Being an online seller is the most trending and easy way of generating some extra income. You can either sell your products through your e-commerce website or make use of online marketplaces for the same.
Should I sell through my website or should I make use of a marketplace?Many people choose to sell through their e-commerce store as these stores give them a full authority on how the website looks and how the product variants appear. Marketplaces are also used by many people as they can easily sell their products by setting up an online store without having to build and maintain a complete website.
Shopify is a great platform for building your e-commerce website and Etsy is a famous marketplace for selling your products online. Through this blog let us compare Shopify and Etsy and check which is the better option. This comparison will also help us determine if one of them can replace the other.
Let's get started.
Shopify vs Etsy Comparison 2020 | The Ultimate Comparison (Must Read)
Shopify is a great online platform that helps you build your own eCommerce website. It is one of the best e-commerce building platforms in India. Founded by Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake in 2004, Shopify is now one of the biggest e-commerce platforms all over the world. Shopify has a great collection of tools that help you launch and run your business online. It helps you in finding your customers, keeping a track of your sales, and managing your daily business.
Shopify is a great place to start your business as it helps you to run and grow your business. It has a great App store and helps you build your business through many marketplaces. Shopify also offers you the help of an expert if you need some expert advice on launching and running your business.
What can you sell on Shopify?You can easily sell all types of products on Shopify. Shopify allows you to sell physical as well as digital products. This is a great feature as digital products are also very trending and a single platform for selling both these products is preferable by everyone.
Etsy is an online marketplace that allows the seller to sell their products online. Founded in the year 2005 by Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire , Etsy is being used by over 1.75 million sellers all over the world. It is also used by over 33 million buyers across the globe.
Etsy helps you to sell your products directly to your customer through its explicit marketplace which does not compel the customer to first go to your store to complete the transaction. Etsy helps you to reach your potential customers and promote your product. It also is a very useful tool when we talk about the ease of selling and the user-friendliness of an online selling tool.
What can you sell on Etsy?Through Etsy, many people from different parts of the world purchase a variety of products. As Etsy is a marketplace the types of products that can be sold on Etsy are very limited. You can easily sell handmade products along with some crafted products to your customer. You can even sell Vintage products which are a minimum of 20 years or older through Etsy.
Comparing the features of Shopify and Etsy will help us get a better insight into the types of features provided by each of them. Let us have a look at the different features provided by Shopify and Etsy.
Ease of use: Shopify has a more structured approach to building and maintaining your website. It has separate dashboards for editing interface and general dashboard.
It has a very simple website that offers great visuals and makes navigation much easier. It uses simple language that is helpful for a better understanding of the customer.
Template: Shopify has 10 free themed templates with two or three variants for each template. You also have the option of choosing a premium theme from more than 50 themes but you would have to pay some additional charges to use these themes. All these themes are very professional and contemporary in terms of their design.
Customization: While using Shopify for customization you require the knowledge of coding. You can easily click on the edit HTML/CSS option and start coding according to your customization needs.
Products: Shopify allows you to make use of 3 product options and 100 variations. Some additional products and variations can be added by using Shopify apps. You also need to download specific apps for selling digital products on Shopify.
Multiple currencies: Shopify has a multi-currency payment functionality option which helps you to sell your products according to various currencies. Some templates have inbuilt multi-currency features that enable you to sell the product according to the local currency and it also has various multi-currency applications that help you sell in local currency and also enable the user to check the price in a different currency.
Shopify has over a 100 Payment Gateways:payment gateways but currently does not include Square. It enables the users to customize their page and include donations for charity on their webpage.
You might have to pay some additional fees if you choose to use some payment gateway other than Shopify Gateway.
Shopify POS is available in many countries all over the globe. POS:POS can be considered as a key feature of Shopify as it has dedicated POS reporting, POS hardware store, and POS support features.
Shipping: Shopify helps you to easily use the dropshipping feature and connects you to various drop shipping companies throughout the world. It also allows various flexible shipping options for its users. Its dropshipping feature helps you to place the desired order to your supplier and the supplier can ship the desired product to the customer.
Abandoned Cart Recovery: Shopify abandoned cart recovery function allows you to send a single notification through email to your customers regarding the product in the cart usually with some additional discounts to ensure a complete transaction.
