Q 'N A - Etsy shop vs. independent online shop
/Hi lovely,
let's get started with todays question!:
The question of Today is:
What is a better idea an Etsy shop or a shop build into your own homepage?
If you’re an artist, designer, stylist, creator,... and have a question about how to start and grow your creative BIZ, send me your question and I would love to answer it!
This is such a great question. I do think there are pros and cons for both solutions.
I will tell you why I chose to use an Etsy shop.
Building an online shop integrated to you own platform can be pretty time consuming and expensive. I didn't wanted to spend all the time building my own online shop.
Etsy has a simple set up, you can't waste a lot of time searching for the perfect design. Etsy is only offering you limited possibilities to add your own branding. This is a pro and a con.
A shop completely build for your shop can be amazingly creative and innovative, but it could also be a lot of work to get the design done, possibly this would be pretty expensive too.
Plus the usability can be a pain in the a*.
When people are navigating through Etsy they don't need to learn how to use a new platform every time they enter a new shop. All shops are the same, so they won't need to figure out something new. This gives more attention to your products.
Another great thing about Etsy is that people are already there! Searching for things they would like to buy.
This means you won't need to put as much effort into getting traffic to your shop as you would need to do when having a shop integrated into your homepage. However that doesn't mean you will get great results right away either.
On Etsy there is a lot of competition just one click away, so you need to make sure your shop is standing out in the crowd.
Add as much personality to your Etsy shop as possible. People want to get to know you. So add photos to your about page, add all the information you can fill in your Etsy shop!
Add links to your social media channels, your homepage and you may also want to link to the email newsletter you’re offering!
One thing for sure is, either way if you choose to start an Etsy shop or to build your own web shop, you will need to make sure you put time and energy into great branding and marketing.
People want to see on the first sight if what you are offering is right for them.
So make sure to show them what your shop is all about on first sight!
A big part of that is taking great photos of your artworks or products.
Customers want to experience the piece their buying as good as possible before buying it.
Make sure to add as many photos to your product description as necessary.
When starting an Etsy shop, you will become part of the Etsy community. This means you can join teams on Etsy. The teams support each other. You can find a lot of helpful fellow creatives that are happy to help you get your Etsy shop off the ground!
Even though I do think Etsy is a great place to start an online shop there is one thing I want you to keep in mind!
Don't forget about the importance of your own homepage. Make sure to create an awesome homepage!
A homepage will help you to get contact to your audience via your own platform, build up trust, makes you look more professional and it is also a sort of safety net in case Etsy decides to close your shop or they change the guidelines.
Your homepage is yours only, so it will be a place where customers can find you even if everything else went wrong.
Please make sure to build up your homepage! This is an absolute priority!
Now let's talk about building a shop on your own platform.
This is great because you can create a design that is completely matching your branding.
You can create all the bells and whistles you would like to have. But this will come at a price, time wise and money wise. Either way you will have to invest in order to build an online shop on your homepage.
When starting on Etsy you can get your shop up and running in less than a week, especially when you’re already having your creative products ready to go!
This won't be so easy with a custom made shop on your homepage. Even with a template and a shop builder you will have to invest more time.
A great thing about a shop on your page though is that you won't have that much competition that is close. Customers won't see a pretty image of a product that isn't yours.
But the down side is that there is no-one searching for things they would like to buy on your platform, at least in the beginning. So you will have to get traffic to you shop.
This means investing in ads, building up an audience, ….
Even with an Etsy shop, this part can be hard and will take a while. So don't be discouraged by the work you will need to put in to get people into your shop. With a standalone shop on your site this will take even more time, money and effort.
The most important thing you will need to keep in mind when building a shop on your own platform is that it needs to be user friendly!
You have nothing if your shop is pretty, but no-one is actually able to navigate through it.
So there you have it!
I hope my thoughts on why I decided to start an Etsy shop versus building a shop into my homepage will help you making the right decision for your creative BIZ.
Either way starting an online shop will be a lot of work, you will need to invest money, time and energy and it will take some time to give you the results your looking for!
I hope you will get some new ideas from it!
If you have any questions, please let me know! at: info@kerstinpressler.com
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Xxx,
Kerstin
