Overview Figuring out where to sell is a great consideration, both when opening and while growing a shop, as your business may be best served by changing or expanding to other platforms. In this section, I'll unpack the opportunities and drawbacks of each of my recommendations. All opinions + recommendations are my own. Some links below are affiliate links, meaning I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. This is at no additional cost to you. Etsy vs. Not-Etsy Etsy is a marketplace, meaning your shop exists within the construct of a larger search-engine platform. Shopify and SquareSpace on the other hand, live in a category that I will hereby refer to as Standalone (or personal) websites, and represent two of the largest Ecommerce platforms available today. If you are considering an alternate standalone website platform, the following chart will still loosely apply. Here are pros and cons to each platform type: Marketplace Standalone ✔️Quick + easy setup ✖️Requires greater technical skill (design, coding, content organization) ✔️Little to no upfront cost ✖️Ongoing cost of subscription + one-time-purchase of template (ranging from free - $180) ✔️Products will automatically show up in search results ✖️Responsible for generating your own traffic ✔️Potential free publicity as Etsy often features seller products via email, campaigns, home pages, Instagram, targeted marketing, etc. ✖️No larger umbrella company advocating for the sale of your work ✔️Inclusion in huge community of makers (great for advice, collaborations, support, etc.) ✖️No baseline community ✖️Limitations on products you're able to offer ✔️No limitations on product offerings (expand to drop-ship, curated goods, manufactured goods, etc.) ✖️Less brand recognition since all shops look similar. People often remember that they purchased the product "on Etsy." ✔️Great brand recognition. Design your site to fit your brand. No more being under a larger brand's umbrella. ✖️Limited customization and functionality (no about page, blog, newsletter, etc.) ✔️Endless functionality (blog, video, cart abandonment, gift cards) etc. ✖️URL always includes etsy ✔️Ability to assign unique website URL ✖️✔️Fees based on items sold. Cost-effective for lower volumes, expensive at higher volumes. ✖️✔️Flat rate fee. Cost-effective for higher volumes, expensive at lower volumes. So which one? It isn't possible to say that one type of platform is necessarily better or cheaper than the other. The best solution for you is highly particular to your unique circumstances. The pros and cons above should be weighed in light of your goals, skillset, and priorities. With that being said, a grossly macro statement could be made that because standalone sites do not charge per sale, and Etsy does... Shopify/Squarespace are generally less expensive for high volume sales and more established brands, and Etsy is less expensive and better suited for lower volume sales and newer brands. It requires the most mammoth caveat that sales volumes must be evaluated based on source. Are your sales generated from your newsletter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.? Or, is Etsy sending you those sales? (Meaning that customers are visiting etsy.com, searching for an item, and landing on your listing.) If Etsy is sending you the majority of your sales, then moving to a standalone site could be detrimental to your growth. If you are generating more than half of your sales, you can avoid Etsy fees by sending them to a standalone website. Evaluate your traffic by visiting Shop Manager > Stats, and scrolling down on your dashboard to How Shoppers Found You. At the time of writing, there are two headlines: Etsy brought xx% of visits You brought xx% of visits Take advantage of the date filter at the top to assess your shop based on before and after marketing changes (ie. how did they change after you created your Instagram account or launched your newsletter, etc.). Making the Jump At the time I decided to create my own standalone site, my traffic from the previous year looked as follows: Note that between social media and direct traffic, I was generating 70% of my own leads and only 24% was arriving via Etsy search. To me, this meant that I was paying Etsy fees on leads I had generated myself, to the tune of $1,000+ a month during busy season. (To review your own fees, visit Shop Manager > Finances > Your bill, and then click into a monthly statement. The fee price on the main page will include shipping, but for this exercise you're just interested in the sum of Listing fees, Transaction fees, Renew fees, Renew Expired fees, and Renew Sold fees). Once I knew I wanted to expand to my own site, I did a lot of research on the two major platforms, and ultimately chose Shopify for its robust functionality and Ecommerce bent. Decide for yourself: Read Shopify vs Squarespace – Which Ecommerce Builder Should You Choose? While you should carefully evaluate whether or not to expand to a standalone site, it is worth mentioning that traffic generated by Etsy is always a good thing, regardless of fees. For this reason, should you choose to expand to a standalone site, I would highly recommend keeping your Etsy site as well. The strategy then is to push your traffic to the standalone site, and allow organic Etsy marketplace traffic to make up your primary customer base on Etsy. Current Pricing Structures At time of writing, a synopsis of all pricing structures goes as follows: Etsy Charges a product listing fee (0.20), and a transaction fee (now 5%) on the price of sold goods and shipping cost. There is the option to choose between an Etsy Standard and Etsy Plus plan, but I personally have never seen the value or ROI in Plus.Current prices: EtsySell 1 $50 item in a month: $2.70Sell 50 $50 items in a month: $135 SquareSpace Requires monthly subscription. Does not require listing or transaction fees. Pre-designed templates to build site on are free.Current prices: SquareSpaceSell 1, 50, or 500 items in a month: flat rate (~$26) Shopify Requires monthly subscription. Does not require listing or transaction fees. A few pre-designed templates are offered for free, with more robust templates requiring a one-time-purchase of ~$180.Current prices: ShopifySell 1, 50, or 500 items in a month: flat rate (~$40) *Note that all platforms have fixed credit card rates in addition to fees noted here. Aim to make wise platform decisions after thoughtfully analyzing your data, knowing that testing and failing is part of the process.
