Apparently, Good Design Is Optional Now (Thanks, Etsy)

The reasons trash shops make loads of sales.

Author

Miroslav Novohradsky
October 05, 2025

Let’s talk about the unholy miracle that is the trash Etsy store making $100K in sales.

You know the one.

Their banner looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint by a raccoon. Their product photos? Lit by the pale glow of regret and a 40-watt bulb.

Their logo? Comic Sans having a midlife crisis.

And yet… they’re printing money.

Meanwhile, your store, the one you spent hours branding like an Apple keynote on Pinterest steroids, sits there, tumbleweeds blowing through your “Add to Cart” button.

It’s the Etsy paradox: the worse the store looks, the better it sells.

It’s capitalism’s version of Stockholm syndrome.

And before you throw your ring light out the window, it’s not even your fault.

Because these “rubbish” stores aren’t special. They’re mostly ghosts of COVID past, ad-spending zombies, and bargain-bin visibility junkies.

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Watch This Hack

Here’s something practical before you rage-delete your Etsy store: uploading your own fonts to Canva.

Because if your brand is still rocking Montserrat and Playfair Display, you might as well hang a sign that says “I design for exposure.”

Here’s the hack: In Canva, go to Brand → Upload Fonts → Drag-and-drop that glorious TTF or OTF file like the font snob you are. Boom. Your typography is now as custom as your caffeine addiction.

Mobile users: Same thing. Open Canva, go to your Brand Kit, hit Upload, and watch your phone ask existential questions like “Are you sure this font isn’t cursed?”

And since fonts are the unsung heroes of visual personality, I dropped a full video guide for you: 🎥 How to Upload Fonts to Canva (Desktop & Mobile) + Where to Find Free Fonts for Your Brand → [Watch the video here]

It’s got font sourcing tips, secret sites, and one spot that’s basically the black market for typography (legally).

Because no matter how great your Etsy SEO is, if your product mockups are screaming default Canva font energy, you’ll never make it out of aesthetic purgatory.

The Rubbish Store Phenomenon

Now back to our main event: the mystery of the ugly Etsy success story.

From the video transcript we dug into, here’s the important part:

They’re Echoes of the Pandemic Boom

Most of those “wow, 80,000 sales!” shops are actually COVID fossils. They sold masks, hit visibility gold, and rode the algorithmic high into the sunset.

Today? They’re basically Etsy corpses with impressive gravestones. If you check their weekly numbers, most are selling one or two items a day.

But the illusion remains, because Etsy doesn’t show momentum. It just shows cumulative clout.

So yes, they once killed it, but right now, they’re about as alive as Vine.

They Burned Money Like Tinder Matches

Many of those “successful” stores had ad budgets that would make Facebook blush. They paid Etsy ads like it was a Vegas slot machine.

Yes, they made sales, but often at a loss. They weren’t running businesses. They were running experiments in financial masochism.

Ad visibility ≠ organic success. (Repeat that before Etsy convinces you to sell your kidneys for a “boost.”)

They Priced Their Souls (and Products) Too Low

You’ve seen it, printables for 80 cents. Fonts for $1.50. That’s not entrepreneurship. That’s digital self-harm.

These sellers often run at a loss just to gain visibility. Which, to be fair, does trigger Etsy’s dopamine-loving algorithm. But it’s like drinking Monster Energy to stay awake, it works for a bit, then your business collapses.

So yeah, low pricing can attract buyers… but it also attracts the kind of customers who think “Can I get a discount?” is a personality trait.

They’ve Got Big Social Media Hype Machines

Some of these “mystery millionaires” aren’t even Etsy stores, they’re influencer merch drops in disguise.

Huge TikTok or YouTube followings → instant Etsy traffic → no mystery at all.

But as the video reminds us: that kind of following is a full-time job. You’re not building a store anymore. You’re building a cult.

And that’s fine if you enjoy filming your face daily for strangers’ validation but otherwise, organic Etsy SEO still wins.

They’re Massive… Like, Absurdly Massive

Volume still matters. When a store has 3,000 listings, it’s not because they’re creative geniuses. It’s because they threw enough spaghetti at the Etsy wall that some of it stuck.

Each product becomes another search hook. Multiply that by thousands, and you’ve got algorithmic surface area.

That’s a quantity-over-quality life. You’ll need caffeine, cloning technology, and zero emotional attachment to your products.

Why Ugly Still Wins

Here’s the wild part, ugliness sells because it feels real.

We live in an age of algorithmic design perfection, AI thumbnails, sterile branding, hyper-curated feeds. Consumers are exhausted.

When they stumble upon a slightly messy Etsy shop with too many emojis and a badly cropped photo of a mug, their brain goes, “Ah, yes. A real human. Not a design intern with imposter syndrome.”

It’s the same reason people buy “handmade” soap that looks like it was cut with a bread knife. The imperfection is the product.

So what looks like bad design might actually be strategic relatability.

That’s the paradox: in the age of Canva polish, authenticity looks like amateurism.

This doesn’t mean you should make your store ugly, it means you should let it breathe. Don’t overbrand yourself into oblivion.

Because Etsy shoppers don’t want to buy from Apple. They want to buy from you.

Wait, What?!

Here’s a stat that’ll make you throw your ring light out the window:

In 2024, people spent more money on “printable wall art” than on actual, physical framed art.

Translation: people are buying JPEGs of quotes like “Live Laugh Love” instead of paintings.

If that doesn’t tell you how aesthetic inflation has broken the human brain, nothing will.

So yes — rubbish stores sell because humans are weird, algorithms are weirder, and authenticity is the new perfection.

TL;DR - The Survival Blueprint

  1. Don’t copy the “rubbish” stores — study them.

  2. Check sales momentum, not totals.

  3. Don’t underprice. Ever.

  4. Use Canva properly (and your own fonts, for the love of Helvetica).

  5. Keep your store authentic, not sterile.

  6. Laugh at the chaos, then profit from it.

Your Etsy shop isn’t losing because it’s “not good enough.” It’s losing because you’re comparing your current effort to someone else’s historic artifact.

Now go upload your fonts, fix your mockups, and stop judging your first 200 sales like they’re your legacy.

Because somewhere out there, a store called “CraftyMcGlueGun2020” is still selling pandemic leftovers and you’re out here building a brand.

Stay loud.

Stay weird.

Stay beautifully unpolished.

Have a nice day,

Miroslav from The Design Nexus

TOOLS YOU SHOULD TRY

Even if you sell products other than mugs or t-shirts, it doesn't mean it will cost you more.

There are tools that can help you with the tasks, and most of them have free versions.

Disclaimer: Within the article, you will find affiliate links. If you decide to purchase through these links, I want to sincerely assure you that I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

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