Alternative to Etsy

June 14, 2018 11:15 AM

Etsy is upping their seller fees and it really cuts deeply into my willingness to stay there. Is there any alternative to Etsy that is up and coming that you really like with reasonable fees?

I received this message today:

Effective July 16, Etsy’s transaction fee will increase from 3.5% to 5% and it will also apply to the cost of shipping. All other fees, including listing fees, will remain the same.

I'm sure some people can afford the increase, but I'm having some feelings about it and would love to know if there are any alternatives that people really like to sell their handmade items. TIA.

posted by Sophie1 to Shopping (4 answers total)

5% is crazy cheap compared to most alternatives. eBay is usually more than that, Mercari is 10%, Amazon is much higher, and physical auctions are like 30%. Some cheaper alternatives would be Facebook Marketplace (free), garage sales, craft fairs, farmer's markets (possibly, not sure on costs there).
posted by Slinga at 11:19 AM on June 14, 2018 [10 favorites]

My cousin auctions off items she’s created on Instagram. This requires building a following around a set of hashtags and the associated social media presence but it appears to be fairly successful for her.
posted by mutagen at 12:11 PM on June 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Even here in Fargo, I know some crafters who made good sales on the Facebook "buy and sell" groups, and have a following -- one even got so big she rents a booth in the antique mall/flea market we're in.
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:03 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

It depends how much you rely on Etsy to bring in sales (via search etc) vs your own marketing. I know that Etsy can bring in buyers, but I personally found I was stressing out so much over what search keywords to use & how to maximise my listings etc. that it wasn't worth whatever exposure I was getting from being there. Plus there is the whole "if they switch up the search algorithm then nobody sees my stuff" element, which I get enough of on social media. Anyway...

I have moved to Big Cartel as I only have a small number of products and the fees are so much easier to understand (you pay a monthly hosting fee, & that's it, regardless of sales). It's very professional and easy to set up and connect to services like domain hosting & email lists.

I have also tried a very Etsy-like alternative, Zibbet (I think they even let you import items from Etsy) - similar to Big Cartel, there's just a monthly fee with no percentage of sales. They also have their own market for buyers to browse. The support staff are excellent. I just found that, for my number of items, Big Cartel was better value.

I have seen a lot of online crafters recommend Shopify (also no transaction fee but quite hefty monthly fee) but I think it's overkill unless you have a very big inventory. Although they have "Shopify Lite" which lets you sell on Facebook and embed a shopping cart on your own website.
posted by hgws at 1:16 AM on June 16, 2018