Why 99% of Etsy and Print-On-Demand Stores Fail in 2026

[00:01] that you're not getting enough traffic or getting sales on your online store, you're doing wrong. And in today's video, I'm going to go over main reasons on why people's shops fail or don't see success and even may not get any sales

[00:18] at all. And honestly, this goes for whether you're selling on Shopify or I'm going to be breaking down some things that are just key essentials with basically stunt your growth when you have an online store. I've helped many

[00:33] stores, whether they're selling digital products, physical products, even different types of programs. And I've learned a lot in the 5 years of doing it. And honestly, I want to say that the first thing that I'm going to say is one

[00:46] of the most important, and that is that you may not be taking your business seriously or treating this as an actual business. It can be really difficult when you first start out to try to treat your small business or your online store

[01:00] serious and brings you traffic because yourself and trick your brain into taking it seriously as if it's already successful. Now, taking it seriously isn't necessarily lying to yourself, but

[01:13] what that is meaning is that you want to treat it as if it's a big business. You You want to make sure that you are consistently adding to your shop, making it better, learning more about who you're selling to, and actively being in

[01:28] your shop, especially if you're selling on platforms like Etsy where they are going to reward sellers that are consistently doing work and improving their online store. Consistency is something that is a key in any type of

[01:40] business and in any type of success in general. And I think a lot of people will fall short of that, especially in the newer beginning stages of a business because that inspiration can definitely die out once you realize how much

[01:53] actually goes into building your online store. And if you set everything up and then you walk away or you post one listing to your online store that maybe asking yourself why you're not getting sales, what else have you done to really

[02:07] something that someone wants to purchase from? And think of this in any type of business model, right? If someone were to open a store or a boutique and then just like leave it for a few days and not care and it's open and then it's

[02:21] that's not a business that people will go to or return to or even find valuable it's something that you need to be actively showing up for even when it's tell you that the beginning stages just stink. You're learning so much though in

[02:38] this type of space. So, every time that you do something and you don't success instant gratification, yes, it is so much easier to just stop doing it and say, "This sucks. I spent all this time on it and it made me no money, you know,

[02:51] yada yada." But really, in reality, you may not have actually put in the time and energy that's needed to make it successful. So, treat it as if it's already successful before it is. And I promise you, that will bring you so much

[03:04] more happiness to your business and you're not wasting time. I think that's like you're wasting time and you feel like you're putting all this energy into think about how much you've learned. Because in all honesty, setting up an

[03:19] Etsy shop or a Shopify store, you're going to have to it's trial and error, right? You're going to learn a lot more than a lot of people will that never try it about marketing, about photos, about SEO, about copywriting, pricing, so

[03:32] much. Next thing that you might be doing wrong or why your shop is not having the success that you want to have yet is that you might be selling too much. Now, that might sound a little silly, but honestly, if you are posting a bunch of

[03:44] mumble jumble random products on your online store that are not optimized, they look like crap, nobody is going to purchase them, and you're not setting up a brand identity for yourself. If you want an online store that brings back

[03:57] something long-term and that's really going to bring you a sustainable income, you need to build a brand identity. And in that, you need to figure out who the trying to sell to everybody, you're appealing to nobody. It's kind of like

[04:11] the saying, uh, jack of all trades is a master of none. You can sell a bunch of you'll get a few bites here and there of sales, but you're not actually going to be known for something or a specific audience. So, what I would really

[04:24] recommend and what I've done in all of my stores is to be niche specific. Now, with niche specific, it can be a very hard to understand term because so many so many different views on it. Now, my personal view on what a niche specific

[04:38] store is, is I like to consider it or think of it as a vibe. So, think of it as who is going to purchase from you that has your vibe. Okay? So, for example, if my store is based around pets and pet lovers and people that are

[04:52] going to purchase things for people who love pets or the pets themselves, that's who is going to be purchasing from my store because really the idea of pets, right? It can be pet bowls, pet beds, pet um supplies, or it could be again

[05:09] gifts and apparel for people or their pets. And so you really just need to determine what angle you want to go to with that and in that reflects what your brand identity is. Same goes if you want to sell to mental health. Okay, that's a

[05:23] great niche. I've sold mental health stuff on Etsy for years and I absolutely love it because I bring a positivity to the mental health awareness community, right? And in that I'm asking myself, what are people in this community

[05:35] looking for? Who is purchasing? Is it people that want to give someone a self um care gift? Is it people that are working in the mental health industry? And what about, you know, what types of colors they like or what types of

