If you sell printables or PLR-based products on Etsy, the holidays are a good time to run a promotion. Set up Etsy’s discount tools a few weeks early so you can check everything works before shoppers arrive.
Where to find the tools
Go to Shop Manager > Marketing > Sales and discounts. Your options:
- Sales. A percentage off (or free shipping, irrelevant for downloads). You choose the discount, which countries it applies to and which listings are included. If you add a minimum order, the sale has to cover your whole shop and you can’t leave any items out.
- Promo codes. A percentage off (any whole number from 5% to 75% of the list price) or a fixed amount off. You can cap how many times a code is used in total or let it run without a limit, and you can restrict each buyer to one use. The total limit is locked once you create the code, but you can switch the code off whenever you want.
- Discounted bundles. Put up to three listings together at a discount, for example a planner and two matching inserts. A listing can belong to only one bundle at a time, and bundle discounts don’t combine with your other promotions.
- Targeted offers. Codes Etsy emails automatically to shoppers who have opted in to marketing emails. They cover abandoned carts (items left in a cart for more than two hours), favorited items, “interested shoppers” and thank-you offers sent after an order is completed. Each type has its own expiration window. Abandoned-cart and favorited-item codes last 60 days, interested-shopper codes last 7 days, and thank-you codes last a year.
- Make an Offer. Buyers can propose their own price on listings you choose, and you can set the largest discount you’re willing to consider. It’s only available when both you and the buyer use USD, and you can’t set it up in the Etsy Seller app.
How discounts interact
Shoppers generally can’t stack discounts on one item. When a sale and a targeted offer both apply to a listing, the buyer gets whichever discount is larger. If two of your sales cover the same region and listings, only the higher discount applies, and Etsy flags the conflict at setup.
Keep your pricing honest
Etsy’s Seller Policy says sales, discounts and price comparisons have to reflect real pricing and must not mislead buyers about how good a deal is or how long it lasts. The Seller Handbook adds that a sale should be a temporary cut from a price your item has actually sold at for a reasonable period. You can’t briefly raise a price to make a discount look bigger, and an item that’s almost always discounted may have that lower price treated as its real price. If you advertise “up to X% off,” a meaningful number of items should actually carry that discount.
Practical tips for digital sellers
- Run a few clear holiday promotions rather than sales all season.
- Bundle related printables so buyers have a reason to spend more.
- Turn on targeted offers early so the abandoned-cart and favorited-item codes have time to reach shoppers.
- Use thank-you offers to bring past buyers back.
- Review results in Sales and discounts, which reports discounted orders, items sold, average order value and discount revenue.
Sources
- Etsy Help Center: How to Set Up Sales and Discounts for Your Shop
- Etsy Help Center: How to Use the Make an Offer Tool
- Etsy Seller Handbook: Understanding Truthful Advertising and Discount Practices
- Etsy: Seller Policy
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