Starting an Etsy Shop Day 7 - How to Quickly Build Inventory

The internet is an amazing tool for selling handmade products. However, it also has its drawbacks. Unlike a craft fair, where you can set up a table and at least a few people are guaranteed to stroll by and see your products, items posted on the internet can be lost among the many millions of other posted items and end up not being seen by anyone at all.

One way to increase the odds that potential customers will stumble across your Etsy store is by creating a large and varied inventory. The more items you have, the more tags and keywords you can use to hopefully catch shoppers' attentions and direct them towards your Etsy shop.

Of course, this is easier said then done. It is not easy to offer a lot of different items early on in your Etsy business. It takes time and money to build inventory. Also, each new project requires that you set up your tools, figure out how best to make the item, take high quality images of the finished project, and come up with an effective Etsy description to post the finished product. This whole process can be extremely time intensive, and is simply not practical if you are selling small, inexpensive items.

For example, my cutting board, ironing board, and photography studio all happen to be my kitchen table. It takes me about five minutes to get ready to cut fabric, another five minutes to switch my table over to ironing mode, and at least 15 minutes to get my lighting and light tent set up for decent product photography. If I tried to make a variety of items one at a time, I would end up losing 25 minutes per item simply getting ready to make it. This is a completely unacceptable time sink for a small zippered bag that only has a few dollars of profit margin in the first place!

To solve this problem, I have started doing my work in batches. Here is how I created 10 new items in two work days, as efficiently as possible.

Step 1: Pick a Project That Can Be Created With Variations

To quickly build my Etsy inventory, I chose to make runaround purses. They are adorable little bags that can hold your wallet, keys, and cell phone without all the bulk of a larger purse. They are also a great item for quickly building inventory, because they can be made with any combination of fabric prints and zipper colors.

It is also nice to make one pattern (or project type) at a time, because you can quickly become an expert on that particular pattern.  The first bag took me over two hours to make because I had to constantly stop and double check my work against the pattern directions.  As I made more and more of these over the course of the day, the time to produce each bag became faster and faster! And remember, with inexpensive items, you need to figure out how to increase your production speed without losing any production quality. Becoming an expert on a pattern is a great way to accomplish that goal!

Step 2: Complete a Batch of Products in Stages to Reduce Set Up and Break Down Times

Next, I set up my cutting board on the kitchen table and cut out fabric pieces for 5 hours straight! I cut out enough purse pieces to fill my sewing time for three full work days.

I then assembled the pieces to make complete bags and organized them according to the color of thread that I will be using. I organized the projects by thread color, so that I would only have to change my thread and bobbin twice, and save myself the time and energy it takes to do so.

The next day, I went through my fabric prints and made one of each bag. I was able to set up my ironing station once for the day, as I made ten different bags in succession.

I then set up my light tent and tripod once, and took the same, well-framed picture over and over again, while switching out which bag I was photographing.

 

I was able to save time again, because I only needed to figure out how to take the best shot of this type of bag once!

Step 3: Create An Etsy Description That Can Describe All of the Similar, But Different Items

I ended up with ten different versions of the same style of pocketbook. I wrote two paragraphs that described the general details of the bag, such as size, construction, and potential uses. I then had a third paragraph in which I could change the description to describe the print choice of the particular fabric, and the zipper color.

I then simply created one well-written Etsy listing, and then copied it nine times switching out the title of the listing, the details in that third paragraph, and some of the relevant tags and keywords.

All of the bags cost me roughly the same amount of money to produce, so I only had to figure out an appropriate listing price once. All of the bags also all have the same weight, so I only needed to figure out the shipping cost once.

And viola! I now have ten new Etsy listings that only required one project's worth of set-up time and description writing!

Now, people browsing Etsy will be directed towards my Etsy shop if they search a variety of keywords!

Thank you for reading today's post! I hope that you found it helpful. Until next time, please check out my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/shop/PearTreeStitches