Etsy

[Mannie]

Anybody sell on Etsy? How does it work?

 

[justajesuschick]

I do! 

I use it as my commerce platform. I use other tactics to drive my customers there to purchase. I do not just post my things there and traffic arrives. From my keywords/analytics, I see that some traffic is direct but most customers come from other sources-Facebook page and more from my Facebook group. I can also see when a blogger or others have linked form their sites which is helpful (and fun to see!).

There is a listing fee and fees on transactions, including PayPal  and direct checkout fees.

I know that it is tempting to establish a website especially when ads run that would lead you to believe that sites like Wix and Weebly are free. They are free if you are a blogger but as soon as you enable commerce, there are fees. Etsy works out to be best for me financially for now and ease of use is wonderful. Address are pulled right in for packing slips and shipping labels. I do not have to type in my customer's information. I have friends who have other websites and they pay up to a couple hundred dollars a month for the site and their shipping is extra. I pay sometimes a bit more than what they pay but my shipping is included in my fees. They deposit money into a bank account every Monday and I can pay or have directly deducted my fees, monthly.

For now this works well for me. Once I am a bit bigger, I will entertain the website again. I just hate having to enter addresses (and worry about making errors) for every order by hand. I do pay for Etsy services but they have me spoiled. 

 

Let me know if that is not what you wished to know and I can share more!

[justajesuschick]

I should have added that several of my customers still prefer to order by way of Facebook message. I send an invoice and ship when paid.

 

At this point, only 5%-10% of my sales are to people local to me. The remainder is all online customers. 

[Vicky_CO]

I never had a whole lot of luck on Etsy with my candles but the flip side of that was I had a regular web site so I was always trying to drive customers there. That is where I sent local customers. I would never have sent local customer to Etsy. That is like giving your customers away.

 

If your customer are going to be web based Etsy is not a bad way  to go but if most of your customers are local Etsy is not really for you. My customers base was 85 to 90% local or had found me local then started buying on my web site.  

 

My customer base was from shows, festival and craft fairs. So even when I went out of town I would want them to go to my web site to reorder not go to someplace like Etsy where they would get distracted with other things.

 

Your decision needs to be where your customer base is,I know people that started on Etsy and then slowly moved their customer to their own web sites later after they got a customer base started. I know there is some here that have never left Etsy.

 

One thing about any web based business you can not just create it you have to promote it. To many people think that all they have to do is list on a site like Etsy and bam they will get customers. That is not the case.

 

There is a lot to think about if you want to sell on someplace like Etsy.

[TallTayl]

I have both etsy shops and my own sites. Like Vicky, i'd never send my own hard earned customers to Etsy. It is too easy to lose them once they start browsing around other shops. Though, my own earned customers have no desire to go over to Etsy.

Etsy customers like to stay on Etsy. I have built a really nice customer base of Etsians that otherwise would never have discovered my products. If you're good at tagging, identifying your target customer, and appeal to etsy customers it can be very lucrative. Competition is tough everywhere, but itis possible to make a nice chunk of change on etsy.

[karinz40]

I have been making melts now for about 1 1/2 years and give to friends and family.  not going to make candles, wicking is to overwhelming for me and never works out right,

My question is do you think i need product liability ins to sell there and is it really worth it for the  etsy platform?

 

Thanks so much.

[TallTayl]

IMO, product liability insurance  is a cost of doing business, just like registering the business and paying taxes.