getting the most out of Etsy

I love Etsy. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s an online shop of all things handmade and vintage. I love supporting all artists and, well, it’s no surprise that I love handmade things. I try to do a lot of my shopping on Etsy for both our home and also as gifts for others. Over the years of shopping on Etsy I’ve learned a few different ways to shop, search and buy, all while getting the most for my money.

My aunt gave me a $25 gift card to Etsy for Christmas and I knew I wanted to get the most out of it. I followed the steps below to make sure I found what I needed/wanted.

1. Type the word SALE before your search item. I was looking for reusable paper towels so I searched for ‘SALE Reusable Paper Towels.’ It limits the options that populate but it also makes it a lot easier to navigate through. All the items that came up were on sale for a few dollars off the regular price.

2. Search by price point. You have the option to search based on price. I always add price points because it eliminates all items that I’m not willing to spend on. It limits the results again and makes it easier to navigate through.

3. Look for free/combined shipping. Many sellers post if they offer free shipping or if they offer shipping discounts for purchasing more than one item from their specific store. I also will search FREE SHIPPING in the search bar followed by the item I’m looking for. This will populate items with free shipping.

4. Search by location to save on shipping. When I’m shopping I’ll search by my zip code first. It’s going to cost a whole heck of a lot less to ship something within Denver than from the East Coast.

5. Use the left hand side bar. There are so many different ways to search and organize your search. I recommend utilizing them. I’d rather have 200 items to scroll through based on my wants/needs rather than 5,000 when majority of them aren’t what I want.

So in the end with my $25 gift card I purchased: a set of 6 reusable paper towels, a workout head band and a makeup bag. The headband seller also sent along a free kids headband too so I sent that to the little girl I used to nanny for. I was able to get all three items using the above tips. For $25 I think I did pretty good!

What tips/advice do you have for shopping on Etsy?