SHOULD YOU SELL ON ETSY OR SHOPIFY, Pros & Cons of Etsy Vs. Shopify

have you been trying to make a decision between whether you should saw on Etsy or Shopify well today I'm gonna be sharing with you guys the pros and cons to both hey guys welcome back to my channel if you are new here hey hi hello my name is Lauren I'm really excited for today's video because this is something that I myself have been struggling with back and forth between for quite some time if you guys don't know I actually sell print-on-demand products on Etsy and on Shopify now so I've kind of been on both sides of the spectrum and I'm here to share with you guys today the pros and cons of selling on both so without further adieu guys let's jump into it because I know y'all are here for the important stuff starting off I'm gonna talk about Shopify first and I'm gonna share with you guys both the pros and cons to Shopify this is going to be a clear indicator on whether or not Shopify might be right for you one of the best reasons to be selling on Shopify is that there are no limits Shopify is fully customizable you can sell whatever it is that you'd like and paying your Shopify monthly bill and that's about it going off of that one of the best things about Shopify is that you can pretty much customize anything you want so as people are coming to your shop you can actually have a domain name you can have your own website where you build it and structure it however you want for people to come and find your items with Shopify there is only a monthly fee that you pay in order to use the program to host your website and your store whereas for Etsy there are quite a few more fees and we'll get into that a little bit later overall I found that Shopify is better if you are looking to scale your business to a larger size or if you're just wanting to have freedom in general overall it is cheaper to host on Shopify if you choose so just due to the fact that if you are creating a larger number of orders and you're going to having a lot of items in your shop then you're not having to pay those fines every single time you want to list a new item we want to renew a new item or every time that someone purchases something and you're not getting all these transaction fees as well so that is the big big plus to Shopify as well now one not-so-good feature about choppa is that unlike Etsy you are going to be having to drive all of your traffic to your shop so they're not going to push your shop out to their audience of people that they already have they're not going to have a Shopify website where they can people can come and shop your stores they are not going to do that you are going to be completely responsible for bringing in your traffic so if you're a brand new shop who is starting up it can be extremely difficult to get that initial traffic boost and to get people to your shop to trust your shop to purchase from it and then eventually build your brand however I do think that if you already have a brand that's been built up if you already have a following then Shopify is definitely going to be the route you want to go because you already have traffic that can make its way to your website as an already established brand you have that audience that's going to be willing to go to your website and check it out which makes it different than Etsy because you do have more traffic that's already being pushed there that you're not having to go out and find I do believe that Shopify can be a con as far as pricing goes if you are a newer shop so for instance if you're selling handmade items and you do not have a very large variety in items and you're not looking to invest a lot of money up front in your business then I do think that Shopify's price can outweigh what you would pay on Etsy it honestly just depends because if you are wanting to make sales overall Shopify is gonna be your better bet money-wise and expenses why so just to recap some of my positives for Shopify would be that you have the customizable ability for your website for your landing page for as many items as you want and what they look like your descriptions all that kind of good stuff not only that but it is actually cheaper for you to be hosting on Shopify because you don't have all of the fees and listing fees and different types of fees that Etsy likes to include however you are drawing most of the traffic to your site by yourself so if you already have a great following that's good because you want to worry about that whereas if you are building up your brand it might take some time to see those sales whereas otherwise on FB you might see more sales so now let's talk a little bit about Etsy and talk about the pros vs. cons of Etsy starting with the pros of Etsy the number one thing is traffic Etsy is amazing because it is now a trusted website it has been around for several years people love it people go there looking for specific items gifts most specifically and it's a great way for people to find unique things so there is a very wide audience that's already on Etsy that's coming there to look for items that is why this reason is the number one reason why I would use Etsy because it does give you that traffic and that traffic is going to likely lead to more sales whereas your Shopify page if you don't get traffic you don't get any sales so if you are a new shop or a new store or a new brand or business and you are looking to just get started Etsy might be your better option because you're going to be able to get your business in front of more people's faces however I will preface this by saying that you do have to be really invested in your SEO and your photos in order for the traffic to come to your shop you cannot just upload a listing and then just it magically appear I have a ton of videos on my channel all about doing well on Etsy and how to improve your listings improve your shop and do great so I will link that playlist up here for you guys if you want to go and check that out next the next Pro for SC that I have is actually the messaging system that they provide I believe that this is really important because it makes it really simple to get in contact with the people who are buying your items so if you have an issue or if you have an issue with the address or maybe a concern that has been brought up or you know that there is going to be a delay in your shipping or a change in pricing you can speak with them directly through the messaging and it's very safe it does not give any of their private information or yours so it keeps that kind of confidentiality and allows for that messaging back and forth between you and the customer Shopify does offer certain features like this and I'm sure you can download different apps and kind of plug-ins for your website to allow this as well but I do think that Etsy's is very simple and simply stated so it's very easy to work around my last Pro for Etsy kind of goes back to the beginning where I was that Etsy is very good for driving traffic to your shop Etsy is also great for bringing in trusted buyers it is already a proven successful website in business people come to se daily for new things for gifts for ideas for presents for take or whatever it is guys people are constant at people are constantly shopping on Etsy and because of this Ezio's truly built up their brand which