Is Etsy the Right Platform To Sell Print on Demand Products On? The Many Pros and Many Cons of Selling On Etsy.
So before we get into the nitty-gritty of this post, I want to start off by saying there are MANY PROS and MANY CONS to selling on Etsy!
If you ask my students of The Print on Demand Playbook they will confirm that I could talk about this for hours and (if I have enough rosé in my system) maybe even days haha! So before we dive into the main content, I want to make sure you know that I can’t possibly cover ALL the pros and ALL the cons in one article. Because the fact is, there are A LOT of things Etsy gets right AND A TON of things that are SUPER annoying and in my opinion are done wrong. And if you disagree with some of these that is totally fine!! I am just giving my perspective from my experience selling Print on Demand Products on Etsy so that you can make educated decisions on whether Etsy is the right platform for you!
Before we dive in let me introduce myself! Hey there, I am Shay Lynn! I am a top 1% Etsy Seller, am the proud owner of a multi-six figure Print on Demand and Etsy Business, and creator of the Print on Demand Playbook. In 2023, I did $250,000 in sales running my very own Print on Demand business. Check it out 👇👇👇
I definitely know a thing or two about Print on Demand and Etsy 😉
So, before we start, I just want to preface that this article isn’t meant to sway you one way or another. I think Etsy is fantastic platform for so many reasons and can work wonders for some but maybe not for all. At the end of the post, I want you be able to work out what’s best for YOU – whether it’s Etsy or another selling platform!
My job as an educator is to keep you completely informed. Where you sell doesn’t matter to me, not even one bit! What matters to me is that you make sales and have a successful online business! For some that business plan includes Etsy, for others, you may need to look into a different platform (Shopify, Squarespace, Wix). There is no right or wrong. What matters is that you get started and decide on what you should do as a business owner.
Ok so now that we got that out of the way, let’s get into it!
The Pros Of Selling On Etsy:
1. ETSY HAS AN ESTABLISHED AUDIENCE WITH MILLIONS OF VISITORS
Etsy is a BEAST of an E-commerce platform. It has a huge established audience and in my opinion, is its best and most attractive quality! According to Etsy’s own website, there are “180 million visitors a year on Etsy.” As a starting business owner, this is amazing and can be a complete game changer for gaining traction in your shop!!!
Instead of you starting your business off by creating products and having to bring customers to your website, Etsy eliminates the need for you to do all the leg work of getting customers to your shop! Your products are being put in front of a LOT of potential customers daily who are on Etsy already looking to make a purchase!! This factor alone helped me because when I was first learning Print on Demand, I really struggled to learn how to design. If I had to design while simultaneously running ad campaigns for my business and trying to get people to see my products, I honestly don’t think I would be as successful as I am today. So that’s clearly a very significant advantage that you need to consider when first starting out.
2. SET UP AND MAINTAINCE
This one may be tied for first because it’s kind of a multi-answer (so I broke it up into sections) but it is RIDICULOUSLY EASY to set up and maintain an Etsy storefront.
A) USER FRIENDLY SETUP
Even if you are not a tech aficionado or can barely use a laptop, I guarantee you can set up an Etsy shop. There are only a few steps and Etsy walks you through the process step by step. You can set up your shop in less than an hour.
Now of course this doesn’t mean you don’t have to put in the work once your shop is set up! You still have to integrate your Print on Demand providers, create designs, make mockups, and write Product Descriptions with a fine-tuned SEO strategy! But in terms of setting up your shop, it really is super simple. I have used multiple selling platforms and this is hands down the easiest. Learning how to set up, code, and launch your own website is like learning rocket science compared to setting up an Etsy storefront!
B) EASE OF MAINTENANCE.
Etsy maintains and updates your storefront for you (when there are updates to the platform) You don’t have to set reminders to update this or fix that to your website each week or for your business to run successfully.
C) YOU DON’T NEED TO LEARN ANY TECH SKILLS
If you can turn on a laptop and are capable of making online purchases, YOU MOST CERTAINLY ARE CAPABLE OF STARTING THIS BUSINESS STRUCTURE. When I was first starting out I had NO IDEA what I was doing and within 3 months I got my first best seller and made $10,000 in one month. Etsy makes it THAT EASY.
