Can You Sell Canva Designs on Etsy? (YES! Here’s how)

Making passive income is all the rage these days! If you’re like me, you’re always looking for new ways to monetize something you know how to do, especially if it’s something you can build up and sit back and collect money from. So, if you know how to use Canva, you know how easy it is to use to make things like printables, flyers, graphics for social media posts and more.

With its user-friendly interface and a wide range of design elements, Canva has become a popular choice among those who aren’t designers, but even some designers have switched to Canva due to ease of use. It’s only natural to wonder if you can use Canva to create designs to sell on marketplaces like Etsy. But you may be wondering: Can I sell Canva designs on Etsy?

In this blog post, I’ll answer that question in detail, such as the legality of selling Canva designs on Etsy, how to create profitable Canva designs, the benefits of selling on Etsy, tips for selling Canva products on Etsy, and more.

Related guide: How to Sell Digital Downloads on Etsy Using Canva (2023)

Can You Sell Canva Designs on Etsy?

The good news is YES, you can definitely sell Canva designs on Etsy. Even with just the free plan! However, the first step is to understand the legality of selling designs made with a Canva account. It can be a little confusing if you’re not used to reading legal documents, but put simply, here are the rules to selling Canva designs on Etsy:

• Do not use Canva’s premade templates for resale
• Do create your own original design using a combination of Canva’s elements
• Do not sell a design where one of Canvas elements is the only part of the design (aka don’t create a digital art print that is simply an enlarged version of a Canva provided element)

While there are some limitations within Canva’s terms, as stated clearly above, you are allowed to sell Canva designs on Etsy as long as you follow the rules. This still leaves PLENTY of room, while staying within their license agreement, to make thousands of designs using Canva provided elements, as well as your own!

Disclaimer: The above is not legal advice. You should always review Canva’s terms for yourself!

Is Etsy a Good Place to Sell Canva Designs?

When searching for an online marketplace to sell digital products made with Canva, Etsy is a great option! Here are some of the reasons I recommend selling your Canva designs on Etsy:

• Etsy has a large and active community of buyers who are loyal to the platform
• Etsy has a global audience, meaning you can reach buyers from all over the world which is great for digital products where you don’t have to pay for or provide shipping
• Etsy offers a variety of tools and resources to help you market and promote

your products, such as Etsy Ads and SEO optimization.

• Etsy has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and manage product listings.
• The fees are relatively low on Etsy

Creating Profitable Canva Designs for Etsy

Now, you can’t quite create any old thing and sell it on Etsy. I mean, you could, but that doesn’t mean it’ll make you very much money. When starting an online side hustle or business, you want to make sure that you’re putting time into something that’s going to actually make you a good income in the end.

Creating profitable Canva designs for Etsy requires creativity and market research. Here are some of my best tips for creating profitable Canva designs to sell on Etsy:

Do research first to see what’s selling well

The first thing you should start with when deciding what to sell on Etsy is research. I personally love using Everbee to search for different types of products to see how many people are searching for those types of products and to see how current products are performing to make sure it’s profitable.

Use PLR templates as a shortcut to save time

Creating products from scratch is great but can take a long time! I cut hours off my time by occasionally using PLR products, which are products that provide you with the rights to resell. In fact, these types of products you can sell as is! I like to customize them a bit if they come in the form of an editable template design, but it can be a great starting point! My favorite place to get PLR products is my Ivory Mix membership and Creative Fabrica.

Consider adding extras or bonuses

People love to get a good deal, so consider adding extras or bonuses to your digital downloads. This could be something like additional templates, several different color schemes or styles, or even instructional videos on how to use the product. This can be the perfect way for Etsy sellers to lead someone who is considering a product to follow through with the purchase.

Use high-quality elements in your designs

If you’re selling designs, there’s no excuse for low quality. You want to make sure your designs look professional, so invest in high-quality elements such as fonts and stock photos. Canva’s own elements are usually great for most applications and I also love using the hundreds of thousands of options at Creative Fabrica.

Stay up to date on the latest trends

Finally, make sure you stay up to date on the latest design trends. There’s nothing worse than creating something that looks dated or has been done a thousand times before. Check out what is popular in your niche so you can attract your ideal customer! For example, soft boho colors are really popular for nursery wall art right now, which means focusing on this style can help you draw in more customers.

Tips for Selling Canva Designs on Etsy

Make sure you optimize for Etsy SEO

The biggest key to making sales is to make sure that buyers can actually find your items in search. Even doing a quick search to find the best keyword for your listing title is better than ignoring this all together, which I find some aspiring Etsy sellers do, unfortunately. Your best bet is using an Etsy keyword research tool like Everbee that can show you the most popular keyword searches and analyze your competition.

Save and deliver files in the right format

Make sure you save and deliver your files in the right format. Most people are going to want a PDF or JPG version of the design so they can easily print it off at home without encountering any difficulties. Make sure you provide this option for buyers and you’re clear about what file formats are included in the design in your listing.

Side note: You can also sell Canva templates on Etsy! A great way to do this is to create a clickable PDF file with the template link so that your buyer can make a copy of the template after purchase.

Design good listing graphics for your products

When it comes to selling anything online, good visuals are essential, especially when your item has to stand out among the hundreds of other results! Make sure you create high-quality graphics for your product listing that accurately represent the design and entice buyers. You can make use of Canva’s amazing templates to help with this process! I also recommend having a few good Canva mockup templates to make this process quicker and look more professional! I like these.

Inspire buyer confidence with short and sweet descriptions

While you want to be concise and informative with your product descriptions, it’s also important to find a balance and be enticing as well. This will help draw people in to actually want to buy your design. I usually recommend just a couple of sentences selling the product to potential buyers and then a bulleted checklist clearly outlining what’s included in the product.

Show potential buyers exactly how to buy

It may be self-explanatory to you, but some people may not be as savvy when it comes to buying digital products. Make sure you clearly explain exactly what people need to do in order to purchase your design and provide them with quick step-by-step instructions if necessary. A quick “How To Buy” or “How It Works” section in your description as well as as a graphic, showing how easy it is to order and download your digital designs, can provide buyers with confidence that they can figure it out and have their design downloaded quickly.

Have a strong brand and shop name

While your actual products and listings are the most important part of your shop, make sure you also focus on creating a strong brand. This includes coming up with a decent shop name as well and having cohesive branding elements in all of your listings, such as using the same font and colors throughout everything.

The problem with branding is I feel like a lot of new sellers spend too much time on this! Use some Canva templates for logos as inspiration to get one together quickly. You can always tweak it later, just don’t get caught up spending hours on this when you could be working on your actual products.

Spend time marketing your shop

One thing you should spend time doing is marketing your shop! While Etsy does have built in buyers, it can take time to start making sales and they don’t just come automatically. There are ways within Etsy to promote your shop such as having a sale or running Etsy ads. I also recommend finding external ways to market your shop whether that means starting a Pinterest account or other type of social media account.

I hope this blog post has answered your question about selling Canva designs on Etsy and even provided you with some great ideas for selling Canva designs on Etsy. By following the tips and guidelines I’ve shared with you, you can create profitable, unique designs that will help you build a successful new Etsy shop and hopefully earn some passive income soon enough!

Just make sure to follow Canva’s licensing agreement and Etsy’s guidelines to ensure that your product listings are legal and don’t violate any copyright laws and you’ll be just fine. It’s time to put your creative skills to the test so start making some extra income on Etsy with Canva!