Selling paintings on Etsy, my research
Doing some research on whether it's worth listing original paintings on Etsy.
I’m nearing completion on a several paintings and I’m beginning to think: what am I going to do with all these things lol. I’ve had pretty good luck selling other handmade items online for several years, so that’s my natural inclination. I originally sold handmade accessories and jewelry, for about 15 years, on Ebay and Etsy. Eventually, my hands and eyes started getting a little worn out so I switched to selling craft supplies on Etsy and it’s worked out pretty well. However, I’m not necessarily a huge Etsy fan. I’ve always disliked their search function and the way you have to title and tag products. And the site has lost a lot of its shine in the last couple years becoming dominated by mass produced junk and print on demand. But still, I feel like Etsy is better than any other site for handmade items. Of course a stand alone website is always priority and should be an artist’s home, where they direct all their traffic and social media links. I thought before I dismiss Etsy outright I should do a little research.
My first step in Etsy art sales research is taking a look at what customers are searching for there. I do this by entering a word of two into the search box and seeing what autofills pop up. Here’s a few samples:
The variety and detailed search terms customers are using is pretty promising. Still I figured that the search results would be dominated by prints and overseas factory made “paintings”. I wasn’t wrong but there was more actual original paintings mixed in than I expected.
First I started with a broad search term: Original Painting (Etsy’s search results are customized so I used a private window to search)
Etsy broad search: Original Painting
Results= 943,965 Page 1= 48 non-paid ads
Paint to order from China: 9
Paint to order from probably illegal shops/factory: 6
Original paintings by an artist: 13
Prints by artists: 7
Prints by Non-Artists: 7
Custom digital app manipulated art: 4
Non-paintings irrelevant to search: 1
Custom painting by an artist: 1
Artist selling originals shop stats
Total shop sales/items listed in shop
10/79 small mini originals
0/33 variety of sizes and prices
28/45 medium size 12x16 etc
638/58 small originals
0/50 small and medium originals
100/25 prints and originals
362/22 small originals
1221/127 originals plus tees and other printed stuff
140/155 mini paintings
4099/975 paintings, vintage, prints
5836/125 prints, digital, originals
2 artists with multiple listings on page 1
Prices for originals:
$1000-2500: 2
$100-250: 9
Under $100: 2 (over seas, dollar value and conversion may be a factor)
I have to say as much as Etsy search typically annoys me, they have made some improvements. There was only one completely irrelevant listing and only two digital works, which was really surprising. As you can see, shops with smaller paintings and those offering a variety of items had more sales than shops with only original art. But I was surprised to see artists with quite small shops pop up on the first page of search. I had assumed that if you didn’t have 100s of items listed you would be invisible. One seller whose shop was very focused on mini framed paintings was doing quite well. Although a variety of products can be good it also pays to have a very focused niche.
Next I narrowed down the results a little by searching a more specific phrase.
Etsy more specific search: Abstract landscape painting original
90,523 results Page 1: 48 non ad results
Irrelevant results: 2
Abstract print by non-artist: 5
Abstract print by artist: 11 (4 by same artist)
Most likely Non-Artist questionable made to order paintings: 10
Made to order from china factory: 10
Artist abstract paintings: 10
Prices of original abstract landscape paintings
$50-under: 2
$50-100: 1
$101-150 4
$150-400: 1
$500-1000: 2, same artist Etsy’s pick
What I found in this search was that most of the results were more landscape than abstract. Half of the results were factory made to order but half were actual artist paintings or prints. Of course it would be ideal if they were ALL actual artists but in my disillusion I felt half was pretty good lol.
Finally I fine tuned my search a little more. I’m not going to share the full search term because it may be detrimental to artist’s who are currently using it with good results. Suffice to say I added an additional word or two.
Etsy more specific search term: results 40,235
Made to order from china factory: 24
Artists prints: 9 by same seller, plus 2
Artists original: 13
Under $50: 4
$90-$190: 3
$400-$600: 2
$700-$1000: 4
Well here I just lost patience with the factories and grouped them all together, no matter where they were shipping from. I realized that any listing with a green price has variations. A variation means you choose from a dropdown menu. In the case of these factories you choose the size of the painting and it’s made to order. So I would highly suggest if listing on Etsy you avoid adding variations to your original paintings for sale. Doing so could result in your listing looking like one of the factory ones.
One artist selling prints in this search is having great results with 9 of her listings on page 1. Also there were 13 original paintings by other artists, with a real variety of size and cost.
A few other lessons learned with doing these Etsy searches. I would avoid using the word gallery in a shop name. If that’s your established business name than obviously stick to it but if you have a choice I would use your real name with the addition of Art or Artbysoandso. Whatever, just something to distinguish that you are an individual artist. All the factory shops are using the term “gallery”.
Also make very clear in the listing that you are the artist. Don’t rely on people to go to your shop and read your about page or shop description, they won’t. Do whatever you can to make it clear you are a person. Don’t use “we” made, “we ship” etc. Instead: I made this painting….blah blah more details to personalize the shopping experience. You get what I mean. Maybe a little video of the painting in process, or a pic of yourself as the last image in the listing. It’s so very important that we stand out as real artists, not mass producers. Also if you are selling prints be very clear that it is a print, put it in the beginning of the title.
So to sum up, I’m undecided lol. All is not lost on Etsy but the fees are still high. 9.5% of the total including shipping (plus .45) in the US. If you run off-site Etsy ads (google ads, Facebook, blogs etc) it gets real steep, another 12-15% of the selling price. Luckily if you are a small shop you can opt-out of these ads. Once you sell $10,000 in one year, you are auto enrolled in off-site ads which is annoying as hell.
Like I said in the beginning though, a stand alone website should always be a artist/sellers home. You pay Etsy for the traffic THEY bring to their site and your listings. So never, ever direct your traffic, your work, your mailing list, and your customers to them. Your social media and ads should always direct to your own website where you will probably only pay around 3-4% credit card processing fee. So I guess I’m answering my own question: website first, Etsy second for additional traffic.
A peek at the paintings that are done, or almost done, and waiting for a website lol.