The best Etsy alternatives for selling your crafts

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Since its launch in 2005, the place to go for handcrafted, one-of-a-kind items from a wide variety of creators has become known as Etsy. Over the last few years, that rosy reputation has darkened a bit. Mass-market goods that are not handmade have been noticed by buyers.

There has been a lot of discontent online from sellers due to the increased number of manufactured goods and the increased expenses such as mandatory market plans. The final straw may have come in April of this year, when the fee for seller transactions was raised from 5 percent to 6.5 percent.

A large number of sellers on the site plan to go on strike between April 11th and 18th and are calling for a boycott of the site by buyers in support. Many of those same sellers are wondering if there is another way to sell their products outside of the increasingly difficult site.

Etsy sellers plan to go on strike between April 11th and 18th and are calling for a boycott

It's not easy if you're a relatively small vendor trying to get your product noticed in a crowded market.

It takes a lot of time and resources to sell products online or off, especially if you aren't running a full-time business. You have to create a website that will allow you to show off your wares to potential customers, or a venue where potential customers can find you. If you sell on more than one site, you have to track your inventory so you don't accidentally accept a sale you can't fulfill. You need to be able to accept credit cards and other payment methods, add tax and shipping fees, and offer approximate ship dates. Pack up your items and send them out. You have to deal with refunds and shipping fees if you accept returns.

Even if you try to do it yourself, it can be very difficult.

It was a problem for a lot of creators. It was a single source that a lot of people would go to if they were looking for a craft item, and it provided a sales page, a way to interface with your customers, and other retail services. What do you do if the problem with Etsy becomes a problem for you?

If you’re a buyer

If you want to support your favorite Etsy craftspeople, one way to do that is to find out what other ways to contact them and buy from them. Asking them is the best way to do it. Your search engine is here. It is possible that the vendor has a website with the same name as their shop.

If you're having trouble, you can contact them through the website.

• On the site (presumably, before the strike), go to your Esty Favorites (the heart icon at the top right), or if you haven’t been keeping a Favorites list, click on your personal icon and go to Purchases and reviews.
• Find the name of the vendor and select it. This should take you to the main page for that vendor.
• Scroll down where you see Contact shop owner (usually on the left side of the page) and send them a request for where else you can find them. (You could also ask them if they support the strike; according to some messages on Twitter, there are vendors who do not and who are concerned about losing customers.)

If you’re a seller

Even in its current incarnation, it seems to be unique. There are a number of other outlets where craftspeople can get help for marketing their wares, but few have the full-service plans and outreach that Etsy has.

You can sell out of your website. It takes time, knowledge, and skill to build a retail site, not to mention to promote it so that your customers can find you. If you have the ability to hire someone with those skills, then that could be a solution. There are alternatives. If you really want to find other markets, even if you aren't ready to abandon Etsy altogether, they might work for you.

Only a few of the options are available. There are many different websites and services that can be used for a small retail shop. Hopefully, this will give you a place to start.

Etsy

It makes sense to take a quick look at what Etsy has to offer.

The place to go for various crafts and handmade items is known as Etsy. I have spoken to a few friends who said that their purchases were not handmade. You can exhibit your items and get paid with the help of Etsy, as well as other services.

Fees

There are fees on the list of Etsy.

• A 20 cent listing fee for a four-month listing
• A 6.5 percent transaction fee (as of April 11th)
• A 3 percent plus 25 cent payment processing fee
• A 15 percent offsite ads fee (this fee is only required if you made over $10,000 in the last 365 days, but if you don’t want to participate in Etsy’s Offsite Ads program, you need to manually opt out)
• Another $10 / month puts you on Etsy Plus, which adds the ability to have your own web address, additional customization options, and other features.

There is no trial period for an Etsy shop.

Amazon Handmade

Amazon has a shop called Amazon Handmade, where customers can find handmade goods. There are a lot of people going to buy things at Amazon. I didn't know about Amazon Handmade until I started researching it.

Fees

Individual and Professional are the two general plans offered by Amazon.

• Individual, costing 99 cents per item sold, is for beginners — basically: for those who expect to sell fewer than 40 units a month and don’t plan to advertise. However, you cannot be a part of Amazon Handmade if you’re on the Individual plan. You must be on the Professional plan.
• Professional is $39.99 per month and offers advertising, top placement on site pages, and other features. But for those who want to be part of Handmade and who are true craftspeople, there is an out. Once you’ve created a Professional Amazon seller’s account, you can apply to have the fee waived by qualifying for an Artisan account.
• Add to that the referral fees. According to Amazon, “For every item sold, sellers pay Amazon a percentage of the total price—including item price, shipping cost, and any gift-wrapping charges—or a minimum amount, whichever is greater. Referral fees are in addition to selling plan fees.” The percentage depends on what you are selling. For example, if you create and sell jewelry, Amazon will take 20 percent of the total sale price up to $250 and 5 percent for any portion above that. However, if you qualify for Handmade, then Amazon will deduct a straight 15 percent referral fee.
• Amazon will charge you for shipping as well but will then refund the amount — or a portion of it. Professional users get to determine how much shipping will cost; Amazon will charge them for it and then credit them for that amount. Individual users have to use a set shipping fee that Amazon charges; if their shipping costs are more than Amazon’s refund, they’ll have to eat that cost (or raise the price of their goods).

There is no trial period for Amazon Handmade.

Shopify

It is an e- commerce platform for sellers who want to sell their products on their own sites. It offers a wide range of services for sellers. The Basic plan includes an e-commerce website with a variety of themes, access to various sales channels, and the ability to sell gift cards. Shipping discounts and a point of sale app are included. The Advanced plan includes services for international sales.

