I'm super excited to share a shop update! I finally photographed my current lineup of weavings and added listings for all of them 🙌🏼 I've added some photos to the gallery here, but you can view all of my art (and purchase it!) over at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dandygalart.
Adding a bunch of listings to an Etsy shop isn't complex, but it can be a little tedious 😅 I'm sharing a glimpse into my process so you can see how I make it run a little smoother and see what goes into a shop update (at least for me)!
Set up a template. If I'm adding listings for the same kind of thing - e.g. all weavings, or a painting series - several of the listing fields are going to be the same for each item. I want to be consistent, so I set up a Google Doc which allows me to copy and paste for each item. The fields I use this for are the Title, Description, Tags, and Materials.
Formatting your description. The description field is just a free-form text field with no formatting options, which can make it difficult to display information in a way that's easy for buyers to take in. My secret: I add a bullet point on each new line to help neaten things up. You might be wondering how I do that if there aren't any formatting options on the text field! On a MacBook, you can hold down the "option" key and press the number 8 key, which will give you a bullet point.
It also helps to know that the Description section will only display the first four lines of text - so make sure you prioritize the information you're putting first. For now, these are the things I think buyers will care about most at-a-glance: 1) what the item is; 2) the colors; 3) the dimensions; and 4) free shipping!
Community > competition. If I'm incorporating something in my own artwork that I bought from another Etsy shop (e.g. a macrame frame that I used for a weaving), then I'll make sure to name that shop in the description. Etsy can be such a huge and overwhelming place, and I like optimizing for community over competition.
Naming is hard. One of the hardest parts for me is naming the colors that I've used! The basic ROYGBIV colors just aren't very useful. The trick I've learned for this is to google "shades of $color", which allows me to look through charts of that color to see what it matches up to. So instead of saying "purple", I can say "mauve", "lavender", "plum", "lilac".
Storing my artwork. Once I'm done photograping my art and adding the listing to my shop, I need to store it safely while I wait for someone to buy it. I carefully roll up my weavings in tissue paper to keep them safe and dust-free! The challenge with this is that I can't tell what's inside, and I don't want to unroll everything until I get to the right one! So I also print a photo of the weaving a tape it to the outside.
I hope some of these tips & tricks help your own shop updates go a little smoother 🙂 And if you have some of your own that you've learned along the way, share them here!