Pros and Cons of Etsy vs Your Own Website

This is a question I hear often - should I have an Etsy shop or should I have my own website? In this video, I go over some of the specifics of each choice so that you can better decide for yourself.
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Hey everybody, today I want to answer a question that I see quite often, and that question is should I sell my products on Etsy or should I have my own website? Well, I'm going to dig into a little bit of the pros and the cons of each of those choices, and I want to kick it off by talking about the fact that I know in business, that the biggest mistakes I've made in my own business have always happened when I didn't even know the right questions to ask.

I think this really goes into that category, because first of all, I want to separate what is the difference between having your own website and having an Etsy site? They're really not the same thing. We're comparing apples and oranges. To really lay that out a little bit more easily, and make it make sense, is a question would be, if you could have your products in somebody else's boutique, like downtown Main Street, and you could just have a little section in that store, that's option one, and that would be like Etsy.

Or, number two, do you want to set up your own boutique in downtown? That's really the question is are you really just dabbling? Are you just getting started? In talking about the pros and the cons, let's go to Etsy for a moment. It's going to be a really low barrier to entry to get started. If we look at the Etsy website, we'll just go ahead and scroll on over here, and you can see to start your own store, that you can have a 20 cent listing fee is all it costs you to list a product.

Then, that keeps it active up to four months. Now, conversely, if we're looking at just basic pricing, let's go on over to BigCommerce. This is the solution that I use for my eCommerce store, and I'll just go ahead and say it. I may be a little bit tainted, because I've made my living by having an online store, my own website, that type of thing. But I think it'll make more sense in a moment.

For BigCommerce, you're going to kick it off with a 29.95 a month charge. Now, you're not going to have any of those transaction fees, but you will have any of your credit card processing fees, say through PayPal or Stripe. Square has raised their prices recently, but with Stripe and PayPal, those are 2.9%, so we're just talking about a tenth of a percentage point, so I'm not going to dig into that granular of detail here.

Number one, you're not going to have your own brand recognition, whereas if they buy it on your website, then they're more likely to say, "Hey, I bought it at TheCoolestStore.com." You'll be able to give that away. I know that I've worked with an Etsy seller before, I knew her exact store name and I couldn't find it on Etsy without actually having a link. So, now maybe some things have changed, maybe Etsy's improved that, but I was really dismayed that I couldn't find it in search, even though I know the exact name of her store.

Let's talk about too, what is the tipping point? I did a little bit of math, 'cause I really do love doing math, so one of the things is, if you're just starting out, you want to find out, test your market, find out if this is a good fit. Find out if this is something that you actually want to do. The Etsy route is a great route, just to put your toes in the water, just to find out if this is what you want to do.

Now, another thing that is a difference between the two is that a way that people are really being successful online today, myself included, is by providing content to their customers. I do it through, if you don't know me, I sell race car parts online. Yes, I'm the girl who sells race car parts, and I do tech videos, I do interviews with different manufacturers, and drivers, and I bring all this content in so people want to spend time with my videos and my channel. I do a lot of video.

On the cons is probably actually the same things, is that it's your own website, so you build your own traffic, and build your own audience. That is an entirely different video for how you get that started. But I hope these tips help you, and if you like tips like this, feel free to give this video a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel, I love talking about eCommerce, digital marketing, and being successful online. So, if that's the case, I will see you in another video. Thank you so much for watching.
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Episode 045

Видео Pros and Cons of Etsy vs Your Own Website канала Kate Dillon