Are you crafty or a dab hand at design? If you can make something unique you can start your own small business by selling your creations on Etsy.
If you’ve never heard of Etsy, it’s an online marketplace designed specifically for “unique items”, defined by them as handmade or vintage items (at least 20 years old) and craft supplies.
It has 1.7 million active sellers and 28.6 million active buyers, so there’s an audience out there if you can make something that people will want.
If you've got the right product and use the insider tips below you could easily make enough money to handsomely top up your bank balance every day.
How can I expect to make on Etsy?
We'll be honest here. This entirely depends on how successful your shop becomes.
Some people make a steady side income of £20-£30 a month, and others earn enough to quit their jobs and sell on Etsy full time.
The likelihood is that you won't become a millionaire (or even a thousandaire) from selling on Etsy but if you follow a few simple rules you could easily supplement your student loan throughout uni.
What do I need to start selling?
It's important not to over complicate things when it comes to setting up your Etsy store. The best thing you can do is just to get started. If you spend too long focusing on getting everything perfect you might never end up launching your store and once you have something up on the site you can always make improvements.
- Something for you to sell
This is the hard part, but if you choose wisely this could be the start of a whole new business. It doesn’t even need to be a physical item, plenty of people sell their designs for people to print at home, or create imagery for people to use on their websites and social media.
If you're really struggling for ideas of what to sell on Etsy, why not take a look at the site to see what others are doing. See this as an opportunity for inspiration rather than using it to copy someone else's idea.
If you're really switched on, this is the best stage to create or order a prototype or test of your product. It will allow you to see what it will look like, make it easier to take product photos and also test out the build quality.
- A name and logo for your shop
Don't think too hard about the name for your Etsy shop. It won't have much of an impact on your sales and you also get one chance to rename it. Think of something simple and snappy and try not to be too obscure or clever. And avoid mix ups like #susanalbumparty…
Once you've decided on a name you can easily make yourself a custom logo using Canva – it’s an online programme that is a lot like Photoshop but much, much easier, and it’s free!
If you really aren't comfortable doing it yourself just use a site like Fiverr to get someone to do it for you.
- Clear and attractive images of your items
This is even more important on Etsy than it is on eBay – your product (hopefully) has never been seen before and a great photo can make the difference here (possibly even more than your shop name and logo).
If you ordered or created a test product as mentioned in point 1 this should be quite easy.
Take a look at what other stores with similar products are doing, choose the style you like the most and then work on making yours similar.
- A little bit of money
Unlike a lot of online selling sites, it isn’t 100% free to sell on Etsy, as each listing costs 20 cents (around 15p) to post. If you invest £1 into listing six items, we think that’s definitely enough to get you started.
And while you're thinking about money you need to think about the cost of your item(s). Spend some time to work out the cost of making the product (including any upfront costs spread across a few units) and then come up with a price. Don't get greedy here, it's the internet and if you're overcharging there'll be someone else out there that will undercut you and take all of your business.
- A way to get your item to buyers
Research the most cost effective way to pack and post out your creations, it might be easiest to use the Post Office, but if your items are very big or heavy, a courier company might be a better option.
Make sure you know the cost before going ahead too. There's nothing worse than charging £2.99 for delivery and having to pay £4.99 yourself when it comes to it.
How much does Etsy charge for listing items?
Etsy’s fees are relatively complicated compared to other selling sites. There are three different types of fee that apply each time someone buys something from your shop:
- A listing fee – it’s $0.20 (around 15p) to put each item up for sale, and each listing lasts 4 months or until it sells. You can set up your items to auto-renew if you have more than one available and you’ll be charged another 20c as soon as an item sells to keep it live.
- A transaction fee – Etsy will charge you 3.5% of the purchase price (not including postage) when you make a sale.
- A payment processing fee – this is 20p + 4% of the entire payment (including postage), if you use Etsy’s payment system. You can use Paypal to receive payments if you want, and their fees are 20p + 3.4%.
As an example, let's imagine you sell something for £10 + £2.99 postage. It'll cost you 15p in listing fees, 35p in transaction fees and 72p if you use Etsy's payment system. This is a total of £1.22.