How To Create Invitations To Sell On Etsy
Are you interested in learning how to start an invitation business on Etsy?
Whether you want to make and see wedding invitations or other paper products, Etsy is the place to go for handmade, beautifully designed invitations nowadays.
Etsy is the world’s largest online marketplace for handmade goods.
Etsy sellers can sell items like jewelry, clothing, artwork, home decor, vintage items, and more.
One of the most popular items to sell on Etsy are printable products and paper items such as invitations.
So you are probably wondering, how do I make and sell invitations on Etsy? Never fear, in this post, we will go through everything you need to know, including:
- Tips for picking the best invitations to sell
- How to create invitations for your business – tools and techniques
- Getting started on Etsy
- How to create a successful invitation business on Etsy – pricing, promotions and more
- Beyond invitations – other paper products to make and sell on Etsy
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure for more information
More Etsy Business Ideas
Make Money Selling Prints On Etsy
How To Sell Coloring Pages On Etsy
Ultimate Guide To Selling Quilts On Etsy
How To Start An Invitation Business On Etsy
To start an Etsy stationery business, you need to have an idea for what you want to sell. Bear in mind that it isn’t just about what you want to sell but what people want to buy!
Tips For Finding The Bestselling Invitations On Etsy
You may already have some ideas for great invitations to make and sell on Etsy but if you don’t there are a few things that can help you market research.
Check out Etsy
First of all, spend some time on Etsy and search for different invitations. Look at the listings on the top of the search results and the kinds of invites that people are looking for.
Use An Etsy Keyword Tool
Once you have got familiar with the invitation listings on Etsy, you can ramp up your research by checking out a website that will show you the top selling types of invitations on Etsy.
There are quite a few keyword tools out there, my personal favorite is Sale Samurai. You can get a free 3 day trial to check it out.
If you want to see how to use this tool to find the best selling invitations, you can read my Sale Samurai tutorial and watch my video here.
You can perform a search on Sales Samurai that will show you the most searched for invitations on Etsy plus the level of competition from other sellers.
Here is the first page of my results when I search for the keyword “invitation”:
Using both a keyword tool and your own research on Etsy should help you find some great ideas for your Etsy invitation business.
What Are The Bestselling Invitations on Etsy?
To get you started on your keyword research, here is a list of the top selling invitations on Etsy this year.
- Wedding Invitation
- Birthday Invitation
- Baptism Invitation
- Quineanera Invitation
- 1st Birthday Invitation
- Bridal Shower Invitation
- Bachelorette Invitation
- Virtual Baby Shower
- Priesthood and Temple Preview
- Brunch Invitation
You can choose to focus on just one of these invitation categories or you can open an Etsy store that caters to all kinds of parties and events.
Bear in mind that within each category, there are many different types of invitation.
For example, within the birthday invitation category, here are the most popular search terms on Etsy:
- Unicorn Birthday
- Navy Blue
- Confetti
- Moana Invitation
- Elmo Invitation
- L.O.L Invitation
- Doughnut Invitation
- Masquerade
- Skating Invitation
You can see that the world is your oyster when it comes to finding creating and selling invitations that sell on Etsy.
Now that you know how to find invitations to sell, let’s look at how to actually make them
How To Create Invitations For Your Etsy Business
Before you being creating your invitation, consider whether you want to sell digital products or physical paper products.
What’s the difference?
Digital v Physical Invitations
Digital products – you create the invitation on your computer and your customer buys the PDF or Jpeg download. They are then responsible for printing it out on their own.
The advantage of digital products is that you can make the product one time and sell it over and over again. You also don’t have to worry about shipping or printing costs and logistics.
Physical Products – you design, create and sell the product. Often the item is highly customizable meaning you will make it once the sale has been made so you can add in information such a dates and names.
The advantage to selling paper products is that these sell for a much higher price than digital products plus they are more in demand, especially when it comes to wedding invitations.
