Etsy, the online market for handmade goods, is a great resource for finding awesome ideas and items for your wedding. With tons of shops selling everything from birdcage veils to actual birdcages, it can be a little difficult to find that one specific thing you have in mind. If you are new to the site or haven’t had time to really delve into the handmade goodness, here are a few tips! In this little tutorial of sorts I’m looking for bridal shower invitations for a friend as an example, but these tips are applicable to pretty much anything!
Ok! Let’s Go! From Etsy’s homepage you’ll see a nifty sidebar that is divided into sections. Since this is a bridal shower thing, I’m going to go ahead and start in the ‘Wedding’ section.
Screenshot of the Etsy Wedding Front Page
From the sidebar on the homepage, I have gotten to the Wedding: Invitation section. Oh dang! There are over 13,000 listings. I don’t really have enough time for to peruse that many, even though I am on summer vacation! So, I’ll narrow it down by using the additional options on the sidebar. This is what the orange arrow is pointing to. By clicking on the shower sub-category, I’ve narrowed the listings down to 2,000 and I haven’t even typed anything in yet. My friend’s colors are Royal Blue and Yellow, so I’d like to find a card that fits that. She is also very eco-conscious, so I may want to keep that in mind too when I go the search box. The cool thing about Etsy is that it follows your search. This means that if I were to look for a specific color, say yellow, it would only search the wedding: invitation: shower section. It is really handy, but remember to go back to the homepage if you are starting a new search.
TIP: You can check where you are in the subcategories by glancing just below the Etsy logo.
By searching for yellow in the subcategory, the results are down to 99 products– a very browse-able number. But check it out! The Etsy search engine also searched yellow in all the other wedding categories too! This is when tabbed browsers become very handy. I can go ahead and open each section in a new tab in my web browser for further perusal. I love tabbed browsing because it helps me keep the different listings organized and I get less lost in the big Etsy ocean.
A few additional tips:
- If you sort of like something, even just a little bit add it to your favorites (the heart shape on the right side bar of an item description). You can add an individual item, or a seller and it is far easier to delete something you don’t like off your favorites list than trying to re-find the item again.
- Always read the entire description! I know it sounds silly, but simply skimming can create some issues. I once ordered a few poms, but didn’t realize the production time took 2-3 weeks. Oops.
- Always check the seller’s rating and read their feedback before you place an order. You should also double check a shop’s policies before placing an order as well.
- Don’t be afraid to message (convo) a seller about a question. If you don’t hear from them, don’t buy the product.
- If you sort of like a product, check out the seller’s store– they may have different styles, colors, or something else entirely you just love! That is how I found my bolero for the wedding!
Additional Resources
PicClick.Com– This website is amazing! You can visually scan all of etsy with one single search and set your search parameters by minimum and maximum price. You can also search eBay, amazon, and a slew of other websites too! Check out my screenshot below, where I searched for Feather Birdcage.
Etsy Wedding is a blog is great and full of actual listings, and you can also sign-up for daily Etsy emails– including a new Etsy Wedding daily email, coming to your inbox this summer! There are also two iPhone apps for Etsy. Etsy Shop Tools and Etsy Addict, both have user friendly searches and can let you access your account!
Happy Searching!
oh no………. this post is not good for my Etsy addiction!
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Just a note for those into handmade and willing to look beyond etsy — artfire.com is also a handmade mecca (etsy-esque, but doesn’t charge the artists as much. ahem.), and lets you literally search by color — not just the name of your color, but visually, by picking from a full color picker.
I have just opened an etsy wedding shop selling handmade ringbearer pillows. I haven’t made a sale yet, but I’ve been having a good time making my product and experimenting with etsy. I wasn’t an online shopper before, but there is a ton of great stuff on there! I’m going to use these tips and see how good my tagging was!
I just tried it. I went from 100,000 choices to 28 and when I got even more specific, to 1. Etsy should really make this more clear to new users. I had no idea.