We Audited 199 Etsy Shops. Here's What Busier Shops Do Differently
A listing-by-listing audit of 199 Etsy shops, from brand-new sellers to shops with 25,000+ sales. Videos, materials and announcements separate busier shops more than photo counts do.
We ran the free MOOSIZE shop audit across 199 Etsy shops in October 2026, from brand-new sellers with a handful of sales to shops with tens of thousands.
Each shop's newest active listings (up to 100 per shop) were checked for the basics Etsy and shoppers can see: photos, video, tags, title, description and materials.
The short version: busier shops are not doing anything secret. They are just more consistent about a few boring basics, especially video.
How the shops compared
We grouped shops by their total sales on Etsy.
| Shop sales | Shops | Median audit score | Listings with video | Shops with an announcement | Listings missing materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 100 | 52 | 66 | 29% | 38% | 89% |
| 100 to 999 | 50 | 67 | 33% | 58% | 80% |
| 1,000 to 9,999 | 56 | 78 | 40% | 70% | 60% |
| 10,000+ | 41 | 75 | 42% | 71% | 58% |
Across all 199 shops, the median score was 72 out of 100.
1. Most listings still have no video
64% of listings had no video. That was the most common gap in every group, including the biggest shops.
Shops with 1,000+ sales used video on about 4 in 10 listings. Shops under 100 sales used it on fewer than 3 in 10.
Etsy shows listing videos in search results and at the top of the listing page. A 5 to 15 second clip of the item turning, being used or being unboxed is enough. It does not need sound or editing.
This is the easiest gap to close, and most of your competitors haven't closed it.
2. Photo counts were almost identical
This surprised us. Every group averaged about 8 photos per listing. New shops were not short of photos; on average they had as many as the biggest sellers.
So adding a ninth photo is unlikely to be the thing holding a listing back. What the photos show matters more than how many there are. Check that yours include:
- the item in use or in a real setting
- a close-up of texture or detail
- something that shows scale
- what arrives in the box
3. Materials are the most-skipped field
72% of listings left the materials field empty. In shops under 100 sales, it was 89%.
Materials help Etsy match listings to filtered searches, and they answer a question buyers often ask before ordering. It takes seconds to fill in, and it is one of the clearest differences between newer and established shops in our sample.
4. Announcements signal an active shop
Only 38% of shops under 100 sales had a shop announcement, compared with about 70% of shops with 1,000+ sales.
A short announcement telling visitors what you make, when you ship and any current offer shows visitors the shop is active and cared for. It is a two-minute job.
5. Big shops are the worst for repetitive titles
35% of listings in 10,000+ sale shops repeated the same word three or more times in the title, compared with 6% in shops under 100 sales.
Many large shops built their titles years ago, when stuffing keywords into titles was common advice. Etsy now advises clear, readable titles that lead with what the item is. If you are a newer shop, don't copy old keyword-stuffed titles from big sellers.
6. Tags are mostly handled
82% of listings used all 13 tags. Tags are the basic most sellers already get right. If yours don't, fill the empty slots: each one is another search phrase your listing can be found for.
What this does and doesn't tell you
These are correlations, not proof. Shops with more sales have often been running for longer, and good listings are only part of the story: product, price, photos and reviews all matter too.
What the audit does show is that the basics are uneven. Many shops, big and small, are missing simple things that cost nothing to fix.
How we did it: we found shops through Etsy's public search across 30 everyday product types (mugs, prints, jewellery, candles, stickers and more), then audited each shop's newest listings using public listing data. Shops are not named.
Check your own shop
The free MOOSIZE shop audit runs the same checks on your shop in seconds. Enter your shop name to get:
- a score for your shop and for every listing
- your biggest gaps ranked by how many listings they affect
- your weakest listings listed first, so you know where to start
There's no sign-up needed to see your results.