3. ETSY IS A TRUSTED PLATFORM
When you start your own website, and a social media ad campaign to drive customers to your site, you have to gain the trust of potential buyers. Your future customers don’t know if you’re an upstanding business owner or some shady fly-by-the-night website owner — so it takes time to prove yourself to your target audience. If you start by selling on Etsy, you immediately have that trust from potential customers, because Etsy is a trusted brand and website. Individuals who use Etsy know they will be taken care of if they purchase products on the website. They know if there is an issue with the Shop, Store Manager, or Product they receive they will get a refund and be taken care of.
4. ETSY’S PAYMENT SYSTEM
The fourth pro I want to talk about is the fact that Etsy has an established payment system. It collects sales tax STATE BY STATE! This saves you a lot of headaches because you don’t have to worry about setting up payment processing systems and figuring out how to use them, process credit card payments, or how to sort taxes from each state! It is all done for you! Trust me, other selling platforms do not have this and you may have to hire an accountant to sort this out for you come tax season! With Etsy, this is made super simple to track and process which helps me out during tax season!
5. PRINT ON DEMAND INTEGRATION
This one is not 100% Etsy but on the Print Providers as well but, I wanted to include this. Integrating any type of Print on Demand Provider to you Etsy shop is so easy that you can do it seamlessly within minutes. Once you are done designing and need to publish your listing to your Etsy shop, it takes just a minute or two for your finished product to show up on Etsy! I absolutely love how streamlined and easy the integration, setup, and publishing features are when using Etsy.
Ok ok ok….
Now that you know the good stuff, let’s get into some of the bad stuff. This is what you all have been waiting for. I am going to spill the tea here on the ugly side of Etsy. So without further ado, let’s get into it:
The Cons Of Selling On Etsy:
1) LACK OF CONTROL
This in my opinion is the biggest problem with selling on Etsy. If you decide to open up your shop with Etsy you have to realize you technically don’t own 100% of your business. Yes, it is your shop, and yes it’s your designs, however, you are quintessentially renting a space to sell your products in Etsy’s marketplace. At the end of the day, you are an Etsy shop, it is not your own website, you don’t make the rules and you don’t get any kind of say in those rules.
You don’t make the terms and conditions.
You have to pay WHATEVER FEES they require in order to do business on their platform.
AND
Worst Case Scenario- Etsy has the power and capability to shut your shop down without any notice at ANY TIME because again, your storefront is technically not 100% your own business.
You are playing by Etsy’s game/rules and you have to follow along in order for your shop to get any kind of recognition. I think this is the biggest issue that a lot of new Etsy sellers don’t realize. So please, if you are new to Etsy, read the Etsy Seller Handbook Guide METICULOUSLY to make sure you are following their rules completely!
1. BRANDING ISSUES
When you are selling on Etsy it is hard to have established branding. As an e-commerce business owner, it is vital to have repeat and loyal customers in order to be successful. However, when you sell your products on Etsy, this can be particularly challenging.
Let me throw out a scenario for you. Someone buys a funny gift, let’s say a Birthday gift for this example, from your Etsy shop. When the person opens the gift they’ll probably say something like, “Oh my god this is awesome! Where did you get it?”
The person who bought the birthday gift will probably respond by saying “I got it on Etsy” not “I got it on Etsy from this shop called blah blah blah”
People don’t remember your shop name, they think you are Etsy. I have had COUNTLESS customers think that I work for Etsy or that my shop falls under some kind of Etsy- Employee scenario. Because of this, it is hard to get repeat business, brand recognition, referrals, or become an established and successful e-commerce business when using Etsy.
2. INCREASED COMPETITION
For as many customers on Etsy, there are just as many of sellers on Etsy.
It is almost downright impossible for you to just slap up a product and get immediate sales because there are a lot of people competing on this platform making very similar items.
