Wow! I can’t believe how much dialogue Tuesday’s post generated! If you haven’t read through the comments (43 so far!), I recommend you take a look. There have been some really great, well thought out responses.
I wanted to clarify something that came up in the comments. I don’t think that Etsy is the cause of the culture of cheap. The low pricing happening on Etsy is a result of our widespread love affair with cheap, massed produced goods, which has been going on for decades. What is frustrating is that Etsy has done nothing to position itself, or handmade, as the antithesis to cheap, disposable goods.
That being said, its only fair that I also point out that I have no intention of taking down my Etsy shop anytime soon. And I would still encourage anyone thinking of setting up an Etsy shop to do so. Etsy still remains an easy, low cost way for makers to develop an e-commerce website. (Though there are other e-commerce solutions, but we’ll talk about those another time.) There are some fantastic shoppers on Etsy who aren’t motivated solely by price. (Hooray for them!) And while its not a perfect system, as a shopper, I appreciate the ability to favorite a shop or an item. And as I seller, I appreciate that this helps spread my shop around the site. Overall, I still think its worthwhile to be on Etsy.
But I also think its important to view Etsy as one tool in the maker/seller’s toolbox, not a solution to solve all our financial woes.
As Charles mentioned in his comment, one of the best ways to drive sales on Etsy is to promote OFF Etsy. I know if you read a lot of tips on how to boost Etsy sales, they will tell you to relist often and promote your work in the forums, but those things don’t work for me. Truthfully, the forums make me want to stab a pencil in my eye. My most successful sales weeks on Etsy have come when I’ve gotten featured on a big name blog. And I can honestly say I’ve gotten sales by tweeting about an item. And years when I did a lot of retail craft shows, many of my Etsy holiday sales came from cities I had done shows in. (Coincidence, I think not.)
I do think buyers come to Etsy looking for handmade goods. Hopefully, if those of us who make fair priced work continue to list and promote both on and off Etsy, we can help buyers understand that shopping for craft should not be the same as shopping the bargain basement sales.
I know Etsy gets a bad rap sometimes, but I really credit them for expanding my audience and giving me a shot at making money while breaking plates in my jammys. I have had a bunch of brick and mortar shops find me and convo me via Etsy for wholesale information. I have even received convos from magazines about featuring my work on their pages. All of these folks found me by browsing through the piles of work on Etsy. On days when I score a front page spot, I get enough traffic that it makes it totally worth my etsy fees. I really think of my Etsy fees as an advertising cost at times.
Etsy isn’t for everyone, but it works for me. And raising my prices has not affected sales negatively at all. In fact this January with a little extra effort in making sure my shop is fresh, I am doing 10xs better then years past. It is true that you only get out of it what you put in. Twitter and Facebook help a lot!
I admit, I am a little nervous about the proposed changes on Etsy, now that I am actually making sales.
your last point is spot on, megan! (well, all of them are). promoting off of etsy can drive a lot of traffic to your etsy site. after participating in my first (and only, thus far) retail craft show, i realized the power of selling in person. not only do you generate sales from the physical show, but it increases the visibility of your work & your brand. this, in turn, has been incredibly helpful in driving traffic to my etsy site.
so i think you’re spot on in saying that etsy is a great & easy way to set up an e-commerce site, but to rely on etsy-only promotion to make sales is a mistake because it’s just too over saturated in so many ways. have i had sellers find my shop randomly and purchase? yes, of course. but has doing retail shows in person resulted in that many more sales? heck yes.
I’m extremely impressed with both the quality and timeliness of this post and the magnificent follow-on commentary. I will simply add that Etsy has done extremely well for itself – if not all the sellers – by latching onto the ethos of “cheap.” The people who built Etsy did not do so under any overblown sense of altruism. And I have no problem with that.
Like many others, I opened my Etsy shop as a quick and inexpensive way to create an on-line presence. To that extent, it’s worked-out well. I’ve since gone on to create a blog and just launched a full-blown website. With that being said: I like Etsy for what it is and plan to continue to leverage it as but one component of my marketing program.
I agree that Etsy definitely serves a purpose for both buyers and sellers, and it’s played an important role in the rise of this handmade marketplace. Even though I’m currently working on a new online store for handmade goods, off of Etsy, the site is proving extremely useful for finding potential sellers to contact about carrying their work. Not to mention the role Etsy has played in finding things to blog about for the last 3 & a half years!
P.S. I included a link to your last post on my blog… I subscribed to the comments for it via email, and the discussion that has sprung up is fascinating. http://www.missmalaprop.com/2010/01/crafty-contests-and-discussions/
I think the thing people have to realize is that ETSY is just a venue. It’s not a ideology, an ethos or a lifestyle choice. They are not a charity but a for-profit business. ETSY is a tool that you can choose to add to your business toolbox and, as with any tool, how you use it will vary from person to person as will its effectiveness.
Great discussion! Etsy and venues like it are not responsible for how sellers price their work (cheaply or otherwise), but they do have control over the branding message they use to promote handmade. I love Etsy but as you say “What is frustrating is that Etsy has done nothing to position itself, or handmade, as the antithesis to cheap, disposable goods.” – in fact they did the opposite last year with all those weekend deals emails and free shipping promos. I was very glad to hear those won’t be continuing!
