Is It Better to Sell Art on Etsy or on Your Own Website?

So y'all've created an amazing product customers will dearest. Ok, what's adjacent? Whether you lot make jewelry, article of clothing, home décor, art, or like crafts, you lot demand a place to sell these items.

If you're like about new entrepreneurs, your first instinct will probably be to sell on an online market place like Etsy. And you wouldn't be lonely—as of 2020, this global e-commerce platform caters to over 4.3 million active sellers from 200+ countries (though most are in the U.S.).

However, many entrepreneurs choose to build their ain e-commerce websites to sell their wares. Why is this? What makes them go off the browbeaten path and strike out on their ain? Find the answers below, where we walk through the pros and cons of selling on Etsy vs. selling through your ain online shop.

Selling on Etsy: Pros & Cons

Pros

1. Like shooting fish in a barrel Setup

Similar many marketplaces, Etsy offers an easy, off-the-shelf approach to setting upwards your online shop on its platform. There is, of grade, some setup required—mainly in listing your products and choosing a layout and design. Just these are unproblematic tasks that don't require whatsoever specialized noesis or skills. You tin likely be fix for online sales on the aforementioned day.

2. No Startup Fees

For a cash-strapped entrepreneur, the give-and-take free ever sounds proficient. Luckily, information technology's also a give-and-take that applies to starting your Etsy shop. It doesn't cost anything to open your digital doors to customers on the platform.

3. Established Client Trust

If you started your ain e-commerce site today, no one would know you—which ways they wouldn't trust you either. Etsy is already well established in the market, and customers flock to the site every day to purchase from sellers all over the world. You tin can take advantage of the trust Etsy has already congenital with customers to sell your products with a lot less friction.

4. Reliability

As a big e-commerce platform with solid hosting and enough of digital fill-in options, Etsy provides an extremely reliable service. Customers and sellers alike tin can be confident that whenever they visit Etsy, the site is online and available for online shopping. And on the off chance the site has an outage, it volition likely be for a brief time.

5. Customs

Choosing to sell on Etsy likewise comes with a less obvious bonus: gaining access to a community of other sellers. Yous tin can tap into and share key insights as an entrepreneur and maker. Not just can you discover Etsy'southward best practices and new things nigh your craft, just y'all can besides go the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of modest business ownership from other minor business owners.

Cons

1. High Selling Fees

While you tin avert initial startup costs when you sell on Etsy, the tradeoff is a number of selling fees that go beyond whatever standard payment processing charges:

• List fees: $0.20 per item that applies fifty-fifty if you don't sell the particular (multiple quantities of the same item also incur this fee)
• Transaction fees: five% of the item cost plus the amounts charged for shipping and gift wrapping
• Subscription fees: an optional $x per month subscription to Etsy Plus, which offers boosted tools

2. Limited Design Choices

In dissimilarity to the simple setup are your limited choices for online shop design. You must utilise the templates Etsy has available, regardless of whether yous experience the design fits your brand or places your products in the best light. This limitation too makes it difficult to stand out in a bounding main of other sellers.

3. High Competition

And speaking of the bounding main, at that place are a ton of fish in it—over 4.3 meg agile sellers, as mentioned to a higher place. Unlike marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, which sell just about any item you lot tin can imagine, Etsy caters to a more niche prepare of item categories. This means your products will be stacked up against many the same or very similar ones, which but makes standing out even more challenging. Not to mention that competitor'due south products will likely be shown fifty-fifty when someone is browsing your Etsy store.

4. No Ownership

One of the biggest drawbacks of Etsy is that you don't own your online store or the data collected by it, which is quite risky. Every bit the aphorism goes, don't put all your eggs in ane handbasket . If you violate Etsy's rules or the site decides to close your account, in that location's not much you tin can practise almost it. Unless yous take other sales avenues (such as your own online shop or a brick-and-mortar store), your concern will come up to a screeching halt.

Edifice Your Own Online Store: Pros & Cons

Pros

1. Greater Control

Past far, the biggest reward of developing your own e-commerce website is the amount of control you proceeds. The only person's rules yous're playing by are your own. For example, you can design your online shop yet y'all want—choose how large y'all want products to announced, how many calls to action to have and where to identify them, and so on.

Policies are some other consideration. Etsy has policies that override any yous have as a seller, as you lot must abide by what the platform says. In building an online store website, you can institute your own policies .

You as well have control over the payment options yous offer—from the checkout process to the payment processors you use. With Etsy, you're forced to allow customers to pay by whatever means the platform provides, whether you similar them or not.

2. No Competitor Ads

The only matter presented in your online shop is your products. If customers are browsing your website, they're non going to get distracted by any competitor listings. You have their complete attention—save for the other 20 browser tabs they probably take open, but you tin't exercise much most that!

3. Unlimited Products & Customized Aircraft Options

Whether you desire to sell 10 items or 1,000, you can practice so as you see fit—without incurring boosted fees. In addition, you can decide on shipping options and a shipping schedule that works best for your concern. For example, maybe it'south more than cost-effective to ship only on certain days of the week.

Cons

1. More Setup & Maintenance

This is one of the nigh significant deterrents for new entrepreneurs. It can be overwhelming to call back of the web design skills you take to hone or the money you must spend on a web designer. While these are both options to explore, yous tin can besides turn to a service that makes due east-commerce website design piece of cake and affordable.

2. Additional Marketing

Fifty-fifty on Etsy, you can't simply list your products and hope for the best. You lot still take to marketplace on and off the platform. Notwithstanding, y'all'll need to expend even more than marketing effort with your own due east-commerce website as y'all won't take immediate admission to customers through Etsy. To be found, y'all'll need to become the discussion out on search engines and social media .

3. Greater Time Investment

Dissimilar Etsy, where you lot tin probable go started the same day, it tin can take some time to set upward and design your east-commerce site. Then you lot have to market your products and get customers to your site. All this time means information technology will accept longer to achieve online sales.

Choosing between an online marketplace like Etsy and building your own due east-commerce website can be a tough decision to brand. Counterbalance the pros and cons above, and then choose what's best for your concern. Proceed in mind that you can do both in one case y'all can manage multiple sales channels.

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Source: https://www.verizon.com/business/small-business-essentials/resources/should-you-sell-on-etsy-or-build-your-own-online-store-pros-cons-of-both/

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