These days, most of the popular niches are SUPER SATURATED, and there’s competition – A LOT OF competition – in almost every niche. This is something that you really got to keep in mind because it can be really hard to stand out in a sea of competition on Etsy’s platform when you are first starting out.
3. “EASY WORK” EXPECTATIONS PITFALL
When I tell people I run an Etsy shop, 9 times out of 10 they will say something like this-
”Oh that’s cute! Is this like your side hustle while you raise your son?” or
“Oh my (fill in obscure relative) makes jewelry on there” or my personal favorite
“Do you make any money doing that?”
I can not tell you how many people think “running an Etsy shop” is just a cute little easy job.
WRONG! It is hard work. It takes SERIOUS dedication. And you have to work hard every day for a while to create success. AND I MEAN EVERY DAY. It is the most challenging AND most rewarding job I have ever had and I work my (pardon my French) a$$ off to make it successful.
There are A LOT of people out there peddling information that paints this picture that this business “runs itself” and that could not be further from the truth. Sure my work week is about 10 hours a week now, but when I was first starting off, I was doing this every free minute I got. I did this while my 4 month old son slept or kept me up in the middle of the night while I was feeding him. I didn’t watch my favorite shows. I stopped using a lot of social media. I rarely went out. I hunkered down to figure this out for MONTHS. Please, if you take anything from this, please do NOT listen to these “gurus” telling you this is easy.
I assure you it is not.
There are so many new sellers who open an Etsy shop and think that all they need to do is list some the products, like t-shirts and some coffee mugs with funny sayings and will make half a million dollars in 3 months because they saw someone on Tiktok/Instagram/Facebook doing it.
This is so COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY FALSE.
There is work, a lot of hard work involved in running a successful shop. It is one thing to just create a product. It is a WHOLE OTHER BEAST to create a successful and profitable product that will make you money.
You have to do MAJOR market research, validate your products, and comb through your competition to see what works and what doesn’t. You have to find niches that aren’t tapped out yet and create about 100 products to start seeing results. You have to utilize Etsy SEO and understand it like a science to make sure your products can land on the first landing page so you can be seen.
So again please, if you take anything from this post, know that this is not a get rich quick scheme but will take some serious dedication on your end to be successful.
4. AND LASTLY, FEES FEES AND MORE FEES!!!
Well, I saved the best or should I say the worst, for last. Etsy has listing fees, relisting fees, shipping fees, transaction fees, pattern fees, advertising fees, international fees… they even have special fees for selling multiple products in one sale! This isn’t even all of them- I’m just painting a picture for you so you can see what I mean!
When you look at them all separately they seem small. Like a listing fee is only .20 cents, the transaction fee is like 7% (6.5 to be exact) of your order, etc. But it adds up like crazy over time!
In 2023, I sold (a little over) $250,000 in revenue and I had to pay about $29,000 in fees.
Let me repeat that, I PAID DARN NEAR 30K in just Etsy Fees to run my business on Etsy’s platform! That is over 10%!!!
I’m not saying the fees are unreasonable. I pay these fees to use the Etsy platform – but it does come at a cost so you need to keep that in mind.
I HIGHLY recommend calculating what your fees would be for your products to see how much of your profit margin your fees would take up. You want to definitely make sure to do this BEFORE you start making your products because you don’t want to make a sale and not make any money due to Etsy Fees.
Conclusion:
PHEW, well, I think I covered the major points I wanted to hit!
Again, this is not meant to scare you, deter you, or even sway you. This post is meant to keep you completely informed and help you decide what to do as a business owner. I use Etsy’s platform because of the convenience it provides me and my business. No, I do not like forking over 30K worth of fees, but in my mind, that is the price I pay to access Etsy customers and to not have to deal with collecting state sales tax and so much more!
If you think Etsy is the right program for you and are ready to start your own Print on Demand Business, check out my course The Print On Demand Playbook. I have over 8 hours of Print on Demand video information on there from how to start your very own shop, Etsy SEO, product selection, research validation, design tutorials, content calendars, customer service templates, and so much more! 👇👇👇👇
