How to create an Etsy listing

Creating an Etsy listing is a complex process that can take considerable time to set up. Numerous sections need filled while also accounting for their unique limits and restrictions. This article covers how to create an Etsy listing and the different listing sections.

This article covers:

• How to navigate to the Etsy listings page
• How to create an Etsy listing
• What do I need for an Etsy listing

What are Etsy listings?

Etsy lets you sell items on its platform through its listing system. Listings allow you to enter a vast amount of information about your products. This information ranges from descriptions, tags, and pictures to videos. With this much information, creating a listing can be confusing and time-consuming. However, once you master the process, you can create new listings in just a few minutes.

How to navigate to the Etsy listings page

To create an Etsy listing, you must first navigate to the Etsy listings page. To do this, log into Etsy, go to shop manager, then click listings. By default, Etsy shows your active listings. Select “Draft” in the listing statuses section to view your draft listings. This section is on the right side of the listings page.

How to create an Etsy listing

Now that you are on the listings page, you can start a new listing. To begin, click ”+ Add a listing” at the top right corner of the page. Once clicked, the “Add a new listing page” appears. This page is where you fill out all the required information to create your new listing.

Required Etsy listing fields

• Photos (at least one)
• Title
• About this listing
• Category
• Renewal options
• Type
• Description
• Price
• Quantity
• Shipping Options
• Item weight and size (this is required if it is a physical product and calculated shipping is selected)

Optional Etsy listing fields

• Video
• Category options
• Production partners (unless you select Another company or person)
• Section
• Tags
• Materials
• SKU
• Personalization
• Translations

What do I need for an Etsy listing?

Now that you know how to create an Etsy listing, let’s see what information you need to fill out. Etsy listings require quite a bit of information to be considered complete. Below is a full list of both the required and optional listing information.

Photos

Images are perhaps the most important part of a listing on Etsy. Titles and descriptions are one thing, but nothing draws clicks and drives conversions like pictures and imagery. Without images, there’s almost no chance to sell your products, with great images, your ideal customers can’t help but add to the cart. Each listing can have up to 10 images under 10MB in file size.

For a more in-depth guide on listing images, visit the Etsy Size Guide (Photos & Images) article.

Videos

Videos on Etsy listings are a great way to quickly convey a lot of information and increase your conversion rate. Etsy listings are allowed only 1 video. Etsy videos must be over 5-seconds and under 1-minute in length, up to 100MB file size, and videos cannot have sound (audio is automatically removed by Etsy).

For a more in-depth guide on listing videos, visit the How to Add Videos to Etsy Listings article.

Listing Details

Title

An Etsy title is the text that appears above the listing image on the listing page, in your shop, and search results. You need to have a good title for several reasons. The first is to give a brief overview of the item to customers. If it sounds like something of interest, they might click on it. The second is that Etsy utilizes them for their search results.

For a more in-depth guide on how to write an Etsy title, visit the How to write Etsy titles article.

About this listing

In this section, you describe who made your item, what your item is, and when the item was made. Use the respective dropdown boxes to select the most accurate information.

Who Made

• I did
• A member of my shop
• Another company or person

What is it?

• A finished product
• A supply or tool for making things

When was it made? (not a comprehensive list)

• Made to Order
• 2020-2022
• 2003-2009
• 1990s
• 1930s
• Before 1700

Category

Etsy uses categories to help shoppers find different products based on their searches. There are quite a few categories that are regularly updated as Etsy learns more about its users.

For a complete list of categories, please visit the Complete Etsy Category List.

Do note that once a category is selected, more information boxes appear. The category you choose determines which information boxes appear. You use these boxes to describe your product in more depth. All of these information boxes are optional.

Renewal Options

Your active listings only stay active for four months. Once those four months are up, your listings need to be renewed. The renewal options section tells Etsy what to do when those four months end. You can select either automatic renewal or manual renewal.

If you select automatic, Etsy renews your listings for you. Etsy charges its listing fee every time your listings renew.

