Need a step-by-step way to increase sticker sales?

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Written By Sam Davis Ph.D.

Sticker Crypt is the internet's premier source of free advice for artists and small business owners! 

Selling small items like stickers comes with significant risk. You have to really increase sticker sales to make significant profit. For online sellers, selling cheap items like stickers means that shipping is going to be much more than the item is worth. Regardless, there are many successful sticker sellers online and in-person. This guide will give you some ideas on how to increase your own sales.

Increasing sticker sales can be tricky, but knowing your audience, playing with prices, and offering discounts for larger orders can really help you sell more. Sticker sales will increase with popular designs, too – so be sure to know which of your designs sell well and why!

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To Increase Sticker Sales, Know Your Audience

The best way to sell more stickers is to know your audience. If you know who your customers are, then you're more aware of what they're willing to buy. Knowing their age, what they like, where they live, and other demographics play a big role in figuring out how to increase sticker sales.

For example, selling stickers at a street fair is going to be a lot different than selling online. For a street fair, you may want merchandise that is related to the fair's theme or location. If it's a corn festival – you'll definitely need some Midwest-themed merchandise. Or popcorn jokes.

Selling online is more about building your ideal customer and then marketing directly to them. Let's say you like selling Dungeons and Dragons stickers (I do!). You'll want to make sure that you have enough variety in designs where someone can choose something that they like. You'll also want to have related fandoms showing up: maybe some Harry Potter, Kingdom Hearts, Warhammer, or Minecraft-related swag will keep your customers happy. Giving your customers something to buy will definitely increase sticker sales.

Know Your Costs Per Item

So many businesses fail because they end up selling their products at a loss. Knowing your costs per item is crucial to increase sticker sales. When you know how much each item costs, you can determine the price at which you can sell the product. You can also know what your bottom-dollar per-item is. Is it $0.50 or is it $2.00? That's a very large difference. There's no point in doing a bulk order where you discount so much that you're literally paying the customer to take your product.

I know “the books” can be boring. But, it's important to make a regular project of updating your records with cost information. By checking your inventory against your books on a regular basis, you'll be better able to understand what your costs are, and what you can sell for. Pricing your stickers is easy once you do it a few times. With knowledge of pricing information, you can be a more confident seller.

Offer Discounts For Larger Orders

Stickers are generally a low cost item, which means, to value your time, we need to sell a lot of them. The only way to be viable as a sticker manufacturer is to increase sticker sales. 30 sales at a dollar each aren't going to feed you supper at night. 10 sales at $15 each just might.

This is why knowing your cost is critical. You'll be able to confidently offer a 10%, 20%, maybe even a BOGO sale on your items if you're confident that you'll still be making a profit. I've seen sticker sellers get creative with sticker packs, discounts for multiples, and even offering BOGO with different sizes of the same design. Ultimately, your job is to make sure that your customer buys as much as they can at once.

Increase Sticker Sales By Selling In Limited Quantities

One of Etsy's more famous marketing strategies is the “X people have this in their cart! Check out now!” message that you get on certain items. It creates a false sense of urgency and encourages you to finish your purchase impulsively. This strategy can be used in-store or online, but really works best for popular or best-selling designs.

This type of strategy will only work in a high-volume setting. The designs that you target for limited quantities need to be popular, or it just won't work out in your favor. You can hide your extra quantities, only make it a batch at a time, or even number and sign the stickers (or their packaging) to indicate that it's a collector item.

Don't mislead your customers though. You shouldn't reprint the exact same item if you're implying it's a collectors item. Changing small details and then re-listing the sticker is a good way to keep it fresh and build trust with your audience. Then they know that the PURPLE COAT is limited time only, not the entire character you've drawn.

need a step by step way to increase sticker sales?

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