Bubble Tea is NOT impressed, resellers. Not impressed at all.
Etsy is a vibrant marketplace where you can find brilliant, quirky, hilarious, stunning handmade goods.
It’s also your go-to source for owl pendants fresh from a factory in China, stolen photos and descriptions, and not-even-remotely handmade wedding gowns.
It makes my head hurt, quite honestly, and leaves me in a quandry.
I want to sell my work online.
I do not want Etsy to get a penny of my money (or your money, if you bought something from me), because so MANY MANY MANY of their pennies come from resellers. And it would appear that they don’t care.
(To read more about resellers on Etsy, check out this post on Regretsy)
So, what’s a girl to do?
I’ve been looking up Etsy alternatives and here’s what I’ve found. This is not an in-depth research project and not a pros and cons list; just information that struck me as being important when I was looking at their sites.
Meylah
2.75% transaction fee on all sales you make. Can sell digital files (like patterns for oh, I dunno, fish? Cacti? Ham? I’m just thinking outloud, here.) Accepts paypal. You can blog within your store. Anyone can open up a shop.
Cargoh
Super clean, super spiffy layout that looks like a retail store’s website. Cargoh is curated, which means you have to apply to be a seller (that’s a BIG plus in my book!). Higher transaction fee than any of the other sites (8%), but there’s no charge to list an item. This is a high-quality marketplace, people.
Artfire
The first two weeks are free, then you’re charged $12.95 per month to be a seller – but there are no transaction fees on top of that. Not as big as Etsy, but still gets a lot of traffic. A flat monthly fee would be great if you have a lot of transactions, but I’m not looking to have that kind of volume. So, while ArtFire is technically an option, the monthly fee rules it out for me.
Of course, there’s always the option of setting up e-commerce on your own website, and then promoting the heck out of it because you can’t rely on other Etsy traffic. I like this idea because you are in complete control of your content. Plus, let’s be honest, “just being on Etsy” is not a great marketing strategy. You should be promoting your shop regardless of where it’s hosted.
So…now what?
I don’t know. I really don’t. For now I’m working hard on creating things to sell, since the marketplace is irrelevant if there’s no product! I’m also setting up a new website, since my shop has a name that’s not Crafty Sheep (stay tuned – I’ll be writing more about this next week!).
Here’s where I could use your help: what else is out there? Do you buy handmade from a website other than Etsy? Let me know in the comments!
Wow, just yesterday I was looking for laminate fabrics on Etsy (supplies, yes, I know), and was startled by the VAST number of directly-in-China sellers of fabric!!! Who knew?!? I had to hunt and peck to find a seller of laminate fabric based in the U.S. (Texas), but I did eventually find one. ONE. After checking out 6 shops, I think?
Oddly enough, the Chinese are selling “Japanese” fabrics… as if.
Of the shops you listed, I’ve only ever bought from ArtFire, and it was an okay experience (not memorable, good or bad, which I suppose could be good). I never heard of the others.
Good luck with the new online shop and keep us posted of where you end up.
There is a new beta out as well called ShopLocket (https://www.shoplocket.com/) which seems like a not-terrible solution.
I don’t know how it stacks up to the other marketplaces that you have been researching, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to throw them into the ring…
I love your work, and look forward to seeing more of it out there!
Margaret recently posted..I am terrible at this.
I don’t sell much or buy much from Etsy. If I do it is mostly at Christmas time. I do browse a lot. I had no idea there were other handmade online selling places to search.
amy ( sew~amy) recently posted..WIP Wednesday (my life in progress)
I too am disillusioned with Etsy and their lack of commitment to their own TOS. I read Regretsy and have often thought that Etsy response, or lack thereof, to violators, but their commitment to shutting down threads where people are simply calling out the wrong do-ers quite offensive. I shut my shop off till I decide what I am going to do. I tried ArtFire when they still had the free store option, and I also had a few months where I paid for the Pro, now monthly fee, store as well. In almost a year there I never had a sale, where I did actually have sales on Etsy. In their (AF’s) defense I did not optimize my SEO and the other things they recommended, but I did get involved with some of the groups to promote my shop. I like ArtFire’s platform, biz model, etc, but not the monthly fee for someone like me, a hobbyist thinking about doing more. If they would offer an option to pay by listing like Etsy, I would give them another try, but a months fee when I am making no sales is not for me right now.
Hope this rambling comment offered something
Love your colors this month BTW!
I too am frustrated by Etsy but probably not for the same reasons. I sell supplies, yarn, fabric, trims, etc.
Finally started my own website which allows me the freedom of photo size, no restrictions on graphics, decent categorization. Of course it’s expensive; a decent website can’t be had with a $99 template and then there are hosting fees to consider. The real issue with going out on your own is getting Google to notice you. Their search algorithms favor URLs with many valid linkbacks–difficult if you’re small and too busy running your business to maintain a blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages.
If your “stuff” is unique or difficult to duplicate in mass production, then you can still get noticed on Etsy and frankly when I look at the unique visitor count of the alternates, Etsy is still the best game in town even with the mass-market competition:
unique visitors per month:
Etsy–6.8 million
Artfire–675,000
Big Cartel–980,000
For now it’s best to make the devil’s bargain and remain on Etsy while posting on the other sites that aren’t cost prohibitive.
Ok, so here are more Etsy alternates…forgot to list in my previous post, all with eponymous URLs
Bigcartel
Bonanza — owned by ebay
Cargoh
Coriandr
DaWanda
Folksy
iCraft
Made it Myself
Not on the High Street
Storenvy
Supermarket
Yokaboo
Zibbet
I recently ran into a totally free (last time I checked) etsy-like site : http://www.driftwoodmall.com
The regretsy link in the post is very interesting if you didn’tt read it you should.
However, I am not mad or disillusioned with etsy. See, like any American Corporation, they are in for the bottom line just like Walmart, Apple …you name it. Their problem is that they started small with a fan base and to grow, they have to radically change their business.
Anyway, etsy seller cannot expect to be shielded from the real market. Whether we like it or not we are in competition with mass produced items from Wherever. Our craft needs to have something special (uniqueness, personalized, UltraHigh quality, Odd, rare…) that justify it’s existence.
Oh, and… open your own site as soon as you have regular sales!!!!