When I first started my Etsy store, it was nerve-racking. I wanted to make a good first impression, and I wanted to make sure that I had all my paperwork, accounts, filings, and anything else a small e-commerce shop would need. In the beginning months, I spent more time researching and taking notes about what I had to do instead of taking action and doing it.
Eventually, I decided to just go for it and learn on the way. So, here I am learning, growing, making products, and crying internally packing.
＼\ ٩( ᐛ )و /／ YA!
My original plan for Turnip was to sell more professional-looking products that were practical and multipurpose. Think of simple products for the home office or for work. Looking back, I’m glad I changed direction and made Turnip more into a hand-made store.
Having manufacturers create your products can save you time and material fees despite the initial wallet-sinking investment, but I enjoy the process of making the products. Wish I had a better printer, though. By knowing how to create my own notebooks and stationery products, I can take on custom orders from my buyers. I can also give out free products to my family and they will never know. >:)
Why I chose Etsy
I originally wanted to start my store at Shopify since it was a popular choice for many e-commerce stores. However, I eventually settled on Etsy due to the low (very low) fees. Etsy has definitely changed from when I first opened up my store (basically February), but back then, there were no entry fees to becoming an Etsy seller. You simply pay the 20 cents for each product listing and you’re done. I believe the current entry fee is about $15 USD to join. Unless you are comparing Etsy to Square (which has a completely free plan), Etsy is still a reputable marketplace that is cheaper than Shopify.
Etsy has a very comprehensive guide to being a seller on their platform. Many of their articles are easy to find, and they have a wide range of topics about their fees, how to succeed as a seller, how to improve product listings, how to take product photos, and more. Many of these articles are broadcasted on your dashboard when you first start as a seller, so I highly recommend taking the time to read through them. Etsy is very transparent about their fees, and you can find everything you need in their seller handbook.
Shipping
I definitely recommend using Etsy’s shipping calculator if you plan to buy postage through them. I also have a Pirate Ship account (also quite popular for many e-commerce sellers), but I still use Etsy because the postage for domestic shipping is very similar and it is easier to do everything on their platform.
Pricing Your Products
The hardest part about making and selling products is pricing your items properly. As sellers, we need to take into account our material costs, labor costs, supply costs (this can be a huge initial investment cost depending on the products you sell), and shipping costs (if you choose to include shipping as part of your overall price). From there, we need to take into account the platform fees (where or how you will be selling your products). The most common fee is the credit card transaction fee. Unless you sell in person, cash only, this fee is inescapable.
┬┴┬┴┤( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬┴
Etsy does have their own pricing calculator that they’ve recently added to their platform for a few months now. You can find it on their create/edit listing page, under pricing. While I think it’s a useful tool, I definitely think it is still lacking. Their calculator takes into account the basic fees they charge (transaction fee, listing, and payment processing). It’s a good starting point, but I recommend doing the calculations yourself for more flexibility. Etsy also has a more detailed pricing worksheet available. It might be too much when you’re first starting out and aren’t sure of your sales number, but it’s still a good worksheet that can give you an idea of how to calculate costs for the future.
Etsy Pricing Worksheet [how to price your listings] – this will open up a Google Docs page
If you’re like me and don’t want to math everything, I use a site called Wolfram Alpha to do it. It has always been my go-to math calculator website during my college days of multi-variable calculus and all mathematical suffering. However, if you’re already using Excel or Google Sheets for inventory tracking, you can just do the math there.
My Sample Fee Breakdown
(0.065x N) + (0.03 x N) + 0.25 + (0.15 x N) + 0.2 = Total Etsy Fee of Product, where N is the cost of the item
- (0.065x N) => Transaction fee
- (0.03 x N) + 0.25 => Payment Processing Fee for the USA. For their full list of payment fees by region, you can view the full list here.
- (0.15 x N) => Offsite ads fee. This fee is optional and is on by default when you first set up your shop. I recommend turning it off as soon as you can if you do not want to risk paying this fee.
- 0.2 => Listing fee (0.2)
This is a basic formula I made for calculating my net profit for each item after all the Etsy fees. Depending on how you set up your shop, you can remove or add your own fees to the calculation. I use this to quickly test out different price samples for my products to ensure that I don’t overcharge but can also break even on costs.
Final Thoughts
I do have to note that Etsy’s website can be buggy at times. Recently, it seems that they are trying to implement many changes on their website. I’ve had instances where I’ve spent hours creating a new product listing, only for the webpage to error out with a message that says, “An error has occurred.” Moral of this very short story: you can save your product listings as a draft, so save often! (ʘ言ʘ ╬)
And that’s it! Those are my really short Etsy info digest. I hope this information was helpful for you guys. If you’re thinking about opening your own Etsy store, just take the leap and start and learn as you go. For any questions about Etsy that you’d like me to clarify, don’t hesitate to ask. If you’re interested in viewing or roastingsupporting my Etsy store, feel free to visit!
＼(▽￣＼(￣▽￣)／￣▽)／Turnip Up!
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