[05:47] specific products? Is it sweatshirts? Is it gift boxes? Is it stickers? There's understand before you just throw a bunch of random stuff on your online store. And one thing that I find confusing that I want to just mention before I move on

[06:01] to the next one is that in a niche, you can sell different types of products. A lot of people assume that a niche is just like your store is all books or your store is all hats. That's more of like a product specific store. If your

[06:15] niche is again pet lovers, you can sell pet lover hats um or pet lover blankets or pet lover mugs and have all those different products in your store as long through categories or sections. And this is going to help you with a longer brand

[06:31] your brand and you can upsell them with other products in your store. Now, might not be getting sales is that, hate to say it, your website might not look that good. Now, again, whether it's on Shopify or Etsy, ask yourself very

[06:47] truthfully, does your website look good? Would you buy from your store? Now, this is things that can be a little bit easier on Etsy because you really have to just focus on your shop logo, you know, your shop banner, and what your

[06:59] Shopify, this is going to be a little bit more intense because you're going to sections. You're going to have to build out all of your homepage, your FAQ. There's a lot more that goes into it, right? But regardless of that, you need

[07:12] to take that time to make it look good. Even if it's your Etsy shop and people are coming to your Etsy shop after clicking on one of your listings, it organized. Those photos better be looking really, really great. And things

[07:25] are easy to navigate. I think that one of the most slept on things with online stores is that they're not easy to navigate. When someone clicks on your page, you really only have a few seconds of them deciding if they're going to

[07:37] scroll. Right? It's the same thing of a video. You watch it for a few few it again, look at the comments, right? So ask yourself that with your online store of when I open it, does it say exactly what I'm selling? Does it let

[07:51] the person know what they can expect? And if you are having, you know, your there's somewhere where somebody can click immediately to purchase a product first having to scroll down and figure out how to buy your product. Um, I see

[08:03] that mistake a lot on websites is you'll click on it and then there's like all these photos and this mumble jumble and it's like where is the buy now button? product? Because most likely they came to your website in curious and they want

[08:15] to read about your product and get to your product page ASAP. So where is the button to buy? Luckily on Etsy, this is great because you can do featured your best products in the featured so that if someone does come to your shop,

[08:27] bestselling products are. And going along with a store that looks good, of and it's going to be reflected in your description as well. Are you giving all the necessary details for your product without crowding with a giant

[08:41] making sense for your products and they're not just the description that comes in through Printify? like are you actually putting in details about your product and your design? And just try to put yourself in the buyer's shoes

[08:53] with something and you review it before you publish on your site. Now, next is your marketing strategy, if there is one. And I want to talk about this marketing. And I know that it can seem like a lot, but I think that if you take

[09:08] the correct angle for your business and what it is that you're selling, it can be so beneficial, especially if you can focus your energy into one marketing or to hit every single marketing strategy that there is within your one store,

[09:22] especially if you're new. So, I want to talk about one marketing strategy that is just foolproof. it works every time and has worked in every type of store marketing. Now, I know with email marketing that it can seem a bit

[09:36] tried it before or never experimented with it, but I promise you it is so so to bring people back to your online store. Whether it's people that have turning them into repeat buyers or targeting someone through email that may

[09:51] make a purchase yet and we're able to bring them back and entice them to make that purchase. So, I use a platform called Omnisend, which is email and SMS marketing platform that you can sync with your online store. And what I like

[10:05] to do with this is to offer a simple popup that gives a discount to a potential buyer in exchange for their email address. And I'm sure you've seen this before when you have gone onto an online store and there is a popup there

[10:17] that says, "Would you like to save X amount or get free shipping?" You enter your email and you're usually met with a code. This here is an incredible way to start building your email list and it's people that have an interest in your

[10:29] online store because they came to your online store and they're taking that enticeful offer to make a purchase. So once you do have their emails, then you can put them into automations. So for example, if someone adds something to

[10:42] purchasing, Omnis will automatically send them a series of emails to bring them back and recover that sale. You can also use it to send review requests, recommendations, and the best part is that a lot of it can be met on

[10:56] different templates and they're all customizable so that you can make it fit your website's feel and again go along with the branding and your niche that I was talking about before because this is so important. So, there's so many

[11:09] different ways to customize it and make it feel intuitive with your actual brand. And I honestly think this is a lot more cost-effective than ads because it's personally targeted to that customer that came to the store with the

[11:21] just scrolling. It's something that they already had that prior interest in and it's not going to be as much gambling because again, you know that they were already there for a reason. And Omnisend is a Shopify app that you can sync

