How to close your Etsy shop

Did you know 2.5 million sellers sold goods on Etsy in 2019? That’s a lot of shops. However, many of them lay abandoned on Etsy, with minimal sales and no one looking after them. If this is you – perhaps you wish to close your Etsy shop for one reason or another. Let’s look at the best way to do this because there may be an alternative.

Once you have decided to close your Etsy shop, you can do a few things to minimize the disruption and ensure the process is clean and straightforward.

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How to close your Etsy shop in 3 steps?

If you are planning to keep your Etsy account for future purposes, the simplest way is to close your Etsy shop.

To close your Etsy shop

log into Etsy, navigate to your shop settings, and then to options.

You will see several pages – go to the page marked Close shop and action from the instructions.

Etsy will ask you for a reason why you are closing your shop. Select the most appropriate and click the Close shop.

But – before you do that – read on.

Are there alternatives to closing your Etsy shop?

Yes, if you wish, you might feel it’s more appropriate to put your shop into holiday mode. Unlike the name suggests, I would never use this option if I was going on holiday. Far from it.

However, I would use this option if I wished to take an extended break of more than a few months – for example, you are having a baby and don’t want the hassle of managing your Etsy shop for several months. Or if you are planning to take an extended break and wished to pursue other shop ideas.

Perhaps using holiday mode on Etsy might be a better fit for you.

Placing your shop in holiday mode does affect your rankings when you reopen it. It takes Etsy a while to gather data for your shop, and you can expect this process to take anything from 2-6 weeks. 

You can find out what happens when you make mistakes in your Etsy shop.

Tasks to complete BEFORE Closing your Etsy Shop

Should I close my Etsy account?

You will not be able to close your Etsy account if you have outstanding payments due to Etsy. You will need to pay these before closing your shop.

If you close your Etsy account, you will lose your shop name – this will go into Etsy shop heaven, and no one, including yourself, will be able to recover that name again.

Not even if you bash down on the Etsy door.

Can I start a second Etsy shop using the same email?

You may only use one email per Etsy account. If you wish to use the same email, change your Etsy email BEFORE closing your shop and account. Then you are free to open a new account using your old email address again.

If you are thinking of opening a second Etsy shop, consider looking into how to start an Etsy shop first.

Only do this if you are going to sell new items of a different type. Otherwise, you won’t achieve anything – it might be better to improve the shop you already have in this case.

If you have a Gmail account – you can create a new email address by adding an extra ‘.’ in the name.

For example – your address is yellowberry (at) Gmail. – you could use yellow.berry(at)Gmail. This means you can have the same email address on both accounts as both will deliver to the same address, but Etsy will see it as a new address. 🙂

Clever right. !!!

If I close my Etsy shop, can I reopen it later on?

Yes, you can reopen your closed Etsy shop by using the same method and selecting – Reopen shop. Everything will be exactly where you left off. Of course, you will not be able to benefit from previous search results as it will take several weeks for Etsy to read how customers interact with your shop. But it can be done.

Before jumping ship to what appears to be green pasture – remember there are several reasons why people prefer to sell on Etsy (link)

While I still believe Etsy is an excellent place for handmade sellers – reasons for leaving can also have their value, for example 

• You have over 500 listings and a good sales record and want to keep more of the money yourself (seems logical)
• You are making lots of sales and wish to build a brand off Etsy, knowing you can sustain repeat customers
• Just sick of the platform performance and don’t feel it has enough of your target market on there
• Have not made any money on Etsy and the tiny amount of sales are not worth the hassle 
• Just want to stop selling on Etsy (insert reason) 🙂
• Wish to sell their Etsy shop and cash out of the business

For whatever reason, you have decided to close your Etsy shop – I wish you the best with your future.

Final thoughts on How to close an Etsy shop

Please don’t rush into it as it’s a big decision; think about alternatives first. Only close your shop if you have downloaded the information from it. It might be better to deactivate your listings and leave your shop on holiday mode with a note – especially if you have established a repeat buyer audience.

Change your email before closing your account if you intend to start a new account with the same email.

Remember, you will lose your shop name – it will no longer be available to use on an alternative account. Even though you know, it’s free and not being used. 

If you enjoyed this post – please feel free to pin me to your favorite Pinterest board.

PS – If you are not quite ready to close your Etsy shop today, and think you have the courage to jump back in. – Start with our Etsy planner. You never know what you can achieve.