I just browsed through Etsy and found my competitors’ products there. I wonder whether it’s worthwhile to sell there. A few years ago I started to sell in amazon.ca (Canada) because people said that .ca sales is about 10% of .com (US) for the same product. I wonder what’s the sales volume of Etsy compared to Amazon percentagewise. 10% like Canada? More? Less?
I wouldn’t mind selling on Etsy if I could find a reliable 3PL to handle the fulfillment for Etsy orders (yeah I’ve got spoil from FBA ). Please share your thoughts on why (or why not) one should sell on Etsy. Thanks.
I sell on Etsy, again. My account was deactivated for over a year, until I hired an attorney because a competitor stole my artwork, and was selling it as their own. And this artwork is what was supposedly against their terms and conditions.
I would comfortably say that Etsy seller support is worse than Amazon. How? It is virtually non-existent. Non-replies, ignoring requests, etc.
I make handmade to size rings mostly and do ok on Etsy but it is nothing that can be easily copied. Having said that, even in the Handmade Category, my Amazon sales are basically 10 to 1 over Etsy. I don’t do any social media promotion or advertising on Etsy so there’s that.
Thanks for sharing the info. It’s interesting that Esty has no customer services but has the bot to deactivate your account Could you share the sales volume info? Is it about 10% of Amazon sales volume for the same product?
I’ve been on Etsy since 2008. I have had over 10,000 sales. It’s not what it used to be that is for sure. Customer service is non existent. If you have a small niche product that you can sell over and over again you can probably do well once you get your first few sales. Probably requires throwing advertising money to gain some traction.
I’m still there since I still make money. It’s not fun like it used to be, the community aspect is pretty much gone. The forums are just filled with people saying “look at my shop please buy something I’m desperate “
Can you use amazons multi channel fullfillment to ship from your fba inventory? I don’t know what your costs/profit is, I know for me it’s not worth it. I can’t remember if etsy allows that or if your buyer might complain about getting amazon packaging (or did mcf do away with amazon packaging ??)
You can always start small, it’s only .20 to list something.
Not sure Etsy is for you as it’s supposed to be handmade, vintage or supplies. They do allow light manufacturing now, which was a bit of a downfall for the Etsy way of being, IMO. I don’t think your product (or your competitor’s) is any of those. SUPPOSEDLY they are going to start cracking down - I’ll believe it when I see it - but I would hate for you to put in the work and get pulled.
As far as business goes, Etsy was my bread and butter for years and years - but now Amazon does better and Etsy falls year over year. They’re inundated with Alibaba crap so buyers looking for unique things have given up.
FYI: We also have an Etsy forum on here - you might want to poke around.
If you would not list on Amazon handmade, and don’t handmake your items, most of us here would say you probably don’t “legit” qualify to sell on Etsy.
But that doesn’t stop most of their sellers…Most of us here in handmade have seen the sad commercialization and “look the other way” joke that Etsy has become. The sales have gone downhill with that. Etsy used to bring me a lot more income even when it was poorly policed. Now that they don’t even care, actual handmade items have an even harder time standing out.
Thanks for sharing the info. I’m surprised that your Etsy sales is 3% of Amazon sales when your Etsy listing is about 3% of Amazon. So if you put all listings in Amazon (100%) on Etsy, your Etsy sales could be similar to that of Amazon Never thought that Etsy would have that much traffic. Maybe your products are the kind that Etsy shoppers love… Good for you.
Thanks for your reply. I never sell or buy from Etsy. So I don’t know anything about “community” that you mentioned. One question I have is whether Etsy has a lot of Chinese sellers like Amazon (80% Chinese sellers)?
Thanks for the idea. I have to compare the shipping cost between MCF and 3PL. Do you happen to know whether we (FBA sellers) get any discount when shipping through MCF? My guess is yes but I could be wrong.
Thanks for your word of caution. Frankly I’ve never thought that my products would be for Etsy for the reasons that you mentioned. However after I saw my Amazon competitors’ products on Etsy, I knew that I could sell there as well. Maybe it qualifies as “light manufacturing”? Maybe it only works until Etsy decides to do the crack down.
Do you mean Amazon Handmade is doing better than Etsy? I don’t know the statistics or numbers but I would believe so. A few times that I browsed through Etsy, the prices were quite high compared to Amazon. I wonder if those sellers charge a little extra because it’s handmade.
Sorry that Etsy marketplace has gone downhill. I wonder whether Etsy purposely turns blind eye and let the non-handmade products to be sold on their platform to boost the revenue. Just like Walmart that in the beginning, they only allowed US sellers to be on platform. Not long after, they opened for everyone and the place was flooded with Chinese sellers. Do you know whether Etsy has a lot of Chinese sellers?
We sell on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy and sales are in that order. All of our products are listed on all 3 platforms. We haven’t sold a thing on Etsy for months and it is always our worst platform. Lately eBay has been quite good for us after we used their promoted listings and turned on automatic bids - it’s not PPC - you just pay a percentage only when you sell something. I have our percentage capped at 15% but eBay has not been charging that ever, it’s usually anywhere from 6 to 10% if it sells which is great for us. No cost unless your item sells, but it still gets promoted.
Even before the recent and quite-undesirable developments on the policy-change front (citational references are available upon request) for Amazon’s implementation of Multi-Channel Fulfillment, it has for many years been possible that any discount in overhead can quickly be overcome by damage done to Brand Integrity which proves to be soley-attributable to the low-priority which Amazon assigns for MCF orders in the FCs, by design, if a certain volume of sales is not recognized as being in play by the automated mechanisms that are in place (‘Amabots,’ if you will) to police such operations.
). Please share your thoughts on why (or why not) one should sell on Etsy. Thanks.
Could you share the sales volume info? Is it about 10% of Amazon sales volume for the same product?
Never thought that Etsy would have that much traffic. Maybe your products are the kind that Etsy shoppers love… Good for you.