Shopify vs Etsy: Which One to Pick for a Successful Online Store

Do you believe in mind reading? Let us try our latest party trick on you...

Let's see... 🔮 You're a creative individual, and you have a passion for making things. (How'd we do?)

Whether you're making glitter tumblers, sublimation tees, engraved gifts, or some other unique creation, you're ready to set up shop and start *officially* selling your wares.

But here's the problem: You've heard good things about Shopify AND Etsy, but you're not sure which one to pick for your online shop.

We've been there, too.

In fact, we sell on BOTH platforms, and we can definitely say that it’s been successful for us!

Today, we're pulling back the curtain on our own business to share our experience selling on Shopify vs Etsy and what we've learned along the way.

You'll learn why we chose each platform and how to know which one is right for you.

And you'll walk away knowing:

• Which platform fits your business best
• How to succeed on your platform of choice

We’ll be going into AAALL the details.

But if you're looking for the quick answer, here it is:

Shopify vs Etsy: The Quick Answer

You might think these platforms are the same, but the truth is, they couldn't be more different.

Etsy is a marketplace for handmade goods, vintage items, and craft supplies. The site brings in hundreds of millions of shoppers every month, which makes it easier for you to get your products in front of customers.

Etsy is best for… Businesses that haven't made many sales or built up a following yet. It also can work as a supporting platform to your Shopify site as you continue to grow.

Shopify, on the other hand, is an e-commerce website builder with a bunch of features to help you sell, market, and collect payments. Shopify will help you set up your own professional online store with all the bells and whistles you need, but you're on your own to bring in shoppers. 

Shopify is best for… Businesses that already know which products will sell and have a way to bring people to their website.

Keep reading to find out how we got our start on Etsy, when we opened our Shopify store, and how it's all working out for us today.

As a New Business, We Started On Etsy

When we started MakerFlo Crafts, we opened our shop on Etsy first.

Why? Because we didn't have a following. We didn't have social media accounts or an audience of people to invite to our website.

We knew Etsy had its own traffic, and if we could figure out a way to stand out on the platform, we could start bringing in sales.

Why Etsy is Best for New Businesses

Etsy is a specialized marketplace for crafts and vintage goods. Instead of creating your own website, you open up a shop inside the already-bustling marketplace. It's like Amazon or Walmart, but designed for a very specific audience.

Etsy spends boatloads of cash to drive traffic to its site, which means you don't have to do any of your own traffic-building. 

BUT, you'll have to "win" some of that traffic to your shop so you can make sales. And there's plenty of competition to beat.

That’s why Etsy is the perfect place to start selling your first products and learning more about your customers. Here, you can experiment with products, images, and wording until you figure out a profit-generating recipe for your business.

How We Became Successful on Etsy

It wasn't easy.

But here's what we did that helped propel us toward success:

Jazzed Up Our Product Images

Clear, concise, and beautiful-looking images are key. Your images will speak a thousand words about the quality of your shop, so it literally pays to make them really good.

These days, you can find tons of AI product photo generators that make your listings look professional without a huge budget.

Wrote Clear Instructions for Ordering and Checkout

If your instructions are confusing or people are left with unanswered questions, they’ll walk away. After all, they can find other products with the click of a button. 

We did our best to explain everything on our product pages so our customers knew exactly how to order from us.

Lowered Our Prices to Compete with Existing Sellers

We started by pricing our products low enough to stand out against the competition. That drove more traffic to our listings and helped us rank higher in search results.

Focused on Getting Reviews

People want to know if they can trust you, and your reviews tell them all they need to know. You can send out products or give discounts in exchange for honest reviews to get this going.

Turned Bad Reviews Into Better Products

Good or bad, reviews help you understand your target customers and improve. All are a win! The worst thing is when a customer doesn't care enough to leave a review. A bad review is a chance to improve and win a new customer for your business.

How Much Does Etsy Cost?

When you sign up for Etsy, you're put on the Etsy Standard plan, which is a free tier with the tools you need to set up your shop and start selling products.

The paid plan Etsy Plus costs $10 per month and gives you a custom URL for your shop and more customizable features. (FYI: All prices in this article are in USD.)

But that's not all you'll pay when selling on Etsy. Whether you're on the free or paid plan, you'll pay a fee for each listing and each sale you make on the platform.

