I thought I would try Etsy.  I only have a few items posted, but since I had decided to use iCraft over Etsy, I thought it was time to find out the differences.

I feel like I have been swallowed by a giant.  It is huge.  It will take days of research to go through everything there and figure it out.  I can see why I chose iCraft first.  It is smaller, and easier to use.

After two days of postings, I have 11 views of my products.  I decided to only post bookmarks here to see how they do.  The scary thing, after two days posted, searching the item within the category, I ended up on page 19 before I found any of my bookmarks.  There are 40 listings per page.  Well, at least I am in the top 800.  Now, I will need to see what I can do about moving myself up.  Not much, I think.

How does this compare with other sites?

iCraft - there is a photo ribbon across the top of most pages and any up-dated items will show there for a few days after the item is up-dated.  They also send out messaging on Twitter when a new item is posted or an item is up-dated.

GLC Mall - the more active you are on the site, the more items of yours will show on the home page.  When I do a Google search of GLC Mall, my site shows in the search results.  Other than that, I am not really sure what they do to get visibility for their stores.


Fees:  It costs $.20 USD to post an item on Etsy for four months.  At the end of that time, the item is deactivated.   It can be reactivated  and the fee paid again.  This fee is based on the number of items you have.  If you have three of the same item, it will costs $.60 for the listing.  I of course, only listed one of each item.  What is the point of listing that I have three if I don't sell any of them.  If the item sells, I will list it again.  When an item sells, Etsy takes 3.5% of the total sale price as a fee.  Although I didn't take this into consideration when I priced the item, this could be added into the price of them item to ensure you are receiving the profit you are looking for. Right now, I am more interested in selling.  I will, however, ask my daughter to set up a formula for me so that I can calculate the selling price less this fee, to keep my profit margin.

So how does this compare to other sites?

iCraft
Charges a $25 registration fee.
1- 5 items free indifinitely.  You can put times on hold, and post a different 5 items.
 5 - 50 items $5/month
5 - 100 items $10/month
Unlimited - 15/month

I paid on a deal and received three years for $150 which is $50 per year.


GLC Mall


1 - 12 items - free - cannot put items on hold.  If you want to rotate items you need to delete some first.
13 - up - $12/ month - unlimited


How does this compare?

I have 108 live items on iCraft which would have cost me $64.80 per year on Etsy - significant savings there as I could double the items and it would double my Etsy cost.  I have the same number live on GLC Mall and it is costing me $144 per year.  Significant loss in comparison.  However, I can easily reach $144 per year on Etsy by putting the actual number of items I have, which is generally 3.  This would then cost me $194.40 on Etsy.

Etsy sells in US dollars.  I remember that this was something that stopped me from using Etsy before.  This time around, I was able to change the currency, although it took a while.  My items are listed in Canadian dollars with the US price below it.  There is not a significant difference, although the difference is absorbed by the buyer and the exchange rate can change the price for the US buyer.

Setting up a store is pretty easy, as well as posting an item.  It helps that when you are ready to post items, you have reviewed all the fields and have the appropriate descriptions ready.

If you really want to get into the community side of crafting, Etsy is definately for you.  The community is large and varied.  Lots of teams to join, as well as forums.  I joined one team and applied to join two others. You can only post if you join the team.  There are lots of people to talk to, places where you can ask questions, seek help, exchange ideas, or just get involved.

There is a Sellers Handbook which I will need to go through before I can really say much more about Etsy.   Since I can track the views, it will take a couple of weeks to see if this is worth it in relation to the amount of time I need to spend on Etsy to stay visible.  I only need to spend about 15 minutes each a day up-dating items on iCraft and GLC Mall to keep my items visible.

Any feedback about Etsy would be appreciated.

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz