How To Create A FREE Etsy Store

Step 3 Part 2 Create An Etsy Store

In this video, we’re going to set up our Etsy store. And even better, I’m going to show you how you can set it up for free.Because the thing is that usually creating an Etsy Store isn’t free and it’s because they charge $0.20 to list an item for three months. Now admittedly, $0.20 is extremely cheap. However, it’s not free. So I’m going to show you how you can set up a store for free with 40 free item lists listings. And that’s because we’re going to be using a store’s referral link to register. When you use a store referral link, Etsy will give you 40 free item listings as a bonus. So we’ll be setting up our store through one of these links to take advantage of this as part of the tutorial video.

And something else I’m going to be showing you is how you can make some simple tweaks to your store that make it look really nice and professional. And so to do those tweaks, here is what I prepared in advance. First, I created a store banner that was 1200 pixels by 300 pixels. Doing this is optional, but it makes your store look a lot nicer.

To make it, first, use Place it to create some mock up images. If you don’t know what place it is, thenI recommend watching my video tutorial about it thatI’ve included here in the Step 3 video series. I then took those images and I put them into Canva to create the store banner featuring products. It was very easy. I also created a little store square logo image. I quickly created this with Canva for this example, but you could get a logo professionally made for you using Fiverr.I also have a video here in the Step 3 video series that shows you how to do that. 

I also got a profile picture of me. Etsy customers do like to see a human being behind the store when buying. It’s an interesting quirk about the website. So I do recommend including a photo of yourself if you’re not too shy. But if you are too shy, that is okay because it is optional. 

And something else that you will need is a picture of the product that you created with Printify. Now you can either use the stock image that Printify created, but you could instead use a mock up picture that you created from Placeit like I did. So it’s up to you. Either way, you’re going to need a picture of this product.

Something else you’re also going to notice is that in setting up the store, I themed it around the camping and hiking niche, not the coffee niche like I did during the Shopify video tutorial series. 

And the reason for that is because of the fact that I already made my video tutorials on Brewed Treats and they’re already very public. And the truth is that even if I create an example store, people will still copy whatever I create. People have already used the Brewed Treats brand onEtsy, and so that is why I haven’t used Brewed Treats for this example Etsy store. Instead, I just went with a different niche, and I picked a couple of example designs that I’ve showcased on the channel before to use as part of a store set up.

But for you in setting up the store, if you’ve created a store with Shopify, then what you should do is you should be consistent. You should have the same niche on Etsy that you have in your Shopify store, and you should have the same or very similar name for your Etsy store that you do for your Shopify store.

And something else that’s important to know is that when we’re setting up the store, when we add in our product, we’re not actually going to be connecting it to Printify yet. Instead, what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be adding in a draft version of our product that we’re going to later on in this video series actually delete, and then we’re going to re-add that product in using the Printify integration.

The reason why we’re going to do it in this way is because when you’re setting up a store with Etsy, you can’t also set it up with Printify. You have to have your Etsy store first before you can add in your Printify integration. And so that is why we’re going to actually be re adding it in with Printify later. But for this step here, we’re just going to add in a draft version of our product that we created in with Printify, and then later on, we’re going to quickly delete it and replace it with another product reupload using Printify.

Trust me, this sounds complicated,but it’s actually quite simple. So let me show you honestly just how simple it is to do this. Alright, the first thing we need to do is we need to find a referral link to register with so that we can get 40 free item listings. So come to Etsy and do a search for 43 item listings.

What a lot of stores do is they list the referral link in a dummy product that they then place on Etsy to be able to be easily found. So you can select any from the list that says that it’s a 40 free Etsy item listing dummy products. So if we can just click on this one.

And then in the description section, you will find a link to it. So do not purchase this item. Just come and click on the referral link inside of the dummy product.

Click on this button that says ‘Open a shop today’.

Now, you’re going to be asked to register for a seller account. So you can register with a Google account, or a Facebook account, or an Apple account, or you can enter in an email address and then register with that.