Here's the breakdown:

Listings cost 20 cents each. So for each product you list in your shop (or for each listing if you list the same product multiple times), you'll pay 20 cents. (Editing listings is free.)

Listings expire after 4 months, so you'll pay an auto-renewal fee of 20 cents per listing to reset the timer and list it for another 4 months. This will continue as long as you keep the listing live.

Transaction fees on Etsy are 6.5% of the total order. This doesn't include payment processing fees, which vary by country. (You'll pay 3% plus 25 cents in the US.)

There are other fees for multiple products, private listings, Stripe users, advertising, and other use cases. Find all the details in Etsy's fee guide.

Why We Started a Shopify Store

As our traffic on Etsy began to grow, we were happy to find that people loved our products. They liked our customer service and left good reviews.

We found ourselves with a growing customer base. And that’s when we knew it was time to create a self-hosted website so we could continue to expand.

Downsides of Etsy

Etsy is great for starting out, but it does have some limits for a growing business:

• You're not free to set up your own storefront. Your Etsy shop is always going to look like an Etsy shop, with the logo on every page. You also can’t expand into blogging and content marketing, or add other functionality to your shop like you can with a custom website.

(Side note: Etsy does have a feature called Etsy Pattern which allows you to create a custom website. Scroll down to read more about Etsy Pattern and how it compares to Shopify.)

• You're always competing with similar shops. On Etsy, you're positioned next to dozens if not hundreds of competitors on every page. There’s always a chance your loyal customers could be won over by other shops with similar listings.
• Etsy takes a bigger cut of your sales in exchange for the traffic they bring you. And they should. Etsy spends millions of dollars in marketing to bring traffic to its website, which turns into your customer base. In exchange, they take a cut of your sales. So when you’re big enough to drive your own traffic, it’s smart to set up your own website to get sales at a lower cost.

So in order to offset these downsides and give our business more space to grow, we set up a Shopify store.

Why Shopify is Great for Established Businesses

Shopify is a website builder made for online stores. It's like Wordpress or Squarespace, but specifically for e-commerce.

They provide the structure to run your shop so you can list products and make payments, but you host it on your own domain. 

Shopify is not a marketplace, which means it does NOT bring you traffic. 

It’s like renting a space in a strip mall—you get a great space to run your business, but you have to set it up and drive traffic to your store.

So if you want to be successful with a Shopify store, you've got to market your business and bring people to your site. But once you bring in that traffic, there's no more competition.

That's why it's better suited for businesses that: 

• Know which products are going to be successful
• Have a way to bring traffic to their new site

For example, if you have a solid social media following, you can direct that traffic to your Shopify store to drive sales. Or if you have a budget for advertising, you can try paid ads to get more visitors.

Wondering how we did it? Here's the behind-the-scenes process:

How We Drove Traffic to Our Shopify Store

As we started making more sales on Etsy, we knew it was time to have our very own address on the internet. 

And we knew Shopify would provide us with the structure we needed to list products, process payments, create content, and collect reviews.

But there was a catch. We had great traffic on Etsy because of the algorithm ranking our listings, but how were we going to get our customers to visit us on our Shopify site?

The answer, for us, was on social media. We decided to create a Facebook Group of our biggest fans and customers. That became our audience, where we could promote links to products and promotions on our new website.

Today, we see an average of 150K sessions on our site every month.

Our product pages rank for keywords like "sublimation tumblers" and "sublimation printer," which brings new people to our site every month.

We have a thriving mailing list, a Facebook community, and social media accounts, and we attend trade shows throughout the year to meet crafters and introduce them to our products.

As we've grown on Shopify, we've gone from a garage-based startup to a brick-and-mortar business where crafters can come to shop for products and pick up orders. 

We’ve also hired a full-time staff to pack orders, make tutorials, and brainstorm new products and techniques to bring to our customers. It’s been an amazing journey so far.

So if you're currently on Etsy but want to keep expanding past the marketplace model, here’s what we recommend. Start building up a social media presence on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit, or Facebook, or start a mailing list for your business—something you can use to bring traffic to your new website.

