a little afternoon shoegazing

When Etsy opened its doors a few years back, I was one of the first to give it a try (I joined in July of 2005.) Not only was I an early adopter, I was a champion for the site. It was an innovative marketplace. It was easy to find new shops, indie crafters and track down great handmade items. As cool as it was, they had problems keeping up with their own success. As the site grew bigger, new listings were harder to find. The fun features for discovering new talent became less and less useful and more just showy coding. As more sellers join, it's harder to get noticed and more challenging to find quality products. The pure volume of sellers means an item listed right now will be buried fifty pages back within hours.

As a buyer, I find myself repeatedly going to the same shops that I found when I first joined. Unless it's a direct link from someone's blog, a Ravelry ad or a mention somewhere online, I don't go looking for new sellers. I tried searching for hair barrettes the other day and other than the frustration with spelling errors and out of focus pictures in shops, I came away with nothing.

Now that I'm making and selling full-time, I've been thinking about hosting my own shop as a subdomain of splityarn.com. The challenges are finding someone to design the shop for me and then selecting a suitable shopping cart that won’t drive me batty. It’s a giant headache. During an email conversation with Ms. Soto Softies this afternoon, she mentioned bigcartel. I had never heard of it before, but it might just be the solution I'm looking for.

I poked around the shop setup and it's incredibly easy to use. There are a few features that are deliciously tempting, like 'coming soon' listings, stats for the shop and of course, the ability to assign my own domain. The only thing keeping me from moving everything over rightthisverysecond is the fear of losing folks who have me in their faves over on Etsy. I'm certain the number of ‘walk-in’ customers for the Splityarn Etsy shop are few, so here are my questions: As a buyer, how do you find Etsy shops? Is there security for you in buying from a shop with feedback ratings and Etsy arbitration if something goes wrong? How are you finding new shops on Etsy? Finally, if you’re a seller, have you jumped from the Etsy ship? Have you tried bigcartel or another site?

I have to order some new business cards this week and it's time for me to make a decision. I’d love to hear your opinions and suggestions.

(photo is unrelated, but I'm completely unable to post without one.)

Comments

[Veronique]

I've looked at a few Big Cartel stores and they seem great (even though I haven't actually purchased anything). Perhaps all you need is a mailing list and a blog post to keep all your customers aware of updates?
Most of my Etsy faves were recommended by friends.

[NessieNoodle]

if you headed over to big cartel I would follow- you know I dig your stuff and you always get it out on time and with fantastic work(wo)manship.

I do what you do on etsy, follow a link or something like that. Irarely go out and do a search-- I rely on others to let me know they had a good experience and then maybe I will go from there. Word of mouth like that is good.

good lucky friend!

[maryse]

well you know i would follow you anywhere. but most of my etsy shopping is really just out of boredom. i'm rarely looking for something specific, so the search functions aren't something that i use very often. i find new sellers from the main etsy page -- the featured sellers, the recently listed items, the handpicked items. or links through blogs, ravelry, and flickr. as a seller i've had minimal success, but that's as much a reflection of my efforts as anything. i think you need to do whatever it takes to bring you success. what if you hang out in both for awhile?

[maryse]

well you know i would follow you anywhere. but most of my etsy shopping is really just out of boredom. i'm rarely looking for something specific, so the search functions aren't something that i use very often. i find new sellers from the main etsy page -- the featured sellers, the recently listed items, the handpicked items. or links through blogs, ravelry, and flickr. as a seller i've had minimal success, but that's as much a reflection of my efforts as anything. i think you need to do whatever it takes to bring you success. what if you hang out in both for awhile?

[scoutj]

I think you absolutely should go with your own shop. I use zencart and love it. Buzz me if you have any questions!

[Steph]

I've only been at etsy since March, and I was using Hyena Cart before that. Etsy has a much better set up, but I sold more at my hyena cart store because there aren't nearly as many users.
I too have thought about getting my own domain since I haven't sold but ONE item on etsy. ugh.
I think that you have plenty of follower from your blog to keep your store running successfully!

