How To Sell Stickers On Etsy

So you’re looking to start a side hustle, and you’ve heard that people are making money selling stickers on Etsy and you want in on the action.

That’s great! But, how do you get started?

The fact is, despite the seeming simplicity, there's a variety of sticker types you can sell, ranging from organizational stickers to stickers that are just straight up art pieces.

This means that there's tons of opportunity for you to insert yourself as a seller in this market– you just have to come up with your designs, figure out how to make the stickers, and choose where to sell them.

So, if you want to learn how to sell Stickers on Etsy to create a new income source, this is the guide for you!

I'm going to break down how to start an Etsy sticker shop, all of your sticker creation options, and some tips to help grow your Etsy revenue.

Let's get to it.

I've been using Etsy for years, and it's one of the best places to sell anything creative or artistic online.

Tom has also sold on Etsy in the past. In fact, he ran an Etsy print on demand shop during school and sold meme coffee mugs, stickers, and other goods.

And even though it's competitive, it's certainly possible to make money selling stickers on Etsy if you know how to create eye-catching designs and market your store.

1. Create Unique Sticker Designs

The first step in selling stickers on Etsy is to actually create designs you want to sell.

The fact that stickers are a hot commodity on Etsy mean that there’s also a lot of competition out there for designs.

So, if you want to start an Etsy sticker shop that actually has a chance to stand out from the crowd, you need some unique designs that cater to a niche audience.

For starters, pick a specific niche to create your designs around and do some research to see what the competition offers.

Some popular Etsy sticker niche ideas include:

Animals like cats or dogs
Floral patterns
Funny sayings
Inspirational quotes
Memes
Spirituality
Productivity
Seasonal stickers, like spooky Halloween ones or Christmas stickers
Super heroes
Labeling and organizational stickers

There’s also the option to stick to a certain design style and offer different themed packs– like an ocean theme and space theme for example– and then sell multiple stickers as one listing.

You get the idea: come up with some niche ideas and see what top sellers in your niche are doing.

Once you decide on your sticker niche, you can use any design program you’re comfortable with to create your first designs.

Alternatively, use an app with free sticker templates like Canva. If you’re on the more artistic side, you can also draw on a tablet or paper (and then scan the finished product).

Extra Reading – How To Make Money With Memes.

2. Create Your Etsy Sticker Store

The next step for making and selling stickers on Etsy is to actually launch your shop.

Thankfully, getting started on Etsy is easy. Here’s what you will to do to start selling:

Click the ‘Sell on Etsy’ button and sign up with your email.
Enter your preferences (Language, currency, etc.)
Name your shop.
List at least 1 product – If you don’t have your stickers made yet you can always come back and create your store after OR create a fake listing for the time being. To list, you’ll need images of your product, a title, description, quantities, pricing, and some basic information about sizing and shipping weight.
Setup payment & billing – Remember that the listing fee is $0.20 and transaction fees are 5% of the sale.

That’s it!

Once this is set up, you have your own Etsy sticker shop that you can modify so it’s to your liking. I also suggest adding an about section and a return policy to help with your store's credibility.

You should also add a logo and several products as fast as you can so your store looks finished and well-stocked with stickers.

3. Make Your Etsy Stickers

Alright, this is probably the most difficult step when it comes to selling stickers on Etsy, so I'll keep things as brief as possible.

The thing is, you have options for how you actually manufacture the stickers you sell.

The three main options include:

Using a print on demand company to make and ship your Etsy stickers whenever you make a sale
Creating and ship stickers yourself
Having someone create batches of stickers for you but handle shipping yourself

Let’s break down these options so you can find what works best for you.

Option 1: Sell Etsy Stickers Using Printify

Printify is a popular POD provider that's an excellent option if you're just starting your sticker business because it prints and ships your orders for you.

In other words, you can use Printify to create Etsy stickers to sell. When you make a sale, Printify manufacturers and ships the order, takes a cut, and you keep whatever's left over as profit.

