Should you use Etsy vs your own Website?

 

Etsy is an incredible sales tool and provides a wonderful network of like minded and incredibly talented individuals. I am wholeheartedly onboard with endeavours of the platform and the support that it provides small business owners.

Namely, Etsy’s advantages are as follows:

  • No set up fees / monthly hosting fees

  • Ease and speed when setting up a store due to the lack of development required

  • A community of artists and makers to leverage and form relationships with

  • A high level of security is provided through the nature of Etsy being a large scale platform

  • An element of trust is provided through the ‘Etsy’ reputation

    That said every platform has it’s downfalls and these are Etsy’s…

  • Ever rising selling fees (from 3.5% to 5% in 2018 and now 5% to 6.5% in 2022.) A 30% increase which does not come lightly and ultimately offsets the lack of other fees

  • A highly saturated and competitive marketplace, meaning that if you want to be listed, you have to nail your SEO - which is a skill in its own right

  • Limited platform functionality makes it hard to provide customers with a unique & memorable customer experience and therefore it can be tricky to differentiate yourself and build brand loyalty

  • You don't get the same third party integrations that your own platform can give you, meaning you can't make the most of social commerce (i.e. selling directly on social media) which is a predicted 2022 E-Commerce Trend

  • It’s less straightforward to attain an email list, meaning some people miss out on this, which is a huge shame as it’s an incredibly powerful sales tool that allows you to target warm leads that already have an affiliation with your brand

  • You are targeting a smaller audience and getting a smaller reach, as you are limited to solely Etsy clients

  • You cannot upsell very well and in turn increase your average order value, which is one of the best practices in driving revenue growth 

All things considered, I think Etsy is potentially a good place to start but as soon as the above factors feel limiting it may be time to move on to your very own E-Commerce store.

Whilst this may feel a higher risk, I certainly believe it to be a higher reward, through a number of factors - which I have based on a Shopify platform for demonstrative purposes: 

  • The freedom/autonomy that it provides in terms of look and feel and unique user experience

  • The customer relationship enhancing features it provides

  • The wider pool of potential customers that you’re able to market to

  • The ease of the ability to upsell and increase the average order value and therefore revenue

  • The removal of listing fees, transaction fees and selling fees (although other platform related fees will be applicable)

  • The integration options that you have with third party platforms and therefore additional sales channels this provides, such as social media

 
Christine Melton