don't like that. They want you to have a TikTok shop and all this stuff. But I do have my link in my bio and I do often put on there, like, for instance, I did a coin video.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 45:48

I have all these coins from Norway and I just think they're so adorable. I bought a huge lot a while ago and I wanted to make like these are vintage and I wanted to make like little earrings. There's some with little squirrels on them that would be great for earrings or actually for a charm bracelet. I have some with hens on them and I have my most favorite, which is an elk that kind of looks like a giant elk or moose, and I see that a lot on Etsy. They make necklaces out of them and they sell them for like $20 to $28 a piece. Well, I just decided I'm going to get rid of all these coins for crafters who need them and also people who collect coins. They're really cool, this animal series. So I did a video about it on TikTok, and no sooner did I do that video, I swear. The next day I sold over $50 in these coins.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 46:36

So can I tell you for sure that it wasn't my SEO, that it wasn't my titles, that it was my TikTok? I don't know for sure because I can't really tell in my seller stats what it was, but I choose one place and one place only. I know that the top print-on-demand stores. There's two podcasts out there. I listen to Sarah Wagoner and I listen to Dylan Jarvis and they are big Instagram users Like. So Sarah always advertises her services to help Etsy sellers and her podcast on her Instagram reels and she's a big Instagram user, so I can't tell you if you're going to just pick one for time's sake. Now I have a Pinterest account and I've had it so long that it gets over 20,000 views a month. I would be a fool not to at least share one of my items to Pinterest a day, but that takes me about 30 seconds.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 47:37

So I'm not saying not to do social media, but I'm saying you need to really focus on first stocking up your shop. The more items you have, the more items they are goods, seo and you've got them tweaked, then you should start seeing it Now. I do want to mention that if you have an existing Etsy shop and you have to go back through item by item, this can take weeks for you to see a change. It's not going to be tomorrow, it's not going to even be next week. Sometimes the cycle can take up to 30 days to six weeks to actually show the change, and you don't want to do too many drastic changes at once, which is why I go back in and tweak five a day. Because why E-Rank gives me five free tweaks a day and then it's a slow tweaking process. So, cumulatively speaking, in 30 days from now, those first five that I tweak today are going to be fixed in SEO and should get more views. And then the day after that the next five, and then the day after that the next five. So here's again a little tip Work in your shop.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 48:54

You know these people that say, oh, don't work in your shop every day makes absolutely no difference whether you work in your shop every day or you work in your shop once a week. I'm saying, why wouldn't you work in your shop every day for at least maybe get up a half an hour early, have your coffee and tweak five listings on eRank? It is a free service to do that. Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you take advantage of something that is so helpful and why wouldn't you? I mean, that's my question today. Well, anyways, I have yacked your ear off long enough for all this Etsy stuff. I'm hoping that maybe something I've said somewhere in this podcast will help you or get your mind actually thinking.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 49:38

You know, I don't think Etsy is all peaches and cream anymore. I have a real problem with some of the things that happen on there. For instance, like okay, I can sell you a psychic reading, but I can't sell you my dandelion oil that I foraged myself, that I've made with labors of love and it's taken me a really long time and it's all natural and I use it on my face, I use it everywhere on my body and this is how I believe I look young for my age and I get it all the time from my friends and family and strangers. They can't believe how old I am and I try to tell them why. I make my own cosmetics and you know I sell them on Etsy. But yet if I put in there the actual natural properties of a dandelion, they're going to kick me off because they say it's a medical claim. So let's just say the botany book says that dandelions may have anti-inflammatory properties.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 50:37

Oh, that is a huge no-no. You're not allowed to say that. You will get banned. You will get your shop shut down, you will get your listing removed and I'm sure somewhere on the back end it knocks your point system down and now you're not going to get found. So be really, really, really careful of what you're selling.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 50:55

Another person actually reported you know there's a whole thing about trademarks, so you don't want to be out there creating. Or if you're selling a cow, a cow plushie, you don't want to say got milk, because the next thing you know the got milk people come after you and shut your whole store down. You're not allowed to say that unless you're licensed by them. You have to really, really, really um oh and, by the way, I own got beef, so don't be selling anything with got beef on it or I might have to come after you because it's very expensive to have a trademark and there there's so many different slogans out there that are trademarked now that you just got to be really careful. Like you don't want to be out there hand making an Outlander, outlander spore and ring and selling it, because chances are the stars and the outlander people are going to come after you if you're not licensed to do so, and sometimes these licenses aren't very expensive. You just have to do your diligence and your research.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 51:47

But as far as talking vintage, you know you just got to be careful what you're putting in your listing what your title is. You know, don't put any catchphrases in there that you could get shut down for without even knowing it. You know like, don't put like, if you're selling like a vintage surfboard, don't put salt life. Don't put salt life in there, or you're going to get shut down. And the more strikes you get against your shop, the more complaints you get against your shop, the worse it is. So I'm trying to tell you to build the pyramid up, not tear it down. So again, I hope that you enjoyed this podcast.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 52:24

I am on my 26th podcast Kind of exciting. I hope to get back with Ed soon. I am going to be dropping in some vintage trips to Gettysburg that we had. Gettysburg collectibles are a huge thing and me and my friend Don actually went to Gettysburg on the battlefield. It was a religious experience for us, to say the least. I'm going to be dropping those episodes in here soon and, just like anything else, please support this podcast.

Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer: 52:50

The best thing you can do is by sharing it on any social media, liking it or leave me a five-star review on your platform. There's also something new where you can send me a text through the Buzzsprout forum. I think you can find it in the show notes. I'm not really sure how to get there, but you can send me a text now. So that is a great way for you to reach out to me and tell me what you want to hear on living a vintage life, what you want to hear about what topics you're interested in, or just say, hi, give me some feedback, tell me where your Etsy shop is and go from there. So and and go from there so. Thanks so much. And remember I have to plug my own store because the girl's got to eat. So go to retro chaletetsycom and use code retro 10 to save 10 when anything I got for you. Remember the best part about etsy is to support each other. I shop on etsy. I hope you will, too. Have a great day.