If you're thinking about selling out of your own website but want a way to more easily handle payments, sales tracking, shipping costs, etc., an e-commerce platform could be very useful, andshopify seems to have relatively friendly small-shop services.

Fees

• The Basic plan starts at $29 / month. If you decide to use Shopify’s payment services, then credit card fees for online sales are 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction; credit card fees for in-person sales are 2.7 percent per transaction. If you don’t use Shopify’s payment services, you are charged 2 percent per transaction.
• The Shopify plan starts at $79 / month. If you decide to use Shopify’s payment services, then credit card fees for online sales are 2.6 percent plus 30 cents per transaction; credit card fees for in-person sales are 2.5 percent per transaction. If you don’t use Shopify’s payment services, you are charged 1 percent per transaction.
• The Advanced plan starts at $299 / month. If you decide to use Shopify’s payment services, then credit card fees for online sales are 2.4 percent plus 30 cents per transaction; credit card fees for in-person sales are 2.4 percent per transaction. If you don’t use Shopify’s payment services, you are charged 0.5 percent per transaction.

If you only want to process credit card payments, you can use the lite version of the software for $9 per month.

There is a 14-day free trial.

Big Cartel

Big Cartel has a limited but usable free plan. It doesn't offer a central marketplace like Etsy, but it does offer services to help crafter develop an online store of their own. It doesn't include arrangements for credit card or other payments, and you will have to arrange yourself via Stripe, PayPal or Venmo, which will have separate fees for retail sales. Big Cartel doesn't charge extra fees to use their service.

Fees

• The free Gold plan gives you a market for up to five products with a single photo per product, the ability to sell online and in person, a custom domain, tax calculation, the ability to run discounts and track shipments, and other features.
• The Platinum plan ($9.99 / month) lets you list up to 50 products with five images per product and adds Google statistics, inventory tracking, and other services.
• The Diamond plan lets you list up to 500 products with five images per product for $19.99 / month.

There is no time limit for the trial period of the Gold plan.

Bonanza

Bonanza is a central hub where you can sell your stuff, but it doesn't purport to concentrate on crafts and other handmade items. It's a general marketplace that includes clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, furniture, etc.

Bonanza is upfront with their terms. It doesn't cost anything to list your product on the site or upload photos, and you can do so on what the company calls a "booth", which is very similar to Etsy.

Fees

• If the FOV is under $1,000, you pay 3.5 percent.
• Over that amount, you pay the same 3.5 percent plus 1.5 percent of the amount over $1,000.
• Bonanza also offers advertising services for an additional fee which can range from 9 percent to 30 percent of the FOV.

There is no trial period because Bonanza doesn't charge until you make a sale.

IndieMade

In other words, it helps you create a website that you can sell your items from, and it is an e-commerce platform rather than a retail site. It works on a much smaller scale and is directed toward craftspeople.

There are four different membership levels, and they all have the same features, including a custom domain with SSL certification, the ability to sell directly from your site, and the ability to generate income. The levels have the same amount of products you can sell and the amount of photos you can exhibit per product.

Fees

• Basic costs $4.95 / month and includes the ability to sell up to 10 products with five photos per product.
• Standard costs $12.95 / month for up to 250 products and 10 photos per product
• Pro costs $14.95 / month for up to 500 products and 20 photos per product
• Plus costs $19.95 for unlimited products and unlimited photos

There is a free 30-day trial on offer.

Zibbet

Some e- commerce features can be found on the site. The main purpose is to help you track your products across multiple sales channels. The only channels that are currently available are eBay and Etsy, according to the site. You will be responsible for any fees charged by the channels you sell through.

If you don't have your own domain set up, you can get a free Stitch development platform from Zibbet for the first year. You can use the themes and tools of Zibbet to create a site that has a statistics dashboard, coupon codes, automated emails, and customer discounts. The site will accept credit card payments.

Fees

• Zibbet’s fees are extremely simple: $5 per month per channel, with a minimum of two channels.

There is a 14-day free trial.

eBay

Then there is eBay. While the number of products being sold on eBay can be overwhelming, if someone is looking for a specific type of product, it could be a place where a creator could find a customer. eBay used to be known for reselling used items, but now it is a marketplace for almost anything you can find. If you have customers who like your wares, they can easily set email reminders to appear whenever you add something new.

Fees

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• You can list up to 250 items per month without having to pay an insertion fee. After that, you’ll pay 35 cents / month / listing.
• The final value fee can vary widely, depending on what you’re selling, and is calculated as a percentage of your final sale price plus 30 cents per order. To find out what your specific product would cost, your best bet is to check out eBay’s chart.

If you want to become a serious eBay retailer, you can use eBay's Store subscriptions. Depending on how much you will be selling per month and the type of sales and promotional tools you need, the subscription fee can be very high.

These subscriptions have a storefront, a large number of fixed-price and auction listings per month, customer support, and other features.

• Starter Store costs $4.95 / month and offers up to 250 free fixed-price or auction listings.
• Basic Store costs $21.95 / month and offers up to 1,000 free fixed-price listings and 250 free auction listings, together with lower final value fees and $25 worth of eBay branded shipping supplies.
• Premium Store costs $59.95 a month and offers up to 10,000 free fixed-price listings, 500 free auction listings, lower final value fees, and $50 worth of eBay branded shipping supplies.

There are more levels for larger retailers.

eBay does not offer free trials.