Personal site vs. Etsy

[Spicey477]

I think I know most of the benefits of having your own site vs. using Etsy for sales. I am afraid to make the move, thinking perhaps I will not get any traffic (but I am not getting any traffic in relevancy from Etsy at the moment, just direct links to my page from FB), but I am missing out on money that Etsy is keeping per transaction. Any thoughts from people who have made the switch? I am absolutely just starting out so, I'm just thrilled with any exposure at this point.

 

[Robyn08]

I've been using both. I don't like paying the additional fees from Etsy, but customers seem to like it better, and I find it more convenient for keeping track of stuff, shipping, refunds, etc. I probably won't move off Etsy until I get a much bigger customer base. I get a lot more exposure off Etsy than I do my regular website.

 

[Spicey477]

Thank you Robyn, your thoughts are the same as mine. My husband thinks it is super important to drive people to my own site to avoid Etsy fees but I wonder once you pay for your site and any associated costs where do you break even?

A related question is does one know of any apps that you can use to track sales and costs?

 

[girlishcharm2004]

I know with Outright.com you can link accounts. It's linked to my bank account that I use for business, so when I purchase something, say at Office Max, then it's automatically recorded as a "office supplies" expense. Also, it's connected to Paypal and records income. I haven't used it long enough to have experience with tax season, but it's supposed to make it easier there too. However, I don't know how to track refunds. Etsy is nice how they have a lot of features at the click of a button and record everything too. They also send out the tracking numbers so I don't have to worry about that either. However, some of the merchant markets (like with Yahoo! or something) might have those features as well!

To do a price comparison, I would see how much money it will cost you up front and yearly to start a storefront, then calculate Etsy fees to see when would be a good time to transfer over. My bet is that Etsy is a cheaper start up cost, but over the long haul if you start making more orders, you'd keep more of your money with a storefront because you'll only pay one fee regardless of how many sales where as Etsy takes $0.20 + 3.5% of EACH sale! It really depends on your revenue. It will give you a goal. For example, "When I make X amount per month, then it would be cheaper to own a storefront." When you get to that goal, start your storefront!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I'm with Girlishcharm - check out the costs of having your own site, how you'd maintain it, what the service is like (how often are the servers down etc) how much it would cost to have a credit card/paypal option going on and all the other things that you need. It might well be cheaper to have etsy for now.

 

[houseofwool]

I have to disagree, 3.5% isn't bad, it is just a bit more than a credit card fee.

 

[GuarinoSoaps]

I design websites here and there for a little extra cash in my spare time - I'll give you some tips.

1) On Etsy, be present in the forums there and ask for advice on making your shop seo friendly. Everyone there is pretty helpful with criticism LOL

2) I find it's good to have both a website and Etsy. I would personally recommend A Small Orange hosting. $5 per month (cheaper if you prepay longer), and then build your shop using Wordpress. It is extremely user friendly. WooCommerce is the plugin I would recommend for that. If you decide to, even with a different hosting company and need any help, feel free to message me. I am always up for helping out.

 

[Paintguru]

I'm going with Etsy to start to save on costs. If things actually get going, I may move to Squarespace Merchant sites, but I think the cheapest plan is ~$30/mth.

 

[ShayShay]

I would also think that having both an etsy site and your own site is a good idea. As a shopper, if I am looking for something homemade or a unique gift, I go to etsy first. I find it much easier than doing a google search. But if I make repeat purchases, I will go to their regular site if they have a good one - to save them the etsy fees. But you want to make sure your site is fully functional and user friendly. I used to buy soap from a seller on etsy until she closed the shop and referred me to her own website. It was so difficult to navigate, the shopping cart didn't work properly and it was overall such a frustrating experience that I stopped buying from her - even though I loved her soap. But that is what prompted me to learn how to make soap myself
She lost my sales and who knows how many others by closing her etsy shop before she made sure her own site was fully functional.

 

[houseofwool]

I design websites here and there for a little extra cash in my spare time - I'll give you some tips.

