How to collect emails on Etsy and increase repeat sales

By Sean Tinney February 12, 2024

Acquiring new customers is 5 times more expensive than keeping existing customers. So when someone makes a purchase from your Etsy shop, it’s important to the success of your business that you remarket to them.

And email marketing has always been the best way to increase repeat sales. So when someone purchases from your shop, give them an opportunity to opt-in to receive communication from you.

In this article, we’re going to share the different ways some of the top 100 Etsy sellers are collecting email addresses. Plus we’re going to answer some important questions for growing your Etsy email list.

• Are you allowed to collect email addresses?
• Why is it important to collect email addresses?
• What do you need to start collecting email addresses?
• Learn how Etsy top sellers collect email addresses
• Create your sign up landing page
• You have email addresses, now what?
• Etsy automation – what is it? How to use it?

Are you allowed to collect email addresses?

Of course you are. 

Etsy allows you to collect and send emails to your audience as long as you have permission through a confirmation email.

However, Etsy doesn’t make it easy because they want to take control over your customer relationships, so they can promote other shops. 

Here are two emails sent by Etsy after making a purchase on a shop for custom hoodies. Nowhere in this email is a reference to the store the initial purchase was made. Instead Etsy is promoting items and shops that help them get more revenue – not you.

Why is it important to collect emails on Etsy?

Over 81% of Etsy purchases come from repeat customers. However, a common issue arises when these customers forget the Etsy shop or seller they previously bought from. As a result, they may search for similar items on Etsy and end up buying from one of your competitors.

Plus studies have shown the success rate of selling to repeat customers is 60% – 70%, compared to 5% – 20% for new customers.

What do you need to start collecting email addresses?

Make sure you are adhering to Etsy’s seller policy by allowing your customers to opt-in to receive email communications from you. 

Create a simple landing page that makes it easy for customers to opt-in to receive your emails. To help you get started we’ve created a ready-to-use Etsy Shop sign up page template (scroll to the bottom of the page and hit the “copy” button to add it to your account). Just add your shop banner and links.

How to collect emails for your Etsy shop?

Etsy used to make it real easy to grow your email list, but as of February 2024 they stopped sharing your customer email address with third party integrations, like your email marketing provider. 

So it’s more important than ever to build your email list in a way that’s compliant with Etsy’s guidelines so you can continue to promote your shop and products to your customers. 

This means you have to implement a few new strategies to allow customers who purchased from your shop an opportunity to continue receiving great offers from you. 

Here are 7 quick and easy places where some of the top Etsy sellers are promoting their sign up page: 

1 –  Message to buyers

Update your Message to Buyers with a link to your email sign up landing page. This is a short note that is included in the Etsy order confirmation email that your customers receive after purchasing.

2 – Announcement section

If a potential customer is visiting your shop page, then they’ve shown a strong level of interest in your products. Add a link for your newsletter in the Announcement section of your page. Increase your chances that they’ll sign up for your newsletter by giving them an incentive such as a discount.

The #1 top Etsy Seller, Caitlyn Minimalist, uses this prime real estate to give her visitors a chance to sign up. She asks people to sign up for her newsletter to receive exclusive updates, offers and inspiration.

Now if an Etsy seller who has over $68 million in revenue since 2014 encourages visitors to sign up for her list – this shows you the importance of collecting email address can have on the long-term success of your Etsy shop

Here’s another top 100 Etsy seller, CreativeJam, who does over 8,400 sales a month, that also includes an email sign up link in their Announcement section. They use a “half off” as an incentive to sign up for their email list.

Related: Add a link to your landing page in your Etsy Shop Announcements.

3 – About section

Give people searching your Etsy shop every opportunity to sign up for your email list. Your About section is another key section where you can ask people to sign up for your newsletter.

Etsy seller ModParty, who does over 20,000 sales per month, collects email addresses on the Etsy About section. She incentivizes potential buyers by communicating that the newsletter is the “ONLY way to find out about our next exclusive sale, coupons, discounts.”

By the way, she also uses the Announcement section to encourage email sign ups.

Related: Add a link to your landing page in your About section of your Etsy Shop

4 – Last photo of every listing

Here’s a clever yet underutilized idea – add as a final photo for every product listing an image with QR code to sign up for your email list.

Top Etsy seller, The Sawdust Makery, who does over 8,000 sales a month does something very similar. But instead of encouraging people to sign up for their email list, they ask people to sign up for the Facebook community. 

5 – In your shipped packages

Collect emails for your Etsy shop by including a card when you deliver a physical product that includes a QR code which sends customers to your email sign up landing page.

This is a great opportunity to grow your email list as customers are excited about receiving their product. They may be more likely to sign up for your email list, especially if you offer a future discount.

6 – Social media channels

Potential customers may be researching your shop on your social media channels, use this touch point as yet another opportunity to collect more email addresses for your Etsy shop

Caitlyn Minimalist includes a link at the top of her Instagram page to a link-in-bio landing page which has a link to subscribe to her newsletter.

7 – Pop up on your website

Just Add Confetti, who does over 9,000 sales per month, drives traffic to their website by including a link in the Announcement and About sections of their shop. 

Once on their website, a pop up form appears with a 20% off coupon offer for anyone who provides their email address.

The pop up form grabs a visitors attention by really highlighting the 20% off.

Spoonflower, who does over 11,500 sales per month on Etsy, does something very similar. The have a link to their website in the About section.

The structure of their pop up form is very similar to Just Add Confetti’s. These are good models to follow when setting up your email sign up form.

Create your email sign up landing page

A landing page makes it easy for customers to opt-in to receive your emails. Landing pages focus on doing one thing very well – building your audience fast.

To help you quickly get started collecting email addresses for your Etsy shop we’ve created a ready-to-use Etsy Shop sign up page template. Just add your shop banner, links, and offer. You will need an AWeber account to use this landing page. If you don’t have an account, no problem, sign up for free to get started.

👉 Add template to your account to your AWeber account.

You have email addresses, now what?

Now it’s time to start communicating with your audience. Share information about your products, promote a sale, or share new products. The key is to create a relationship through your emails. 

Of course your audience is interested in your products, but building a long-term relationship is more than just sending your latest product and sales offer. Tell your audience a little about you and your process for creating. Also, make them feel part of your community. For example, if you’re creating a new item, get their opinion on color or style. By making them feel involved, this will also build up anticipation for when you do list that new product.

Here’s an example of a promotion email from ModParty.

Use Etsy Automation to promote new products

If you’re an AWeber customer, then you have access to the best Etsy automation feature. You can automatically send an email highlighting your newest products. The best part about this automation feature is you set it up once and setting it up takes less than 15 minutes. After that this email automatically sends your newest products to your audience.

You can set up the email frequency to pull in all new products the moment you list a product, daily, weekly or monthly. The choice is yours.

I set up this email example, using Etsy Seller KeinMaker as an example, in AWeber and it only took me five minutes.

👉 Learn how you can automatically promote your new products using AWeber

Time to start building your email list

Collecting emails on Etsy doesn’t need to be daunting. Give your customers and shop visitors multiple ways to sign up to stay in contact with you.

When someone purchases from your shop, they are your customers. So keep giving them opportunities to opt in to receive communication from you and build your email list.

Ready to promote your Etsy shop and boost sales using the power of email marketing? Sign up for AWeber and get started today.