Hi everyone!
In today's video, I'm going to cover the best Etsy alternatives for selling handmade and
vintage goods.
I'm Priyanka Prakash, senior staff writer and small business expert at Fundera.
Etsy is a great platform for creative sellers with over two million sellers and over 39
million buyers.
In fact, we have a whole video full of tips to increase your Etsy sales.
But there are downsides to selling on Etsy as well.
Many business owners find that there's just too much competition on the platform.
Some also find that they don't have enough control over their Etsy shop.
Today, I'll cover three other platforms from where you can earn just as much money or even
more than you would on Etsy by selling handmade goods.
Etsy alternative number one is Amazon Handmade.
Amazon is known for its huge marketplace of third party sellers, but not many think of
it as a spot for creative sellers.
Well, Amazon Handmade, which launched in 2015, allows sellers to sell artisan crafted goods
in over 30 countries.
Amazon has over 300 million customers which makes Etsy’s audience seem like small potatoes
in comparison.
Plus, by selling on Amazon, you can take advantage of prime shipping and other tools that buyers
love.
That said, the rules to sell on Amazon Handmade are a little bit stricter than on Etsy on
Amazon.
You cannot outsource the manufacture of your goods.
The goods must be handmade by you, or if your company has fewer than 20 employees, by your
employees.
Your products should also fit into one of these dozen categories: accessories; artwork;
baby; beauty and personal care; clothes, shoes and handbags; home outdoor and home care;
jewelry and watches; kitchen and dining; pet supplies; sporting goods; stationery and party
supplies; or toys and games.
You must fill out an application to be accepted onto the Amazon Handmade platform.
An Amazon staff member will review it.
Make sure you take great product photos and give a thorough description of your shop and
production processes.
Just like this sample skincare shop Live By Being, you can see how this seller emphasizes
the natural ingredients she uses in her products and the non-toxic production processes.
The seller is also offering several of these products on prime shipping which makes them
very customer friendly.
Overall, Amazon Handmade is more expensive for sellers than Etsy.
Amazon deducts a 15% referral fee from each handmade sale.
In contrast, Etsy charges 20 cents for each product listing, plus a 5% transaction fee
from each sale including shipping costs.
Although Amazon Handmade is more expensive, many sellers give handmade more points for
customer service.
Sellers get access to a phone number where they can ask questions from a live representative.
Etsy primarily offers email or chat support for sellers.
Etsy alternative number two is Shopify.
Shopify is not actually a handmade goods marketplace in the same way as Etsy or Amazon Handmade.
Instead, Shopify is an ecommerce platform that lets you run your own online store.
Many sellers find success with building up traffic to their own store though this option
might take longer to see results with.
Yusuf Prens, a cofounder of Galen Leather, a leather goods store, had to leave Etsy after
PayPal stopped operating in Turkey in 2016.
At the time, this was the only payment gateway that Etsy was using in Turkey, so Yusuf and
his team made the switch to Shopify with their own standalone store.
According to Yusuf, having a Shopify store has given them far more control over their
website design, product and inventory management, marketing, and SEO.
It's also taken what was a hobby and turned it into a full fledged business.
Shopify is a great Etsy alternative for online sellers who have a more established brand
presence and bigger marketing budget.
When you use Etsy or Amazon Handmade, there's a built in volume of customers who visit these
sites every day.
In contrast, when you build a website using Shopify, you're responsible for earning traffic
to it.
If you're up to that challenge, then there really are no restrictions on what you can
sell on Shopify or how much you can sell.
There are also branding and inventory management tools that allow you to scale easily on Shopify.
The cost to use Shopify starts at $29 per month, and 2.9% plus 30 cents per online credit
card sale.
Etsy alternative number three is IndieMade.
Amazon Handmade is probably the alternative that's most like Etsy.
Both Etsy and Amazon Handmade are marketplaces with a steady volume of buyers.
Shopify, on the other hand, is a bigger change from Etsy for sellers who are ready to launch
an independent online store.
IndieMade is somewhere in between.
It's a website builder that allows you to set up your own ecommerce site, but it also
has a system called Etsy Connect that lets you sync up your site with your Etsy shop.
This is a good option for small business owners who want to try an Etsy alternative but still
like the traffic and income stream that's coming to their Etsy shop.
IndieMade is specifically designed for artists, so you can find easy-to-use website templates
for creative types.
You can also set custom branding, a custom domain, and reporting for your new website.
You get nice features like the ability to embed audio and video onto your product pages
using Etsy Connect.
You can run both your IndieMade online store and an Etsy shop at
the same time.
Inventory syncs across both platforms, so if you sell something on Etsy, it will automatically
be removed from your IndieMade store inventory.
If you list a new item on IndieMade, you also can automatically create an Etsy listing.
Here's a sample IndieMade website called Sarahndipities, in which the seller who makes handmade crochet
items also connects to her Etsy store.
IndieMade lets you keep more of what you earn compared to Etsy.
Their basic plan costs just $4.95 cents per month to list 10 items; however, you need
their $14.95 cent per month Pro plan to use the Etsy Connect feature.
There are no separate transaction fees.
If you sell something though, your payment processor will charge a small fee when customers
pay by credit card, so that's something that you should take into account in overall pricing.
And that wraps up our overview of the three best seo alternatives that you should try
today.
Let us know in the comments if you've tried any of these SEO alternatives or others and
how they worked for you.
For more business ideas, head over to fundera.com.
You can also visit youtube.com/funderaloans and subscribe to our channel for more videos.
Thanks for watching, everyone!