Create a Unique Business By Selling Stickers On Etsy

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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! 

Looking for a unique way to market your business? Custom stickers may be just what you need! Stickers are an affordable and effective way to get your artwork out there. They can be used for a variety of purposes, such as advertising, branding, and marketing. In fact, custom stickers are so versatile that they can be used in any industry. Whether you run a small business or a Fortune 500 company, custom stickers can help you stand out from the competition.

A sticker for business can be a challenging prospect. Selling stickers on Etsy or anywhere else involves creating stickers that can be sold at a high volume. You'll need sticker paper and a good printer to begin printing stickers at home. Printing your own stickers is a great way to grab hold of the profits and make real money selling stickers.

Understanding the art of selling stickers on Etsy

Selling stickers on an Etsy sticker shop is a great, cheap way to get started. Selling stickers is essentially a volume game. Printing stickers or purchasing your own stickers online is relatively affordable in bulk – the key is making sure that your designs will sell.

Especially now, in this recession, the sticker business is seeing some contraction as people use their money on food and rising heating bills – not on making purchases in a sticker shop.

Understanding money selling stickers

Like most online marketplaces, your Etsy shop is subject to a flat fee plus a percentage fee. The flat fee of $0.20 per listing can drive your profit margins downward on cheaply priced items. For example, exclusive of all other fees, the $0.20 listing fee is 20% of a $1 item; but just 2% of a $10 item. My stickers are usually priced in between there – $2.50-$6, depending on their size.

So when you start selling stickers, understanding the true cost to sell stickers online is critical. If you don't add in postage, materials, labor, and payment transaction fees, you may end up losing money selling stickers. Which is generally not what we want.

The best online sticker shop business plans

Hands down, regardless of how you sell stickers, the price of your item is going to drive success. If you can consistently sell stickers at higher prices – through bundles or larger sizes – you're going to do better. It's really hard to make money selling stickers on Etsy if your average priced item is $3. Think about it. Even if you got all that money, it'd take 100 sales just to get $300. And realistically, you'd be profiting closer to $200 after fees and materials.

In contrast, if you can sell a bundle for $9, you're tripling the profit with the same amount of effort. Running your own sticker shop is about understanding the profitability of selling stickers on Etsy and other marketplaces.

Sticker sheets fall into this category as well. They're hugely popular sticker designs on Etsy. My issues with sheets of stickers mostly have to do with labor. It takes way more design and cutting time to produce a sheet of stickers for selling stickers on Etsy than it does to just create a free floating die cut bundle. So I always lean towards “packs” for my Etsy shop.

Vinyl stickers are also a huge selling point. Sticker paper is wide and varied — it can be hard to choose what you want to create stickers with. But I've found that an OnlineLabels branded paper works great for my Etsy shop – and I use a laser printer to produce those sticker designs. Sticker shops all end up choosing their own suppliers though, so don't just rely on my advice.

Final thoughts

If you're curious about how to sell stickers on Etsy, you've come to the right place. Etsy sticker shops all over the world rely on our unbiased, expert advice. From logo stickers to sticker makers, we've got the reviews (and business intelligence!) that you need to make the right choice. Use our free advice to create unique stickers for your Etsy sticker shop!

Want even more intel?

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