Answering the almighty question that I am positive is sitting on your lips as you map out/ set goals and intentions for 2024… 

“Is Etsy still worth it in 2024?”

You know that my coaching style is tough love and straight to the point, I don’t like to beat around the bush. I also don’t vibe with showing up empty handed when it comes to supporting you with high value content, so I always like to do my research first and come to you well equipped with stats to back up my opinions…

I’ve pulled together some of my own experiences working with thousands of Etsy shop owners to come up with a clear and concise answer driven by facts and figures. (DON’T PANIC! You don’t need to be a massive numbers girl for this to make sense to you, I promise.)

Okay, so there are 2 main concerns that come up in conversations all of the time are:

1. The saturation of the market 

• “How do I stand out against SO MANY competitors?”
• “How do I know what to sell on Etsy?”

2. Rising fees and overall running costs

I am going to share my wisdom on both of these points today. 

FIRST UP: MARKET SATURATION

Starting off strong with the saturation of the market on Etsy and beyond, some of these figures might shock you. As a 6 figure jewellery Etsy business owner, I can confidently say that I know a thing or two about trailblazing a saturated market. 

2022 statistics claim that there are 24 million e-commerce sites globally, off which 7.5 million are on Etsy. Now, pick your jaw up off the floor because I am about to shed light on how this number isn’t as big as you think and why there is still an abundance of room for you to build and scale your very own 6 figure shop on Etsy! 

First of all, this includes the countless shops which upload one listing and then give up, it accounts for those who don’t put the effort in, as well as those who’s shop lives in “vacation mode” never to see the light of day. This figure has fallen since 2021, and has shown reasonable signs of falling again as we head into 2024. 

This avalanche of closing shops is easily explained by the Covid-19 pandemic as loads of people needed a hobby to fill their time, whilst others had excess cash to spend on handmade treats that they didn’t have previously. 

Now if you think 7.5 million is a lot, that’s nothing in comparison to the 95 million active BUYERS! To put that into perspective for you that's equivalent to the entire UK and Australian population. Mind = blown, right?!

I am not a huge fan of math but that works out at 13 buyers for every single Etsy shop. Of course, it doesn’t work quite like that in the real world, but hopefully it highlights that the potential massively outpaces the competition. 

Here’s some even more exciting stats for you…

• In the first 3 months of 2023 alone Etsy attracted 7 million NEW buyers. That’s almost equal to the number of outstanding shops. 
• The average spend for habitual buyers was $200. 
• Etsy remains within the top 10 e-commerce sites with a growing market share, currently sitting at 4.4%

To summarise what these stats are telling us, the number of persistent Etsy shops is gradually decreasing, whilst the number of buyers and the amount they spend is rapidly accelerating as Etsy is becoming a force to reckon with amongst the big boys such as Amazon. 

So that’s where the numbers are currently for Etsy, now let’s shift the conversation about how you can use all of this to YOUR advantage and have your very own 6 figure year!

68% of buyers shop from their phones. You might be sitting there thinking, that's a really nice fact because it means people can shop on the go, from anywhere! Whilst that is absolutely true, I’m inviting you to think a little bit deeper about what this actually means for your shop. 

Have you ever actually taken the time to view your own shop as the consumer, instead of admiring its beauty from the back end on your desktop? If not, I would urge you to make a point of going ahead and doing that. Whilst you’re there, think about what that means for your product descriptions, your tags, your photos etc…

Something that I have noticed in my 4 years of running this business is the ones that really stick around have ONE thing in common. They keep things simple, and they don’t deviate from the proven path. They look at the data and they adapt accordingly. 

BOSS! Do you want to make more sales on Etsy? Then you need to increase your conversion rate! DON'T PANIC! I'm going to explain exactly how to do that in my FREE 90 minute masterclass - The 3 Step System To Skyrocket Your Etsy Conversion Rate 🙌🏻

Click the button below and save your seat!

LET’S CHAT ABOUT FEES

Since I embarked on my coaching journey back in 2019, I have heard many conversations that sound like “Etsy should be doing X”, “I hate Y about Etsy” but honestly, I can not think of an issue that Etsy have left unresolved for longer than 12 months. 

Inflation is always going to be an obstacle within the economy, there’s no getting around that completely. Since Etsy increased their fees slightly from 5% to 6.5% everyone has been up in arms about how disappointed they are.

As a result, Etsy rolled out a share and save scheme to support their sellers, which was an excellent adaptation if you harness the power of social media to boost your sales. They also added a “Optimise your pricing” tool on your dashboard, which shows that Etsy is really good at responding efficiently to constructive feedback instead of ranting on Facebook groups which a lot of people do…

A key thing to note is, there are fees on every single platform, and when you start to really dig into it, the cheaper options tend to be the ones with poorer customer service or issues with SEO. This can make committing to one platform extremely overwhelming and it can be difficult to find the right balance for you.

PRICING STRATEGY

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to pricing, but thankfully there are some pointers that I can give you to start you off in the best direction. With that being said, here’s my top 7 things to bear in mind whilst pricing your listings to generate a healthy profit…

• Your time (think: hourly wage and how long product creation takes)
• Shipping and packaging (I know, these aren’t revolutionary but keep reading)
• Highest and lowest market value (ideally, you at least want to be at the top end, if not THE top)
• Any discounts you plan on running throughout the year
• Do you plan on becoming a wholesaler in the future? If yes, take that into account NOW
• What I like to call an “OOPS” charge (because we are humans and not robots, therefore mistakes are bound to happen, e.g. wrong order sent out, damaged products etc which all need rectifying at your expense…)
• The dreaded beast, AKA inflation (I recommend minimum of 5-6%)

STEPH, WHAT IS THE TAKE HOME MESSAGE?

I am well aware that I have somewhat thrown a lot of figures at you in a way that *hopefully* makes sense. My goal for this week's blog was to wade through the oodles of conflicting and confusing information online to provide you with the tools to make an empowered decision on the right moves for your business. 

My final verdict?

If you are willing to commit to the hard work and adapt. If you are someone who is in it for the long haul and is willing to dig your heels in for the personal and financial rollercoaster, yes absolutely! 

Steph x

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If you'd prefer me to visually teach you this blog post, then you can watch it HERE.

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