Who has an Etsy shop? pros and cons?

[Sharon Kay]

Ok...our robotics team won a $3,000 sublimation system as our first place prize! I am checking out the system and what it can do ... plus I am supposed to check out ways to SELL items for fundraising.

I am wondering who might actually have their own Etsy shop and can give me a run down on the pros and cons for it ... hidden charges? Etsy... love it ? ... hate it ? Is it really easy to use or does it eat up a lot of time?

Payment ... is it guaranteed or have people been able to take back payments after you sent the product?

How do you advertise to get the word out about your products for sale?

... I'm just trying to find out all the pluses and minuses before I present anything to the team ... because ... I have a feeling my sons and I will be doing ALL the work ... and I don't want to say anything if this is going to be too much work for too little money.

I'd really appreciate your comments ... I am so overloaded here just trying to learn about the system that finding a place to sell is just too much for me to do right now.

Do you have any other suggestions? Ebay just seemed like too much work.

I cannot thank you enough for sharing your experience with us! Thanks from the WHOLE team...whether or not they know about it. lol

[jessica31876]

Ummm I made crocheted items and had my own store. Ive shown my stuff to people and they really love it. Say it is really beautiful etc but sold NOTHING through etsy. I sold way more on ebay. Sometimes a little lower then I would have liked to sell for but it almost always sold. Something I noticed that sells really well on ebay at least is books. I would buy books and resell for 1/3 of what I paid at least(usually 1/3 of the price listed on the book). Usually I just set it as a set price and I sold nearly every book I listed. I could take them to a used book store and resell them for credit but this way I got back some of the money I spent and I did not always pay full price on the book.

Anyhow pros on etsy is it is specific to a certain type of product (meaning like crafts, handmade items, vintage items etc) so generally people are looking for that specific type of thing.

Listing fees are less on etsy in my opinion because they allow the listing for two months I believe.

You can sign up for an account to sell with etsy and not be charged a thing so you can set up your shop and never really use it if you want.

Dont have experience with payment but Im sure some people do have issues with payments. I know I did when selling on ebay so assume the same is true with etsy.

Overall I really like etsy but I guess what I was selling was not a hugely popular item. Not really trendy in other words.

There is a shop in the next town over that sells handmade items. Im pretty sure they do it on consignment so I may try that route. I just need to go in and talk to them about it and find out how it works. I think that might be a better route for me.

Hope what I said helped a little. Like I said I did not make any actual sales but really did like etsy's setup and billing process. It was easy and simple to work through.

[scrapperjade]

I sold some stuff on Etsy, and while I did like it, it was a LOT of work.

Things to take into consideration:

~ People are looking for fun, unique items. There is a TON of everything on Etsy, so unless you have a truly outstanding product, there is always something better, nicer, cheaper on there. It's a tough market.

~ Items get buried FAST. Within a few minutes, your item you JUST listed could be on page 2. If you want the best exposure, be prepared to list 2 - 3 or more items per day, at different times (say morning, afternoon, evening).

~ If an item is put in someone's cart, it gets taken out of your store (so nobody else can see it), but it can stay in that person's cart for a long time without them actually paying for it. It's kind of frustrating because you think you have a sale, the item doesn't get exposure anymore, but the person can put it back. No sale, but no exposure. Kind of annoying.

~ The best way to get exposure on your etsy items is to do a lot of promo things in the Etsy Community. Play in the promotion threads, start your own, show off your things. Ready through the business section, find out do's and don'ts.

~ Be prepared to not sell anything at first. This totally depends on what you are selling. Maybe you have an awesome product that will FLY off the shelves, but for the most part, sales at first are few & far between. It gets really discouraging.

~ There are listing fees of $0.20 per item. You get charged this at the beginning. You get charged that again when you re-list (either if the item sells and you have a duplicate to sell OR if the item expires). I can't remember if there are any more hidden fees or not.

Personally I found that 10 sales in 4 months was pathetic and NOT worth my time. I spent HOURS a day making my stuff (I made printable recipe cards, tags, notepads, etc), promoting it, listing, etc. In the end I was stressed out, annoyed and frustrated. So I closed up shop.

So I can't say one way or the other if you should or shouldn't but I think that there are better ways of selling than Etsy.

[scrap2day]

No Etsy experience but since Ebay has been mentioned I thought I would share my experience. Ebay gets paid whether you sell or not. Of course, if you do sell they get more but you only have a few days to get your item to sell. If it doesn't you still have to pay Ebay the listing fee. Unless you can figure out items that will have a high rate of success in selling and you make a decent profit I wouldn't recommend.