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Took me 5 months to figure out why my Etsy side hustle kept dying, and it was the dumbest thing
So I started selling handmade candles on Etsy back in January to try and build something that could replace my 9 to 5 at the insurance office. For the first 3 months I was getting maybe 2 sales a week and I could not figure out why. I was spending $40 a month on Etsy ads, taking decent photos with my phone, and my prices were fair. Turns out my problem was shipping times. I was making candles to order, so it would take me 4 to 5 days just to pour and cure them before they even shipped. People on Etsy want stuff fast and my reviews were getting killed with 3 star ratings saying it took too long. A lady in Ohio messaged me and was like hey just so you know I almost cancelled my order. That was month 4. So I switched to making batches ahead of time and having them ready to ship same day, and my sales doubled in 6 weeks. Has anyone else run into the made to order trap when trying to grow a side gig?
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carr.xena1d ago
The made to order trap gets so many people and it sucks because it feels like the safe way to start. You don't waste money on stock that might not sell, right? But Etsy buyers are impatient as hell and they will punish you for it in reviews. I ran into the same thing with crochet stuff, was taking 6 days to make each order and my star rating tanked to like 4.1. Once I started keeping best sellers pre made and only doing custom stuff to order, everything changed. Batch the stuff that sells and just eat the cost if a few sit around, it's way cheaper than losing your rating.
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