How To Get Featured on Etsy (Here’s What to Do)

Getting featured on Etsy is the dream of every shop owner to ever join the site.

Knowing that your items are being advertised to hundreds or even thousands of customers is a fantastic feeling – it is almost hard to believe!

Getting featured, though, is a long, tough process and requires a lot of dedication to your shop and to your product. Without that dedication and hard work, it can be really hard to become featured on the site.

Once you are featured, your products have the potential to be shown in the email circulation that Etsy sends out to millions of customers each week, and your shop could even get an entire blog post about it on the Etsy Blog!

How do you get featured on Etsy?

Etsy’s merchandising team searches the Etsy site for shops that they feel will be a great fit to add to their “Featured Shops.” If you are chosen, your products will be included in the “Etsy Finds” or “Editors Picks” emails and site advertisements.

Getting chosen is all about how well you stick to Etsy’s guidelines, having great photos of your products, and optimizing your tags and titles on your products.

Finally, you need to be active in the Etsy community, be part of teams, forums, or help spread the good word about Etsy and all it has done for you as a small business owner.

What Exactly Does it Mean to Get “Featured” on Etsy?

Getting featured on Etsy is a great way to get publicity and new customers for your shop.

If you are featured on Etsy, you can have your shop or specific products featured in Etsy emails or on the Etsy blog as “Editors Picks” or “Etsy Finds.” These specific tags on your merchandise or shop will help customers learn more about you and will make them more likely to click on your shop.

As a featured shop, you will have the potential to be approached by Etsy for interviews about your product, which they will then post to the Etsy blog. If not, most likely, you’ll see your products on the next “Etsy Finds” email.

This is a great way to get the word out about your shop somewhere other than your own social media page or website. It also is a great way to target Etsy-specific customers rather than anyone and everyone.

Etsy-specific customers are those that subscribe to the email chains and regularly read the Etsy blog, in the hopes of finding their next purchase. These customers are also more likely to spend more on high-quality Etsy items than through low-quality sites like Amazon or major superstores.

While there are low-quality items on Etsy, featured shops are usually the best of the best and are handpicked by Etsy editors and marketers for the purpose of promoting the Etsy site and its brand of handmade products.

Proactive Steps You Can Take to Get Featured on Etsy:

If you are hoping to be a featured shop on Etsy or get your products on the next published blog post or email, you will need to take a few proactive steps in order to get noticed.

Not every shop or product line has what it takes to make the cut when it comes to impressing Etsy marketers or bloggers, so you will need to put your best foot forward.

This can be accomplished in a few different ways:

Photos & Product Marketing

If your products don’t include the highest-quality photos possible, you’re doing something wrong.

Not everyone can afford to get a great camera and give their shop a full-fledged photo shoot, but you should be working hard to make each representation of your products as crisp, clean, and bright as possible. Without great photos, Etsy won’t have something to feature to their customers.

Furthermore, when Etsy editors and bloggers are searching for the next “Featured Shop,” they want only to invest their time and effort into those shops that are dazzling, successful, and work hard to make their brand as great as it can be.

If your shop is only a part-time, small gig that you don’t put much effort into, then you’re probably going to get overlooked.

Be Part of the Etsy Community

The Etsy community is a huge one, and there are many ways for you to get involved.

Whether you are asking and answering questions in the Etsy community forums, posting about sales and events on your social media, or spreading the good word about Etsy and all the site has done for your small business, being positive in the community can help get you noticed!

If you’ve created a big enough impact, have a very specific and well-known brand, and work hard to be part of the Etsy community, you’re more likely to be found or noticed by Etsy editors and bloggers looking for shops to feature.

You can also become part of “Etsy Teams,” a community feature that allows you to make friends and connect with members who are very active in the Etsy community.

With teams, you can get advice, share information, get updates about the site, collaborate on social media campaigns, and learn more about how to be a better seller through educational workshops.

SEO & Tagging Items Properly

The best way to be found on Etsy – whether by normal customers or Etsy execs looking to feature your shop – is to properly tag and describe your products through SEO phrases and product descriptions.

Each day, week, or month, Etsy editors and bloggers are looking for the next big trend to report on, get interviews for, and feature in their email chain. If your blog meets their requirements or description, you could get picked!

For example, if the featured shops of that week are for knitted items that are specifically decorated with animal charms or prints, your products with those specific tags are going to be found among a smaller pool of items in the Etsy database.

If you’re not properly tagging your knitted animal hats, you’ll get looked over – the same goes for any product in any category.