And then you just need to enter in your first name and your password. Then go ahead and create a password and I made sure to make it a strong password. And once you’ve chosen your password, you just click ‘Register’.

Now, if you get a splash screen like this, you can just click on through and you can answer this if you like. 

This is just for Etsy’s internal marketing team. So you can just choose to skip it if you don’t want to answer it. You can just skip this question if you don’t want to give the marketing team any information.

And then we can begin setting up our shop. Click ‘Start your shop’.

Now, see here that I select USD. That’s because USD is the most universal currency.And so most people, regardless of where they live, understand,and when they see a price in USD, they’ll be able to convert it to their own local currency. So I recommend choosing USD.

Now, when you’re naming your shop, you will want to name it the same or very similar name to your shopify store if you’ve set one up. So make sure that you do that.

And now you need to give some information to Etsy so that they can pay you. So for most people, you will select that you are an individual. Unless you are choosing to run this under the name of a company, you’ll also need to come in and give your billing address.

You also need to give information about your bank accounts. This is what Etsy will pay the money that customers pay you into. Click save and continue

Now, Etsy is asking you to upload a form of identification. They may not always require this,but they are requiring it now. And it’s not a surprise that they are because of the fact that there’s a lot of legal issues around the fact that Etsy is taking money from a customer and then paying you. They need to ensure that you are a legitimate person that’s not going to be defrauding their customers, which is why they do ask for your identification and why it’s very normal for payment processors like Etsy’s payment processor, to require that you prove who you are.

Click on the ‘Turn on Etsy payments’ button.

You’re going to get this pop up. You don’t actually need to go and click on that button and go to your payment account, you can instead just click away and it will disappear.

And if you’re happy with that deposit schedule and you don’t want to change it, you can just come and click Save and continue.

So on this page, you’re going to be required to give a card. It doesn’t need to be a credit card. It could be a debit card. Now, you might be thinking, “Well, I’m confused. Aren’t we getting 40 free item listings?” Yes, we are. However, there’s also nothing stopping us from adding in more listings than the free ones that we’re getting. And so Etsy does need a card on file to charge us if we do incur additional fees.

Now, after this, you’re going to be required to turn on two-factor authentication. You can choose any of these methods that you’d like. It’s up to you. But it is now a requirement.

And so here is exactly why we created a product with Printify first, if we hadn’t already created one before we created our Etsy account, because we do need to create a draft listing.

Now, as I said, this is not going to be the final listing, because while creating this, we are not able to connect this to Printify. So Printify is not going to be able to see this listing.It’s not going to be able to create this product for us, an autopilot.If a customer purchases it to turn that on, we have to add the product directly to Printify. So what we’re doing right now is we’re just creating a dummy product listing for it that we’re going to delete later.

Which is why while you are creating this product listing that you’re going to be deleting and replacing later, the only thing that you need to worry about is filling out the details that have the little asterisks next to them that says that they’re required.

You just need to select options that are relevant and truthful throughout the process. Because if you put in options that are not truthful, then it might trigger the Etsy algorithm to think that you’re potentially a bot and might increase the chance that you get a temporary ban if they suspect that you’re a bot. So just fill out the required parts of this as best as possible, but you can ignore everything that’s optional. All of that stuff that says optional, you can just ignore.

And I also just want to clarify when I say that you might get a temporary ban if Etsy suspects that you’ve already bought during this setup process. If you do, that’s very normal. A lot of people get a temporary ban becauseEtsy’s algorithm finds it difficult to figure out who’s a bot and who’s a real person registering because the bots are getting very smart in the making. Humans and those bots are creating fake Etsy accounts to try to scam the users of Etsy by selling fake products .So that’s why Etsy is a little bit ban trigger happy. However, they also have a very easy process to follow to appeal the ban. And 99.9% of people are successful when they do appeal that temporary ban.