[11:34] directly with your Shopify store. It's very intuitive and it'll save everything that you can seamlessly set up different types of flows. So, if you want to set up the abandoned cart flow or if you want to set up a purchase reminder or a

[11:48] that can be done very easily. So, if you haven't already, I would recommend later. It is one of those things that's going to keep paying off as your store grows. And I'll link different tutorials that I have and I will also leave a link

[12:01] try it out. So, it's in the description below. They also have SMS marketing which I find very interesting and if you would like to see a video about all section. And if you are selling on Etsy, there are ways that you can implement

[12:15] email marketing as well. And one of my favorite ways to do so because Etsy's policies, you can't exactly reach out and ask people to join your email list. But what I like to do is utilize different pack-in inserts in my

[12:27] physical products that you're packing up and shipping yourself, or if you're a printon-demand seller, you can do this by offering a packin insert with a QR code to join your email list. This is one of my favorite ways to do this,

[12:40] Printify, the print on demand supplier I use, does have a pack and insert option. You can create this easily in Canva. And you can make a QR code that goes on the packin using their QR code app. And all you'd have to do is grab a link that you

[12:56] would get from your Omnisend account to offer them an offer. So, join our email list for 10% off your next purchase. And then once they go through that flow that can use and now they're a part of your email list on Etsy and that's the way

[13:10] that it would be allowed. Now moving on to our next thing and kind of in the same realm and that is social media marketing. Now with social media, I love it because it's free. It's free to post on social media and the benefits of this

[13:22] are that you can get a lot of eyes on your products or your website quicker than you would think. So yes, obviously if you don't have followers in the stuff pushed out as much, but you would be surprised at how many eyes you can

[13:35] get on your products by posting photos or reals or Tik Toks on your social media platforms. Now, something that I would like to say with this is to try to start with one platform and master it because it can be so overwhelming at

[13:47] first. It can be a lot to create your Instagram, your Tik Tok, your Pinterest, or Facebook, whatever it is that you want to use. So, what I would recommend to do is to pick one social media platform, master it, and then you can

[14:00] continue on and build the other ones as well. I think that with content as well, niche is and where it may perform best. So, my advice with that is to do your different social media platforms, see if there's a lot of creators, see if

[14:15] there's video styles that you would like to recreate or photos, and figure out A lot of Etsy sellers like to go with I find that Pinterest and Etsy work really well together. So, that's

[14:28] definitely something that I would take into consideration if you are an Etsy products because it can be a little bit more difficult to make content for them. And I will leave a helpful video below where I go in depth on my marketing

[14:41] strategies for Etsy and other stores on Shopify, too. I think that it's something should be its own separate video, so I will link those. and I like sure you're subscribed so that you don't miss out on those. And if you're

[14:53] somebody that just does not want to do social media at all, I completely understand that. Um, but a great way that you can kind of get into it without having to do it because honestly, you don't want to be behind and everything

[15:06] is on social media now. So, if you are somebody like that, I would recommend looking into influencer marketing. This is where you would either send a product to an influencer and ask them to create content for you or send it to them and

[15:19] ask them to talk about it or share it on their page. Now, there are a lot of levels to this. There can be money involved. There can be exchanges, whether it's a video for a free product or a video for a certain type of amount

[15:31] of money, but it can be a really, really valuable thing because hiring or working with an influencer that has interest in your niche and in your products, they with their audience. And so, giving the exposure on their accounts can be very,

[15:46] very beneficial to your product and your website. I've seen this work wonders something that I would recommend you to look into regardless if you're going to it can be really really great. And last but not least, our last and final reason

[16:01] is that you might be giving up too quickly. And I see this a lot. It was me. I've been in the same shoes of that is just giving up too quickly. Not don't want to put the work into it. Realistically, who wants to put the work

[16:15] into something when you're not seeing a return yet? It's extremely frustrating. you give up, you're not going to have the muscle anymore or you're going to with your business. If you stop posting on your online store, if you just

[16:29] abandon it, you know, adding trendy and new products, if you don't answer customer messages, if you just let it be for 6 months, what's going to happen to so, it is something that requires that consistency and requires you to the

[16:43] strong believer just because I've seen myself do it in if you really really work regardless of the circumstance. So, I really believe that. So, if you're up, really reconsider and ask yourself if it's something you really want to do

[16:59] and then how can you improve and get better before giving up. Thank you so so these or all of them were helpful to you. Please be sure to leave any section below. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos.

[17:13] I have a lot of exciting stuff coming up, especially with Q4 approaching.