Role Overview
The Handmade Store Manager at Strategist level is a growth driver. Clients don’t hire you to maintain a shop — they expect you to push it forward. Your role is to lead Etsy shop performance with a sharp focus on product strategy, listing optimization, and visibility. This means making informed decisions that grow traffic, increase conversion, and ultimately raise revenue. You’re not just running a shop; you’re actively managing it for scale.
This is not a content-only role. It’s not about uploading what the client gives or waiting for instructions. It’s also not just about “being creative” — creativity must be backed by market relevance and performance. The client expects you to understand product-market fit, identify what’s working (and what’s not), and use data to guide improvements. If you miss signals or settle into routine tasks, you’ll slow growth or lose momentum entirely.
The performance of the store lives or dies by the strength of its strategy and execution. Done right, your work drives consistent growth, improves rankings, and makes the brand more competitive over time. Done poorly, it leads to flatlining sales, wasted client investment, and lost trust. Clients expect you to move the needle. That’s the job.
Standards You Must Meet
• You’re expected to grow the store, which means clients will look for clear month-over-month gains in traffic, visibility, and sales — not just “effort.”
• Strategy must lead to action: you’ll be judged on your ability to identify bestsellers, refine product lines, and guide listing focus to what performs.
• Clients trust that you’ll bring them answers — not questions — when it comes to product performance, pricing moves, and search trends.
• Weak listings can’t stay live for long; if you’re not auditing and iterating regularly, you’re holding the store back.
• Product-market fit is not optional: clients expect you to test, validate, and adjust until key products start converting.
• They will not accept passive execution — just posting what they give without direction or optimization is a fail.
• Every listing must be structured to rank and convert; if your updates don’t move those metrics, they don’t count.
• Clients will judge you on how you handle slow weeks — if you’re not diagnosing issues and proposing fixes, they’ll assume you’re not in control.
What You’ll Be Doing
• Review shop performance weekly to spot sales drop-offs, shifting trends, or listings needing immediate action.
• Create and execute listing updates that improve keyword alignment, image quality, and conversion-driving copy.
• Identify underperforming SKUs and recommend whether to refine, reposition, or retire based on store data.
• Build visibility plans tied to buyer intent, seasonal relevance, and high-opportunity keywords.
• Run price or variation tests on high-potential listings and report clear learnings to guide future actions.
• Advise on product decisions with marketplace logic — what sells, which formats convert, and what direction scales.
• Monitor Etsy SEO tools to stay ahead of ranking shifts and ensure every listing meets current search behavior.
• Respond promptly to flat sales weeks with analysis, solution options, and strategic next steps.
What You’ll Hand Over
• A prioritized product focus report showing which listings are driving sales, which need improvement, and which should be retired.
• A monthly listing optimization summary covering keyword upgrades, price changes, image adjustments, and copy rewrites.
• A weekly visibility strategy tied to real-time trends, search data, and buyer behavior insights.
• A diagnostic action log that tracks key performance drops, proposed fixes, and actual recovery steps taken.
• A product-market fit validation sheet showing buyer signals, test outcomes, and next steps for scaling.
Tools You’ll Need to Use
• Etsy Seller Dashboard — Central hub for managing listings, orders, inventory, and customer communications.
• eRank or Marmalead — Used to research keywords, monitor competition, and optimize for Etsy SEO performance.
• Canva — Essential for creating on-brand product graphics, listing images, and promotional materials.
• Google Sheets — Tracks product data, sales reports, and store metrics in a clear, shareable format.
• Trello or ClickUp — Manages task pipelines, launch calendars, and collaboration between strategist and creative teams.
• Gmail + Google Drive — Core platforms for professional communication, file storage, and documentation sharing.
• Facebook + Instagram (Meta Business Suite) — Supports social media marketing, ad tracking, and audience engagement for organic and paid efforts.
Why Work Smarter
This role doesn’t require you to build full automations today—but you must understand what’s possible, and you must be able to identify what can and should be automated. If you’re still manually copying data from Etsy into spreadsheets or inboxes, you’re billing clients for work that should have been solved with a bot. That’s not sustainable.
OES sets AI and automation awareness as a standard because the market already expects it. If you can’t keep up with that reality, you won’t keep up with the role.
Why Your Work Matters
For handmade sellers on Etsy, visibility and conversions don’t happen by accident. When sales slow down or listings underperform, the damage is immediate: lost revenue, wasted ad spend, and growing doubt in the brand’s direction. Clients aren’t looking for someone to just “keep the shop running”—they need decisive action that protects their momentum and unlocks new growth every week. That’s why this role is at the core of profitability: there’s no margin for passive management in a marketplace this competitive.
Every week a listing stays weak, it drags the shop down. Poor strategy compounds losses, but strong strategy compounds gains. Clients trust this role to make smart calls fast—what to update, what to drop, where to push—and they’re watching for results, not routine. This isn’t background support. It’s a central lever of income, trust, and growth—and when it’s done right, it changes the trajectory of the entire business.
What We Expect From You
As a Strategist Handmade Store Manager in Etsy + Handmade, you are expected to lead with both insight and control. You’re not here to be told what works—you bring the judgment and foresight to decide what moves the store forward. You can interpret performance data, assess operational risk, and map decisions back to profitability and client priorities. You understand that on Etsy, strategy is not one-size-fits-all—you must sequence, stage, and adapt while remaining compliant with platform rules and handmade standards. If something underperforms, you lean into the problem until you’ve engineered a solution worth scaling.
We are looking for someone with a bias for disciplined experimentation, not guesswork. You must be able to manage a handmade operation profitably, balancing handmade production workflows with marketplace strategy. The clients and VAs are relying on your leadership—your choices drive revenue, set pace, and shape brand presence. This role isn’t about executing someone else’s plan—it’s about creating and standing behind your own. If you aren’t prepared to be accountable for both risk and results, this is not the level for you.
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$525 – $1,500
OES salary standards reflect real market benchmarks, tier and experience level, ensuring fair pay for VAs and realistic expectations for clients.
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