After my last post about Etsy I have been doing some serious investigation into the whole online selling options available to regular folks. It seems I am not the only person who is reevaluating the Etsy experience. On Indiepublic there is even a thread started for those former Etsy sellers who were either booted off by Etsy admin or closed up shops of their own accord.
With over 112,000 shops on Etsy, you can imagine that competition is fierce. From what I have read, there are essentially 3 ways to go about getting your shop noticed within the Etsy site itself.
1 - Keep listing and relisting items - a LOT. (this can quickly add up to a costly Etsy bill.)
2 - Buy yourself a spot or two in one of the many treasuries showcases.(also can be costly)
3 - Hang out in the online forums all day and add your "2 cents worth" (most of us have more than a fair share of "2 cents" but not enough time to make this method pay off.)
These features of the cult of Etsy detract from making it a viable solution for "Etsy Newbs" like me. Part of what makes Etsy so successful is the fact that the site is designed this way on purpose thereby making its cult like nature work wonders for the initiated masses.
But I digress; this post was intended to be a useful list of alternatives to selling on Etsy, so here it is: (in no particular order)
iCraft
MintD
Canduru
Dawanda
Lov.li
HandmadeCatalog
WholesaleCrafts
Elsewares
Ecrater
Shopify
CutNpaste *Sells for you on consignment basis.
HomegrownMarket
CraftersBuzz
Guild
SuperMarket
PinkDoodle
NotonTheHighStreet
SilkFair
RubyLane
and lets not forget EBay (which I am sure you can Google yourself because personally I just don't go there.)
and then last but certainly not least (and my personal favourite,
BigCartel
*Edited to include:
SmashingDarling (Thanks Kristin!)
BuyItSellIt (Thanks Eddy!)
Creative Cafe
Overstock Auctions
Wagglepop
Tuggle
Note that each of these sites has their own systems set up, with specific Terms of Service and Agreements. These should all be evaluated carefully prior to signing on as with any internet sign-up for service endeavour.
I hope readers find this list helpful. Any comments about said sites to do with service either pro or against are welcome but lets keep it constructive.
I hope to do a more in-depth comparison of many of these in the next week or so. Also note that some of these sites are juried selections.
Etsy Alternatives
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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16 witty words:
Thank you for listing SILKFAIR (http://www.silkfair.com).
We just pre-released in public a few days ago, and are aware of some of the concerns artisans and craftsters have at alternate marketplaces. We do want to pay special focus on that, and would like to establish a fair marketplace for all.
Some of our up coming feature will allow special interest customization, so that the artisan/craftster are focused and showcased in special manners.
We're also in midst of a design to have various ways so that all sellers will have equal exposure. In addition, full store customization are also in development and QA.
Our main focus right now is to make sure the commerce engines are robust, so that the buying/selling process is as easy as we can make it. Our goal is sales-thru for all sellers and convenience for the community we'll build, and will continuously explore methods to accomplish that.
Some of the current functions that each store support include :
- ability to demonstrate your items with video
- free store / listings
- blog and forum for each store
- very easy to edit listings and to maintain shop. We provide inline editing capability, so that you don't have to go thru page after page to make edits. We want to free up the seller's time from maintenance and spend the time doing more worthile things!
- custom domain can be forwarded so that your shop has a standalone identity. When we roll out store customizations, your custom domain name will show your custom store
- import/export listings (add/update/delete)
- templating of product attributes/prices, taxes and shipping (all importable/exportable)
- 1 step shopping cart checkout supporting purchases from multiple vendors. What that means is - buyers can purchase from multiple vendors at the same time, and the shopping cart checkout completes in 1 stage (1 page). We expect that to reduce shopping cart abandon rate
- fully integrated payment gateway processing supporting all Paypal methods, Google Checkout and Authorize.net
- order processing / payment processing
- linking existing ebay rating
- double-blind feedback - buyer / seller can't see feedback of each other until both parties complete.
