Etsy sellers success stories

[britsabroad]

I'm thinking about selling on etsy and just wondered if anyone had any inspiring etsy success stories? And if so any tips? How long it took to become successful?

want to know more too op so look forwards to hearing what others day!

This isn't a very active topic. Maybe start a thread in the chat topic? You could get more responses that way.

I sell on Etsy and have done so for over 11 years, along with other places. It took my five years to start earning a full time living (partially built alongside working part time) and then another two years before I started to reap the rewards for all of my hard work.
My advice is find a product that no one else is selling and brace yourself. Selling online isn't as easy now as it was when I first started. It's really hard work. To be honest if you can set up and actually get sales on there now you've cracked it, because even the most seasoned of us are struggling with sales at the moment.

I agree, I am finding it very hard to get my new business noticed on Etsy. The fees when you make a sale also rack up quickly, despite looking low when you initially see them. I have had to increase my selling prices on Etsy to cover this as Etsy was literally eating up all my profit margin in fees.

Yes, Etsy is very good to use but expensive. I believe it’s still the cheapest?

Ps, well done delielahbucket!

hello people, just to pitch in here, I agree Etsy fees are expensive. I was reading about Faire, which is a similar thing but you sell your wares wholesale to shops etc. Might be worth looking into, apparently it's getting big!

It is very good value. It isn't the cheapest, but you get what you pay for. And thank you 😁

If you think the Etsy fees are high you should see what Faire charge!! And you need the margins to be able to sell at a considerable discount.

My first purchase with Faire was £100 off a purchase of baby muslins and swaddles. It should have been £160 and I struggled to sell them and make a profit afterwards. I think the Etsy !market has overflowed with too much stuff to sell that is the same

I use Etsy. It does deliver sales but the charges are massive. I have to sell my products for more on Etsy than I do on my own website. I add about 15-20%, to ensure I am not losing money after all the fees come in.

The fee structure is also a bit of a joke; not very transparent and hard to get your head around because each sale can be associated with 6/7 transaction/ admin/ sale fees etc.

Thanks 7up and orange I think a lot of Etsy is now imported not home made. Thanks for saying about adding 15-20.%. The costs certainly are tricky to work out.
i have set up a wix store which is pretty annoying to use as a shop, or I find it so, but Shopify was just too scary atm.

I have been running my business for just over three years. I started on Etsy whilst building my Shopify store. At first 90% of my sales came through Etsy. Now it's 90% through my own website which I much prefer!! Etsy is so expensive and confusing fees wise. But they advertise on my behalf (although they now charge me if I get a sale as a result, and it's not possible to opt out).

I only ship to the EU via Etsy so that customers pay their import duties up front so it's helpful for that too.

Don't be put off my Shopify. You can have a pretty simple store using a free theme and chip away at setting it up over time. How many SKUs do you have?

Thanks johntrundle that’s very helpful.
especially the EU thing.
I think Etsy is great for beginning with as customers know they can trust you, you also get good reviews.
unfortutely the number of sellers has soared since lockdown.
as a side ask, I’m interested in how you manage your mindset - what did you tell yourself when you first started to beat those old negative voices? Especially if what you are selling is made by yourself.
thanks!