Is It Worth It To Sell On Etsy? (Here Are The Pros and Cons)

Maybe you’ve been wanting to start your Etsy shop and you’re not sure if you should.

Is it too expensive to sell on its platform? Is Etsy profitable to sell my products?

If you’ve had these thoughts, you’re definitely not alone. When I first started my shop, I wondered if starting on Etsy would be worth it.

Since I’ve started my shop eight months ago, I want to give my two cents about the pros and cons of selling on Etsy.

Hopefully, by the end of this post, you can get more clarity about whether or not this platform is right for you!

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Let’s jump right into the pros and cons of selling on Etsy!

This post is all about is it worth it to sell on Etsy and your questions answered.

Normally, if people were creating a pros and cons list, they’d start with the pros. However, on this blog, we’re going to switch it up, and start with the cons of selling on Etsy.

What are pros and cons of selling on Etsy?

Here are the Cons:

1. Increase of Etsy Seller Fees

Etsy has been increasing its seller fees at a pretty quick rate. Effective starting from 2022, Etsy announced that it would raise its 5% transaction fee to 6.5%.

The transaction fee is the percentage of the total order amount Etsy charges when a seller makes a sale.

That’s a 30 percent increase, and honestly, it’s probably because Etsy’s revenue was increasing rapidly, which led to an increase in fees.

2. Higher Competition Among Sellers

Just like any selling platform, there’s bound to be higher competition among sellers.

With Etsy shops that have been around for a while, the competition against those with an established brand and audience can make it difficult for new shops to stand out.

Also, saturated niches can raise the competition for newer Etsy shops. This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to stand out – it’s just that the competition may be a bit higher in certain niches.

3. Not allowed to collect shoppers’ emails

Another thing with Etsy is that you are not allowed to collect shoppers’ emails.

There is no feature on the platform that allows you to collect their emails.

I’m not exactly sure why, but I assume the obvious answer is that Etsy wants its shoppers to stay on its platform.

So if you are looking to create an email list specifically for your Etsy buyers, then you would have to download a separate extension that automatically exports the shoppers’ emails.

4. More products = more success on etsy

I’ve found from personal experience that Etsy tends to favor more fresh, newer content on its platform.

So if you’re a new shop, that’s perfect. The more products you create, the “happier” Etsy will be to put your content on its front pages.

But on the other hand, that also means, if your products require more labor and time, it may be more difficult to have a bigger inventory.

Pros

1. Ranking on Etsy is not as hard as you think

Believe it or not, you can rank on Etsy’s searches a lot more quickly than compared to starting a blog and trying to rank on Google.

Because there are so many buyers and shoppers that are looking for different things to buy, that means it’s not that difficult to rank on Etsy’s searches.

Sure, the competition might be high, but that also means the more specific you can get about the product you create, the easier it will be to rank.

One way to rank faster on Etsy is to understand which keywords to target for your niche. This post will teach you exactly how to research Etsy keywords for FREE.

2. Opportunities for growth

There is a lot of opportunities for growth on Etsy. You could turn your side hustle on its platform into a full-time business.

Many Etsy shop owners share about their experiences turning their shops into successful, profitable businesses.

It’s definitely possible to grow your Etsy shop!

Aside from the money part, you learn so much from creating your own products and learning the aspects of starting a business on Etsy.

3. Seller fees are cheaper than most platforms

There are platforms that are bit more experience when it comes to selling.

Though, there might be platforms that don’t have transaction fees, most of them do have a pricing plan.

The benefit of selling on Etsy is that it’s free unless you want to upgrade to the Plus plan for $10 per month (honestly, I don’t know much about it at the moment since I don’t use it).

There is a transaction fee when you sell your products, but Etsy is overall cheaper than other popular platforms such as Shopify or Sellfy.

4. Easy to set up and start your shop

Etsy makes it incredibly easy to set up and start your own shop.

You literally could start your own Etsy shop in less than an hour. I’m not even kidding!

If you want to start your own Etsy shop, I highly recommend using this super simple, step-by-step checklist.

Open up your Etsy shop in less than one hour!

Grab the FREE step-by-step Etsy Checklist above and start your business today!

How Much Time Does It Take To Sell On Etsy?

It varies for every shop when it comes to how much time it takes to sell on Etsy.

I made my first sale a month after I started my shop. It was a slow, gradual process but now I make multiple sales every day.

Plus, there’s a lot of factors to consider such as the niche you’re in, the product demand, timing of the product, etc.

So don’t be discouraged if it takes time for your Etsy shop to make sales. Slow and steady wins the race!

How Much Does It Cost Selling on Etsy?

Aside from the transaction and seller fees on Etsy, it does not cost much to sell on Etsy.

You can check out this helpful, honest post that gives you the breakdown of Etsy’s fees.

Again, it varies for every shop, depending on the cost of your labor and materials, as well as shipping costs.

Final question: Is it worth it to sell on Etsy?

There are definitely pros and cons to starting an Etsy shop, just like any other selling platform.

It really comes down to what your preferences and expectations are for when it comes to platform you’re looking for!

If you’re looking for a straight-forward answer from an Etsy seller herself, then I would say it is, haha. A year ago I was barely making anything and fast forward to today, my shop has seen tremendous growth in sales.

The way I see it is some money is better than no money, haha. It took a leap of faith, a lot of hours of hard work in order for me to get the results.

I’m curious to know where you are at after reading this post! Do you think you would start one or take more time to think about it? Comment down below because I’d love to know 🙂

Please let me know if you have any questions and I’d be happy to get back to you!

How Do I Find Low Competition and High Demand Niches On Etsy?

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This post was all about is it worth it to sell on Etsy.

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Is It Worth It To Sell On Etsy? (Here Are The Pros and Cons)