[Spritely Stephanie]

I have a hard time finding things on Etsy just as everyone else.
I tried selling there for a little while, and eventually went and launched my own site. I didn't seem to get much in the way of "walk ins" from people browsing etsy - and I've found most of my business is from word of mouth (or blog posts ;) since I count those as word of mouth). Setting up shop can be a trick, I'm not familar with BigCartel - and I have my love/hate relationship with my own cart...

Best of luck whichever way you decide to go :)
ps. i love the bat strap. I'll have to ask DH if he needs one!

[ekgheiy]

I agree; Etsy's just too cumbersome. And, while the listing fee is cheap, it's not cheap enough to have your listings get buried in seconds. I think you would surely be better off with your own shop on your own domain, especially since you have already established a client list (at least, I'm assuming that you have).

[tevana]

I only buy from Etsy if I see a product on some one's blog that I like and then I follow the link and purchase that way. I've found that even if I see something on Etsy that I like if I go to the site and search for it I can never seem to find it. Hope this helps a little bit.

[Stacey Van Landingham]

I usually find out about Etsy shops from blogs and friends. I normally search for the same kinda things so I usually come up with the same kinda search results.

As far as opening up your own shop... I've always thought that Etsy was a great place to start. Most will be happy selling their hand-crafted items (I personally am not so hot on the non-handmade vintage items being sold... but that's for another day) until they don't want to, and others will use it as a launching off place for their very own gig. Either way, it's a good place to be or start.

Sarah a.k.a the Plucky Knitter (http://thepluckyknitter.com) has recently made the move too.

Cheers!

[Mia]

I love Etsy but it has gotten too big. It is hard to find new things now. I tend to use links from other people to find new stuff. I full expect to see those who manage to make a portion of their living on their crafts to end p with their own store front.

[andrea]

I also get frustrated with trying to poke around Etsy and find new shops. If I really have time and am determined to buy the item I want handmade I will look through pages and pages. Often, though, the quality of shops, descriptions, and photos lacks making me wonder if my money would be better spent confidently elsewhere. I shop the same shops and find new ones when a blog that I like links to it, or someone recommends a specific shop. I think a switch to bigcartel might fit you nicely. I certainly won't stop shopping =)

[julie]

I'm an Etsy seller, I have two stores. But I also buy and usually its an impulsive purchase of something I saw on the front page. I do search for earrings, I seem to have acquired quite a collection over the last 2 years!

This is good info to know, I'm glad I found this post.
Julie

[Terry]

I find other sellers in Etsy a number of ways: blog links, looking at a seller's favorites b/c they usually have similar tastes as me, and searching in the drop down menu. I think your own site would do well, you're known, you have a nice product. I have noticed that a few indie craftspersons that go to their own site sometimes have ongoing site issues for a long time and have irregular updates. That's kind of irksome and turns me away. I hope my two cents helps - lotsa luck on the new adventure!!

[Terry]

I find other sellers in Etsy a number of ways: blog links, looking at a seller's favorites b/c they usually have similar tastes as me, and searching in the drop down menu. I think your own site would do well, you're known, you have a nice product. I have noticed that a few indie craftspersons that go to their own site sometimes have ongoing site issues for a long time and have irregular updates. That's kind of irksome and turns me away. I hope my two cents helps - lotsa luck on the new adventure!!

[gleek]

i would definitely buy from your store, especially if you use paypal. one of the only reasons i DO shop on etsy is because of paypal. i don't think that i ever look at the feedback from/for a particular seller. i rely totally on word-of-mouth (which is how i came to your store in the first place!) big cartel looks cool! i'm going to have to check it out. right now i've been thinking about shopify. i'll have to compare the two and see how they stack up.

[Specs]

I don't have anything to add to this, but I'm loving the discussion. Thanks for posting about it!

[Christine]

I find shops on Etsy via others too.

When people comment on my bags and ask where to get them, I send them to splityarn.com and tell them to look for the link in the sidebar. I can't ever remember the Etsy domain anyways. :-)

[jennifer ramos]

I only buy from people I know (who've directed me there) or I'm doing a very, VERY specific search. I get frustrated though, pretty easily, over the overwhelming number of items I have to sift through.