Beginner

How to Run a Sale on Etsy: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Run a Sale on Etsy

Running a successful sale requires taking the proper steps. As it’s a way of advertising your business, you should follow your analytics and see how effective your promotions are.

If you’re interested in running a sale on Etsy, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll talk about the following:

  • Benefits of running a sale
  • Step-by-step guide
  • Types of Etsy sales
  • Promotion options

Let’s start with benefits that you can expect and then dive deeper into all the steps you’ll have to take.

Benefits of Running a Sale

Generally speaking, running a sale is a great way to boost your sales quickly. However, there’s more to it. There are several reasons to consider doing it. Let’s take a look at a couple of benefits.

  • Shop visitor growth - If you’re looking for a way to drive more traffic to your store, running a sale is one of the ways to achieve it: the more products you put on sale, the better.
  • Cross-selling products - When you are offering promotions, you can bundle other products to boost sales. It’s one of the ways to cross-sell items from your inventory. On the other hand, as more people visit your store, it might lead to sales of things that aren’t on discount.
  • Word of mouth marketing - Everyone loves promotions. As soon as people notice that your listings are on discount, they’ll share them with their friends.
  • Potential revenue growth - Depending on how well you price your products, a higher number of sales will instantly boost your revenue figures.
  • Great way to get more reviews - Running a promotion will lead to sales growth. The more sales you have, the more reviews you’re going to get. Make sure that your service is outstanding and enjoy the positive reviews.

These are some of the best benefits that you get from running a sale.

We suggest that you closely follow your Sales and Coupons analytics when running a sale. Doing that will make it easier for you to create better deals in the future.

How to Run a Sale: Take the Following Steps

The good news is that running a sale on Etsy is a straightforward process. All it takes is a couple of clicks in the right places on the platform. Here’s our step-by-step guide.

  1. Head over to the Shop Manager. You can find it in the top right section of the Etsy dashboard.
  2. It’s not time to click Marketing. That’ll open another menu where you need to click Sales and coupons

3. Click on the New special offer button in the header

4. Select the Run sale option.

5. You’ll now choose the percentage off value, the minimum order to qualify, and the duration of the sale.

6. If you have specific Terms and conditions, you can share them in an optional box.

7. Name your sale. Only you’ll be able to see this, so opt for a name that’ll allow you to track it easily.

8. You can click on Continue now.

9. You can now choose listings that you want to discount. Simply click Add multiple listings to start the process.



10. After choosing the listings you want on sale, review all the details and click Confirm and create a discount.

After going through this process, you can immediately see that your listings are now on discount. That’s it, as you can tell, the process is simple.

If you want to ensure that your sales do great, don’t forget to optimize all the listings you’re planning to promote. Our listing optimization tool can quickly help you improve your listing performance.

Which Types of Sales Can You Run?

When you click New special offer, you’ll end up with three available options. They are different types of sales that you can run on your Etsy store. They are:

  • Regular sale
  • Offers to interested shoppers
  • Coupons

Regular Sale

The step-by-step guide refers to this type of sale. Once you set it up, the listings of your choice will run a discount.

Offers to Interested Shoppers

That’s where things get interesting. You can send special offers to people who have favorited an item in your shop, or if they have added it to their cart but have not already made the purchase.

Under the condition that the buyer does not remove one of your products from their cart, a special offer email will arrive in their inbox. Enabling this option is a great way to drive more sales. Also, it’s practical because it is entirely automated.

Etsy Coupons

Offering coupons is a great way to offer a discount to your buyers. You have two options at your disposal:

  • Percentage off coupon
  • Fixed amount off coupon

Depending on the promotion that suits you better, you can offer a percentage discount or a fixed amount discount. After you’ve made your pick, all you have to do is enter a coupon code. It’ll get to your shoppers, and they can use it at the checkout.

How to Promote Your Sale?

While running a sale is a great way to attract new visitors automatically, there’s more you can do. One of the very appealing options is leveraging the power of social media. There are several ways to do that.

  • Social media ads
  • Organic reach
  • Collaboration with social media influencers

Establishing a presence on your social media accounts is essential for all eCommerce businesses. But you can go beyond that. When you decide which listings you want to discount, it’s time to promote them on social media. 

Two of the big platforms you could try out include Instagram and Facebook. Give it a go and see how your ad campaign is going to perform.

On the other hand, if you have a big following on your social media channels, you can always share a post with the currently running promotion. Simply put the link in the profile bio on Instagram.

Many businesses decide to start working with influencers on social media. That’s a great way to share your discount coupon with a big audience. Reach out to some people who have followers that might be interested in your Etsy products.

Whichever option you choose, you can easily track how well you’re doing with Etsy Analytics.

Get More With Alura

Remember that you need perfectly optimized listings to make the sale as successful as possible. That’s where we come in.

Take a look at the broad range of Alura features, a fabulous Etsy tool. If you want to learn more, please contact us

With our tool, you’ll steadily grow your store.


alura for etsy sellers

Tools to grow your Etsy Shop

Do as thousands of other Etsy sellers and try Alura - for free!
Start for free