20 reasons why you should sell on Etsy

Etsy is a large growing market of creatives and if you think you’d like to start selling on Etsy but are not entirely convinced, here are the top reasons why you should start

Etsy is vast, its a massive marketplace for buyers, the main market is in the US. So why shouldn’t you have some of the same selling pie?

Ok, it’s not easy to sell everything on Etsy. The items you are selling have to be good quality, they should have some kind of target market to sell to. You will need to put some effort into helping buyers find your items especially when you first set out to start selling on Etsy.

If you imagine Etsy to be one big long street, there is lots of traffic walking by your shop, your goals are to get them through the doors and into your shop as they pass by.

Other helpful beginner articles to help you start on Etsy

My top 60 Etsy shop mistakes

What is branding on Etsy and how can I use it for my shop

Are you struggling to gain traffic to your Etsy shop? – no problem, lots of shop owners start with Pinterest to begin with.

Just beginning? No problem, you can get started on Etsy today

The best reasons you need to start selling on Etsy

There is no commitment

You don’t have to commit to a particular time frame to work in your shop. You can open a shop today, and list one crochet flower and still have it open in two years where you can finally post for sale the crochet blanket that took you years to make.

Or you can sell the flower, and then close your shop a week later. Or you could lose the flower in the wash basket and have to close it anyway.

You can stop if you want to

Life happens right. Sometimes things get busy, and you just can’t keep up. That’s ok, it happens to everyone. You can stop your shop at any time. Close it, put it in vacation mode (although I would never recommend this). Abandon it if you like. No one is accountable but you.

My first shop is abandoned. But as Etsy is a free selling site, I can just leave it sat there until one day in the future when I’m feeling zen – I’ll update my tags, Etsy titles, descriptions and shop announcement, and off we go.

You can do it alone

Working alone is what I love – although I would like the occasional soundboard. I can work in my PJs and eat M&Ms, and no one can see me.

You don’t need anyone to help you. You don’t need a professional to get you started, you don’t need a licence, and you don’t need to be a marketing professional to begin.

You can keep it private.

You can start your shop in the back room, and never tell a soul you sell sexy handmade underwear. The neighbours don’t need to find out, and you don’t’ even have to say to the school mums.

It might not be obvious, but some Mums are a bit shy or embarrassed about sharing – fear of failure. If this is you – remember everyone starts at the beginning and be proud. Or read the book – Wash your face.
You should, however, tell the taxman – but I can’t help you with that. That’s your affair.

You can sit back and do it at your own pace.

You don’t need to have 100 copper plant pots to begin, You can make 3 and then post these for sale and then make more. You can go on holiday and have a romance and leave your shop and come back to it when you are done with Guido in Greece.

Etsy is not a race, it’s more of a brisk walk in the correct direction without stopping for coffee.

I like to batch my work – some weeks I work at my shop, other weeks I love to draw and then a week of website work. If you are a stay at home Mum with small children, maybe your working week begins at 5 pm on Friday night, and that’s ok.

You can sell your knowledge

In a previous life, I worked 9-5 or sometimes 7-7. I did it for years, I must have picked up so much information, even working in an office for an airline. I learnt Excel and other programs. Could I make Excel spreadsheets to sell? – of course, I could.

Have you learnt something in your day job which could translate to something you can sell? – Honestly, I’m sure almost every position out there requires knowledge that someone will pay for.

Put your thinking hat on and see what you can come up with.

Lots of us have done the work 7 days without rest but have picked up lots of information along the way. Can you now make something from that knowledge and sell it? Did you have to acquire a particular skill to do your job which someone will pay you to help them with?

Are you ready to start selling on Etsy yet? No? Read on.

Why start selling on Etsy today?

You can get people to do it for you.

You don’t have to do everything yourself. You can get help in to do it for you. You can ask someone to stuff things into envelopes for you or sew this button onto this miniature doll for you. You can outsource all the skills which prevent you from doing things which will directly move you towards your goals.
Let’s say you begin selling fabric purses, and you sell a few and one day you get a big order. Not wishing to say outright no – (after all hubby can’t sew), it’s possible to find a couple of ladies in the village who are willing to help you. Now – you might think this is a dream for you, I mean this way you are actually employing people to do things. But honestly, that’s what Etsy is all about, learning, growing and managing your own business. Whichever direction this takes you.

You can find great help everywhere.