Tax: The users using Shopify Plus plans can make use of the Avalara tax application which easily calculates all your taxes and automates the entire tax filing process. Shopify has a better and more automatic approach to tax calculation which frees up your time by doing all the tax calculations and has an edge over Squarespace.
Inventory Management: Shopify has a great inventory management system that enables the users to easily manage the inventory even for large businesses. You can easily upload single or multiple products using the tools and also manage the stock and get revenue reports for your sales with ease.
SEO: Shopify has the feature of adding metadata and editing titles. It also helps in customizing your URL and attaching alt text to your images.
Analytics: Shopify has a great feature to track the performance of your product and also monitor who visits your store and get insights on the stock analysis. You can easily merge with google analytics and get more data on the complete website analysis.
Ease of Use: Etsy is also very easy to use and follows a very straightforward approach to set things up. You do not need to be a coder or programmer to start using Etsy. All you need is to create your store, add products, and start selling.
Themes and Design: Etsy has its design and theme layout. Once you start using Etsy, the store will automatically adjust to the design and layout offered by Etsy. You do not have to be worried as all the designs offered by Etsy are very simple and classic, that help the user to easily navigate through your website.
Customization: Etsy doesn't have a very flexible customization approach. It has very limited options for customizing your store. Using the customizations offered by Etsy is very easy for small businesses, but if you have a big business and want to make your website very attractive using various customization methods then Etsy does not provide enough scope for doing that.
Domain name: Etsy can not be used on your own domain as it is a marketplace. You can add your store to it easily. If you wish to use Etsy on your domain then you need to integrate with the Etsy Pattern Builder tool which helps to achieve this purpose.
Fees: Etsy does not charge any monthly fees but it charges some listing fees along with transaction fees. This does not create a problem for small-scale businesses but it is not preferred by big businesses.
Payment options: Etsy accepts payment through all the major Payment options used widely all around the world. The payment processing through Etsy also costs you some money but this is generally provided by the payment processing companies like the credit card companies. It makes use of PayPal for processing the payments.
Attracting Customers: Etsy is very helpful in attracting potential customers towards your product. People can find your product directly through Etsy without first trying to locate your store and then find your product. This simple technique does help the customers to find your product easily.
Help and Support: Etsy offers great help and support for all its users. You can easily find all the answers to your problems by searching for them in the help center search menu.
Forum: Etsy also has its community form and groups where you can easily discuss and troubleshoot all your problems. In case you are not able to find the relevant answers, you can get in touch with their support team which is always ready to help you.
Pricing plays an important role while choosing any platform for our use. Knowing the pricing plans for the platforms and comparing the features provided in each platform is a must to be ensured that the money we invest is worth spending. Let us look at the pricing plans of Shopify and Etsy and find out how much each of them cost.
There is a free trial period of 14 days which is enough for you to set up the store. After the trial period is over, to continue using Shopify it offers three pricing plans for all its users. Let us look at the features offered in each plan.
The Basic Shopify Plan: This plan costs $29 per month and is best for beginners who wish to learn all the basics to launch their own business. The features offered in this plan are:
- It includes an online store consisting of websites and blogs.
- It offers the use of unlimited products and discount codes.
- You can make use of two staff accounts with access to Shopify admin and Shopify POS.
- It provides a manual order creation tool along with Abandoned cart recovery.
- You also get a free SSL certificate along with gift cards and 24*7 customer support.
- Additional fees of 2.0% for using all payment providers other than Shopify Payments.
The Shopify Plan: This plan contains all the features provided by the basic plan along with the features mentioned below:
- It includes an online store consisting of websites and blogs.
- It offers the use of unlimited products and discount codes.
- You can make use of five staff accounts with access to Shopify admin and Shopify POS.
- It provides a manual order creation tool along with Abandoned cart recovery.
- You also get a free SSL certificate along with gift cards and 24*7 customer support.
- This plan also provides you with professional reports.
- A lower credit card rate of 2.5% + 30 cents for online transactions, 2.4% + 0 cents for in person.
- Additional fees of 1.0% for using all payment providers other than Shopify Payments.
- It also provides the pricing for using the USPS Priority Mail Cubic.
The Advanced Shopify Plan: This plan is designed for long-lasting retailers and includes all the same features as the basic and premium plan and some more additional features given below.
- It includes an online store consisting of websites and blogs.
- It offers the use of unlimited products and discount codes.