Printify is the print on demand company Tom used when he sold POD products on Etsy as a college side hustle.

printify-create-mug — Creating products with Printify is actually so simple.

The product quality is top notch, Printify's design tool is intuitive, and you can also print magnets in addition to Etsy stickers.

Additionally, connecting your Printify account to your Etsy store just takes one click. You can also publish products from Printify to Etsy.

Printify has several sticker options to choose from, ranging in use, shape, and material. And stickers start at $1.18, leaving you plenty of margin when you sell.

Once you choose the option you want, you add your design and finalize your sticker for sale on Etsy.

Printify lets you add the listing name, description (which is where you’ll want to try adding in some keywords and SEO friendly content to help your rankings), and price.

I suggest selecting the option to ‘Make this product invisible on your online store,’ so you can edit the listing before Etsy charges its $0.20 listing fee.

It's also a good idea to test order some Printify stickers so you can see what your design looks like and if you're happy with product quality.

However, Printify is my choice and Tom's choice for making Etsy stickers to sell and other products like t-shirts, hats, and mugs.

Sign up for Printify and start selling on Etsy today!

Option 2 – Make Your Own Stickers To Sell On Etsy

If you want to make Etsy stickers to sell yourself, the process is a bit more complicated.

For starters, you need a few supplies. The first one is a vinyl sticker cutting machine and the corresponding software for it.

There are several options on the market and new models are coming out all the time, so it’s recommended you do your own research for this and find the option that will best suit your needs.

A few of the big names are Silhouette, eClips, Brother and Cricut, so you can start there and get an idea of what’s available.

Just pay attention to how user friendly the machine is and what the size options are, to make sure it’ll work for the designs you have in mind.

I would check out the discussions in the Facebook groups for the cutting machines you’re interested in to see how helpful the people are and what issues/solutions they find.

Other sticker manufacturing supplies you need include:

Sticker Paper. This choice depends on what material and shine (i.e matte vs. glossy) you want. Once again, research what’s available but make sure there’s no printed logo on the back (not visually appealing), that there’s slit’s in the paper for peeling off the backing, and also how well the ink dries so it doesn’t smudge.
Printer. Again, research is key with this one – but the option you end up choosing will depend on what you want to offer. Can the printer handle glossy paper which is thicker than normal? Will it leave indents on the paper? Does it print borders? What is the cost of the ink? How easy to use is the software? Does it have a scanner? All of these questions are important to consider when making your purchase, so make sure you have a good idea of what exactly you need your printer to do before investing.
Packaging. Since you're making stickers yourself, you're also responsible for shipping your Etsy orders. For packaging, you can choose to go with sturdy mailers or bubble mailers. Just be sure your products won’t get damaged during shipping (adding tissue paper will help ensure the stickers don’t get scratched).

As a final tip, you can go the extra mile and design packaging that is branded for your business.

An easy way to do this is to design a sticker with your logo on it and add it to your packages, which is a nice touch that will stand out to your customers.

Option 3 – Use a Sticker Printing Partner

Using a print on demand provider is one way to avoid manufacturing your Etsy stickers.

But, you can also use a sticker printing service. These services take your sticker designs, manufacture a bulk order of stickers, and then ship them to you. You're then left to ship orders whenever you make a sale.

What’s great about these services is they specialize in printing stickers, so they’re almost guaranteed to turn out exactly the way you want them.

A few popular sticker printers you can use to start selling stickers on Etsy include:

Sticker Ninja. Offers printing on durable vinyl for $86 plus shipping for 100pcs (3” round stickers)
Sticker Mule. Offers printing on durable vinyl for $83 plus shipping for 100pcs (3” round stickers)
GotPrint. Offers printing on 60lb paper and gloss labels with UV coating for $41.90 plus shipping for 100pcs (3” round stickers)

If you're new to this side hustle, you can stick with Printify to get your shop operational and to test what sells well before buying in bulk.

But as you gain experience in selling stickers with Etsy, don't be afraid to explore other manufacturing partners to improve quality.

How Much Can You Make Selling Stickers On Etsy?