Benefits of Shopify

Here's why Shopify is best for growing businesses:

• You can create your own customized, branded website that looks like any other professional online store. Shopify comes with several customizable free and paid themes to get you started. And as you grow, you can hire developers to customize your website further.
• You can add more functionality to your website through the Shopify App Store, featuring third-party apps (similar to Wordpress Plugins).
• You can edit your website with custom code.
• Shopify Payments processes payments for you without a transaction fee (unless you're on the low-tier Starter Plan, which is more limited)
• You can integrate with social media, email service providers, and other marketing tools to make marketing easier.
• Create your own content and drive traffic to the site with built-in blogging tools.
• There's no fee to list products, unlike Etsy. But you do pay a higher monthly subscription fee to use Shopify.
• You can also use Shopify POS to collect payments in a physical storefront, then collect sales data together with your online data in one place

Downsides of Shopify

That doesn't mean it's all sunshine and rainbows. Here are some downsides to be aware of:

• You'll pay more per month than you will to use Etsy, and there's no free plan.
• You'll need to do your own marketing to bring in any traffic.
• Shopify has a LOT of features, which can feel overwhelming at first. Luckily, Shopify does provide a network of Shopify Experts you can hire to set up the site for you.

But here’s our final take: If you've gotten some initial traction and you can afford Shopify and marketing fees, it’s time to open up your own website.

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

Shopify offers 3 main plans: Basic, Shopify, and Advanced.

Basic costs $39 a month for a store, unlimited products, and up to 2 staff accounts. You get basic design options and the ability to sell products on social media and other channels. 

Credit card fees on the basic plan are 2.9% plus 30 cents for online sales.

The Shopify plan costs $105 a month for better reporting and up to 5 staff accounts. 

Credit card fees drop down to 2.6% plus 30 cents for online sales.

And the Advanced plan gives you even more reporting options and up to 15 staff accounts for $399 per month.

On this plan, fees are the lowest at 2.4% plus 30 cents for online sales.

You can learn more about Shopify fees in this help center article.

What About Etsy's Website Builder, Pattern?

If you've been on Etsy for a while, you may have seen that Etsy also has its own website builder called Pattern (and it's been a feature of Etsy since 2016!).

So why aren't we calling Etsy a website builder just like Shopify? Well, Pattern has some limitations.

On the surface, you get some great features, including the ability to create your own branded website.

• Your Etsy listings automatically add themselves to your Pattern (and you can toggle them on and off)
• You can use professional templates to build your site and customize them with fonts and colors
• Your site is your own, with your own domain name, hosted away from the Etsy platform
• You can connect your site to Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and Meta ads to market your business
• You can see website analytics on the platform 
• You can create a blog and custom pages easily
• All sales are synced with your Etsy sales dashboard
• You don't need to pay a listing fee like you do on Etsy, even if the product is listed on both.
• And you're not limited to Etsy-friendly products. You can sell other non-supported products and services on your own Pattern site.

That's all well and good. But Pattern falls short in some ways, too:

• There aren't many templates to choose from, and you can't customize them much, except for simple things like changing fonts and colors
• You're limited to a few page types like Home, About, Gallery, and Events
• There's no way to connect other apps or tools like you get with the Shopify App Store
• There are so few other products you can use with Pattern—it's basically an extension of your Etsy shop
• And Etsy's higher payment processing fee (3% plus 25 cents per payment for US businesses) still applies to every payment

So while you can use Etsy's Pattern feature to build your own site, you're going to be limited in what you can do. And when you're ready to expand your business and invest more in marketing, you won't find the features you need for that.

So it's best to think of Etsy as a marketplace and avoid using Pattern if you want to grow your website over the long term.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's circle back to our original question—how does Shopify and Etsy stack up? 

In a moment, we'll go way deep into all the features you get with each platform, including the pros and cons that really matter. 

But first, we've summarized all of this info into a table so you can compare these two platforms in a jiffy.

Shopify vs Etsy Compared

Want to see all the differences between Shopify and Etsy in a handy table? You're in luck!

