Leaving Etsy for my own store — is it actually worth it?
I sell handmade candles, around 120 orders a month at £22 average. Etsy takes roughly £280 a month once fees and ads are counted.
Terrified that if I move I lose all the search traffic and end up with a beautiful shop nobody visits. For those who did it: how long before your own store matched your marketplace sales?
4 replies
The £280 a month is not wasted money, it is customer acquisition. The question is only whether you can buy those customers cheaper elsewhere. For handmade candles, Pinterest and local gift shops usually can.
Do not think of it as leaving. Run both for six months.
Keep Etsy selling, but put a small printed card in every order offering 10% off on your own site, and start collecting emails from day one. When your own store covers your Etsy profit, then decide.
We took nine months to match, and the list was worth more than the sales.
Get proper photos done before you launch the store though. Etsy hides bad photos behind a grid, your own homepage will not.
The insert card idea is so obvious now you have said it. Ordering 500 tomorrow. Thank you both.
Sign in to join the conversation.
Sign in