1) On Etsy, be present in the forums there and ask for advice on making your shop seo friendly. Everyone there is pretty helpful with criticism LOL

2) I find it's good to have both a website and Etsy. I would personally recommend A Small Orange hosting. $5 per month (cheaper if you prepay longer), and then build your shop using Wordpress. It is extremely user friendly. WooCommerce is the plugin I would recommend for that. If you decide to, even with a different hosting company and need any help, feel free to message me. I am always up for helping out.

how is the woocommerce plug in without all of the paid extensions? I am potentially interested in helping my sister with her website that is done through word press, but I don't want to fiddle with it if the plug in is just super basic and won't improve on what she currently has.

 

[GuarinoSoaps]

how is the woocommerce plug in without all of the paid extensions? I am potentially interested in helping my sister with her website that is done through word press, but I don't want to fiddle with it if the plug in is just super basic and won't improve on what she currently has.

The Woocommerce plugin will most likely have everything she needs. That's the thing...it doesn't feel like a "basic version" at least not to me anyways. Tons of features. Worst thing that could happen is you don't like it and delete it right?

But either way, it's super user-friendly, very clean and simply wonderful to work with. IMO

 

[houseofwool]

Do you by chance know of a site that uses it without any of the purchased extensions?

 

[GuarinoSoaps]

I personally have used it, but here's a link to a comparison:

http://www.joycegrace.ca/2013/04/woocommerce-vs-shopp-wordpress-e-commerce-differences/

I personally used it for designing other people's shops, which were downloadable content, which worked awesome.

 

[WAsoaps]

I have left etsy. Never had much luck there. But the bigger reason being, you probably shouldn't ever depend on a 3rd party merchant website for your business. Etsy could decided to close down tomorrow. Or have some ridiculous rule that you can't abide by. Or raise their fees to the point where it wouldn't make sense to stay. THEY make the rules.
Someone asks your customer where they got that awesome soap. Their answer? "Oh I got it on etsy."
/facepalm
When "your" shop is on etsy... it's not really yours.

Plus, of lesser importance, the whole etsy admin group are SO disgustingly cliquish. It feels like being in high school all over again. They promote the same boring/hipster/trendy people over and over on the front page. And they've been caught promoting personal friends (boyfriend/girlfriend). smh

I use hostgator as a host (got a good deal)... have my own domain name... and am just trying to figure out what platform to use: ecwid? Woocommerce? etc.
The hardest thing for me is figuring out shipping.

But it's good to be in FULL control.

 

[SozoArtisanSoaps]

I'm the odd one out here and use weebly. It works out pretty well for me. People visit the store tab and check out through paypal. There is a paypal fee of course, but not too bad.

I was thinking about setting up shop on etsy, but not so sure...

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I'm looking at some chopping cart options at the moment, rather than going through etsy

 

[shunt2011]

I too use weebly and find it very user friendly now. I started to set up an etsy shop but changed mind. I have enough trouble maintaining my website on top of shows, wholesale and consignment. Plus the making of the products and working a full-time job. Not enough hours in the day.

 

[Consuela]

Well.

Etsy has its appeal for sure. But I feel, that it's too easy to get lost in the masses of all the soap. And as said already, "relying on a third party merchant" can be risky.

Having your own webstore, you're in control. You are the one who makes it, or breaks its. and I understand that a lot of website builders now offer a store - user friendly, easy to maintain,. Some even have shipping/inventory widgets to help you manage that. At the end of the day, it's yours...

But, it depends on what works for you, and what meets your needs...

 

[claudep]

I am looking at the creation of an online store. I have read around 50 different articles about shopping cart solution like bigcommerce and shopify and the difference with maintaining your own woocommerce magenta.

I am setting up shop in the next six months on either shopify or bigcommerce. Here is a breakdown of the for and against.

For using third party shopping cart no maintenance, downtime or problem with security, updating i.e. Wordpress updating requiring you to upgrade and pluggins woocommerce compatibility issue.

Against: higher cost, loss of customization, less control over cart backend etc.

The time, energy and effort to have a successful shopping cart, unless you know exactly what you are doing should be taken into account. Compared to running your own on magenta or woocommerce, where you may need to hire a system administrator and get support, pay for additional plugging, find a payment solution etc.

I would personally stay away from etsy. I believe it is a crafters market with limited outreach. My wife made her first purchase on etsy this week. She never heard about it before. Also, for branding, she remebers buying on etsy, not the store. To succeed, i believe you have to stand apart from competition, and there are so many bath and beauty products on etsy, much easier to lose clients to a different shop.

My strategy is, a shopping cart solution with a link to my wordpress blog.