SHOPIFY vs ETSY- Which platform should you sell on? 🧐

have you been wanting to start selling products in an online shop but not sure which platform would be the best to start on there are a lot of great options but two of the most popular and widely used are Etsy and Shopify both of these websites can be used by those just starting out with online selling but they do have some differences and their own pros and cons which can help you determine which might be the better fit for you so in this video I'm laying out all the juicy details and talking Etsy versus Shopify all right so first let's talk about the main difference between Etsy and Shopify and and that is that Etsy is a Marketplace platform and Shopify is not a Marketplace but a platform that allows you to own your own e-commerce website so what I mean by Marketplace is a platform where there are a lot of different shops all operating within that one Marketplace platform it has its own search engine and algorithm for showing Shoppers search results and it only shows Shoppers on that platform search results that are shops built within that platform so for instance with Etsy when a shopper goes onto etsy.com to search for for a product when they type whatever they're looking for into the search bar Etsy is only going to pull results for them from Etsy shops it's not going to show them any other shops or websites that are not part of etsy it's only showing Etsy shops within the Etsy Marketplace whereas Shopify is a platform that allows sellers to build their own e-commerce website it's not part of a Marketplace so there's no way for a shopper to go on let's say shopify.com and search for something there within all the different Shopify sites because Shopify is not its own search engine so Shoppers are going to be finding Shopify websites through a different search engine like Google there are some pros and cons to each of these approaches which we'll talk about in just a minute but that is the main difference when you sell on Etsy you're selling as part of the Etsy Marketplace or when you use Shopify you're actually building your own e-commerce website so to compare Etsy and Shopify and talk about the differences in the pros and cons of each we're going to look at some different categories our first category is going to be ease of setup and use so since most of us are probably beginners on this online selling Journey we want to look for something that's relatively quick and easy to get set up and going when you look at the setup processes for both Etsy and Shopify when you're just starting and getting your account set up Etsy is going to be relatively easy and quick to set up there are some different pages that you'll need to go through to answer questions and get your settings right but Shopify is much more involved in terms of the setup process and is likely going to take you a lot longer to get everything exactly the way you want it now part of this is because there are a lot more customization options and features on on Shopify than there are on Etsy which we'll talk a little bit more about in one of the other categories but because of this it makes the setup process for Shopify a bit more long and complicated than Etsy so in this category I'm going to give Etsy the win all right category number two is customization options when you look at what's available on Etsy versus Shopify in terms of being able to customize the way that your shop and your storefront and your website looks you really only get a few places on Etsy to add your branding add your customization and that would be in your shop Banner bner your shop icon and your profile picture other than those few areas where you can actually customize it and make it look the way you want most Etsy shops are going to look very similar in terms of layout sections available and what you can actually add to the look of your shop now Etsy does offer an upgraded Etsy plus package that you can pay monthly for that gives you the option for a little bit more customization but it's still really nothing compared to the customization that's offered with Shopify because like we talked about before with Shopify you actually are building and owning your own e Commerce website there are tons of different customization options you can use a Shopify theme which is like a template to set up your shop or if you know coding you can start from scratch there are a lot of different Shopify themes to choose from both free and paid but the different themes give you the ability to make your shop look exactly the way you want it and look very different from other Shopify sites Shopify also has tons of different apps and plugins that you can add onto your site to customize it even more and add the functionality that you want some of these different apps include the ability to add upsells to the order to create a customer rewards and loyalty program to accept more options for payment processing and shipping options as well now again some of these apps and plugins are free to add to your Shopify site some are paid but we'll get more into the cost of both in the next category when it comes down to it for customization options Shopify definitely gets the win here all right moving on to category number three and that is budget friendliness most of us when we're just starting out are probably on some type of budget and are looking for the most costeffective way to start selling our products online so Etsy and Shopify are actually very different when it comes to the way they collect fees Etsy works more on a transaction fee basis and Shopify works on a monthly subscription basis so it's completely free to start your Etsy account you're not going to be paying a monthly subscription unless you choose to upgrade to Etsy plus like I mentioned before but you don't have to you can just get a basic Etsy account completely for free the only thing you're going to pay when you set up your shop is a 20 cents listing fee to put up your first listing now beyond that you are going to be paying some different fees as you start getting up more listings and making sales so that 20 cents listing fee will apply for every single new listing that you put up or every listing that is renewed a listing is active for 4 months before it needs to either sell and automatically renew or you need to manually renew it and pay another 20 cents listing fee you'll also be paying a 6.5% transaction fee on every sale that comes through so this is on every sale that you make in your Etsy