E-commerce sites are common among artists. From prints to greeting cards, to enamel pins, we’re all just trying to make a few bucks, right? Eight-ish years ago, I listed my first few hand-lettered prints on my Etsy shop. I remember selling about five—FIVE!—over the course of a year that I had an Etsy shop. Thankfully, my main source of income wasn’t coming from e-commerce. Otherwise, I wouldn’t still be running my business. But since then, I’ve sold a variety of products online.

Over the years I’ve learned a ton about what works and what totally doesn’t. I’ve had my share of total flops and hearing crickets when launching a new product to selling out and scrambling to pack and ship everything on time. Because I license my artwork now, I’m no longer in charge of manufacturing and shipping products that have my name on them (thank goodness!), but I do have some tips here for you that could help generate more sales through your e-commerce site.

3 THINGS TO DO WHEN YOUR E-COMMERCE SITE ISN’T MAKING SALES

1. SEO

Search engine optimization. Whether you host products on Etsy or on your own website, optimizing your titles and descriptions is incredibly crucial. What do I mean by this? Let’s take Google for example:

There’s a TON of content on this platform, and Google’s main job is to provide the best content for their users. When someone types in “pet groomer in Orange County,” they’re not going to stick around and weed through hundreds of sites that pop up for pet groomers in New York, right?! The internet is a fascinating and incredibly useful tool for discoverability when used properly.

For example, if on your website you’re selling watercolor prints that would be perfect for a nursery, what words and terms is your ideal customer going to be typing into the search bar? “Cute watercolor print for baby’s room”? “Floral watercolor art for nursery”?

So many artists think they need to get cute and witty with their titles and descriptions when really all you gotta do is think like the searcher. Etsy is the same way! It’s a search engine. Check out my mini course on SEO if you want a deep dive on the topic and need to learn the process more in-depth. This course is awesome!

2. PINTEREST IS YOUR BFF

This is the gold mine for e-commerce. Don’t believe me? Read THIS blog post on how I used it to generate sales in my SLEEP!

From pinning nursery decor ideas to wedding invitation inspiration, Pinterest is where your potential customer is looking for products and inspiration. If you’re not using it, why aren’t you on there? Again, read this post if you want some tips on how to use Pinterest.

3. FOMO IS REAL, PEOPLE

When listing products online, it can be really difficult to generate a consistent stream of orders. Instead of listing something, talking about it once or twice on social media and then wondering why nobody is buying, try out a limited time offer, or launching!

The urgency that’s created around special discounts, or only making a product available for a week, etc. always pushes more clicks and purchases. Along with that, if you only have to talk about something ’til you’re blue in the face for a limited time! So, you won’t feel like you’re constantly having to talk about your products to your audience.

Customers HATE missing out on deals and exclusive offers. Plan out at least 2 FOMO type offers for your e-commerce site, and I’m betting that you’ll see more sales! I describe this launch and marketing process in a lot more detail in my SEO course, Show Up In Searches!