How To Create Categories In Etsy

Digital product is one of the hottest categories on Etsy right now. Etsy shoppers look for them every day for easy DIY projects.

‍

And for sellers, digital downloads are a great way to start earning passive income. It also has low upfront costs. You can start designing and selling in days.

‍

But which one should you choose?

‍

In this article, you will see 30 of the most popular digital products on Etsy, and what to consider when choosing one to sell.

‍

If you love to get some inspirations to get into selling digital products, you will love this article.

Why Sell Digital Products on Etsy?

One of the biggest reasons why sellers are interested in digital product is its potential for passive income. "Make once, sell forever". Once you created the product, technically can sell forever without you having to make it again.

‍

Not to mention for buyers, digital product is a big time- and money-saver. The files are delivered immediately to customers after purchase. They can use or print out the designs right away if they have the tools. Compared to finding a designer to come up with a custom design, a DIY digital product is much more convenient and hassle-free for the buyer.

‍

Etsy also helps delivering your designs to customers without involving you. You can attach files to your Etsy listings and customers can download the files by themselves after purchase. This greatly reduce the work needed on your part.

‍

It's also relatively cheap to start selling digital downloads on Etsy. Listing fee is $0.2 per listing, and transaction fee is 5% when you make a sale.

‍

Etsy is one of the biggest online retailers behind Amazon and eBay. A large group of shoppers look for digital products on Etsy every day, either for their own project or businesses. With the built-in traffic, there is big potential to find success on Etsy if you know how to choose the right product to sell.

‍

30 Most Popular Digital Products On Etsy

Cosmetic Labels

Small business owners who want to start a handmade business look for labels for their products. Jar labels, dropper bottle labels, soap labels, and so many more. This is also the niche where we decided to make the process easier for small handmade businesses.

‍

Thank You Cards

Etsy sellers attach a thank you card with their order to showcase the handmade quality of their products. Downloading a design and printing it at home is a quick solution for them.

‍

Printable Planners

Planner is a great way to help sellers stay organised and focused in their goals. It's a slightly seasonal product with it being more popular in the beginning of the year. Buyers download and print out the planner at home to use them immediately.

‍

‍

Digital Planners

Digital planner on iPad is also very popular. Notability and Goodnotes are two of the most popular apps that people use them on.

‍

Logos

Every business should have a professional logo. It gives a professional first impression to customers. Logo design is a big category on Etsy where there are tough competition but also a lot of demand.

‍

Business Cards

Business card is important to showcase your brand and its information. Business card design is a hot and competitive niche.

‍

Etsy Shop Assets

What better to sell on Etsy than something made for Etsy sellers? Banner, Shop Icon, etc are needed for almost all sellers on Etsy and some sellers find a lot of success selling them.

‍

Social Media Templates

Most businesses have social accounts like Instagram and Facebook. Selling post templates can save shop owners a lot of time to create professional looking social accounts.

‍

Printable Cards (Birthday, Invitations)

Ever hosted a party and needed to buy a bunch of invitation cards? Me too! You can sell card designs like that and have customers print at home themselves and save them the hassle.

‍

Self Improvement Printables

Printables like fitness planner and diet planner aim to improve the wellbeing of buyers.

‍

Wedding Printable

Wedding printable is a huge niche on Etsy. Everything you can think of that is related to a wedding can be found on Etsy. Invitation, table menu, baby shower games and so many more!

‍

Event Printable

These make organising an even so much easier. You can design printables like birthday banner, decor, invites and selfie frame to help buyers save time and money.

‍

Cafe/Restaurant Printable

Opening a restaurant or a cafe requires a lot of time and effort. Why not help their branding by making designs of menu, cafe art, loyalty card and signages?

‍

Children Learning Materials

Many sellers make learning materials and toys aim towards babies and young children. Cards on alphabets and numbers, toys about shapes, etc. And keep in mind to make them cute for the younger audience.

‍

Ebooks And Guides

Have experience that you can teach others? It could be a good idea to write a guide about it and sell it on Etsy.

‍

Workbooks

Similar to planners and other printables, workbook is usually aim towards a self-care and self-improvement buyers. They purchase, download and print the material to use instantly.

‍

Lightroom Photo Presets

Lightroom is a popular photo editing app, and presets is a quick way for people to edit photos on the app.