Feature	Etsy	Shopify
Best for	New businesses that want initial traffic and sales, as a second platform for growing businesses	Growing businesses that want a website that will grow with them
Product Types	Handmade items, vintage items, or craft supplies	Anything
How to Succeed	Use eye-catching images, optimize for Etsy search, and use competitive pricing to stand out among the competition	Build an audience off the platform or use content marketing to drive traffic to your site
Pros	Tons of potential traffic to win	Easy to build a professional-quality online store
Cons	Lots of fees, and it’s difficult to stand out among the crowd	Must bring in your own traffic, plus you pay a higher monthly fee
Free Plan?	Yes, you can start selling on Etsy without a subscription—but you’ll pay fees	No, you must pay for a plan to use Shopify
Subscription Fees	$10 a month for Etsy Plus	The Basic Plan is $39 a month—that’s the lowest price to build an online store
Transaction Fees	6.9% of the total order, plus payment processing fees	No transaction fee with Shopify Payments, or up to 2% for third-party payment processors (Starter Plan has a 5% transaction fee)
Payment Processing Fees	3% plus 25 cents in the US	Up to 2.9% plus 30 cents, based on your plan
Other Notable Fees	20 cent listing fee and renewal fee	None
Customization	Can’t change much about your Etsy store except for images and text	Fully customizable
Integrations	Social media and ads, only what Etsy supports on the platform	Can integrate with dozens of other platforms through the Shopify App Store and custom code support
Advertising Options	Etsy Ads (on the platform) or Offsite Ads, where Etsy advertises for you	Syncs with Meta ad manager and can be used with other platforms
Support	Available by phone, chat, or email	Available by chat or email

Finally, for those of you who want to go through ALL the details with a fine-tooth comb, we've got you covered!

Etsy Features: The Full Breakdown

Thinking of selling on Etsy? Discover the main features you should know below:

Hundreds of Millions of Shoppers Visit Every Month

Over 600 million shoppers visited Etsy in November 2023, according to Semrush. That's almost twice the population of the United States.

In fact, here's how the traffic broke down by country:

 

That amount of traffic puts Etsy in the top 100 sites in America with the most organic traffic, according to the same source.

Free Plan

Etsy provides a 100% free plan for all sellers on the platform. That means you can set up an account and build up your store without paying a subscription fee.

You will, however, pay 20 cents per listing, and another 20 cents every 4 months when listings expire and are refreshed.

And once you make a sale, you'll pay a transaction and payment processing fee to Etsy.

This makes it easy for new businesses to get started on the platform.

Specialized Marketplace

Etsy stores sell handmade items, vintage goods, or craft supplies. That means you’ll get highly-targeted traffic to your Etsy store, which increases your chances of converting that traffic into buyers.

Etsy Plus

This is Etsy's paid plan—their only paid plan—that costs $10 per month. With this plan, you get more customization tools, the option to add a custom domain, and more.

Etsy Ads

You can place ads through Etsy's in-house ad platform, Etsy Ads. This boosts your products to the top of the search results and potentially drives more traffic to your listings.

Offsite Ads

Etsy may advertise your products through a service called Offsite Ads. Basically, they advertise your products in their ad network on different websites in the wild. They know where to put the ads and how to write them. You don’t pay for this service unless you make a sale.

Again, it's a great way for new businesses without much marketing know-how to start getting initial sales.

Etsy Fees

You'll pay a 6.5% transaction fee and a payment processing fee of 3% plus 25 cents.

You'll also pay 20 cents per listing, 20 cents every time you renew a listing (they expire after 4 months), and 20 cents per each additional item you sell in a single order. For example, if you sell 4 blank tumblers, you'll pay 60 cents in fees for the three extra tumblers. (That's because you've already paid a listing fee of 20 cents for the first one.)

Etsy Seller App

The Etsy Seller App makes it easy to check stats, work on your store, and talk to customers even when you’re away from your computer.

Social Selling

Etsy gives you marketing tools to share your products on social media. You can create custom posts featuring products, reviews, coupons, and more, then share them on your social media platform of choice.

Analytics

You can check analytics about your traffic and sales inside the Etsy platform to see how your store is performing.

Etsy Payments

Etsy handles all your payment processing so you don’t need to worry about anything. They support most major payment methods.

Etsy Purchase Protection

If your products qualify for coverage, Etsy will not charge you if your products are damaged or not delivered to the customer, even if the customer gets a refund.

Getting Help

Etsy's support team is available by chat, email, or phone.

New sellers can read through the official Seller Handbook that teaches you to find success on the platform. And you can take part in forums to share tips and ask other sellers for help.

Shopify Features: The Full Breakdown

Does Shopify sound more like your style? Here are the most important features you'll get on this platform.

Fully Customizable Online Store Builder

Shopify has everything you need to build a professional online store under one roof. 

Not only can you design a customized store from the ground up, but you also get all the back office stuff—payment processing, ads, marketing, detailed analytics, plugins, custom code, and more.

Tons of Themes

After choosing from a rich library of free and paid themes, you also get to customize them to your liking using the intuitive Shopify website builder. 