We'll shortly put up a sandbox for the curious to kick the tires a bit. In the mean time, please feel free to stop by and take a peek. But do stop by frequently, as our development team is constantly working on improvements, and the guys and gals are sharp and work real hard.
For the early-adopters - it's a risk-free addition to what you have, and we welcome you to start setting up shop and begin an additional presence for yourself.
We would love to hear from you, and hope to see some of you soon!
SILKFAIR
Thanks for the input. SilkFair is looking very good indeed.
That's quite a list, a lot of which I'd never heard of. Here's one to add to it though: http://www.smashingdarling.com/
I'll have to check out some of those other sites...
Wow, thanks! This is very helpful for a online-selling virgin like me :) If you don't mind I'd like to put a link to your post on my blog.
Oh, and check out our blog when you get a chance! (www.thesenakams.typepad.com)
Thanks! This will take some time to go through so I'd better bookmark it! Here's one I've been checking out, haven't signed up yet but it looks to be promising.
http://www.buyitsellit.com/
Found you at Indiepublic
Thanks for this amazing list! I've been driving myself crazy trying to spread the word about my shop and only now after reading your cult of etsy entry am I realizing I get very little hits if I don't PLASTER several sites with ads for my shop.
I'm going to seriously look into these other shops. Thanks again!
Candi O.
Thanks for the list--I'll be checking some of those sites out.
Just a side note:
"Buy yourself a spot or two in one of the many treasuries. (also can be costly)"
Treasuries are free on Etsy.
great list. thanks! (I'm on a few of these!)
Hi
Thanks for including Creative Cafe Salesrooms (http://creativecafesalesrooms.com) in your list.
We have free listings for you. We currently have no site charges on sales either.
The site itself is run on an efficient off the shelf package by Rainworx. We are a small charitable group run by volunteers in Brighton UK which supports people with disabilities and we found the best software we could within our budget.
We also have a linked members
Creative Cafe (http://creativecafe.org.uk )site which is run on the Ning platform like Indiepublic. Everyone is welcome to join us. We have been open 6 months now and have built up a friendly community.
Come and have a look for yourselves and we will be glad to welcome you.
Bye for Now
Jill
Volunteer Organiser
Creative Cafe
Thanks for your list, I found it from the ETSY forums. Love you site.
Would you consider adding http://www.wwcrafters.com to your list? Easy to list then set your listings to automatically relist (so they hit the front page) for more exposure and less work. You can also list "similar" so it is much easier to put listings together. If you open a store there are NO LISTING FEES(other than if you wish to make it bold, front page featured) and a reduced end of auction fee! Also want to mention that there is a great shipping feature where you can separate your ship to locations and add different fees so you don't lose money on the cost of shipping :) There's much more so check it out! Fee Schedule here: http://wwcrafters.com/mallforum/index.php?topic=10.0
Here's 2 more new ones to add to your list...
http://www.handmadefuzion.com
http://www.shophandmade.com
The first is juried, but has a quick turn around time on acceptance. Both are fairly new sites, I have opened shops on both but it's too early to have an opinion about them yet.
The homegrownmarket.com site is gone apparently. Saw some post on Ebay and Flickr asking 'what happened to it?' but no answers!
Gone gone gone.
Thanks for posting this list!!
I trawled through the links- good to see there are options... but... a miasma of quality/style. My two cents: an online crafty sales venue might be better off going niche for different tastes/styles.
http://byhand.me lets you promote your products free through our Spotlights free. Create a Spotlight with your products from etsy, artfire, dawanda, 1000markets, silkfair, madeitmyself, and zibbet and post them to your blog or social network. All Spotlight items also show up randomly in Window Shopping - a fun feature that lets you browse handmade products on ByHand and on any blog or website that posts Window Shopping to it! Fully functional with clickable links straight to your products! You can also list your shop free in the Artisan Directory. ByHand is non-profit and high traffic with an awesome growth rate! Check it out!
Which are the coolest sites, though? I want to find good and stylish design and quality products and it seems to be sooo difficult. Any recommendations?
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