Whether it is photography of beaches, sun, and sand, or leatherwork items that you can wear in your ears, properly tagging exactly what the item is and what the customer will be getting when they purchase it is a great way to get noticed when Etsy writers and editors are doing their thing to find the “next best trend.”

Social Media Outside of Etsy

Featured shops and sellers are usually marketing their products outside of Etsy through their personal websites, social media, or personal marketing teams that they hire for their shop.

If you don’t have an active online brand or presence, you’re less likely to be chosen as a featured seller or shop.

This is because the Etsy team interviewing you or featuring you will need to be able to link you and your shop elsewhere – i.e., a website or heavily branded Instagram or Twitter account.

Without the ability to link outside of the site, your shop is seen as less trustworthy or professional, and not a thriving business so much as a side-gig with very little plans to move forward into creating your own company.

While it isn’t required to put that much effort into your shop or social media accounts, those Etsy shops looking to be big, successful businesses and brands are more likely to be chosen as “Featured.”

How Does Getting Featured on Etsy Affect Sales?

The reason that many sellers dream of becoming featured on Etsy is because it gets their shops and products noticed by the millions of email subscribers and readers of the Etsy blog posts.

This is a fantastic way to boost sales and to gain new customers that will keep coming back again and again if they like your products. Many Etsy shops who get featured on Etsy tend to get a huge rise in sales, popularity and sometimes allow them to move on to bigger and better things!

Once you get featured, you are no longer one shop among millions, but one among the select few who are chosen as shops noteworthy enough to be handpicked by Etsy writers and editors to boost sales and popularity to the site.

How Do I Know if I’ve Been Featured on Etsy?

If you have been featured on Etsy, whether through the blog or through “Etsy Finds” in the emails, you should be notified by the site through email or possibly through a direct message in order to get more information from you.

If you are chosen for an interview to be featured in the Etsy blog, you will receive more detailed communication and requests to interview you or to get a look at your workshop.

Many featured shops and blog interviews showcase the creators of the Etsy products in their shops, as well as how they create them, how long it takes to make one item, what inspires them, and where they think their future will be for their shop.

Once featured, you can most likely see your products in the Etsy emails and rejoice in knowing that millions of other customers and viewers will be seeing your work very, very soon!

Can You Edit Items that Are Currently Being Featured?

There is nothing online or in the Etsy seller handbook that explicitly states that you can’t edit your listings that are currently being featured through Etsy.com.

However, if you are chosen to be a featured shop with listings added to the email lists and chains, we would highly recommend leaving them alone until the spotlight is gone. This is because they were chosen by Etsy experts for a reason, and are probably at their best in order to get them sold to customers at that time.

However, if something is truly inaccurate with your product – such as quantity, quality, description, shipping, etc. – consider reaching out to the Etsy team who contacted you and let them know about it before the item is featured.

Can You Get Featured on Etsy’s Instagram Account?

You can absolutely get featured on the Etsy Instagram account!

If an Etsy team is looking to feature your Instagram posts or products to their Instagram, they will be looking carefully for their hashtag to do so.

The social media Etsy team often searches for listings that have “#etsy” attached for their features, so be sure you’re tagging your posts to help them find you more easily.

If you aren’t tagging your products properly, you may get overlooked.

Make sure to properly tag and communicate with Instagram posts and followers to let Etsy and the community know that you are dedicated to your shop and your craft.

Are There Any Negative Aspects of Getting Featured?

This is going to sound ridiculous, but too much fame can be a bad thing for a shop that isn’t ready for it.

If you are featured in the Etsy blog, Instagram, community, or emails, you may find that your sales soar overnight! This can be problematic for some Etsy shops that are only run by one person or a small team.

If you aren’t prepared for an influx of that many sales, you may end up angering customers who are waiting on slow orders, get the wrong order shipped due to a frantic workshop, have problems getting in touch with you during a busy time, or any other number of things that could go wrong.

A shop that isn’t ready to take on so many customers will end up with negative reviews that talk about a lack of communication, slow shipping, or any other things that might have gone wrong with the massive boom that being featured on Etsy can sometimes create.

However, for those shops that can handle it, have a great team and system in place, and have understanding customers, getting “Featured” is one of the best things that can happen to an Etsy shop.

References:

Getting Featured on Etsy – Etsy Help Center

What are “Etsy Teams?” – Etsy Help Center

Tips for Getting Featured on Etsy – Etsy Seller Handbook