Why I sell my art on Etsy
I started my creative journey at the end of 2015. I left my full-time job, tried to make an online shop, but something was missing. I was doing cross-stitch as a hobby, and once found an article about a girl who crochets and sells her products on an Etsy website. It opened a whole new world to me. I saw that I can not only create embroideries but also sell hand embroidery patterns - digital pdf files there. That was mind-blowing!
I did research and found out that there are a lot of sites like Etsy, and I registered on 4 platforms in total. I didn't get any sales from the other three, so I stuck to Etsy. In this article, I’ll share my thoughts about Etsy and when it’s better than having your own website/shop
Pros:
- It’s a big marketplace, and people come to see what’s there, not only for the special creators. It means you don’t need to have your audience to get sales; they get you the traffic
- Easy to create your shop. The design is self-explanatory, and they also have a Sellers Handbook with lots of tips about making sales, photographs, and so on
- Easy to set up payments. Insert your PayPal email, and it is ready. For some countries, you can use the Etsy payment option: they accept payments from any type of card, PayPal, Klarna, Sofort, and send you the money each week to your bank account (or every day or whatever option you’ll choose). The fee is almost the same as at PayPal, but you’ll need to provide more info about yourself
- You can place 40 of your items for free for 3 months and don’t spend anything on trying (except your time and nerve cells, of course). For this register and open your Etsy shop through my affiliate link. I’ll get 40 free listings too. When you have your shop, you can create your own link and share it with friends.
- Easy tracking of parcels, and you don’t need to send emails yourself. You type in the tracking number, and your customer will receive an email with all the info
- Super easy to sell downloadable files - prints and pdfs. You upload the file, and it’s available for download after the payment. No need to send emails yourself
- Collecting reviews is very easy, and their display is helping customers to see what people are thinking about your products
- Helpful stats, you can see where the customers come from. Which listings are doing well and not so well, and a lot of other info that will help you to understand how to grow and develop your business
Cons:
- Each listing costs 0,2$ to place for 3 months, and there’s a 6.5 % transaction fee. Probably it doesn't belong to cons since each platform costs money, but it's not a pro either
- If you do have your own audience, when you direct them to your Etsy shop, they can leave you and go to the different sellers from your listings. Etsy makes a list of items "you may also like" and shows it under your listing and reviews. Not everyone will scroll to the end, but still
- The latest update made some adjustments for those who are doing well on Etsy. If your shop made $10,000 USD or more in total sales in a year, you have to participate in the Offsite Ads program. Etsy advertises your products across the web, and you pay 15% from each sale
Summary
It’s a great platform to try selling your art, especially if you don’t have an audience yet and don’t want to invest money into building your website. Also, this is a good choice for selling digital (downloadable items). As soon as you see that you’re making more traffic than Etsy gives you, it may be the moment to move to your own website and save on the fees and have more control over your shop