And if you can write code (or have a developer on your team), you can add custom code and even customize templates using Shopify's own template language, Liquid.

Trustworthy Platform

You don't want to build out a whole website just to have your platform shut down a few years later. And Shopify is one of the most trustworthy e-commerce platforms out there, next to Wordpress and WooCommerce. 

Shopify hosts millions of stores on its platform, including big names like GymShark, Crate&Barrel... oh, and MakerFlo, too! 😉

Shopify Payments

If you use Shopify's built-in payment processor, Shopify Payments, you won't be charged any transaction fees to use. (Well, you do pay a 5% transaction fee on the lowest Starter plan—that’s why we recommend starting from the Basic plan or higher.) 

If you use third-party payment processors, you'll pay up to 3% per transaction (or 5% on the starter plan). 

That said, you will still pay a credit card processing fee on every payment.

See more about Shopify fees in this help desk article.

Offline Payment Processing

You can collect payments at a physical store with Shopify POS, which gives you a device for collecting payments. 

Shopify Payments processes these offline payments and includes them in your shop data along with your online sales. This makes accounting a breeze!

Integrations

It's easy to promote your products on social media, email, and other channels with Shopify. You can integrate with tons of different services and embed your products and links into content to make it easier to market your business.

Shopify Shipping

This service streamlines the shipping process. You get an easy way to buy shipping labels and can show calculated shipping costs to your customers during checkout.

Shopify Magic

Shopify Magic is a new AI feature that can reply to customers, create content that matches your brand, and other helpful tasks.

Shop App

Now here's where Shopify starts looking like Etsy. Shopify's Shop app is a mobile marketplace app where you can get your products in front of Shop app users. 

(That said, we're not sure how many daily active users the Shop app has.)

Third-Party App Store

The Shopify app store is chock full of third-party apps you can use to add new functionality to your site. 

These help you optimize for SEO and make it easier to market and sell your products, much like Wordpress plug-ins.

Quick and Easy Checkout Process

Shopify's checkout flow is known to be smooth and easy. When you make a Shopify website, you get the same proven checkout process in your shop.

Shopify Plans

Honestly, Shopify plans can be a little confusing. So here are the basic things you should know:

• Shopify Starter: The lowest-tier plan at $15 a month. But you can't create a website—you can only sell through social media. Plus you pay a 5% transaction fee for all transactions.
• Basic Plan: The most affordable plan for creating your own website at $39 a month. You can create a store, access basic analytics, and add 2 staff accounts. Credit card fees are 2.9% plus 30 cents for online transactions.
• Shopify Plan: This is the mid-level plan at $105 a month. You get better analytics and 5 staff accounts. Credit card fees drop to 2.6% plus 30 cents for online transactions.
• Advanced Plan: For $399 a month, you get custom reports, 15 staff accounts, and a lower credit card fee: 2.4% + 30 cents for online payments.
• Retail Plan: For $89 a month, you get more features to support selling in-store.
• Shopify Plus: This is the full-strength enterprise plan for big-budget corporations, starting at $2,000 USD per month.

Getting Help

Shopify has community forums and a Help Center where you can find answers to your questions.

If you need more help, you can talk to a customer support rep through chat or email. Chat help is available 24/7, but you'll need to get through the AI chatbot before you'll reach a real human.

Shopify Experts

This is a curated pool of expert developers who you can hire to put together your Shopify site. Yes, Shopify has thought of everything.

And More...

Shopify has so many more products and features that we don't have space to list them all.

The huge number of products and options available with Shopify can make it feel confusing to a new user.

But if you stick to the basics and only look for new features when you need them, you can avoid getting overwhelmed as you build your site.

Bottom Line: Which is Better for Your Business, Shopify or Etsy?

By now, you've probably figured out which platform you'd like to start with.

If you're just starting out and want to generate initial traffic and sales for your shop, Etsy is your best bet.

But if you're looking to expand your business and/or already have an audience on another channel, you’ll probably do well on Spotify. (And you can have an Etsy account on the side.)

Think of it this way ⬇️

Do You Want to Open a Store in a Busy Mall Or Own Your Own Building?

Opening your shop on Etsy is like opening a store in a busy mall. There's already tons of foot traffic, and some of those people will inevitably step into your shop. 

At the same time, you'll pay a premium to get space in such a high-traffic area.