The disadvantage is that you have to do a lot more work to create invitations for each sale plus you will need to factor in shipping and handling costs as well as printing the invites out.
Tools For Creating Invitations
In order to learn how to start an Invitation business on Etsy, you will need the right products.
Luckily, you don’t need to invest a ton of money to get started.
Whether you choose to make digital or physical invitations, the tools you need are more or less the same.
First you will need some kind of editing software.
Here are my top choices for creating invitations to sell on Etsy:
Canva is a great tool because you can use the free plan to get started. It allows you to create all different kinds of templates and invitations to sell on Etsy.
If you want to know how to make amazing invitations on Canva, I highly recommend this course I took last year. It includes free templates plus step by step videos on using Canva to make your designs.
Adobe Illustrator is a program designed for graphic designers that can be used to create simple products.There is more of a learning curve than Canva.
Photoshop is a program that can be used for more complex projects, but may require even more experience than Adobe Illustrator.
Affinity Publisher – Another product I like is Affinity as it is much cheaper than Illustrator or Photoshop. I haven’t used it too much but if you want to learn more, I highly recommend checking out this course on creating printables with Affinity.
You can create your invitations in one of these programs and then download the files in a variety of formats, including PDF, JPEG, and SVG.
If you are selling digital products, you can then upload the invitation file to Etsy and sell it. For paper products, you will want to print them out, photograph them and be ready for your sales to come in.
Corij – If you want to make editable digital invitations, then Corij is what you need. This product will allow you to sell digital invites that your customers can then edit themselves before printing.
Where to find graphics and fonts for your invitations
To start making products for your invitation business on Etsy, you’ll need to have a commercial use license for whatever graphics and fonts you use.
You can’t just grab some clipart from Google and use it on invitations you sell. Unfortunately, you will need to purchase or create your own graphics and fonts for your use on your products.
You also need to be very careful about trademark infringement and make sure you have permission to use any commercial characters (cartoons etc).
Here are the best places to find graphics and fonts:
The Hungry Jpeg
I buy most of my graphics from The Hungry Jpeg. They offer tons of bundles of graphics, fonts and illustrations for great prices.
They also have a weekly freebie that includes a complete license that you can use on products for sale – check out this week’s here.
Creative Fabrica
This site has lots of great font and graphics bundles plus great freebies. It is one of my favorite places to find watercolor clipart for my Etsy invitation business.
Creative Market
This is another great place to source fonts and graphics for your digital products. Creative Market also gives out 6 free items every Monday so it is worth checking out.
Procreate App
The Procreate app allows for users to import their artwork. If you want to design your own graphics, this is where to start. The app is available for iPad and costs $9.99.
Canva
You can use clipart and fonts that are free to use for commercial use. This includes most of their graphics and some of the fonts. The only catch is that you can only use altered graphics and media:
From the Canva website:
Unaltered vs altered media
By using content in a design or a composition, you’re creating something unique – once you do, there are very few restrictions on what you can do with your creations. Go wild!
However, unaltered media has restrictions – it can only be used in up to 800×600 (or 600×800) pixel dimensions and it can’t be sold or printed on products or merchandise.
Listing Your Invitations on Etsy
Once you have created your invitations, you are ready to actually learn how to start your invitations business on Etsy.
If you don’t already have an Etsy account, now is the time to create one. You will also need to start your Etsy shop.
First, you need to have a shop. Go to Etsy and click on “Create Shop”.
Use this special shop invitation from me to get 40 free listings to start you off.
You will then be prompted to add some basic information about your shop. Etsy will then ask you to make a few small changes in order to get your shop ready to sell.
To walk you through the whole Etsy set-up, I recommend you download my free Starting An Etsy Shop Checklist PDF.
This will take you step by step from launching your shop to listing your invitations and beyond.
Tips for creating your Etsy Listings
- Use photo that are high resolution and in color. (2000px x 2000 px is recommended)
- Create a title that accurately reflects the content of your file.
