Top 3 Reasons Why I still love Etsy
This article is about my love affair with Etsy and the lessons I learned from partnering with this e-commerce site for 10 years now. This isn't sponsored, so just chill in there, dolling. Who knows? I might be able to inspire you as I share my experience today, right?
I might just start with how glad I am that I summed up all the courage to open an Etsy shop 10 years ago. Etsy is my business partner - a great shopkeeper with easy admin tools, and a gigantic marketplace in itself full of handmade and craft-centered products and buyers. With something like Etsy by my side, I can just focus on designing and crafting the items I am selling, as well as developing strategies for my business to continue for years to come.
Etsy is a wonderful shopkeeper and marketing partner
Etsy has really come a long way. It wasn't as sophisticated back in 2011, but like all young things, we always start out clumsy, don't we? I cannot exactly remember how I much wanted them to add features that would help me manage my orders and shipping smoothly, but I can say now that they've really listened to what the sellers need somehow. I do remember being upset when they started charging the shipping fees and jacking up sales fees to 5% from 3.5%, which I enjoyed since I started. I remember seeing so many angered sellers ranting on social media about it. I didn't waste my time joining this movement, though. Instead, I focused on my products, how to leverage my resources, and still come out winning despite these price hikes. I am an eternal scholar of economics, so I understood that eventually, Etsy fees will go up. Perhaps the next increase will be 2028, and I thought, I had to start preparing for that, as well.
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| Handmade packaging - always so meditative... |
But even with all these fee increases, I realized Etsy still is helping me a lot with my little venture. Firstly, Etsy processes all my transactions while I sleep. Of course, I had to do my own share of setting up systems, like making sure my shop policies are fair and up to date. I love that every morning when I start working, I would be able to see my shop activities and statistics. Okay, I'll admit that I check my shop dashboard the moment I wake up haha. It's a bonus if a few transactions had already been processed, but in general, I just love waking up to my shop dashboard. It's just a quick check of 1-2 minutes, then I drink some water and start my day.
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| My part-time shop assistant here... |
Etsy now has more than 80 million buyers. Although Amazon and eBay are the most visited e-commerce sites, Etsy still tops the handmade, craft, and vintage-centered markets. And since my creations belong to the said industry, Etsy is where I wanna be. Etsy may ask for the option of advertising, which I tried on and off, depending on my budget, but you can still just say no and try doing your own SEO, and content and social media marketing yourself. It's really up to you. What's important is that the people who are interested in the things you do are already there, you just do a bit more work to grab their attention. I love that kind of "control" I have for my craft. To be honest, I don't want just anybody buying my stuff. I wanted seriously crafty people because I love serving this group. These people inspire me, and I can find a lot of these people in the Etsy community.
Etsy allows me to focus on the side of the business that I love
I love designing. I enjoy making things out of my hands. I love blogging, editing videos, taking photos, styling my dolls, chatting with my fellow doll and miniature lovers on social media. I love setting strategies for my business, listening to business and finance people on Youtube who had already done great things, and sharing them with the world. I love to paint, cook, garden, play with my pets and spend some quality time with family. All these I get to do because Etsy does the time-consuming, shopkeeping job for me.
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| The art of finding the best fit... |
Of course, I am still "in" my shop all my waking hours. It's operating, doing its job, next to me, while I sew, prototype, paint, write a blog, edit a photo, schedule social media posts, among others. As I write this post now, Etsy is putting out my shop to the world - for interested people to check out my products. Etsy is processing my transactions, from Philippine peso to most currencies available, then back to my currency so that they're available at my bank soon. Etsy probably puts out my listings to those who are looking for something similar to my creations - that is if I do my own work, too, like SEO and stuff. While I'm writing this, Etsy has prepared the social media channels that I can use to promote my work. It is super easy to promote my listings to Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Although I wished they'd put a share icon for Instagram as I have the most followers there. My Pinterest posts however are bringing a lot of people into my shop this year so I'm not complaining too much.
Etsy is continuously evolving
When the pandemic first hit us in March 2020, my shop was immediately affected. My doll clothes-making side of the business, which was bringing in most of the sales for the shop, was suddenly halted. This was due to pandemic-related shipping restrictions at the post office, the service I had been using since 2011. I didn't sell any doll clothing for months and months, but to be honest, all I really wanted anyway then was for me and my family to be safe and healthy. We however lost a family member to covid so it was really a wake-up call. Fortunately, my husband still continues with his day job to this day, so things are good.