Shop based on your listing price you're paying 6.5% as a transaction fee so this is only when you make a sale and then you may also be paying a payment processing fee which varies based on your location this is only applicable to sellers who use Etsy payments which most of us do and I recommend that you do so that you can have more options for customers in terms of payments but if you use Etsy payments you're going to be paying that payment processing fee and you can look up what that is for your specific country at the time of this filming that fee for us-based sellers is 3% plus 25 so that means if you're based in the US and you're using Etsy payments you're going to be paying an additional 3% of the transaction plus 25 for payment processing and the other main fee to note here is offsite ads so Etsy does run offsite ads on other platforms like Facebook and Google to promote Etsy sellers products if Etsy chooses to promote your product and it does indeed lead to a sale from a different website where the customer has seen one of those off-site ads then you're going to be paying either 12% or 10% depending on the amount of Revenue your shop has brought in in the last year you can look that up to see which of those percentages you would be paying but it's one or the other for offsite ads now it's important to note here that that only applies for specific sales that come directly from an off-site ad so if someone finds your shop on Etsy itself clicks through and purchases an item from your shop that off-site ads fee is not going to apply it only applies if someone finds you on a site like Google or Facebook or wherever they've seen that off-site ad and clicked through on it some Etsy sellers love this some Etsy sellers hate it but it is something to take into consideration when you're thinking of selling on Etsy now Shopify is very different it doesn't have quite as many fees but it does have a consistent monthly subscription fee which Etsy doesn't have now at the time of this filming Shopify is offering a free trial for 3 days and then if you sign up for a monthly subscription beyond the 3 days you get your first three months for $1 each but then beyond that you go to the regular subscription fee and if you get the basic plan with Shopify that's $39 a month or if you pay yearly it equals out to about $29 a month and on top of this you're also going to be paying a payment processing fee which is 2.9% plus 30 so the payment processing fees with Etsy payments and Shopify payments are pretty much about the same but the main difference is going to be that monthly subscription fee versus the transaction fees that you're paying with Etsy so in my opinion when I look at which is more cost effective I would say it really depends on where you're at in your selling Journey if you're just starting out and you don't have really an audience built up you don't have any sales yet then I'd say it's probably better to go with with Etsy with the transaction fees because then you're only really paying when you get a sale whereas with Shopify that $29 or $39 a month might feel like a lot when you're just starting out and don't have a lot of capital to work with but if you've already been selling for a while and maybe you're thinking of branching into Shopify to really grow to the next step of your business and you do already have consistent monthly Revenue coming in then that monthly subscription fee for Shopify might not be as big of a deal for you and in that case it actually might be worth it if you have a higher volume of sales already coming in from the beginning to not have to worry about the transaction fee and just pay that flat monthly fee but let's just assume most of us watching this video are just starting out I would say Etsy gets the win for the budget friendliness category now I do have links in the description box below to start both Etsy and Shopify if you start through my Etsy link you'll get 40 free listings and if you decide Shopify is right for you you can start with the link there and that'll give you a free trial plus the first three months of just $1 a month instead of paying the full subscription fee all right let's go ahead and move on to category number four and that is potential for Discovery we all know how difficult and intimidating it can feel to get online to begin your business journey and you're thinking of selling products online but you're wondering how am I going to break through the market saturation and get discovered among all of the other sellers well that's a legitimate question and one that really needs to be answered when you're considering what platform you're going to sell on well let's think about the fact that Etsy is a Marketplace and Shopify is your own e-commerce website so Etsy is its own search and and has its own algorithm to show ety shops to the people that go on Etsy and search for a product whereas when you're operating as your own e-commerce website you don't have the added benefit of having Shoppers that are specifically already choosing to go right to where you are to shop so on Etsy you've got millions of Shoppers right there ready to go that are already on Etsy they're loyal Etsy customers and all you have to do is think about optimizing your shop and your listings with strategic keyword phrases to be shown and ranked high in the Etsy search results where whereas with your own e-commerce website yes you're going to be using strategic ways to optimize that as well but at that point you're trying to rank and be shown in the results on Google which is a much larger field than the ety search either way you're going to have to be intentional about driving some external traffic in the beginning to get the word out about your shop to let people know that you're selling products and to get some of that traffic in in the beginning whether it be through email or social media however you want to drive people to your shop but the benefit is that with Etsy it starts to know notice the more and more sales your Shop is making and it'll start to rank your listings higher and higher in its own Etsy search you may start to rank higher on Google search as well but to me that's like comparing a pond to an ocean it's going to be a lot easier to break through and be discovered in a smaller setting like a pond than it is when you think about the competition in something as huge as the whole internet basically so though you have to really work hard for both to get that first bit of traffic going Etsy is sort of