- You can make use of fifteen staff accounts with access to Shopify admin and Shopify POS.
- It provides a manual order creation tool along with Abandoned cart recovery.
- You also get a free SSL certificate along with gift cards and 24*7 customer support.
- This plan also provides you with professional reports and an advanced report builder.
- It also provides third-party shipping rates. It shows calculated shipping rates in your account or with the help of third-party applications.
- Additional fees of 0.5% for using all payment providers other than Shopify Payments.
- A lower credit card rate of 2.25% + 30 cents for online transactions, 2.15% + 0 cents for in person.
Let us have a look at the various pricing plans offered by Etsy. Etsy has two plans for all its users.
Etsy Standard Plan: Through this plan, you do not have to pay any monthly charges to use Etsy.
- It charges $0.20 as listing fees for your products for a period of 4 months or until the product is sold.
- You also have to pay a 5% transaction fee for using Paypal. This fee is charged for every transaction as processing fees for using Paypal payments.
- You also have to pay 15% fees for off-site Ads, if you want to use the Ads feature offered by Etsy to help your customers reach your product and enhance your sales. This feature is optional for many customers and depends on the number of products sold by you.
Etsy Plus Plan: This plan will cost you an additional fee of $10 per month. Various features are offered through this plan in addition to the features present in the standard Etsy Plan.
- This plan helps you to customize your store by providing additional tools.
- It helps you to inform your customers when your items are back in stock.
- You can save up to 50% on a custom address made for your store for a year.
- You get 15 listing credits for your product.
- You also get $5 bonus credits for the advertisement of your products.
Let us compare Etsy and Shopify based on their pros and cons. Comparing the Pros and Cons of Shopify and Etsy will help us get more insight into the strong and the weak points of each of them. We can easily determine where one of them leads and the other lags.
- It provides a wide range of themes and flexibility.
- It provides more apps and integrations.
- It is good for all big businesses as well as small businesses.
- It can be said to be the best platform for e-commerce.
- You can easily sell unlimited products with unlimited variations.
- It also offers the feature of multi-channel selling through various social media sites.
- It is a very user-friendly platform and easy to use for new users.
- It helps you to attract more customers to your products and hence brings more traffic to your business.
- The cost of using Etsy is also very low as compared to other similar tools
- You have to use third-party applications for selling digital products.
- It is a bit costlier than other platforms.
- It charges transaction fees if you do not use Shopify payments.
- There are some restrictions on the type of products that can be added to Etsy.
- You have to pay a very high transaction fee which goes up to 5%of the cost of the product.
- Etsy does not give you more scope to be creative.
So based on the various features offered by Shopify and Etsy, here are some recommendations for the users. Have a look at them and determine whether you are the correct user and which tool is the best for you.
Shopify is an ideal solution for anyone who is looking to set up their online store from scratch. This is also used by big businesses to bring their business and establish their online presence. Shopify is also suitable for emerging businesses who want to establish their e-commerce store and become an online seller.
Shopify is easy to use, secure, and highly reliable platform. It has all the tools required to increase your sales and make your business successful. It is a widely used tool by people all around the world and highly appreciated for the success of the business through it.
Shopify is a great tool for anyone who wants to build their website and start their e-commerce business. Anyone who wishes to start selling online and make money through their website, have a wider range of audience and likes to be creative with their website is an ideal user of Shopify.
Etsy is used by millions of people across the globe as their favorite selling marketplace. It helps you reach a wide range of potential customers easily. If you are a beginner who wishes to start selling online without a website, you can easily choose to start selling your products on Etsy.
Etsy is usually preferred by small businesses. It's easy and simple design works great with small scale business and new enterprises. So, Etsy is a great tool for beginners who wish to start selling their products online through this huge marketplace.
Shopify vs Etsy & Testimonials?
We have looked at the features, pricing, and pros and cons of Shopify and Etsy. I hope this blog has helped you get a clear understanding of both these platforms and now you are capable of making your decision.
Selling on a marketplace and selling on a website, both have their plus points. When you sell on your website, you can choose how to customize it for better performance. Selling your product on a well-established marketplace works better for those who do not wish to invest their time in handling a complete website.
So, we can say that though Shopify on Etsy is unique in their ways, one amongst them cannot replace the other. You can easily decide which tool to use for selling online based on your requirements.
Happy Selling.