Hey everyone. Welcome back to the channel.
Imagine if you could start a business
and run it successfully for nearly 10 years
and then go back in time
and start that business all over from scratch
but you were able to keep
all of the knowledge that you gained
over that 10 years of running the business.
I've been a print-on-demand seller
for almost 10 years now,
and today I'm going to share the five things
that I wish I knew
before starting print on demand on Etsy.
These five are rarely talked about on YouTube
and they actually ended up being a deal breaker
for me personally,
which is why I don't sell on Etsy anymore.
So without further ado,
if you're thinking about selling on Etsy,
I highly recommend watching this video first
because nobody else is going to tell you
these things honestly.
So starting with the first thing you really need to know.
The best way I can put this
is if you were given the option to work 20 hours per week
or work 40 hours per week
and get paid the same amount, which one would you choose?
The answer here seems pretty obvious.
We'd choose the 20 hours per week.
So that brings me into the first point.
If you're going to sell print on demand on Etsy,
it requires a lot more work
compared to selling print on demand
on print-on-demand specific websites.
As an Etsy seller,
there are a couple really time-consuming tasks
that you have to do to run the business.
On other print-on-demand websites,
you don't have to do these tasks at all.
This is essentially because Etsy is an entire marketplace.
It's not a print-on-demand specific website.
So to give you some ideas of these time-consuming tasks,
if you're going to be selling on Etsy,
the first thing you're going to have to do
is find and set up a third-party
print-on-demand fulfillment service.
This one is really not so hard to do,
but there's a couple others.
Next, and this is an ongoing thing
for as long as you sell on Etsy,
you're going to have to nurture your customer reviews
on your Etsy shop.
And then the last thing, which again, is an ongoing thing.
This is the most time consuming.
You're going to have to manage all of the customer service.
Speaking of the customer service,
this brings us right into the next thing
that you really need to know.
This next thing is that there is a button
in the bottom right corner
of every product on Etsy that says, "Message the seller."
As a seller on Etsy,
you will get a ton of messages
from people interested in your products,
even if they haven't made a purchase yet.
What nobody is going to tell you
is that Etsy monitors how quickly you respond
to these messages.
And response time is a big factor
in how well you will rank on Etsy.
Now, if you have experience with Etsy,
you're probably thinking,
well, you can just put the frequently asked questions
down in the description of the product
and that will answer people's questions.
But the reality of it is you can put as many FAQs
as you want down in the description
and people are still going to be messaging you,
asking about shipping, product customization, sizing,
or something else.
It's just kind of how it goes.
So essentially with this one, the bigger you get on Etsy,
the more you're going to be glued
to your phone all day long,
trying to respond to customer messages
as quickly as possible.
So moving on to the third thing
that you need to know here
is that the setup process on Etsy to sell print on demand
is far more challenging
than it is on print-on-demand specific websites.
Simply put, there is much more of a learning curve for Etsy
than there is for these other websites.
This is because Etsy
is not an actual print-on-demand website.
You're essentially just using Etsy
as a marketplace to get organic traffic.
That means that you are in charge
of the actual print-on-demand fulfillment.
Now, this part isn't all that challenging,
but it's something that you just need to know.
What you're going to have to do
is integrate with a third-party
print-on-demand fulfillment service.
The most common ones out there are Printful or Printify,
but you have to go through that integration and that setup.
Now, I should mention
that these print-on-demand fulfillment services,
they're free to use and integrate with Etsy,
but it's really important to note
that they are not Etsy themselves.
So you're going to have to learn how to use Etsy
and you're also going to have to learn
how to use these third-party fulfillment services.
It's just more of a learning curve for a new seller
that doesn't exist on these other print-on-demand websites.
Now, speaking of using Etsy for their marketplace
and using the print-on-demand fulfillment service
for the print on demand,
there are fees associated with both.
Now, starting with Etsy, there is a listing fee.
It's 20 cents per listing,
which really isn't a lot of money,
but every time you upload a design,
you're going to have to pay that.
And once you start getting into the hundreds
or thousands of designs uploaded,
that 20 cents really starts to add up.
The part that kind of gets me here
is that the other print-on-demand websites,
they have no fees at all.
So you can literally upload thousands
or tens of thousands of designs on these websites
totally for free.
Now, coming over to the other side,
the print-on-demand fulfillment services,
as I said before, they are free to use and integrate.
However, since it's a third-party fulfillment service
and not directly on Etsy,
every time someone places an order,
that order basically gets routed
through your fulfillment service
and you have to pay the upfront cost of goods for that.
To kind of walk you through this to understand it,
what happens is when someone places an order on Etsy,
you'll be charged the cost of goods on that product.
So let's call it $15, for example,
and then you receive the actual purchase price
from the customer on Etsy, let's call that $20, for example.
So your profit in between is $5.
You get to keep that $5
but you had to pay that $15 upfront,
which on these other print-on-demand websites,
you don't have to do.
On the other print-on-demand websites,
they simply just give you a split of the profit
every time someone makes a purchase.
I personally think that's a much simpler way of doing it.
You're just paid basically a royalty or a commission
and you don't have to even put a card on file
to pay for the cost of goods.
So with that said,
that brings us into the fifth and last thing
that I think you really need to know
if you're going to sell print on demand on Etsy
and this may be the most important
because it starts to get into the legal territory.
What this is, is that sales tax
can start to get a little bit messy
when you're selling on Etsy.
I really wanna share this information
because not many people know this,
but when you sell on Etsy,
you're technically buying a product
from the print-on-demand fulfillment service
and then reselling that to an Etsy customer.
So what that means is,
since you are reselling a product, technically,
this means that you have to handle the issue of sales tax,
and this is where it gets a little bit messy
because there's no one size fits all.
These sales tax requirements
depend on where you are located.
So it may involve registering for a sales tax permit
or a reseller permit
and then you have to file sales tax returns.
This is one that just doesn't really have
a clear answer for,
but it's very, very important
because you wanna make sure that you're doing everything
by the books when it comes to paying taxes.
Now, again, I have to compare this
to the other print-on-demand specific websites.
They are simply paying you a split of the profit
as a royalty or a commission.
So this means you're not the actual seller of the product
or even a reseller of the product.
You're simply the artist who created the design,
and therefore, you don't have to worry about sales tax.
So if you're like me
and you want an easier way to sell print on demand,
I'll link up a full step-by-step tutorial
in the description below
that goes over the five print-on-demand websites
that I personally use myself
because they are much easier to use.
That tutorial will go through everything step-by-step.
So you should have all the information
you need there to get started.
If you found this video helpful,
I would really appreciate the thumbs up.
And don't forget to subscribe for more content like this.
And as always, if you have any questions at all,
just let me know down in the comments.
Otherwise, I'll see you all in the next video.