If you select manual, your listings will become expired or inactive. You will have to go and manually relist your listings if you choose this option. Do note that Etsy charges you when relisting your listings.

Type

This section describes if your product is physical or digital.

Description

Etsy descriptions are vital in convincing customers that this is the product they need. Your titles and images draw customers in, but your Etsy descriptions drive home the sale.

Production Partners

A production partner is a company or individual (not a member of your Etsy shop) that helps you produce items based on your original designs. You sell the items that your production partners help you create. Partner is the keyword here, if you work together on your Etsy products, you’re probably production partners.

For a more in-depth guide on production partners, visit the How to create an Etsy Production Partner article.

Section

You use shop sections to organize your products based on some product aspects. These sections help your customers better explore your shop. For example, if you sell fabrics, your shop sections could be cotton, wool, silk, etc. Shop sections are displayed as links on the left side of the screen when viewing your shop.

Tags

Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item. Tags can be up to 20 characters long, and you can have up to 13 per listing. Etsy requires you to have at least one tag for your product. Tags help Etsy connect users to products based on what they search. We recommend you use all 13 tags, but remember to differentiate them. You do not want to use the same tag 13 times on your listing.

Materials

You use the materials section to tell shoppers what materials make up your product. You can add up to 13 materials to your listing. Let’s say you are making a pull toy. You could enter maple wood, cotton twine rope, and plastic. The Etsy search engine does not use material tags. They are solely to inform buyers of what your product is made of.

Inventory and Pricing

This section is present if your listings do not have variations. If your listing has variations enter the price, quantity, and SKU into the variations section.

Price

This section is where you enter the price of your product. You determine what price you sell your products. Remember, the price should be high enough to cover Etsy’s various fees.

For more information on Etsy's fees, visit the Etsy Fees & Payments Policy page.

Quantity

This section is where you enter how many products you have for sale. The maximum quantity allowed by Etsy is 999 units. Your quantity must also be at least 1 unit.

SKU

A SKU, also referred to as a stock-keeping unit, is a code that shop owners use to differentiate products and track inventory levels. For example, if you have 20 different products, you’d have 20 individual SKUs. SKUs not only help identify unique products but also can show that products are similar.

For a more in-depth guide on SKUs, visit the How to Add SKUs to Etsy Listings (And why your products need them) article.

Variations

This section is where you add variations of your product to your listing. Say you are selling a bouncy ball. The variations could be that the bouncy ball comes in different colors. For the listing, you can set the variation to primary color and add the colors into the variation options. If your variations have individual prices, quantities, or SKUs you also indicate that in this section.

Personalization

This section lets you select if your item is personalizable or not. If you choose no, then there is nothing to do here.

If you choose yes, then you fill out the instructions for buyers. What you type in this box shows on your listing under the Add your personalization section. Additionally, you can limit the number of characters users can enter. You can set the user’s response message to be between 1 and 1024 characters.

Shipping

This section is where you set your shipping options. These options can include:

• Origin zip code
• Processing time
• Where I’ll ship
• Shipping services
• Free shipping
• Handling fee

Note: This section only appears when you select physical for your product type.

To make managing shipping easier, Etsy has developed shipping profiles. For a more in-depth guide on shipping profiles, visit the Etsy shipping profiles and shipping_profile_id article.

Item weight

This section is where you enter how much your item weighs. Etsy needs this to determine postage costs when customers checkout. This section is required when you select calculated shipping.

Item size (when packed)

This section is where you enter your item’s package dimensions. Etsy needs this to determine postage costs when customers checkout. This section is required when you select calculated shipping.

Translations

This section is for adding your description and tags in different languages. To change these languages, you can add or remove them via the Languages and translations page. Having multiple languages on your listings increases the number of customers who see your listings. However, make sure that you, or someone on your team, can communicate using said language.

For more information on shop languages, visit the Etsy How to Change Your Default Shop Language page.