You can make serious passive income on Etsy by selling stickers if your store ranks well on the marketplace and your designs are popular.

The reality is that Etsy is a massive marketplace. If your store/designs trend, you can make hundreds or thousands of dollars…even if you're selling stickers for a few bucks a pop.

Just take a look at AnnaKateGifts for an example of how to make money selling stickers with Etsy.

AnnaKateGifts only started selling stickers on Etsy last year, and she’s already made almost 9,000 sales.

All of her stickers are priced at $2.99, which means that even if she only sold one sticker for every order (which I doubt is the case), she’s already made over $25,000 in sales.

If she sells two or three stickers per order, which is what you'd expect, you're looking at $50,000+ in Etsy sticker sales in one year.

This just shows you the potential. If you search Etsy's marketplace for more sticker niches, you'll find other top sellers with thousands of sales.

This YouTube video from Etsy sticker seller Tim Koa also shares how he started selling stickers and how much money he made from his business:

Tim explains how he came up with his designs, how to actually make stickers to sell on Etsy, and how he scaled to $700+ per month in just a few months of selling!

So, in short, you can sell stickers on Etsy full-time and make tens of thousands of dollars. This isn't the norm, and most sellers won't get sales out of the gate or grow quickly.

But, like any online side hustle, time, practice, and sticking with it can pay off in the long run.

Extra Reading – How To Make Money Selling On Redbubble.

Tips For Selling Stickers On Etsy

If you’re struggling to make sales, consider the following Etsy selling tips to bring in more customers:

Sell Digital Downloads. This is a very cost effective way to sell stickers since you don't have to go through the printing and cutting process. You also never have to replenish inventory since it's a digital file. These stickers are great to use in presentations, documents, and digital planners.
Branch Into New Sticker Types. There are several ways to diversify your store offerings other than selling individual stickers. Try making sticker sheets, laptop stickers, magnets, car stickers, water bottle decals, bumper stickers, sticker variety packs, or anything else you think might sell.
Focus On What Works. Keep track of what’s selling and what’s not. If your customers seem to love your cat stickers, but none of your other designs, then it might be a sign you need to refine your listings and focus on cat stickers.

This last point is especially important.

For example, if your Etsy sticker shop sells animal stickers and you find that lion stickers sell great but dog ones are too competitive, listen to the market and make more lion designs!

This YouTube video from Beneshopart also provides a step-by-step guide on how to make money selling stickers on Etsy and why picking the right niche and designs is so important.

Extra Reading – How To Make Digital Stickers To Sell.

How To Scale your Etsy Sticker Business

After making a few Etsy sales, it's time to consider how you can turn this into a real lucrative business.

Here are a few suggestions that might help:

1. Get Product Reviews For Your Etsy Store

Something that should happen organically as you make sales on Etsy is product reviews.

And, generally, the more reviews you have, the more reliable you’ll look to possible customers (especially if they’re all 5 stars).

Etsy-reviews — One of Anna Kate's best sellers…just look at the reviews!

Buyers on this platform are often really generous with reviews and you’ll easily get 5 stars if everything goes smoothly in the transaction.

You can also improve your odds of getting that 5 stars by being responsive to customers and handling any complaints they have.

When you're starting out with selling Stickers on Etsy, make an effort to go above and beyond with customer service to get as many 5 star reviews as possible.

2. Research Etsy SEO & Optimize Your Products

Etsy makes SEO a breeze by keeping track of the keywords customers use to find you on their platform.

You can use this feature to improve your product titles and descriptions, so all of your products are showing up in every search that may apply to you.

You can also try Etsy SEO tools like Marmalead or eRank to research Etsy keywords, top selling products, and learn how to improve your listings using data.

Again, look at your Etsy dashboard over time to see the type of search keywords you rank for and optimize to rank higher for those terms.

3. Experiment With Etsy Ads

Etsy’s ad service is actually quite effective and gives you the chance to boost your listing views, clicks, and purchases.

The minimum spend is $1 a day, so if you’re looking to boost sales you can easily test it out with a small budget and see if the bang is worth your buck.

