Etsy or Shopify? 99% of Beginners Don’t Know This!

Are you struggling to pick between Shopify and Etsy to sell your woodworking products? If so, you are not alone! I get this question all the time! Most beginner woodworkers dive into selling without understanding the key differences between these two platforms. You can end up wasting a lot of time and money by not understanding the things that I'm going to talk about here. But don't worry, I've got you covered! I'm breaking down what you need to know about Etsy and Shopify that 99% of beginners have no clue about. Trust me, by the end of this you'll know exactly where your woodworking products belong. 

So picture this, you've just finished building a really cool custom sign or a really cool custom cutting board, but now what? You want to sell it online, but you're torn. Everyone's telling you Etsy is the place to be, you’ve got to sell on Etsy. But then you hear the same for Shopify, you’ve got to build a Shopify store if you're serious about growing your brand. I know this can be super overwhelming! Picking the right platform isn't just about choosing a website, it's about setting the foundation for your entire business. So let's break down and get into the heart of why choosing Etsy or Shopify can make or break your success.

Let's start with Etsy. If you're a beginner and have no experience with selling anything online before, Etsy's biggest selling point is its built-in customer base. We're talking about millions of shoppers actively looking for unique handcrafted items just like yours. Etsy spends millions of dollars themselves a year on advertising their platform as the place to go to find unique handmade products. That's huge because it means less effort on your part to get eyeballs on your products. This is the number one challenge for everyone when starting out is how do I get my products in front of people. You need to get your product in front of people if you ever want to have a chance of selling it. Based on a recent survey, over 70% of CNC hobbyists prefer to start their business on Etsy, because you don't have to worry about setting up a full-blown e-commerce store or driving traffic to your page. With Etsy it's all built in right there! But here's the catch, even though there are millions of shoppers on Etsy every day, it takes intentional effort and strategy to stand out on the platform. Etsy is a low barrier entry, anybody can list their products on there, so it comes with more competition. Long gone are the days when throwing up a random picture of something you made with a title and it equals a sale. It's much more competitive than that! Not to mention Etsy's fees can add up with listing fees, transaction fees, and even additional fees for promoting listings. Those costs start nibbling away at your profits. This is something you really have to keep in mind.

So real quick for you more experienced CNC entrepreneurs out there, as you read this you may be thinking I know what platform I should start on or I know what platform I should sell on, but I struggle with what to make. Well I put together a list of 10 of my favorite products for 2024, and it's a perfect place to start! It's completely free, not trying to sell you anything. It's completely free, a great place to start. If you're interested, there'll be a link down in the description.

So now let's talk about Shopify. Shopify gives you the freedom to create your own one-of-a-kind online store, your own brand. Think of this as creating just a normal website, but one that is designed specifically for e-commerce. It's perfect if you're looking to scale up and build a big business and you want full control over your website design, product pages, and checkout processes. You can run your own discounts, add plugins, and build a mailing list, but there's one big hurdle: driving traffic. Unlike Etsy, Shopify doesn't have a built-in customer base. Shopify isn't known as the place for Shoppers to go to buy unique handmade products. In fact, Shoppers probably don't even know what Shopify is, nor do they care. That means you need to invest the time and money into marketing. Think SEO, Facebook ads, email campaigns, branding; it's a learning curve and that's where many beginners get stuck. If you're just getting started and aren't familiar with digital marketing or online sales, Shopify might feel like trying to sell your products in the middle of the desert. No one is going to know your product exists unless you tell them.

So the question is Etsy traffic or Shopify's control? For a lot of you just starting out it comes down to your strengths. If your focus is on perfecting your craft, perfecting your product and not worrying about the business side, Etsy's probably your best bet to start out. I can tell you from talking to literally thousands of CNC owners over the last six years, most beginners feel overwhelmed when it comes to the marketing part of selling things online. But if you're the type that wants to build your own brand and you've got the time to learn the ropes, Shopify gives you a platform to grow beyond just an Etsy shop. Then you own that business, you own that traffic, where that's not true necessarily on Etsy.

 Now I've got a super powerful secret to share with you. I use it in my product business where I have both an Etsy and a Shopify store. Leverage Etsy's built-in traffic to build your own customer base. I know what you’re thinking, Andy that sounds illegal. Well it actually is against the terms of use if you do it on Etsy. Now if you do this actively on your Etsy page they will shut down your Etsy store. Etsy does not like you moving your customers off platform, so don't do that. They frown upon this and it's against their terms of use, but if you do it off platform it's actually really smart and really savvy marketing. So how do you use Etsy's traffic to build your own customer base? First, you set up an Etsy store and a Shopify store. You use Etsy like it's intended and use it to make sales; you're happy, Etsy's happy, and the customer's happy. When you're sending the product out (if it's a physical product), include a handwritten note thanking them for their purchase. This is a great thing to do even if you're not trying to move traffic, and offer them a significant discount to buy again from your Shopify store. This is how you own your own customers and not rely solely on Etsy search and Etsy SEO. When someone checks out on Shopify, you collect their email address and you start building a list of customers that you own, that you can reach this way. When you have a new product launch or run a sale you can contact them directly and send them an email so you're not relying on an algorithm to contact them. This is so powerful, and if you're serious about growing on a customer base you must do it. All the top sellers on Etsy are doing this exact thing.

So let's recap, Etsy offers a ready made customer base ideal for beginners who want to focus on crafting, CNC, and woodworking instead of marketing. Shopify on the other hand gives you full control, but requires effort to drive traffic. So ask yourself, are you looking to start quickly with less hassle or do you want to build your own brand and invest in learning how to drive traffic to your own site? Which let me tell you, from experience, is possible but not an easy thing to do. Now you know everything you need to know to make a choice on what platform best suits your business goals.