How to Make and Sell Postcards on Etsy: Postcards are easy to create and are always in demand. There’s always someone who’s interested in having their favorite hobby/pet/destination on a postcard. Funny and sarcastic cards are also good sellers. And now that print-on-demand has become so popular, it’s super easy to start a business selling postcards without any upfront costs. Here’s how to get started…
Why would someone pay for a postcard?
You would be surprised at how many people search for and buy very specific designs. For example, someone that adores their chihuahua is very likely to send postcards with a chihuahua image on the front. The same goes for those that have very niche interests or a weird sense of humor. We can take advantage of this and create specialized products for this audience.
How to Make and Sell Postcards on Etsy
Designing Your Postcards
First, we need to create our postcards. This can easily be done in Canva. If you haven’t used Canva before – it’s a very easy-to-use drag and drop design creator. You can also make more complex designs in minutes using their tools.
Printing Your Postcards
Once you’ve created your design, it’s simply a matter of uploading it to Printful. Choose your product – in this case, postcards – and then upload your image. You can move the image around to make sure it fits well.
Printful is a print on demand company. This means that they don’t charge you immediately for products. You only pay for a product once a customer has ordered it. This means that you’ll never be stuck with a room full of products, as you normally would in sales. And if you connect your Printful account to your Etsy store, Printful will be able to recognize when an order has been made, print the item, and post it to your customer automatically.
Etsy
You will need an Etsy account setup in order to make sales. Etsy is a very strict company so be sure to read and follow all of their rules. The Etsy marketplace has a ton of handmade products and crafting tools. This means that its audience are willing to pay a little extra for quality. Be sure to price your postcards so that you are profitable. Printful will charge you a set price for the base product and for shipping. Etsy also has a lot of weird charges, such as a relisting fee of 0.20c every time a product sells. So, after you’ve made your first sale, check your statistics and make sure that your price covers all your charges.
Marketing
Etsy has a marketing section that lets you promote your products. I’ve had success with some products, and no luck with others. So it’s worth giving it a try to get some eyes on your products. Once your products start selling and getting reviews, they will start to show higher up in the Etsy search listings. Eventually, you can stop advertising and get sales organically.
How to Make and Sell Postcards on Etsy
And there you have it. That’s everything you’ll need to start your very own postcard business on Etsy. You may also want to consider a personalization service. This means that your customer can add something personal to their postcard, such as the receiver’s name. There is an option in Printful that will allow you to pause orders that are personalized, giving you time to make edits before the order is printed.
