Should you open an Etsy store or start your own e-commerce website?
Selling your products online is one of the options for artists to make a living, but it can be difficult to decide which platform to use for selling. In this article, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of selling on Etsy versus having your own website, what are the advantages and disadvantages of both options and how to decide what would be most suitable for you. Read on to find out which option is best for you!
What is Etsy?
Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, digital items and craft supplies. It is probably the most popular platform for artists looking to sell their products and it is used worldwide.
People choose Etsy because it’s an established marketplace with a built-in audience of potential customers, and it is quite easy to use.
Pros and Cons of using Etsy
Let's have a more in-depth look at what the platform could offer. I will start with the pros:
Because it's a marketplace, there's already built-in traffic to your shop which can help increase your sales. You would need to learn how to use keywords and what to name your listings in order to reach more people, but the platform gives the opportunity for you to get new customers you wouldn't reach otherwise.
Quick set-up time! You can create your page and start selling in an hour. You would skip wondering which website platform to use, learning how to do it or hiring a website designer.
Additionally, Etsy has a very user-friendly interface, which makes listing and managing your products easy and straightforward. It eliminates the hassle of having to create and update a website, which could be very time-consuming.
The platform is reliable. You wouldn't worry about your shop going down or experiencing technical difficulties, Etsy is a huge company with its own tech team handling all kinds of potential bugs.
Trustworthy to customers. Customers trust Etsy to process their payments and because of their policies that protect customers because it is a large, well-known website.
At the same time though, there are some cons as well that are worth mentioning.
The fees. With time, Etsy has been slowly increasing their fees. They would not charge a setup fee for creating a shop but would take a larger cut of each item you sell.
The platform is highly competitive. It has a huge audience, but it is indeed oversaturated with hundreds of shops, so it could be difficult to stand out from the crowd. This means you may have to work harder to market your shop and get noticed by potential customers. SEO on Etsy today now takes almost as much, and sometimes more, effort than SEO on your own website for ranking in Google, due to how competitive it is.
Another con is that you don’t have as much control over your shop or your brand when you sell on Etsy. You can create a banner for your shop, but otherwise, the design features are extremely limited. This could make it hard to communicate your brand, with all the other similar brands in close proximity. On top of it, people would often go to Etsy, just to buy something from Etsy and would not look into the artists or the specific shop, because they would all look pretty similar and your identity wouldn't really matter to them.
Depending on their policies. If Etsy suddenly decides to change their policies or increase their fees (again) you don't have a say or choice in the matter, you would have to comply.
Having had a thorough look into what Etsy could offer you, now it is time to delve into another popular option:
Benefits and Disadvantages of running your own website
Having your own space on the internet would be much different than using a platform like Etsy, but nevertheless, it would come with its own pros and cons. Let's start with the positives:
The biggest advantage for me is that you can personalise your website and make it look exactly the way you want it. You have complete control over the look and feel of your site, which can help you create a strong brand identity and help communicate your brand across. Growing a strong brand that people would remember and talk about is hard to do just by using Etsy.
There are no fees per listing and per sale, like there is on Etsy, so you can freely create as many listing as you wish without worrying about spending money on that. Payment processors also take a much lower cut than Etsy.
You can have other features than just a blog - you can add a blog, an event page, or a forum. It is up to you and your brand, and the community you would gather.
You also have more say in regard to your shop policies.
Having your own space on the internet allows you to navigate everything and tailor it to your business. That is no small thing and could have a large impact.
Sounds great, but what is the thing you would need to consider before jumping into creating your website?
Setup time and cost. The initial setup would take longer than starting a page on Etsy, and you would need to invest in your own domain and web host, learn to design and pay a professional. It is an ongoing investment, but since it doesn't charge you per listing and per sale, it could be saving you more money in the long run.
Maintenance and management are up to you. You might run into technical difficulties you would have to figure out yourself. Platforms like Squarespace or Wix however offer 24/7 customer support, so I personally am not too worried about this aspect.
SEO is a separate skill on its own that you would need to learn in order to push your website to gain more traffic and be more successful. But the same goes for Etsy too!
Marketing
I want to make a quick point about marketing and promoting your business- having an Etsy page doesn't mean you should do less in that aspect!
Having your separate website means you should work to drive people to visit it, but having an Etsy page means you have to work in order to compete with other similar listings right next to yours.
Conclusion
Selling online comes with its own set of pros and cons, but ultimately the decision is yours. If you're looking for a platform that can help you build your brand identity and offers more customization options, then having your own website might be ideal. On the other hand, if convenience and quick setup are important to you, Etsy could be an ideal platform for starting out.
I would usually recommend Etsy for beginners, because of its convenience. You could learn about selling, creating products and what your audience is. But when you reach a point where you want to expand your business and grow a sustainable, recognisable brand, being exclusively on Etsy would not be ideal.
It is common for artists to be on both platforms - having a website and still keeping their Etsy. It would take some additional time to manage, but it could mean some extra income.
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