
My Thoughts On Etsy
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/9/4/20841475/etsy-free-shipping-amazon-handmade-josh-silverman (This is a beautiful article I read on Vox and probably you should too)
So a few weeks ago my friend Minal mam (She is into promoting Indian arts and owns this lovely Villa open for bookings in Lonavla) suggested all Indian visual artists should create an Etsy store and I completely agree. It's a place for sellers who make handmade items. It's a place for artists and craftsmen to reach out to the world.
I found this amazing article on Vox that I thought I'd share with you though. It details the journey of the platform from its inception in 2005 when it was a voice of the people to its present day form of a corporate entity.
How the platform has de-escalated from its origins of being the place where people would go to buy handmade products to its present CEO exclaiming that that's not what the people come to the site for. A bit of a reverse Robin Hood story.
It's a little discouraging to read it but I think it is a must for every seller who wants to register on it.
Pro:
1. You will have easy access to lot of stuff like e-commerce like product listing and shop along with payment options
2. You will have easy access to an audience that wants to buy stuff instead of having to build your own
Con:
1. You do your own shipping and bear the cost
2. There is very little motivation to only list on this platform.
Might as well make parallel listing on Amazon and other places (GST is not an issue, it happens for less than Rs 3k and can be done in less than 3 days by any CA)
The Etsy story is a typical story of every market place which follows the 80:20 rule. Early adopters make the most amount of sales and profits having established themselves on the platform first. The rest need to work harder than ever to build their brand and get traffic to their own Esty shop from various social media stores and are rarely able to replicate the easy success stories of the early adopters.
Just thought I'd share this point of view and learning about market places with you. Specially since, Etsy is so close to the heart for a lot of the artists out there. If you want an extensive list of platforms where you can list yourself as an artist, then DM me. I have been working on it for some time and will soon release that list in any case on various social platforms.
Cheers!


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