On the other hand, opening a shop with Shopify is like building your own storefront on a random street on the outskirts of town.

No one's going to bump into your shop on their regular shopping trip. Instead, you'll have to bring your own customers to your shop if you want to get traffic.

Ultimately, the shop you choose comes down to how much you're willing to pay for easy traffic or work to bring visitors to your site.

Have more questions about Shopify or Etsy? Want to talk to other crafters about their experience? 

Join our Facebook community where thousands of crafters convene to talk about all things crafting and running a crafting business. We can't wait to welcome you there!

Want to read more about crafting? Here's 7 ways crafting can improve your mental health, according to experts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Shopify or Etsy better for selling?

The answer depends on how long you’ve been running your business. If you've got no traffic or demand, Etsy will help you build up your business from scratch. But if you know how to market your business already, Shopify provides you with a professional website that can grow with you. That said, if you're selling something other than handmade, vintage items, or craft supplies, you won't be able to sell on Etsy.

Should I switch from Etsy to Shopify?

Etsy is great for generating initial traffic and building up a customer base, but once you hit a certain point, it becomes difficult to expand further. Once you're able to market your own business or draw on a social media following you've built for yourself, you should open up your own website. A Shopify online store is a great choice. That said, you can run an Etsy and Shopify shop at the same time—that’s what we do!

Is Shopify good for beginners?

It's not great for beginners, but it's not impossible to use, either. 

To make it work, you’ll need to know which products will sell and have a solid marketing plan to get people on your site.

If you don’t already have this, you’ll end up spending money and time to figure this out.

On the other hand, you can start an Etsy store for free or low cost and experiment with lots of different products without much risk.

Is it better to have an Etsy or a website?

If you don't know how to bring traffic to your website, Etsy will provide you with plenty of traffic that you can try and direct toward your products. 

But if you've already got an established business and a mailing list or social media audience, it's time to create your own website where you have full control over the content and you're not competing with anyone.

What are the disadvantages of Etsy?

Etsy has pretty high transaction fees and charges you per listing. It's a fair deal considering how much Etsy pays to bring millions of shoppers onto their site every month, something that Etsy sellers directly benefit from. 

You also don't get to design your own site, and you don't get many options to market your business. Plus, even if you become successful on Etsy, you'll always be listed alongside your competitors and have to compete with other products as long as you're on the platform.

Is it expensive to have an Etsy shop?

It depends on what you consider expensive. You can start selling on Etsy without a subscription, but you'll be paying a significant percentage of every transaction back to Etsy for hosting your shop.

That said, it's also expensive to pay for content marketing and ads that you'd need to bring people to your own site. 

Running an online store is expensive, period. The question is, are you investing in the right things that will benefit your business in its current season?

Should I sell on Etsy or on my own?

If you sell on your own, how will you get people to visit your store? That is the big question here. If you choose Etsy, you're automatically getting in front of potentially thousands or millions of shoppers per month that visit Etsy to find amazing products. If you start a shop on your own website, either with Shopify or another platform, you'll have to generate your own traffic, which takes money, time, and good strategy. So let that thought guide your decision.

Is Etsy a good side business?

It is, if you're willing to put in the time to make it grow! If you don't have time to dedicate to creating a good shop with great products and even better customer service, then you might not find success on the platform. Consider how committed you are to making it work before you dive in!

Do I need a domain to sell on Etsy?

No, you don't! You'll create a free seller account on Etsy to start selling. Your shop will live inside the Etsy marketplace at www.Etsy.com/yourstorename. If you pay for Etsy Plus, you can connect a paid domain to your Etsy shop, but it'll redirect to your Etsy.com address.

How much money does Etsy take?

Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee plus a payment processing fee of 3% + 25 cents fee. It's a lot, but it's in exchange for the free marketing and traffic you get from Etsy.

Which is better for craft businesses, Shopify or Etsy?

If you're just starting out, we recommend selling on Etsy until you get established and build a loyal following. Once you understand your branding and best-sellers and you've got a bit of a following on a mailing list or social media, you can start driving traffic to your own website. That's what we've done, and it's worked out well for us!

Can I open an Etsy shop and Shopify store at the same time?

Yes! Once you’ve gotten established, we recommend having both at the same time. If you don’t have a lot of extra time or a marketing strategy in place, it’s easier to start on Etsy, then when you’ve gotten some traction, open up your Shopify store.