You’ll just minimize your chances of having to go through that annoyance by doing what you can to try to not trigger it. And so giving truthful answers throughout this process to the required questions is a good way to minimize your chances of accidentally triggering it. But yes, it is slightly annoying that Etsy requires that we add a product into our store because we are just going to delete this. Once we have finished setting up our Etsy account and our Etsy store, we’re then going to just go ahead, connect Printify to our account, add in the product that we created within Printify into our account, and then we’re going to go in and we’re going to delete this listing. I would like Etsy to change this or to at least allow you to connect in fulfillment appslike Printify, but it’s Etsy’s choice to do that. So just fill it out. And then once you have filled it out, you can then just come and click on the Save and Continue button.

On this page, click the Add More listings button. Even though we’re not going to add in more listings because it will take you back to the Listings page.

Then click on Open Your Shop and that’s it.

You have successfully created your Etsy store, which is amazing. We’re not quite yet done though, because we’re going to add some additional tweaks which will both make your store look simple yet professional, but that will also make our store in alignment with Etsy’s policies. Because Etsy requires that you disclose if you’re working with a printing partner, which we are, and we’re going to disclose that inside of our store dashboard.

But let’s first of all start out just by clicking ‘Edit Shop’.

Let’s add in our store banner. You can add in a little mini banner or you can add in a big banner. I created a big banner. I think it personally looks a lot nicer and so I’m just going to upload it.

This was the banner that I created by using images I created with Placeit. And then I put those images into Canva. I took two different store designs and then put them onto products and then just created this cute little banner. It’s a very simple, easy style of banner to make for an Etsy store. Click on ‘Add an Image, then select your banner then click ‘Open’.

And then I’m going to click on this logo area.

And add in the little logo image that I made. Although, again, I just made this really quickly. For this example store, I do indeed recommend that you make a more professional looking one. And if you’re not great at creating logos yourself, you can get some really cheap yet high quality logos made on Fiverr.

Once it’s uploaded, click ‘Save’.

Now, an interesting quirk about Etsy customers is that they do really like to know that there’s a human behind the business. So if you’re not too shy, I do recommend uploading a profile picture of yourself. If you are shy and use sunglasses and a hat, it’s up to you. But people do like to see a real human being. So I recommend that you do that because it will help increase your conversions. Click this little profile image here then click ‘Choose a file’. Next, select your profile image and click ‘Open’. In the next window, click ‘Save’.

And just fill in the bits of text that you can add to your Etsy profile wherever you can such as adding in a little shop title. Underneath your store name is a really great way to show people that you care and that you are instead of a cool brand that does care about your branding. Because you’re actually filling this information in. It makes you look a lot less generic. It makes you look like a real human being that is running the store and that cares about the products that you’re making. Click on this plus sign under your Store name. Then add your shop title. Then click ‘Save’.

Now, there is a section to add in Photos and a video, and I didn’t prepare it for this example tutorial. However, I do recommend that you fill this in when you can. And remember, you can get videos on Placeit, so Placeit can turn your product designs into videos. And the free account has videos as well. So it’s not just the paid accounts, it’s the free accounts as well that can get these videos made.

You can also add a story headline and tell more people about your business by adding a story. Just click the corresponding plus signs for the story and story headline and add in your text.

Now here you will be able to add in a website. So if you have created your Shopify account,this is where you put it in. You come here and you select that you want to show off your website and then you link to your website. If you’re not creating your own Shopify store,then you can of course just link to one of your social media profiles. But this is how you can connect your Shopify store together with your Etsy store.

And as your Etsy account gets sales, it will increase the authority of your Etsy page, which will in turn increase the authority of your own store,which will help it rank in Google search engine.

Add more profile information by adding a shop member. Start by clicking on “Choose a file”, select the image you want then click ‘Open’.

Google will then be able to say, “Hey, look! This website has an authoritative Etsy page.” This therefore means that this website is itself an authority. So it will improve your search engine rankings for your own store on your own URL, which will help give you more free traffic too.



Now, there is a section down here that you will want to fill out. So currently, if you are trading as a professional business so here in New Zealand, for example, that would be if you registered a company and you were to be selling as a company and your money were to be going to your company’s bank account and it were to be all run through your company rather than through your own personal name as a sole trader or a sole proprietor.

