Anyone have an Etsy store?

Curious, anyone have one as a small side gig.  If so, care to elaborate on what the pain points are, costs, etc?

I create many things as part of my hobbies, and like any modern idiot, I'm curious if there is any merit in marketing them.

My son manages the Etsy component of a fairly large print shop.  At scale the Etsy account has become difficult to manage. 
 

The costs are a factor, but free shipping is a bigger factor. It's hard to bury the shipping costs of a product that should cost only about $10.  He also finds managing the Etsy customers very hard. They are onesie/ twosie kinds of buyers who expect premium treatment. Sometimes they have to stop production for their large commercial customers to service a small Etsy order. Etsy buyers don't expect to have to wait for their product to be produced (as if the product is already sitting in inventory).  He says that changes in orders after the run has already begun are common (which is really hard for small orders).  And shipping is a really time consuming job. They have Etsy shipments that go out every day, and someone has to package all that stuff.  "Free shipping" and rapid or overnight orders are normal expectations for Etsy buyers.
 

He says the juice isn't worth the squeeze for a company their size (fairly large production print shop).  They have outgrown it, but once they got into it it's supremely difficult to get out.  They can't justify the resources to manage the Etsy component, but it represents 30% of their revenue and they can't just drop it.  The owner is afraid to let go of the Etsy store, but it's killing their business, and destroying morale for the staff.

A lot of that probably won't apply to you, but worth considering. 

In reply to SV reX :

Sounds like the Etsy customers expect to be buying from a small artisan and not a large print shop doing print-on-demand - which is kinda what Etsy was intended for.

It's probably a better fit for prodarwin. If I was looking for an outlet for hobby creation, it would be my first choice. Shopify is also a good option for less customized stuff but lacks the integration into a larger marketplace - although they're trying to make it happen with their Shop ecosystem.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I agree.  
 

They WERE a small company when they started the Etsy store. 
 

Some of the issues still apply to small artisans (like how do you bury $10 shipping cost in a $15 item?)

Like a lot of things, started out as a great idea, then taken over by the hunt for profits, scammers, and absolute lowest common denominator customers and sellers. 

I would really advise against it these days after watching people trying to get in. 

Want to get higher listing results? Free shipping. Free shipping cuts into your profits? Oh well, make up for it in volume. 

Word of mouth and local networking are working a lot better these days than dealing with Etsy for most of the creators I know. And I'm not talking people making digital E36 M3 that was never supposed to be sold on Etsy in the first place, I'm talking detailed, time consuming, proper home made products. 

You really need standout products or damn near slave labor, or both, to really be able to compete on there these days.

I had one for a while during covid. As I was getting started I was accused of being a reseller, who was not making my own goods. They shut my store down without warning, or talking to me. I was eventually able to get it back up and running after much effort on my part to prove I was in fact making stuff myself.

I was selling a decent amount for a few months, but it wasn't worth it. Pain in the ass customers, not enough profit, etc. I read somewhere that Etsy sellers make about $7 an hour if all things are accounted for. That may even seem a little high to me after having done it. Bottom line is, there are easier ways to make money.

Thanks for all the feedback.  I never intended on selling much volume of anything, I just thought it would be interesting to see what it was like.  But some of my fears are exactly those spelled out in this thread, so I'd say its probably not worth it for me except just as a learning experience... and that can wait.

Yeah, I’d agree. I have an Etsy store for my zines. When I opened shop, it seemed like a perfect fit as it’s where you went to find more boutique-type items.

Today, not sure what Etsy is about. 

If you're looking for a mechanism to sell, I'm going to double down on suggesting Shopify. Nice and easy and they have some very low cost plans for small stores.

The whole "free shipping on an item that should only cost $10" is never going to get fixed. The solution there is to price your item higher to cover your costs, and let the people selling it for $10 go broke. When we went to free shipping, we calculated what our annual shipping cost was and divided our annual sales by that number. Then effected an x% price increase across the board. We still keep track of average shipping costs for products and take it into account when pricing. Free shipping isn't really free, but people will much rather pay $15 with free shipping than $10 +$5 shipping.

I talked a bit more with my son about this. I asked him if he thought it was worth it for a small startup. He said he didn't know of any other game that was worth it so he'd do it,  but you have to be aware of what you are getting into. 
 

The biggest catch for a small company is response time. You have to answer messages quickly, and ship quickly. It improves your star rating. If your star rating drops, then Etsy pushes your listing down the priority list and no one sees your listing. 
 

He also noted that one challenge with Etsy is that once you grow, there is no way to take your business off their platform. You can't take your page or your customers. 
 

He said custom products are a nightmare. He would only do it with small inventory of ready to ship products. The problem is once a customer places an order the clock is ticking, and the customer doesn't necessarily respond quickly.  They may delay approval or want changes.  You may have a 5 day turn around, and they may take 4 to respond. If you don't ship in time, your star rating drops. 
 

His company recently hit 20,000 total products sold over the last 3 years. They are slow now and ship less than 20 products a day. That takes 3 people- 1 handling messages, 1 packaging and shipping, and 1 doing production.  At their peak they were doing 100 products a day- that took 2 full time shippers.

It helps if you can streamline packaging. Durable goods in packaging that repeats.

If you want more info, my son says he'd be glad to talk with you. PM me. 

Keith Tanner said:

If you're looking for a mechanism to sell, I'm going to double down on suggesting Shopify. Nice and easy and they have some very low cost plans for small stores.

I thought the advantage Etsy offers over Shopify is that it is a marketplace, and supposed to shoulder as much of the load as possible of handling transactions, marketing, reporting taxes, etc.  whereas Shopify is primarily to create a storefront - but then marketing that storefront falls on you?

Comments on response time, etc. are noted.  Seems like a bit of a pain in the butt for something intended to be an enjoyable supplemental income.