Selling Handmade: Etsy vs eBay

Etsy and eBay are the first sites many people consider selling on when they begin to sell handmade items and/or supplies, but how do you decide between the two?

Each one has it's pros and cons and which one you should use would depend partly on what you want to sell. For some people it might be a good idea to use both!

So to make it easier to decide which one is best for you, here are the pros and cons of both...

Etsy is an online marketplace dedicated to handmade items and supplies. It has become a major part of the handmade industry and boasts millions of buyers and sellers worldwide.

Pros

• It has a large audience which makes it fairly easy to get 'natural' traffic
• Etsy allow the sale of digital goods and you can even upload files for Instant Download.
• When listing, there is a button you can tick to let people know you are available for custom work.
• There's a large online community built in, with teams and forums so it's easy to find support from fellow sellers.
• The layout is is easy to use when buying and selling
• You can upload 5 images per listing with no extra fees
• The fees are low with 20c (about 13p GBP) listing fee and 3.5% end of listing fee.
• You can accept various forms of payment including Paypal and Etsy gift cards
• An easy to use Etsy Mini Widget to embed into websites/blogs
• Facebook 'like' and Pinterest 'Pin it' buttons on every listing, encouraging sharing.
• Nice layout
• As of October 2013 you can use dropshipping services, but you are responsible for the service.
• You can get 40 free listings when you refer friends who then open a shop (they get 40 as well)

Cons

• Highly competitive and easy to get lost in the crowd (it sometimes feels there's more sellers than buyers)
• The teams can feel spammy, with most only interested in promoting their own listings.
• A large amount of low quality and/or copyright violated products
• You can't alter the price or quantity of each item when listing a product with variables
• You can no longer give feedback as a seller.
• Etsy have been known to close shops without warning
• A mostly American audience, so sellers outside the US may find they have a smaller audience, or have to compete with US sellers who can charge less shipping.
• When listing in quantity, you are charged per item so if you have 10 of one item you will be charged 10x20cents.
• No Auction format, Buy it Now only.
• Using outside manufacturers must be approved by Etsy first.
• The new guidelines allowing outside manufacturers and dropshipping has led to an increase of cheap imports, watering down the handmade message Etsy were known for.
• Plain text only in listings (though some could argue this looks neater)

I doubt there's anyone in the Western World who hasn't heard of eBay. It's one of those sites that has quite literally changed the world. From people making a few quid to get them through to the end of the month, selling their unwanted items; to others creating highly successful businesses through the online Auction marketplace.

Pros

• Everyone knows it!
• First 20 listings of the month are free (private sellers only)
• Different types of account depending on selling volume
• Auction listings starting at 99p or less are free to list.
• Frequent free listings days throughout the year.
• A huge amount of natural traffic
• When selling in Buy it Now format, if you sell more than one quantity you still only pay one listing fee (40p or 20p in certain categories such as books)
• You can list variations of an item, each with it's own photo
• Different sites for different countries
• You can give feedback as a seller and respond to feedback given to you
• It's easy to buy and sell~ especially as you can link your paypal account to your eBay account
• You can buy and sell in Buy it Now and Auction formats
• You can allow people to make you a 'best offer'
• If you sell supplies, eBay allow you to use dropshipping services.
• share buttons (though very small) for email, facebook, pinterest and twitter
• eBay money back guarantee for buyers (feel safer so more likely to buy)
• HMTL allowed in listings
• Buyers can add your items to their watchlist so more likely to come back and buy later.

Cons

• There is a huge amount of cheap imports to compete with
• Extra photos for one listing cost extra
• Easy to get lost in the crowd and end up losing profits when trying to compete on price.
• Not exclusive to creative items, so handmade has to compete with mass produced.
• You are not allowed to sell digital goods
• Quite steep fees with 40p/20p listing fee and 10% end of listing fee
• No links to outside sites allowed
• Listing an item can be slow and 'buggy'
• Relisting an item automatically sets the listing to the original quantity not the quantity after any sales.
• With eBay Outlet, you are competing with big brands

As you can see each site has it's different pros and cons.

As a general rule, I personally would sell digital and higher quality/priced items on Etsy. On eBay I would sell cheaper products and ones that are more country specific or want to gauge interest by using the auction format.

I hope this list has been helpful to you! Which do you use? Let us know in the comments below :D