There are a ton of people helping other people on Etsy. Myself being one of them. But you can also find help from the Etsy forums, youtube, blogs, and websites dedicated to Etsy selling. You can even start a website for your own shop too. . You can also, of course, go to the horse’s mouth and ask Etsy themselves.

I like Starla Moore on You Tube – I play many of her videos in the background while I’m working.

Etsy success Podcast
Something easy to listen to if you need some inspiration right now.

You can keep your costs low

You don’t need to pay for hosting, shop hire, or a monthly fee to be on Etsy, so even though it’s cost you to get started on you making, at least your shop won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

You can, of course, opt for the paid shop option where you get more view options although Etsy has said this does not improve your search rankings.

It’s simple to manage

Once your shop is up and running, they have great tools within the platform to manage your money and payments. You can use the helpful stats tabs to give you a good overall idea of how well your shop is performing and where your traffic is coming from.

If this is not enough, use google analytics to give you a more detailed report. These do take a little knowledge, but again there is plenty of help out there.

Anyone can do it

I looked at a Facebook post the other day, and the lady was looking for feedback on her handmade jewellery. She was struggling with her photos. I honestly think she was a pensioner.

Which is fab don’t you think?

It just goes to show that even unlikely people can do great things.

You don’t have to be a young entrepreneur to start, anyone can cook – so they said on Ratatouille.

You can sell many things there

There are lots of different things for sale on Etsy, and many sellers begin to start selling on Etsy with crafty work such as bags or fabric items, but move onto other things like pottery. This is ok too. No judgment here.

Can you make origami-like no one else? – or do you make your own paper from your grandma’s recipe? – anything is possible on Etsy.

I’ve seen a few shops selling items they have picked up in yard sales, and while this is not really handmade, it is possible.

You don’t have to monitor it all the time

Etsy has an app which does all the work for you. It alerts you to a conversation, Etsy notices and news and best of all a sale.

Unlike bricks and mortar shop – you don’t have to hold hands all day. Of course, it helps your SEO if you log on to be active each day, but hey, coffee shop work is easy.

You only need an email address

If you wish to open more than one shop or feel your new items deserve their own frontage – maybe because the branding will be different or the shop will look like a junkyard.

You only need a new email address. You can get one easily on Gmail or from your website server.

You don’t need to be connected all the time

Ok – I only sell digital items. Why> – because for the most part it basically looks after itself. Etsy sends any purchased files on my behalf to the email address of the customer following successful payment.

I just sit back and listen for the sale kerching. I’m not suggesting that you set up your shop, go and live in Bali and meditate. (entirely possible of course)

You do need to be active and stay on top of any convos you receive. I’ve noticed a boost in traffic if I answer my convos straight away.

Maybe your mum can help if you are away for any length of time. That’s what Mums are for.

You can start small and grow big.

Don’t think you need 80 items, to begin with, you can start much smaller especially if you are handmaking items which require lots of prework and time.

I mean you wouldn’t make 700 Bird Houses in dark red unless you knew that there was a market out there.

But if there is a sudden interest in dark red birdhouses – then suddenly you can grow big in a short time. Slime is an excellent example that no one really knew would become such a trend.

You only need perseverance when you start selling on Etsy

If you are fortunate enough to be a Capricorn. Step right up. Most shops fail because they forget that time and energy makes or breaks you. It’s the same on Etsy.

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

Jacob A. Riis

You get the idea here.

The size of Etsy is your friend.

Look, I know it’s not the size of Amazon, but Etsy sure does have some traffic. The advantage of this is that you don’t have to bring in your own traffic, to begin with.

Etsy has already done the heavy lifting, and all those people are searching on Etsy potentially can purchase right now from your shop. One less thing to worry about.

Etsy collects payments and pays some of your taxes.

When the new EU laws came about for digital purchases and tax based on the seller’s location. I lost sleep for a bit. Not because I didn’t understand it, but I really didn’t want to pay someone 400 an hour to post 5.60 in taxes.

I didn’t want to go to jail either.

Etsy collects this digital tax for you and settles it. Maybe they could have charged for this service, I’m not sure. But I sure am happy I don’t have to sort this out in the EU.

Now I live in Hong Kong, so the taxes are much more straightforward. It’s just a form and a two-stage bill. Easy.

So I hope I’ve given you a few reasons to start your Etsy journey today.

Have you been selling on Etsy? – what would you say is the best advantages on the platform?

If you enjoyed this post on the best reasons to sell on Etsy – Pin me to your favourite Pinterest board by clicking the pin below.

Let me know what you think in the comments.