As a teacher for invitation designers, I get this question a lot: is selling on Etsy worth it? 

The Product Matters (sort of)

Not every single type of product is going to be a great fit for Etsy. As an example, for most of my career I sold mostly custom invitations. These are hard to sell on Etsy because you can’t really share a photo of “what the customer will get”. That’s not to say that you can’t ever sell anything custom on Etsy – but in general, most people go to Etsy expecting to get what they see.

You will often get requests to further customize things (ie: “Can I get this in black?”), but you will have the best luck on Etsy if you’re selling something you can easily take photos of.

Are Customers on Etsy Super Cheap?

One of the most popular sentiments about Etsy is that the customers there are super cheap. I think there are a few reasons for this:

• People sell on Etsy from all over the world
• There are differing levels of skill / craft on Etsy
• Etsy also has a lot of hobbyist sellers, not true business people

So yes, you will often find that some people on Etsy are selling the “same thing” as you but cheaper (I put “same thing” in quotes, because it’s obviously not usually an apples to apples comparison). However, I can tell you personally that I’ve had several customers that have spent thousands (multiple) that have found me through Etsy.

Pros of Selling on Etsy

The biggest pro of selling on Etsy is that it’s a built-in marketplace. If you think about someone who’s looking on Etsy for a gift for a friend. That person is not going to NOT find something they like. There are literally millions of options. They’re going to find something they like. On Etsy. There is practically no circumstance where that person starts on Etsy, searches around, and then leaves Etsy to go find something elsewhere – a store, Google, your website, Instagram, etc.

Etsy had 95.5 MILLION active buyers in 2024 – and I’d imagine very few of those people are leaving Etsy to search further. Even if you have a great internet presence, even if you’re the first search result for “gift for my friend” (you’re probably not) – you’re still not going to come up for this Etsy shopper because she is simply never going to leave Etsy and type “gift for my friend” into Google.

So long story short: If you want to be a contender for Etsy shoppers, you have to be on Etsy.

Other Pros to Selling on Etsy:

• It’s easy to set up
• You do not need a website
• Built-in buyer base
• Shoppers appreciate small business / handmade
• Built-in SEO, ads, and marketing tools
• Built-in analytics
• Customers are really familiar shopping on Etsy
• Shipping discounts
• Some amount of seller protection / buyer protection
• Review collection is easy
• You can communicate with customers directly
• They remit sales taxes for you

Cons of Selling on Etsy

People like to tout the “cheapo shoppers” on Etsy as the biggest con. I would generally agree, but from a kind place. You find all sorts on Etsy – including people who have NO idea what you do or how it’s done. Those people sometimes find it difficult to imagine why things cost a certain amount or take a certain amount of time. 

Some other Cons of Selling on Etsy

• Fees
• No dedicated seller support
• Company can change things whenever they like
• Lots of competition
• Sometimes tough for customers to read descriptions
• Customers don’t always understand your process
• Ads fees that you cannot opt out of after a certain threshold
• Listing limitations can be tough for some products

Overall, to me, there are not that many legitimate cons to selling on Etsy. I do wish there was more dedicated seller support (ie: a seller chat line or something!), but as long as you understand the platform, you can use it to your advantage! While there are a few things to account for (offsite ads, listing fees, listing limitations, etc.), this is no different than any other e-commerce platform.

Pricing for Etsy Fees

I do understand that Etsy fees can seem high (here’s a recent order example):

• Order Total: $219.29
• Listing Fee: $1 ($0.20 * 5 quantity ordered)
• Processing Fee: $6.83 (3.0% of the order total plus $0.25)
• Sales Tax Remitted: $21.29
• Transaction Fee: $12.87 (6.5% of item total)
• After Fees: $177.30

On this order, the fees / taxes were 19% of the total order cost (taxes were about half of that – take those out and the total fees were 10% of the order).

In general, I recommend building in about 10-15% extra onto your Etsy listing pricing to account for those fees! 

Selling on Etsy vs. My Website

I’ve heard many artists say they will eventually move to their own website when they’re “more established.” I don’t ever advise NOT having a website for your business – it’s a great tool for marketing and authenticity. But I think this misses the entire point of Etsy. Remember from above, Etsy brings you business. If you suddenly move everything to your website after establishing good, popular Etsy listings…how are you going to drive traffic?

I think there are pros to selling on your own website (fewer fees, more control, more aesthetics, less competition, etc.) but there’s a huge con as well: you have to drive ALL the traffic yourself. 

Especially if you’ve spent time building up good Etsy traffic, why would you suddenly leave all of that just for another site where you have to start from scratch?

My advice: have both (eventually). If you plan on driving your own traffic via social media, SEO, or otherwise, then your website will be a good place for that traffic. If you plan to invest in learning Etsy’s algorithms, then Etsy will open up a whole new client base for you! 

Tips for Selling on Etsy

Some of my favorite tips for selling your art on Etsy:

• Learn SEO – it’s the most under-rated marketing channel in my opinion and will help you in a million areas of your business, but especially on Etsy! Here’s an article to get you started.
• Keywords Everywhere – this tool will help you figure out trending search terms on Etsy!
• eRank – a well-established Etsy research tool
• Check out other peoples’ listings – see what they are doing, what type of images they’re using, how they’re showing off their products, etc. 
• Use ALL the fields provided – use all 10 photo spots, use the video spot, assign colors and attributes, basically just use all the fields Etsy provides for each listing
• Re-use listings – if you offer something in multiple colors, or seasons, or patterns, or materials, try making a listing for each different one! You never know which one will “hit”
• Dig into your analytics to see what’s working / what’s not

How to Sell Wedding Invitations on Etsy

Since I know many of you are wedding invitation designers reading this, I wanted to share some specific tips for how to sell wedding invites on Etsy! You can sell physical invitations or downloadable templates on Etsy. Here’s my shop so you can see how I have this set up.

You’ll want to simplify your listings as much as you can – don’t offer 14 different papers and 5 different print methods and 16 different options of cards in each suite. 

Personally, I sell semi-custom invitations on Etsy and invitation templates. The physical invitations are divided into 4 and 6-pc suites. They come on my house stock, and the client gets to pick envelope colors, but that’s the only choice they need to make (and they make that choice during the proofing process, not at the time of sale). Remember, you can always customize at the client’s request, but you want to simplify as much as you can for the listings.

Listing Fees

One big thing to note is that each quantity sold of an item incurs a $0.20 listing fee. So if you sell individual invitations and someone buys 100 – then you have to pay $20 in listing fees. For this reason, most invitation sellers do packages of 10 or 25. 

I also have the $100 deposit option that people can buy if they aren’t sure how many they need or which pieces they need. Then I always create a custom invoice for them in Dubsado, and charge them there for the remainder of the suite. I only pay Etsy fees on the deposit portion in that case!

I hope this helped answer the question of “Should I sell on Etsy” for your business! Etsy sometimes gets a bad rap, and I understand the cons, but overall it’s been a really good experience for me and expanded my business a good bit. I strongly believe that if you dedicated your business to it fully, you could create a really profitable, sustainable career selling on Etsy.