As I try to sum up all the courage to continue my venture despite our situation, I realized that I can still do something and that is to focus all my energy and willpower on my digital products. My sewing patterns, printable art, and fashion sketch templates can still be sold without the need for shipping services. It took me a while to start implementing this new strategy because my laptop expired during the lockdown period, and buying at physical stores was a challenge. I was lucky to grab a new one in May 2020. I then started working like crazy on my patterns and video editing.
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| Due to less time for sewing, I got to paint more in 2020 while contemplating my shop situation... |
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| Also had a chance to discover and enjoy balcony pot gardening... |
Thankfully, Etsy has evolved to not only promote handmade, artsy, and crafty things but also has already optimized its site for digital products just a few years after its birth. Just perfect for my situation, right?
I don't know what will become of Etsy in the future but I know for sure that leaving Etsy isn't gonna happen for me soon. This e-commerce site that I discovered in 2010 really introduced me to new possibilities, and I am forever grateful for that.
So, what do you think about my experience with Etsy? Do you shop at Etsy, too? Are you planning to sell your stuff there someday?
Oh, if you do plan to open your store there, I am shamelessly plugging here my link, which you can use to open your own Etsy shop and get 40 listings for free (about 8USD worth). I also get to have 40 free if you proceed with opening your own Etsy shop hehe. Thanks so much in advance!
So that would be it for me for now, my dollings. I really appreciate you getting down to the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed reading about my Etsy experience somehow. Thanks again and chat with you in the comments below!
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| More time with Pablo, one of our pet babies... |
hugs,
shasha
This was an interesting piece. I do remember people complaining on social media, and many did move to other platforms. Thinking about it now, if you have to pay for the hosting of your own shop, the domain, etc. it will eventually be that 5% or even more of the final price of your products. Plus all the time you will waste arranging it, learning how to use it and doing the maintenance work.
ReplyDeleteI don't have much experience buying on Etsy, except for your store and The Daughter Who Sews, that was very popular a few years ago. I had a time in which I was barely paying attention to my dolls, so during that time I didn't get to buy many things because I wasn't enjoying them. Now that I have the time, I'm broke as a joke, as it usually happens.
I've been thinking about if I ever finesse enough my doll furniture, I could start an Etsy shop. It sounds crazy to me that someone would be willing to pay for something I created, but who knows? I feel some kind of way about promoting myself. This is why I could not have a Patreon. I do think my content is valuable, but I wouldn't be able to ask people to pay for it. That's why I have ads, you can make coins and the reader enjoys the content for free.
Wish you a lovely rest of the week.
PS. The sewing machine I missed on was a very basic Singer for begginers.
Even before Etsy had that increase, I already was playing with Shopify for months but you were right, it turned out eating so much of my time setting up, transferring my assets there for the listings, shop admin, and I only sold one, as in ONE, pattern. So expectedly, I scraped the option and just continued operating my shop on Etsy. The hosting fee isn't much, but I think spreading myself too thin won't help with my small business. I know I'm making Etsy richer with this but I guess that's how life is. I just had to be smarter to earn enough profit for my business and be less stressed.
DeleteI haven't heard of the shop you mentioned but I do find a lot of Spain-based doll clothing shops that are advertising their work on Instagram. I checked some of their Etsy shops and they are thriving ;)
LoL I agree hanging out over at Etsy can leave you broke for sure haha! I bought my vintage Mexican leather tote bag there years ago, and haven't bought anything since hahahah!
My advice about selling on Etsy? Sell once 3-5 people already are bugging you to sell your creations. This way you already know there's market for it. In my case, I forced in my mediocre pieces just to push myself to work on my skills hahah! Thanks to those who trusted me back in the day. Hey, I sold three items only in my first three months! That little in such a long period - imagine the frustration haha! But, if there's clear market for it - like people bugging you to finally sell some, that would be a great kickstart, I guess!
A great basic sewing machine is always a good choice, but if you can find second-hand vintage ones, even better. These oldies but goodies somehow have awesome reviews from sewing groups I'm part of in Facebook.