Thank you for this post! You have beautifully summed up how I feel about Etsy.
As a venue, it’s not perfect, but selling sites seldom are. Short of tackling the technical aspects for a shopping site of my own (one day, one day), I won’t ever have a site I’m 100% happy with. And after looking into other alternatives, Etsy is the best fit for me right now.
Does Etsy have its own asthetic it’s trying to promote? Absolutely. Does my work fit that asthetic? Nope, but that’s okay. Their responsibility is to promote the site; it’s my responsibility to promote my shop.
And I have to agree with you wholeheartedly with this statement: “The low pricing happening on Etsy is a result of our widespread love affair with cheap, massed produced goods, which has been going on for decades.” So. True.
Excellent post!
I am so glad to have found this site, Megan and all the smart grounded artist/business people who have replied. This is my first year in business but I chose to rely on Etsy for my website and business card “product line” link when approaching people in person or via email. I am thrilled with the diverse geography of customers I have found so far on Etsy as well as wholesale inquiries and some overseas press. I agree with Lupin however that it was damaging of Etsy to promote freeshipping , 20% off groups sales and 2 for one sales this summer just as I started. Sellers should be compared by shoppers for product appeal and aesthetics not pitted against each other for lost profit margins ! As solo makers, we have no supply chain to help absorb the discounts. I have encouraged my college design students to be excited about the new movement for smaller independent designers. The first generation to grow up on cheap logos and mass produced goods from unseen places discovered a taste for handmade, reworked and one-of-a-kind things. Brooklyn cool craft nights , CA knitting cafes and thousands of rural artisans all came together in the brilliance of Etsy/wwweb like neverbefore. I am so happy to be a part of the connection and look forward to working through the growing pains and coming through wiser, stronger and more successful than I ever could have been in my local community alone.
This was a great post…I do think that there are issues with the pricing and I find myself questioning my high prices when I see others with goods at 1/4 the price of mine! I have never caved in to lower prices though and I continue to get steady work…
I do think that this newer generation has a desire to support local and handmade unique designers, just like they are more into environmental responsibility and social justice. There is a shift happening and I think that although we are caught in a funky spot while it happens, if we stick to our way of doing things, we will eventually be on top 🙂
Thanks for your blog, what a great resource!
~katie jean~
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I appreciate your honesty. So far I love Etsy but sales wise it has not happened. I make Hats and dresses and they are unique and whimisical what I thought would be great for the Etsy customer who seems to appreciate unknown talent. Fashion industry is saturated and difficult to enter because a few people in New York control what really gets seen by the masses. They also control how designers design which limits creativity. That is why I love Etsy because I get to display my true vision to the end customers. I believe Etsy and other sites will pop up like this because customers crave one of kind goods.
Cheers,
Sonrisa
First, I have to say how much I’m enjoying your blog. It’s well written, intelligent, and entertaining. When I read that Etsy’s Forums “make [you] want to stab a pencil in [your] eye,” I laughed out loud. I’ve had my share of frustrations with Etsy (including the relisting and Forums issues you mentioned), but overall I’m still grateful for Etsy and what it allows me to do.
First, it has a ready-made, well established client base and they’re all expecting (and usually appreciate) handmade. That’s a rare thing outside of Etsy. Even vending at local craft shows, I’m surprised how many people don’t know my hats are handmade unless I tell them. (Maybe some of that is because most hat makers don’t make fabric hats; most are knit or crocheted.)
Second, Etsy is maintained by IT people who know what they’re doing, so that when my home page was down recently due to hosting server issues, at least my shop was still live on Etsy.
Third, I’ve been invited to several craft shows through Etsy. The popularity of Etsy definitely has its benefits.
But I agree that having a shop on Etsy is just the tip of the iceberg. You can be the best at what you do, but if you don’t market yourself a lot, do local shows, and pound the pavement, you’re not likely to make sales. At least until you have a base of loyal customers, or a steady source of good P/R.
Either way, it’s refreshing to hear the honest truth about other makers’ ups and downs. My business is my full-time job and it’s stressful despite the fact that I love what I do. Hopefully with handmade goods and cottage industries blossoming again, we’ll start to educate the average consumer so they want to spend their hard-earned money on our hard-made handmade goods.
Thanks for the article. I just started on etsy after spending the past year doing a Farmer’s Market and several very successful shows during the holidays, as well as a few not so busy (I don’t say they were unsuccessful as I learned more about doing shows by just being there.)
For those that may have any discouraging thoughts about Etsy, I will say I have wondered how some are able to do things so cheaply. My friends remind me that quality is first.
My words of encouragement…I work with a large group of women and they love Etsy and are always looking for unusual items. Price is “not” their #1 concern. They like the style and quality of work first and price 2nd. Of course they don’t want to feel they are getting ripped off. So if you are wondering about Etsy I would say I work with probably 80 women of which 60 regularly use Etsy for shopping. If you have a great product, quality and fair pricing after 1 places an order most likely others will follow.
Keep your spirits up but I agree other avenues are really important too. The old saying…don’t put all your eggs in one basket…is the motto.
Again…thanks for the article.
Terry