has allowed them to build a name for themselves in a trusted name people trust the website so they're more willing to come on there and spend money first is your own small personal brand where people might not be so sure about it people don't know you personally and so they feel like maybe they can't trust a website if it doesn't look secure or professional do you really got to make sure those things are in line if you're gonna be using Shopify now for my Etsy cons and I'm sure you guys can kind of see where this is gonna go based off of our conversation we had about Shopify the number one reason why I would not choose @ze over Shopify would be because of the fees I quite honestly can't even name off all the Etsy fees off the top of my head I will try and find a graphic and put it somewhere here on the screen for you guys to check out and see yourselves but there are a lot of fees that come with Etsy so small fees such as your 20 cent listing fee so every time you are uploading a new item to at the you have a 20 cent listing fee that also is charged to you again every time someone purchases the item but not only that if you actually bump your items up by renewing them that again is a 20 cent charge that you will receive every time you do that to an item so if you're a bigger shop these little tiny fees to add up over time and they can become pretty hefty not only that but as he does take a percentage out of your sale as well as charges other transaction fees that I'm totally not even sure where they come from or why because they do already charge the percentage that goes to Etsy from your sale so if you're selling small things that don't cost a lot you could potentially be losing money if you're not careful because of all these fees they just kind of add up over time and honestly when they built up over time you could be spending hundreds of dollars a month on fees obviously if you are a bigger store but that kind of makes a big difference when it comes to a smaller business as well if you're spending so much on these fees then you're not making as much profit which doesn't allow you to grow as much and lastly a con with Etsy that I feel like a lot of people are dealing with nowadays is suspension of their account if you have an account with axion you have a shop and you are selling items and something happens that they decide they want to suspend your account if you only have an Etsy shop your business is now completely just gone and disappeared and you have no way for people to come and shop on your store this is the number one reason I think a lot of people are afraid of Etsy because they're scared of this happening to them it is really hard to kind of talk on this topic because I think a lot of people have different opinions on it and kind of how they feel about it and my opinion is that if you're following the rules then you should have no issue however if you are someone who wants to bend the rules and maybe not follow things according to Etsy's plan then that's where I think you're gonna come across some issues however one of the big things about I see that a lot of people have not been liking recently is that anyone can out of the blue go and report one of your items and it suspends the item removes the listing and then kind of puts a ding on your account so it could rock up over time and it could be four things that I mean I you have no idea about or that people just claim these certain things about them and in our all actuality you're following the guidelines and rules but you're still being punished for it so that is another big thing where people really have not been liking Etsy about that and I think that they will eventually try and rework those norms and and kind of come up with new systems to put into place because I think they have been getting a lot of feedback from people who have not been very happy with that so overall if you were to ask me which shop should she to sell on Etsy or Shopify I think they both offer you some great opportunities Etsy brings you a lot of traffic can really help you build a brand and help you become successful however when you're ready to take that next step to becoming a larger business a larger brand a larger company or selling more becoming more professional I truly think that Shopify is the way to go because at some point Etsy is no longer going to be able to support you as a larger business and this is something you actually see a lot of companies do on Etsy when they do really well on that seat they built themselves up and they've gained it following and they've done really well they typically try and transition over and we'll have both they'll keep their up to shop for people who find it that way and they'll also keep their website for those people who are already invested in their brand in their company and I truly think that's the way to go that's what I do I will link both of my shops down below if you want to go and check them out I actually have to add see shops I'll link my other one as well over on my second NC shop you guys can actually check out I do have an Etsy shop critique so if you want to hire me to come give an unbiased opinion of your shop in some areas that you could improve upon I do create a strategic PDF profile of things that you could work on my suggestions compared to what I see is going on in your knees your focus what others are doing how you could improve and how you can get more sales on your Etsy shop question of the day for you guys I want to know which one of these are you going to go with are you gonna be an Etsy gallery guy are you gonna be a Shopify gallery guy let me know down below and if you already have a shop and you already have a link share it down below in the comments we can all go and loving each other and like give each other some likes give each other some favorites of our shops go and check out our items bring in a little traffic or go and sharing on our socials but I love that we can also board each other down below in the comments section if you guys enjoyed today's video like I mentioned earlier I do have a ton of Etsy advice tips so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna link one video for you guys that I think you would love to go and watch next along with my last Etsy video so you can go and see it as well and my subscribe button down here so you guys can stick around on my channel I make new videos every Tuesday and and lastly I'm actually gonna put that Etsy critique that I sell on my shop so you are in need of a service and you need a little bit of help with your Etsy shop I am available for hire coming out further do you guys that brings us to the end of the video thank you so much for watching I will see you all my next one bye guys

Channel: Lauren Thurmond

Views: 65,886

Keywords: etsy vs shopify, selling on etsy, etsy pros and cons, should i sell on etsy, should you sell on etsy or shopify, shopify vs etsy, should you sell on shopify, shopify pros and cons, etsy and shopify pros and cons, shopify pros, shopify cons, shopify sales, etsy shop tips, shopify tips, pros and cons of etsy, shopify or etsy, etsy vs website, etsy print on demand, selling on etsy pros and cons, etsy vs shopify 2020, etsy vs shopify fees, etsy shopify dropshipping

Id: _wiopPyPgUo

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 10 2020