Again, as a new seller, this can help speed up the process of getting sales and reviews, which is very important for getting your Etsy sticker store off of the ground.

Extra Reading – The Best Sites Like Poshmark For Selling Online.

4. Incorporate Social Media Marketing

If you want to find other ways to drive visits to your shop and make sales, you can always try running an Instagram, Facebook, and/or Pinterest page to promote your stickers.

Pinterest is especially popular for driving more Etsy sales, and you can even find examples of Etsy sticker sellers when you search on Pinterest.

In any case, social media provides free traffic for your online business if you're willing to put in the time and effort and work on growing your following.

Extra Reading – How To Become A Pinterest Manager.

Why Sell Stickers on Etsy?

Stickers have been a major trend on Etsy in 2021 as people look for fun and unique designs to personalize their belongings.

Now, you could sell stickers on websites like Redbubble or sites like Teespring that let you create print on demand (POD) stickers to sell online.

POD markets like this are certainly an option.

However, while there are tons of platforms out there where you could sell your stickers, here’s a few reasons why Etsy is an ideal choice:

Large Existing Market. As I mentioned, lots of people are making money selling Stickers on Etsy already. For many consumers, Etsy is the go-to for anyone looking to purchase unique artwork of all sorts, and stickers aren't an exception.
Seller Fees. Etsy makes being a seller easy and affordable, only charging a small $0.20 listing fee for each item and a 5% transaction fee, both of which you can account for in your pricing.
Shipping. Etsy offers sellers reduced pricing with USPS courier service, so selling with them will save you money compared to if you were selling on your own.
Your Own Storefront. Etsy gives you complete control over your shop. You can choose your imaging, add videos to your listings, write in-depth product descriptions, offer discounts to returning customers, and even pay to have your listings advertised.

This last point is really the main perk of starting an Etsy sticker shop. With Etsy, you have way more control over your listings, brand, and how you grow your business.

Plus, by writing robust product descriptions and following search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, you can rank your products on Google searches and within the Etsy marketplace itself.

The bottom line is that Etsy is beginner-friendly, affordable, and has a large enough market to help you make money selling stickers online.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Print On Demand Stickers For Etsy Sell?

Yes, print on demand stickers can be sold on Etsy. Companies like Printify and Printful both let you add your designs to a variety of stickers and then sell them directly through your Etsy shop. You can also sell digital sticker designs if you don't want to sell physical products.

Do Stickers Sell Well On Etsy?

Yes, stickers are a popular category on Etsy and sell well. In fact, some shops even make a full-time income from digital and physical sticker sales alone.

For example, Etsy shop A Corn & Crow Studio specializes in stickers and has over 388,000 sales. Many of the stickers sell for $5 to $10, so this shop has made over $1 million from selling stickers.

This sticker business focuses on festive designs, like Halloween decor, and it's a leader in its niche. And this is just one example of what's possible when selling stickers on Etsy.

Final Thoughts

I hope our guide on how to sell stickers on Etsy helps you with starting your own Etsy store.

The sticker market on Etsy is pretty competitive, but if you have some unique design ideas and you’re ready to invest in this as a business or side hustle opportunity, you should definitely give it a shot.

Whether you choose to make the stickers yourself or you want to outsource some of the work, remember that eye-catching designs and a welcoming storefront are the first steps for getting sales.

Luckily Etsy’s listing fees are pretty low, so it doesn’t hurt to try out a few designs and see if anything sells.

And, when in doubt, check out the competition!

Browse around other Etsy sticker shops to see how many sales other sellers are making and what niche they're in. You might find inspiration or decide that a topic or idea is missing in the sticker market, and that’s where you’ll start your design.

While you probably won’t become a millionaire overnight, Etsy is a great place to start up a small sticker business and to start making money online.

Besides, you never know; maybe you can come up with a hit design and turn Etsy into your full time job!

Looking for more money-making ideas? Checkout:

How To Sell Stickers On Etsy – The Ultimate Guide For Sellers