Mockups buyers trust

What Etsy's help says

From How Do Etsy's Listing Image Requirements Apply to My Listings?:

• "Etsy requires at least one unedited photo for most items."
• "An unedited photo should show the actual item against a real background and must not be edited or changed in any way."
• "Some exceptions may apply depending on the types of items you sell."
• "For other images, you can use photo editing tools, including AI, as long as your images accurately represent what buyers will receive."
• "Make your first listing photo the clearest, most realistic representation of the item buyers will receive."
• "If a production partner prints your original design on a standard base product (like a t-shirt or mug), you may use a stock photo mockup, if the stock photo's owner has authorized its use."

Requirements and Best Practices for Images adds: "If you use AI to edit any of your listing photos, note whether images were edited in your listing description."

For personalized items, How to Offer Personalized Listings says: "For personalized commercial items (such as engraved or monogrammed products), your primary image must show a finished, personalized item similar to the final product. Do not use blank product images or mockups with placeholder text (ex. "Your Text Here") as the main image."

What those pages leave open

The pages above do not say whether a stock photo mockup can stand in for the unedited photo, or whether a mockup may be the first image. Etsy's other pages on photos are linked at the end.

Our advice: take the stricter reading. Order a sample of your best seller, photograph it, and use real photos where you can.

Making a mockup honest

This part is our own advice:

• Show the real garment. Use a photo of the blank you actually sell, or one your production partner supplies for it.
• Show the real size. A design that fills the chest in the picture and prints smaller is a return waiting to happen.
• Show the real colour. Print a test and compare. Keep your photos in their original colour profile, so the shade on screen stays true.
• Show only what you offer. If a colour is not in your variations, do not show it.
• Have the right to use the photo. For a bought or downloaded mockup, check the licence covers use in product listings.

Things that make a mockup look false

• A design floating flat over folds, with no shading.
• A print running over a collar, seam or pocket.
• A dark print that disappears on a dark shirt, or a light one on white.
• Hair or arms that should be in front of the print but are behind it.

Say who makes it

Using mockups does not change what you must share. Working with Production Partners says: "We require sellers using production assistance to transparently share this information on the applicable listings."