- Choose an accurate price for your digital file based on its quality and size.
- Improve your Etsy SEO by using my free printable checklist.
- You can also use the Sales Samurai Listing feature which will help you create listings with keywords to get seen on Etsy search.
If you are selling digital invitations, make sure to explain clearly to customers how and where they should print off the invitations for best results.
When listing your digital product, be sure to consider the customer’s print preferences.
Make it easy for the customer to use and understand your product. Clearly explain what they should expect after purchase, how they will retrieve the product and how to download them.
Name and file your digital products clearly for easier customers to find.
Try to resolve customer issues as much as possible, but be willing to draw the line at excessive tech support.
Tips For Printing Invitations
You can either use the tips below yourself when printing your paper invitations or you can include them in your Etsy listing for buyers.
Digital products can be printed at a number of places. You can also print on demand at any local print shop, such as Staples.
You can also print your digital product at home if you buy a good quality laser printer.
Print your invitations on high quality paper and make sure to tell customers the kind of paper you will be using in your Etsy product listing.
How To Price Your Invitations on Etsy
One of the most important things to consider when you are learning how to start an invitation business on Etsy is pricing.
Starting a paper or wedding stationery business can be a great way to make money – as long you price your products correctly.
Keep in mind that Etsy charges 20 cents per listing and 5% transaction fees when deciding on pricing.
You will also need to factor in any packaging supplies and printing costs if you are selling paper invitations.
To help you decide on the right pricing, you can check out similar listings on Etsy and price your invitations in the middle. You don’t want to go too high or too low, especially when you are starting off and building your Etsy shop.
If you use Sales Samurai, you can make sure of their pricing tool too see how much invitations on Etsy sell for:
How To Promote Your Etsy Invitation Business
There are a few things you can do to market your Etsy shop to potential customers.
You can create seasonal sales and special offers for shoppers. These work especially well around peak times such as the New Year for wedding invitations.
You can also promote your Etsy shop on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is another place where you can promote your Etsy invitation business.
Don’t forget to also network and make contacts such as wedding planners and event professionals who could refer their clients to you.
I have lots of tips on creating sales and coupons on Etsy in my Starting An Etsy Shop Checklist.
Other Paper and Digital Products To Make And Sell On Etsy
The top Etsy shop owners sell all kinds of digital downloads.
There is no rule that says you have to only sell invitations so consider branching out to selling printables on Etsy such as:
- Embroidery fonts
- Printable wall art
- Coloring sheets (this is a great niche – get started with my guide to How To Sell Coloring Pages On Etsy)
For a full list of ideas, you can check out my 51 Best Selling Printables on Etsy
How To Start An Invitation Business on Etsy – FAQS
What size should my digital invitations be?
Etsy allows you to upload 5 digital files for each listing on Etsy. Each file has a limit of 20mb so you may need to compress your files into zips if your downloads are graphic heavy.
If you have trouble minimizing the size of your digital downloads, another option is to upload it to dropbox and provide your buyers with a link to the item there. I’ve used this option and it works great.
What file format should I use for wedding invitations?
I normally offer my products in both PDF and jpeg formats. Most people want the PDF but it’s nice to offer both options to your customers. Canva makes it really easier to download both file types.
What about paper size?
You can offer letter size for US customers and A4 for European buyers plus other options such as 5 x 7 or 8 x 10 depending on what kind of product you are selling.
How To Start An Invitation Business on Etsy – Final Thoughts
Make sure you have the right supplies and equipment before starting your business, and always stay up-to-date on new trends in the industry.
Stay positive and motivated throughout the process – it can be tough work starting a stationery business from scratch but with the right products, you will quickly see results.
More Etsy Tips and Tricks
Can I Change My Etsy Shop Name?{Ultimate Step By Step}
10 Best Selling Vintage Items On Etsy
12 Best Things To Sell On Etsy To Make Money