like a wheel that catches is on and the momentum will start growing and you will start to rank higher and higher to those people that have already chosen to come search on Etsy with your own e-commerce website you're going to have to work really hard to build that brand awareness without the help of being able to lean on a Marketplace platform algorithm to show you to more Shoppers it's definitely possible either way but I personally think for beginners being on a Marketplace just gives you a leg up and gives you a little bit of help to get that traction momentum going quicker so in this category I'd say Etsy has a little bit of the Ed here now you may be wondering well how do I actually learn about optimizing my shop either way you can optimize with strategic SEO which is search engine optimization that's when we're talking about finding highly searched keyword phrases and plugging them into specific places on your listing like your title your tags your description SEO is a whole strategy in and of itself to get discovered and if you've never heard of that or maybe you want to know more about it I have a free hourlong Etsy master class that's based on my five pillar Etsy success formula that's the system that worked to bring my shop to six figures and has worked for hundreds of my students and in that training I have a whole section on exactly how to figure out SEO for your shop so if you're interested in Etsy and you think that might be the way that you're going to go definitely click on the link in the description box below and you can watch that right after you watch this video all right and moving on to the next category which is long-term strategy so here we're specifically thinking long-term and if you're someone who is really serious about building your own business your own brand that people begin to know and recognize and Shop with you over over and over again then those are more long-term brand awareness goals rather than just short-term concern about getting sales so when we're thinking about building a brand from the ground up that's going to last for years to come and be sustainable it is important to think about 2 5 10 years down the road where you want to be and what you want your online presence to be like now I will say in this case Etsy is a little bit harder to build your own brand Awareness on because a lot of people speak about Etsy shops and maybe don't remember the name of the shop itself but they'll just say something like I got this on Etsy so in that way they have a brand awareness of etsy but not necessarily your shop unless you've really been intentional with some strategy to pull them back in as a return customer whereas when they find you on your own e-commerce website they're more likely to remember your brand your company name and to shop with you again and view you not just as a shop in a Marketplace but as your own business not only that but selling with a platform like Shopify gives you Integrations like we mentioned before with different apps and plugins to make this process easier things like adding a newsletter signup option onto your website that way you can be building your email list and reaching out to your customers again to encourage return business whereas this is a lot harder on Etsy there's nowhere on your Etsy shop where you can add a newsletter sign up for instance now there are workarounds for this which I've talked about in some of my other videos if you want to build your email list but it is a bit harder as you can't just directly integrate that option you also have complete control over your e-commerce website which is not always true with Marketplace platforms so as much as I love Etsy at the end of the day if you are an Etsy shop they do do have shared control over your shop which means they can suspend it or even permanently close it at any time now they normally don't do that unless they have a specific reason or you violated a policy of some sort but that is a reality for Marketplace sellers whereas if you have a Shopify site you own your own website and Shopify is not going to come in there and suspend it or permanently close it for whatever reason they have it's your shop you own it you own the customers email addresses that sign up for your list so you have a lot more control so I definitely say that Shopify takes the cake for this category so in the end though I love both Etsy and Shopify for different reasons and I think they both have great benefits I'd say if you're just starting out and you're new to this whole online selling Journey then Etsy is probably an easier quicker simpler way for you to really slide in there get started get your feet wet and get discovered pretty quickly but if you've already been in the game for a while and you're ready to just level up your business you have a little bit of an audience and customer base already going that I'd say Shopify might be best for you especially if you want more control over your shop and you're thinking longterm of where your business is going to be in a few years from now either way I don't think you can go wrong and I know a lot of people that actually do them together and have both an Etsy and a Shopify store so really it's just about determining where you are in your business journey and what's the best fit for you in this season now don't forget I have links for both the 40 free Etsy listings if you decide you want to start on Etsy and also the free trial in the three months of $ monthly subscription for Shopify if you decide to go that route both are linked in the description box below as well as well as my free five pillar Etsy success master class so if you're interested in taking an Etsy Deep dive for getting your Etsy Shop started the right way to start making consistent sales quickly then you can click on that and hop over to watch that as well talk soon [Music] friends and I'm to you

Channel: Kate Hayes

Views: 17,550

Keywords: shopify vs etsy, etsy vs shopify, shopify, etsy, how to make money online, make money online, ecommerce, e commerce, ecom, how to start a business, online business, etsy for beginners, sell on etsy, selling on etsy, shopify tutorial for beginners, shopify tutorial, how to use shopify, shopify free trial, shopify dropshipping, etsy digital products, etsy print on demand, etsy dropshipping, business ideas, how to sell on etsy, etsy shop, ecommerce website, ecommerce business

Id: o6iyruldLqE

Length: 15min 50sec (950 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2023