Etsy 2020

 Diving In

Lately, as Amazon  FBA has started to fall a bit, it always seems like a race to the bottom, no kidding there, I have started to look at PODs again as a viable supplement to FBA..or vice versa.

Etsy has crossed my mind a lot this past month.

As mentioned in an earlier article, I had a start on a store, tees, not niche related.

This store was gaining traction but was time-consuming, so I put it to bed. As did I rest quite a bit with my other PODS.

Looking over Etsy this past month, I see a lot of changes and possibilities that were not there before and a few I did not notice.

Why Etsy                   

Etsy is a very attractive platform, like Amazon it has a built-in trust factor and huge consumer base.

Most users are women, looking for things they want or are attracted to in some way or another, in the "handmade" genre.

It is scaleable, but there is a learning curve.  Customer satisfaction is number one on Etsy, one bad review can literally ruin you.

Consumer Share

Reports from Statista for 2018 are really impressive.                    

Sellers are in the 2 million range, but many of those may not be very active or probably not doing well.

The consumer base is estimated at 34 million active buyers worldwide.  Meaning all of those people bought at least 1 item.

Seo Friendly

Anywhere you search for particular items online, Etsy will surely pop up, depending on what, of course, you are searching.

Running your own PPC campaigns is probably a must, this can be achieved through Etsy Market place itself, and Google/Bing.

There are many forums and places to get help on the platform for whatever you need, from store critiques to product critiques, PPC or ad campaigns.

Etsy VS Merch By Amazon                        

Merch is and always will be pretty good, if you have the numbers, anything below tier 2k will not do well. 

There are a couple of cases that this is not true, but those few are true artists and designers, who really get the biz.

Merch does not offer all the POD products that other PODs offer, like mugs, jewelry, socks, cell phone cases, the list is long.

Revenue

You can with the right POD push your stuff to Amazon or eBay etc anyway. You can run PPC on both Platforms.

You can make a bit more on Etsy than Amazon, people will pay for shipping (which you can add a small percentage to) and set your prices a bit higher.

Free shipping means I have added the price to the product price.

With Amazon as with a few other PODs it's hard to just niche, the audience is huge and wide.

The Products are few and people look for cheaper stuff on Amazon.

Niche In Etsy

Niche stores in Etsy do very well. 

Think about if you have a tee that sells really well, I have one that sells constantly and is evergreen, on Amazon, it accounts for 80 percent of sales and my wife's account has a couple like that.

I could build a niche store from 1 of those, you are allowed 2 stores legally on Etsy,  and another with the other account.

The products would simply flesh out, meaning mugs, cases, etc. This is still a niche store for these products if you understand that.

This may not work for every design or niche design, but if you do some research, you will see most would.

Scale Your Print On Demand Business

As mentioned think bigger, with POD providers today, you can push your products to Etsy, Amazon, eBay etc. 

Take a Step further once you have a foothold.

Look at Shopify or one of those platforms. easy to build and run. Connector apps are really amazing today as well most providers will have a setup available to push your designs to the platform of your choice ;)

Sign up with at least 2 providers, like Printful and Printify, I don't know Printify and I think it may be a paid situation, do your homework, I use it as an example only! 

This becomes important during Q4, as some Pods (unnamed) will get overwhelmed. 

Don't put all your eggs in one basket!

I Don't Make Anything                  

The handmade thing is kind of not real anyway. Your designs are hand made on tees, but you have a manufacturing partner, which you actually have to mention in your set up.

There are quite a few very talented people making cool stuff there for sure, but most are not. 

You can sell pillows from china if you want, or patterns that are free for commercial use, if anyone wants to buy them, you can send digital files to be printed, these can be purchased for commercial use online if you know where to look, and how to edit them (easy).

Digital photographs or images almost anything that is in the sort of artsy, handmade genre, or maybe used to be handmade ;)

Pictures 

As with any eCommerce you are selling an image of a product. The image must be good quality and clear, usually at least 2 per item.

With tees, I was putting the printed side of course but also a size chart.

The audience on Etsy is picky, willing to buy things they want, but it better look the same as the pic, and the pic has to grab the eye.

Customer Service

Just remember to keep things cool with your customers. Sometimes they can be super rude or just plain mean.

You will have to counter as nicely and professionally as possible, don't go down a few levels, responses must be fairly quick, the faster the better, 1 day maybe too long.

As mentioned a bad revue could ruin you, also Etsy has the discretion to end your account, like Amazon, if they feel you are not a good seller.

All in all Amazon FBA really is not as I imagined, with black hat attacks and Amazon itself being slightly corrupted, and really not giving a damn about its sellers, a second stream is looking better to me every day. 

The king's way I think is a healthy mix, not too much of one or the other ;)