And the EU or Consumer Protection law means then that you get to have certain private information about that company and it’s disclosed to them. So by default, Etsy has been set up as an individual seller. So if you are a trader, you do legally need to disclose that here. So make sure that the correct one here is tipped. So now what we’re going to do is we’re going to go in and we’re going to set up those shop policies so you can come and click on this “Try it now” button.

Click on the ‘Create a policy’ button to get started.

So the first thing that we’re going to do is we’re going to choose whether we will accept returns and exchanges. Now, you can choose to accept them if you like. This is whether you will accept returns for change of mind, where somebody decides they don’t want it and they want to return it.You are required legally to provide the customer with a product that works. So if the product is faulty, then you do need to accept the return for the faulty product. But this will be about whether you accept returns if somebody decides that they don’t want it. You don’t have to offer this. And especially as a made to order product, the general standard is that you don’t accept returns. So you don’t have to accept returns if you don’t want to. Once you’re done, click on ‘Save and Apply’.

Now we’re going to go ahead and create a cancellation policy. The cancellation policy will be in case somebody ordered an item and then they have a change of mind and they want to cancel it. And just to clarify, this would be canceling before an item is made and shipped. Now, if you’re going to offer this, have it be within a very short time frame, like, say, within an hour. In general, I don’t recommend it, though, because what happens is that if a customer cancels the order, you have to then go to the print-on-demand provider and cancel it with them before they’ve begun production. Once they’ve begun production, that’s it. It’s over. It cannot be canceled. Once you’re done setting up the policy, click on ‘Publish’.

Because usually print-on-demand providers are very fast, and they make your products really quickly. It means then that you’d have to be at your computer a lot to not only see that the customer canceled it, but to then see it in time to go to your print-on-demand provider and cancel the order before they start making it. So once they’ve started making it, you can no longer cancel it with them, understandably, because they’ve already started making the product and they can’t reuse that product, so you have to buy it at that point. So I generally don’t recommend cancellations for most new stores.

So after this, we then just need to come and click on the Settings button, and then we need to select to add production partners.

And what we’re going to do is we’re going to add in all of the production partners that we’re using on Printify. So for some people, that’s probably going to be really confusing. There is a video on the Wholesaleted YouTube channel that I recommend that everybody watch that explains this.

Start by clicking on ‘Add a new production partner’. Then Add a production partner’s name and location.

Now add something about your production partner and select details about your partnership. Once you’re done, click on ‘Save partner’.

What a lot of people misunderstand with Printify is they think that when they order, say, a t-shirt on Printify, that they’re ordering it through Printify. No, Printify themselves are not making your t-shirt. Printify is merely what I call the ubereats of print-on-demand. Print shops that don’t have their own print-on-demand app. Understandably, it costs millions of dollars to run something like Printify. Instead, choose to connect these stores into Printify. Just like restaurants who don’t have their own delivery app, choose to put the restaurants inside of ubereats. It’s no different.

So when you’re disclosing to Printify what your production partners are, you’re not disclosing to them that you’re working with Printify. You are instead disclosing to them which of your different print on demand providers that you’re working with through Printify for the different products that you’re fulfilling in your store. So, for t-shirts, my number one recommended provider is Monster Digital. And so that’s why I selected Miami, Florida because you can go and you can google. 

These are real companies.These are real printing partners that have connected them with Printify.They’re real businesses. So you can go and you can google those real businesses and you can see where they’re located.

So if you were to do that with Monster Digital,you would discover that they have another name as well. It’s called TSC Miami. They have two different brands depending upon how you’re ordering with them. Your print-on-demand service through Printify is under the Monster Digital brand. They’ve got other services under TSC Miami. They’re located in Miami, Florida, and you can literally go to google maps, and you can find where they’re located. So that’s how I was able to put in that they’re located in Miami, Florida.

And so you’ll want to do that for the different print shops that Printify offers that you are using. You don’t have to do it for all the printer’s print shops, just the ones that you are using. So, yes, go ahead, add in your production partners and I’ll see you on the next video.