‍

Phone Wallpapers

If you are a digital artist, selling wallpaper arts is a great way for buyers to customise their phone screens.

‍

Ios Icon Pack

Ever since iOS 14, iPhone users can edit the icons of their apps on the phone. It's grown to be a very popular niche in 2020 when iOS 14 was first released.

‍

Wall Art

Create digital version of your art by scanning your artwork or creating digitally with apps like photoshop or Procreate. People look for wall art to print themselves to save cost and time.

‍

Resume Templates

Many people look on Etsy for professional looking resume templates for their job hunting efforts. They are usually created to be compatible with Microsoft Word and Google Doc.

‍

Crochet/Knitting/Embroidery/Sewing Patterns

Etsy is a great place to sell these patterns if you have the skills and passion to create them.

‍

Recipe Cards

Home cooks and chef always create new recipe, and they want to mark down any good ones they have come up with. Recipe card is an easy way for them to print out the blank card and write down the recipe for future inspirations.

‍

Meal Planning Cards

These cards are an effective way for shoppers who are looking to lose weight and gain muscles to stay on track.

‍

Colouring Books (Adults Or Kids)

For kids, colouring book is a creative outlet. But adult colouring books have gained traction in recent years as a way to be creative and de-stress.

‍

Clip Arts

Artists create digital art and sell them as clip arts. Usually these are small elements that shoppers buy a big collections of them to either use in their own projects or print them out to personalise their items.

‍

Digital Papers

Usually pattern paper designs that buyers print out for scrapbooking and crafting.

‍

Zoom Background

Another recently trendy item, zoom and other online meeting programs have taken off during the times of the pandemic. Customised background can show personality or just simply hide a messy bedroom.

‍

Excel Templates

Accounting and profit calculator are two popular templates using Microsoft excel. They are targeted for shop owners that want to get on top of their revenues and expenses.

‍

Website Templates

For buyers who are looking to build their own website, website templates and themes are a quick way to get started. Some popular website building platforms are Wordpress, Wix, and Shopify.

‍

Things To Consider When Picking Which Digital Product To Sell

Find Your Passion And Skills

While it's not always the best approach, choosing what to sell based on your passion and skills could be a good starting point. The key point to success is to match your passion and skills to what people online are looking for.

Do Market Research To Determine Viability Of Idea

In the best case scenario, you would want to sell a product with high demand and low competition. Here are a few things you can do to ensure your choice is as good as possible.

‍

Etsy search bar has a function where it automatically lists the top keywords by using what you have typed in. If you type "silver", then terms like "silver jewelry" and "silver dresses" may come up.

‍

These keywords actually comes from Etsy shoppers and what they are looking for. So, in general, the keywords that appear as a suggestion in the search bar are likely to have some demand.

‍

You can also do this in other marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.

‍

For competition, looking at the number of products listed in a particular keyword is a good starting point. The more products, the harder it is to rank and show up in search results.

‍

To analyse more, you can looking at the number of major competitors in a particular niche. Those are sellers with 5000+ sales or 1000+ reviews. The more of those competitors, the tougher it is for a small seller to break in that market.

Consider Seasonal VS Evergreen Items

Evergreen item is one that have constant demand throughout the year. Products like business card have more and less the same amount of people looking to buy no matter what month it is.

‍

On the other hand, seasonal products like Christmas card has a spike in demand in only a particular time in a year.

‍

To start with, consider selling evergreen items to ensure your revenue is consistent. Once your shop is established, you can add seasonal items to catch the increase in demand in certain times of year.

‍

Some Extra FAQ

How Does Etsy Digital Download Work?

Etsy is a great platform to sell your digital downloads because they can handle the delivery of the products for you. Once you created the product, you can upload the file to Etsy when you create a product listing. You can upload many files type including PDF, JPG and zip, with a 20mb file size limit for each file.

‍

When a customer places an order for that product listing, Etsy will immediately send them the link to download the file. They can also access the download page at a later time in their 'Purchases and Reviews' page.

‍

How Do You Handle Returns On Digital Products?

No matter how great your product is, there are bound to be unhappy customers. As digital products are lower priced items usually and creating one doesn't cost extra, most of the time I would recommend fully refunding customers who are not satisfied. Sometimes it's not worth the hassle to fix a problem for items that costs only a few dollars. It's also a good way to avoid negative reviews on your Etsy shop.

‍