Etsy or a Website? Where to set up your online shop!

One of the suggestions people often give to me when they find out that I have a handmade jewellery business is, ‘you should set up a shop on Etsy’. In this blog, I’m going to outline why I moved away from the platform early on, and why I believe for artisan handmade businesses like us, having your own website is a far better choice for your online shop than Etsy.

Now I do get where they are coming from, Etsy is such a massive and well-known brand now, they did a very good job of nailing the handmade product market place when they first started. I also know that many people, and especially those who have been selling on Etsy for a while, can do very well on there. I’m not an expert in Etsy, but I did in fact have an Etsy shop back around 2013 when I first started selling my handmade crafts.

Now, full disclosure - my work was very different back then. I was selling a mixture of handmade jewellery, cards and other crafty bits that I’d made. My work was nowhere near as refined as it is now. I also had absolutely zero experience with marketing and especially product photography.

But still - this was Etsy in its heyday, and I did get some sales through the platform - often from people who had seen me at a market stall and asked for a card, then made a purchase through my shop at a later date.

But even back then I found it quite complicated to navigate.

It seemed like the goal posts were always changing around what to include in product listings, and there were lots of fees to pay. I totally get why they would need to take a cut of my sales, but those fees take even more of a percentage of every sale you make now than they did 10 years ago. My question to you is - could that money be channeled into a more lucrative marketing technique - or even banked as profit if you were selling on your own website? (Spoiler - the answer here is yes!).

So, this is my experience with Etsy, and as I said some people have done and still do really well on there. But you need to be willing to plough a lot of time and energy into it.  Icertainly not a quick sale - you still need to do marketing regardless of where your online shop is housed.

All of the sales which I made on Etsy heavily relied on my own marketing - and although there are lots of people browsing and shopping on there, there is also lots of choice, much of which is no longer truly handmade. I’d rather spend my energy on marketing which will attract my dream clients to my own website, where there isn’t the potential to get sidetracked by other shiny objects!

I feel lots of people go on there for a bargain nowadays, and as artisan makers, competing on price against mass produced products is a game we really can’t play. In that kind of market place, price will always win.

So, back when I started my handmade business, I quickly decided to move my shop over to my own website. I could have stayed using both, but as a one-woman-band with a 9-5 job as well, I really wanted to put my limited time into one platform.

 And I’m so glad I decided to create my own website - even though it took me the best part of a year to learn how to build one and get it to a place where I was happy with it!

This is why I really want to help you by-pass the time and steep learning curve, so that you can quickly set up your own website for your online shop, and start selling your handmade products far quicker than I was able to!

Which website platform should I set up my online shop?

Originally I had a Wordpress website, with a plugin for my online shop. A plugin is basically an extra piece of software which you buy, which ‘attaches’ to your website giving it extra capabilities, for example a shop plugin would enable you to upload products and sell via an online checkout.

Whilst I’m glad I started on that platform, I now use Squarespace and it’s the platform which I recommend for most handmade businesses, because it’s so easy to use yourself, and produces really stunning websites. Plus, you don’t need to worry about any extra plugins to start selling your products, it’s all built in!

That being said, if you were setting up a larger product business and looking for a really smooth ecommerce platform that can handle a larger quantity of items listed, then I’d probably recommend that you opt for Shopify.

But for the majority of us handmade and handcrafted folk - who often have other income streams in our business such as teaching craft workshops (top tip, if you don’t yet then you should, more on that to come!) - I would definitely recommend you go with Squarespace.

Why you should have a website to sell your handmade products

Below I’ve outlined some more reasons why I’d recommend selling your handmade products through an online shop on your own website:

• You control the look and the feel of your website, it’s like your online home and you can make it look as unique to you as your beautiful products!

• Although there is a monthly cost to Squarespace or Shopify for hosting your ecommerce website, it will often work out as less than the fees you’d pay to Etsy.

• You can include blogs and videos on your own website. These are all amazing ways to attract your dream customers through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If people go on to Google to search for your product, good SEO will mean your website is more likely to show up in their results!

• Once people have landed on your website, these blogs and videos will also act as an amazing way to engage with them and to start building trust in you and your products. As handmade business owners, people will often buy from us not only because they love what we are making, but also because they relate to our story and the story behind our products. Having a website is a key way for us to tell these stories and to really showcase the person behind the product.

• Your website will integrate easily with social media such as Instagram, Pinterest and your email marketing. This will save you tons of time and make your life easier - always a winner for us makers who are often working on our business alongside other jobs or responsibilities such as childcare.

• When people land on your website, they are specifically interested in your products and often ready to buy, not simply browsing amongst a sea of competitors.

• You can include other pages on your website. For example if you run craft or jewellery workshops you can add them on and sell them through the same system. 

• You can include a sign-up form for people to join your email list on your own website - often offering some kind of incentive such as a freebie or percentage off their first purchase. Having an email list is an amazing way of turning browsers into buyers, and also getting repeat sales from your customers. Statistics show that email marketing can be as much as 40% more likely to generate you sales than social media - giving you a massive advantage when it comes to online sales!

So in conclusion, I would definitely recommend you consider starting a website for your maker business. I know it can seem daunting if you’ve never built one before or don’t consider yourself techy.

If you’re ready to dive in, or even simply interested in starting your first or next product website, take a peek at my web design service designed specifically for makers and creatives!

I’ve also developed this handy free downloadable website checklist to get you started in building your online shop!