The 9 Pros of Selling on Etsy | Should You or Should You Not Sell on Etsy?

March 12, 2023

In this article, we look at the 9 pros of selling on Etsy. Taking into account these 9 advantages that the platform has to offer to its sellers, you should be able to decide whether you should start selling on Etsy or not. So let's have a look at the top advantages you get from selling on Etsy!

9 Pros of Selling on Etsy

The 9 Pros of Selling on Etsy - Should you start selling on Etsy or not?

After selling on Etsy for many years before upgrading to our own website, we discovered that these are some of the top advantages you get from selling on this platform:

1. Access to a large marketplace with lots of traffic

Etsy is one of the top e-commerce companies in the world. The website has a huge authority and a lot of traffic. And its main goal is to connect sellers and buyers. So, Etsy will do a lot of the work for you, bringing people that are interested in buying your products on the platform.

2. A great starting point for an online business

The second pro to selling on Etsy is that it's easier than creating your own website. In essence, it's very simple to open an Etsy shop, all you need is a valid bank account, and a product that's ready to list on the platform.

Of course, there's a long way from there to getting your first sales. But since Etsy is such a successful website, with so much traffic, most of the marketing and promotion is already done for you. Whereas if you build your own website, you have to spend a lot of time and money to attract visitors and potential buyers.

So if you have no marketing experience, and no experience when it comes to SEO or ads, Etsy is a great starting point for your online business. And once you get the gist of it, you can start growing your own website.

3. Customers that are aware that they buy from people / little shops

Another pro of selling on Etsy is that most customers are aware that they buy things from people and local businesses. This means that their expectations are not as high as they are when buying something from a website/brand.

So if your packaging is not perfect, if your products don't look exactly the same as in the photos if they are handmade, people will understand. That is why, Etsy can be a good point to start perfecting your product, your product photography, packaging, shipping times, and so on.

4. Easier than creating your own website

The great challenge nowadays is not creating a website per se. We have platforms like Wordpress or Shopify that can help us do that without having any specialized skills. If you're willing to learn, you can do it.

But the true challenge comes after, when you have your website ready and you see that you have 0 visitors per day. Growing a website is hard, unless you are skilled when it comes to marketing, social media, or paid ads. And it takes time.

On the other hand, listing your products on Etsy is easy. It's a platform with a lot of traffic, with the main purpose of connecting sellers to buyers, so it wants you to succeed. There are marketing strategies that will help you grow on Etsy as well, but it's much easier than managing and growing a website.

5. Strong positioning on certain market niches

If you're undecided whether Etsy is the right marketplace for you, we advise you to look at the niches Etsy is most successful in. We know that Etsy focuses on handmade or vintage items, craft supplies, and personalized products.

But a good way to tell what products are most successful on the platform is to look at the menu categories on Etsy. Take each category in turn ( Jewelry & Accessories, Clothing & Shoes, etc.), and look at the sub-categories in the menu. This is a great way to see what the marketplace is focused on.

Do some competition research, and see how well your niche performs on Etsy. Would it be worth it for you to open an Etsy shop?

6. An informative blog & a strong online community

The 6th pro of selling on Etsy is that you have a lot of resources available to learn how to be a successful seller. The platform features a huge blog that tackles most of the challenges you'll face as a seller. They also give you ideas on how to improve your Etsy shop to make it perform better. And they look at success stories to show you how some Etsy sellers made it to the top.

You have access to a lot of guidelines, tips and tricks, and to a strong online community of Etsy sellers and buyers. So you can ask questions, ask for help if necessary, and feel part of the community.

7. A good communication system between sellers and buyers

Etsy has a well-established system of communication between sellers and buyers. You can message your customers to give them any additional information necessary about their order, shipping updates, or to solve a problem.

8. You'll need a smaller budget for marketing / ads

Since most of the traffic is already on the platform, you just need to attract the right audience to your Etsy shop. So running ads on Etsy can be less expensive than running ads to get people to visit your website (and to convince them to actually make a purchase).

9. Policies to protect sellers & buyers

The last pro of selling on Etsy is that both sellers and buyers are protected against discrimination, inappropriate language, and scams. You can report people for being offensive or aggressive, or for trying to scam you, and Etsy will take measures against it. And this works both ways - for Etsy sellers and for buyers that shop on the platform.