{"id":6269,"date":"2020-03-17T14:42:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bluecotton.com\/blog\/?p=6269"},"modified":"2020-03-24T14:45:04","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T19:45:04","slug":"3-alternatives-to-etsy-for-creative-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluecotton.com\/blog\/business\/3-alternatives-to-etsy-for-creative-entrepreneurs\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Alternatives to Etsy for Creative Entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In late February, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etsy.com\/seller-handbook\/article\/introducing-etsys-risk-free-advertising\/729663416588\">eCommerce website Etsy announced a planned update to its advertising service<\/a>. Initially billed as a \u201crisk-free\u201d way to bring more sales to creators on the platform, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2018\/06\/14\/etsy-thinks-raising-fees-will-lure-sellers-away-from-ebay\/\">it was quickly met with widespread derision from its audience<\/a>. There were a few reasons for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Merchants who make more than $10,000 a year in sales will be enrolled and charged a 12 percent advertising fee automatically.&nbsp; There is no way for these merchants to opt-out.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Sellers who make less than $10,000 a year are charged 15 percent instead but can opt-out, though they are still enrolled automatically.&nbsp;<\/li><li>&nbsp;The advertising fee is in addition to the 5 percent shipping fee and the 3-4 percent mandatory fee for enrolment in Etsy&#8217;s payment service.&nbsp;<\/li><li>When a shopper clicks on an advertisement that includes a seller&#8217;s products, the fee is applied to the next purchase they make from that seller within 30 days. This occurs even if the seller opts out before the purchase was made.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As you might expect, people aren&#8217;t viewing this fee increase favorably, and many are talking about abandoning the platform altogether. One can hardly blame them for that. It seems something of a pigheaded move and one which takes control away from Etsy&#8217;s sellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that in mind, if you&#8217;re one of those sellers disillusioned with the advertising change, here are a few alternatives to Etsy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bigcartel.com\/\">BigCartel<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Equal parts website builder and creative marketplace, Big Cartel is geared largely towards artists, creators, and designers. It&#8217;s free to use and incredibly user-friendly to boot. The trade-off is that in terms of customization and flexibility, it&#8217;s a bit limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want anything other basic themes and bog-standard features, you&#8217;ll have to muck about in the backend and mess with code. This means BigCartel is great for small merchants, but not so much for anyone who seeks more expansive growth.&nbsp; If you want to do anything other than selling individual pieces, you might want to seek an alternative.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/services.amazon.com\/handmade\/handmade.html\">Amazon Handmade<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You probably shouldn&#8217;t be surprised to see Amazon on the list. It is, after all, the largest eCommerce platform in the world. The giant has used its clout and reach to create Amazon Handmade, a service for artists and entrepreneurs who exclusively sell handmade products. Handmade allows you to put together a custom profile for your shop and supports order personalization and multiple categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps more importantly, its advertising is flexible. You&#8217;re not forced to sign-up for anything. Amazon, meanwhile, collects a flat 15 percent referral fee on all sales. It&#8217;s pricier than Etsy, sure, but that price comes with access to Amazon&#8217;s <em>massive <\/em>audience and the ability to ship products through its <a href=\"https:\/\/services.amazon.com\/fulfillment-by-amazon\/benefits.html\">Fulfillment by Amazon <\/a>service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/squareup.com\/ca\/en\/online-store\/\">Square<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Square already has a pretty huge footprint amongst creatives for its easily-configurable point of sale system. What you might not know is that it also provides a platform on which you can build your own digital storefront for free. Better yet, aside from a minor (approximately three percent) processing fee on credit card transactions, you don&#8217;t need to pay a cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Square&#8217;s website builder is easy to use, requiring no coding and capable of integrating with a wide range of other avenues, including your own physical storefront. There are no hosting fees required, and it allows you a surprising range of flexibility in terms of fulfillment options. The visual editor is a bit limited, sure, but for the price it&#8217;s phenomenal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alternatively, You Could Always Make a Store From Scratch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If none of the above options appeal to you, you might consider just making your own store from the bottom-up. There are a ton of different platforms that you could use for this, including WooCommerce, WordPress, and Shopify. Have a look around, and see if any of them appeal to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s unlikely that Etsy&#8217;s advertising changes will drive <em>everyone<\/em> from the platform, in spite of how ill-advised they are. Even still, there&#8217;s likely to be an exodus of creators in the near future. If you&#8217;re among them, just remember that you have options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For all its popularity, Etsy is ultimately one of many.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In late February, eCommerce website Etsy announced a planned update to its advertising service. Initially billed as a \u201crisk-free\u201d way to bring more sales to creators on the platform, it was quickly met with widespread derision from its audience. There were a few reasons for this. Merchants who make more than $10,000 a year in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":6270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[870],"tags":[881,880],"class_list":["post-6269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-business","tag-entrepreneur"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 Alternatives to Etsy for Creative Entrepreneurs | BlueCotton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Etsy isn&#039;t the only marketplace for creative entrepreneurs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bluecotton.com\/blog\/business\/3-alternatives-to-etsy-for-creative-entrepreneurs\/\" 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