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Hey friends!
Welcome to my quarterly income report, where I show you my Etsy sales for the quarter.
I sell apparel, mugs, and totes on Etsy using print on demand. Print on demand is a fulfillment method where products are only printed and shipped after an order is placed. You create designs to put on different items, and a company will fulfill your order for you. I use, and love Printify to print and ship my orders.
This means no upfront inventory costs. which makes it a low-risk, low-cost business model.
I started my shop in October 2022, to create an additional stream of income. My goal is, and was to invest the additional income into index funds so that I can retire early.
Etsy print on demand affords so much flexibility and location freedom!
I can make money from anywhere in the world, including Portugal, where my family is moving soon!
Why Sell On Etsy?
I chose to sell on Etsy because it has a built in organic traffic source, which is beneficial to all sellers on the platform. As long as you do a few key things correctly, you don’t have to drive traffic to your shop through social media or ads.
I also have a Shopify store, and driving organic traffic to that shop is not easy! Once I have more time, I plan to devote more effort into driving traffic to that shop. For now, I’m focused on Etsy.
Quarterly Sales Overview: Q2 2024
Revenue Highlights
First things first, let’s talk numbers. This quarter, my Etsy shop generated a revenue of $18,337.63. That is down $2,916.59 from the previous quarter.
I’m still very proud of that number, and ebbs and flows in revenue are to be expected if you are an entrepreneur. Although it would be wonderful for a continuous upward trajectory, I’m very realistic.
I’m up 306% from last year.
My profit margin is typically 30-35% of my Etsy sales revenue. The variability in profit margin depends on the number returns/exchanges for each month. It also depends on how many offsite ads brought in sales to my shop.
I’ve started slowly increasing prices on my best selling items to increase my profit margin. I don’t have hard numbers to share yet, but will try to work on more detailed income reports.
I’m trying to increase that amount by slightly charging more for shipping, and increasing the cost of my most popular products.
Typically, all my other costs are fixed.
My fixed costs are the tools I use to run my shop. See my list of tools below.
For this first quarter of 2024, my profit was $6,051.42, or 33% of my revenue.
That breaks down to $2,017.14 per month! Who wouldn’t want an extra $2,000 a month to invest, pay off bill, or use for a vacation!?
Here Are The Tools I Use:
Canva: Canva is the most amazing tool. It is user friendly, and always improving! The tools that Canva has have evolved so much since I first started using it in 2022–for the better. I use it almost everyday. I use it to create designs, to edit AI designs, and to create product mockups.
Creative Fabrica: Creative Fabrica is a design marketplace that has a ton of fonts, graphics, and more that you can use in your designs. They even have pre-made designs that you can use for POD. Simply filter for POD to find any design that you can add to your POD product and sell!
Midjourney: Midjourney is an AI image tool that blows my mind every time I use it. It takes some time to get the prompts down. Once you play with it, you will get better at creating images and art to include on your print on demand products.
EtsyHunt: EtsyHunt is fantastic for competitor research and some light keyword research. My favorite aspect of EtsyHunt is the Chrome extension that allows you to see the sales amount for an individual item on Etsy. Check out this article to see an example.
eRank: eRank is an SEO data tool that also allows you to search the competition and will also give you key words for your Etsy listing. It is also a great research tool to find low competition and highly searched niches.
Printify: Printify is a print-on-demand (POD) service that allows individuals and businesses to create and sell custom-designed products without needing to manage inventory or handle fulfillment. I put my designs on products offered by Printify. When an item sells, Printify prints and ships to my customer.
Continued Use of AI
I’ve mentioned in my first income report that incorporating AI tools has drastically improved my workflow and creativity. Here’s how:
- Efficiency: AI tools helped me create unique designs faster, which means more products listed on Etsy. It helps me to batch create several different designs which saves me a ton of time. This makes it easier to test out designs, and potentially get more sales on Etsy.
- Innovation: Using the appropriate prompts can generate different types of designs. Sometimes with Etsy, you will see many copycats for bestsellers, or VERY similar designs. Using AI can help your products stand out in a saturated niche.
- Quality: The final designs were polished and professional, leading to higher customer satisfaction and repeat purchases. I have so many 5 star reviews that rave about the designs that are on their product. It really is a game changer in terms of sales.
If you haven’t tried AI for your designs yet, check it out. There are other AI image tools out there, but I found that Midjourney was the best in terms of they quality of designs it spit out and ease of use.
Future Plans and Goals
Based on this quarter’s performance, my future plans are clear—continue using AI for my designs and focus more on expanding the niches in my store already.
Here’s a sneak peek into what I’m aiming for in the next quarter:
- Prepare for Q4: I am going to try to get as many similar listings up as I can that have proven to work in my shop. This includes expanding the types of products that I am selling, but keeping the designs the same.
- Continue to Pin on Pinterest: I’ve been posting every listing that I create to Pinterest. I started being intentional about Pinterest keywords. I’m still learning, and took a course (I love courses) to understand how I can get more traffic to my shop. I am getting 90-130 visits to my shop daily. I intend to continue to grow that traffic.
Conclusion
This quarter, while lower in revenue than last quarter, was still rewarding. I add designs to my shop as much as I can. I usually can get around 5-7 listings up per week.
AI has helped, and once I have more time, I will try to increase that number.
If there’s one takeaway, it’s to always be open to new tools and technologies that can elevate your business.
Tell me what tools have helped you in your Etsy business in the comments below!
Until next quarter, happy selling!
Looking for more information on getting sales on Etsy? Check out these articles:
Side Hustle: Can You Really Make $2200 A Month on Etsy?
How To Get Found on Etsy: My First Year On Etsy
Etsy Trending Niches: Boost Sales with Print on Demand
Quarterly Etsy Income Report: Over $20,000 in Three Months (Q1 – 2024)
