Since its launch in 2005, Etsy has become well-known as the place to go for handcrafted, one-of-a-kind items from a wide variety of creators. Unfortunately, over the last few years, that rosy reputation has changed a bit. A couple of years ago, buyers began noticing an influx of mass-market goods that were noticeably not handmade. I talked to more than one person who felt that Etsy had become less about selling handmade crafts and more about drop shipping — enterprises that advertise and sell a product and then pass the order on to a third party, which ships it.

There was discontent online from sellers as well, due to both the increased number of manufactured goods and increased expenses such as mandatory market plans. Then, in April 2022, Etsy announced it was raising seller transaction fees from 5 percent to 6.5 percent. As a result, a number of Etsy sellers went on strike between April 11th and 18th of that year. And in March of 2023, when the Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, Etsy responded by holding back the fees of some of its sellers, an action that was feared to be disastrous for smaller craft businesses.

Since then, Etsy has moved to try to restore its reputation as a place for handmade crafts rather than cheaply manufactured goods. As pointed out in a recent article in The Information, the company seems to be caught between trying to attract consumers with lower prices and maintaining its reputation as the place where they can find handcrafted gifts. All this, of course, doesn’t make things easier for the relatively small vendors who are trying to get their products recognized in a very crowded market. 

As any retailer knows, it takes a lot of time and resources to sell products, either online or off — resources that you may not have, especially if you are not running a full-time business. You have to create a professional-looking website where you can show off your wares to their best advantage or showcase them in a venue where potential customers can find them. You have to track your inventory so you don’t accidentally accept a sale you can’t fulfill, especially if you sell at more than one site. You need to be able to accept sales from credit cards, PayPal, or other financial institutions, add tax and shipping fees, and offer approximate ship dates. You have to pack up your items (or arrange to have them packed) and send them out. If you accept returns, you have to deal with refunds and shipping fees.

In other words, even if you’re a very small shop, selling online can be complicated, especially if you’re trying to do it completely by yourself.

Selling through Etsy solved that problem for a lot of creators. It is a single source that people looking for crafty items can go to; it supplies a sales page, a way to interface with your customers, and other retail services. And since all transactions take place through the Etsy platform and checkout system, it provides additional privacy between buyer and seller. But if Etsy has become a problem for you as a seller, what do you do?

Looking for alternatives

Unfortunately, Etsy — even in its current incarnation — seems to be unique. While there are several other outlets where craftspeople can get help marketing their wares, few have the full-service plans and outreach that Etsy boasts.

If you’re trying to sell your crafts, you can, of course, simply sell out of your own website. However, it takes time, knowledge, and skill to be able to build a retail site, not to mention to publicize it so that your customers can find you. If you’ve got those skills — or if you’ve got the wherewithal to hire someone with those skills — then that could be a solution. However, there are alternatives. They may not be the all-in-one solution that Etsy has been, but if you really want to find other markets — even if you’re not ready to abandon Etsy altogether — they might work for you.

Note that these are only a few of the available options out there. There are many different e-commerce sites and services available, and there are others besides these that may work for a smaller retail shop. But this will hopefully give you a place to start.

Etsy

As mentioned before, Etsy is best known for being the place to go for various crafts and handmade items, although this reputation is starting to fray a bit. However, Etsy does provide you with your own “shop,” a way to exhibit your items and get paid, and a variety of other services.

Fees

Etsy has a list of fees that includes:

• A 20-cent listing fee for a four-month listing
• A 6.5 percent transaction fee
• A 3 percent plus 25 cents payment processing fee
• A 15 percent offsite ads fee that is only charged when a purchase is made from an offsite ad — in addition, the offsite ads program is optional if you made under $10,000 in the last 365 days, although you do need to manually opt out

Trial period: there is no trial period for an Etsy shop.

Amazon Handmade

Retail giant Amazon has a special shop called Amazon Handmade, where customers can find crafts and other handmade goods. On the one hand, this is Amazon, so there are a lot of people going there to buy things. On the other, Amazon Handmade doesn’t seem to be as well known as Etsy (I didn’t know about it until I started researching this article). 

Fees

Amazon offers two general plans: Individual and Professional. 

• 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 after the first month by qualifying for Handmade.
• Add to that the referral fees. Normally, the percentage depends on what you are selling. For example, if you’re selling 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 for whatever you sell.
• 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).

Trial period: there is no trial period for Amazon Handmade.

Shopify

Shopify is not a marketplace like Etsy or even Amazon — it’s an e-commerce platform for sellers who want to sell their products on their own sites. It offers a variety of services for a range of sellers, from individuals to large retailers. For example, the Basic plan includes shipping discounts and a point-of-sale app (for in-person sales). The Shopify plan adds several staff accounts and insurance; the Advanced plan includes a bunch of other features, such as custom reports and analytics.

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, and Shopify seems to have relatively friendly small-shop services.

Fees 

• The Basic plan starts at $39 / month or $348 / year. 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 plus 10 cents per transaction. If you don’t use Shopify’s payment services, you are charged 2 percent per transaction.
• The Shopify plan starts at $105 / month or $948 / year. Credit card fees for online sales are 2.7 percent plus 30 cents per transaction; credit card fees for in-person sales are 2.5 percent plus 10 cent per transaction. If you don’t use Shopify’s payment services, you are charged 1 percent per transaction.
• The Advanced plan starts at $399 / month or $3,588 / year. Credit card fees for online sales are 2.5 percent plus 30 cents per transaction; credit card fees for in-person sales are 2.4 percent plus 10 cents per transaction. If you don’t use Shopify’s payment services, you are charged 0.6 percent per transaction.

Finally, if you plan to market your wares via social networks and want to use Shopify’s “simple online store,” you can try the Starter plan for $5 a month plus a 5 percent transaction fee if you use Shopify Payments.

Trial period: there is a three-day free trial and a charge of $1 for your first month.

Artisans Cooperative

The Artisans Cooperative was a direct outgrowth of the Etsy strike mentioned at the beginning of this article. According to the site, “We promote creativity, support artist livelihoods, and connect people through an equitable artistic community.” To become a member and sell on the site via your own shop, you have to go through a verification process (apparently, there are plans to open the marketplace to nonmembers “later this year”). After that, you simply have to pay a straightforward commission on sales.

Fees 

As a Supporter, you can create a shop on the site and take part in voting; you pay a one-time fee of $100 and a commission of 9.5 percent on sales. An Artisan member pays a one-time fee of $1,000 and a commission of 8 percent on sales and gets admission to special events and communications, plus priority marketing.

Big Cartel

Big Cartel is geared specifically toward creatives and even has a limited but usable free plan. It doesn’t offer a central marketplace like Etsy does, but it does provide services to help crafters develop an online store on their own site. Note that it doesn’t include arrangements for credit card or other payments; you will have to arrange yourself via Stripe, PayPal, or Venmo (and remember, they will have separate fees for retail sales). But Big Cartel doesn’t add extra fees to charge through 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, tax calculation, mobile apps, and other features. 
• The Platinum plan ($15 / month or $144 / year) lets you list up to 50 products with five images per product and adds a custom domain, support for advertising, inventory tracking, and other services. 
• The Diamond plan lets you list up to 500 products with 25 images per product and several other professional features for $30 / month or $288 / year.

Trial period: the Gold plan is essentially a trial plan; there is no time limit.

Bonanza

Like Etsy, Bonanza offers a central hub where you can sell your stuff — but unlike Etsy, it doesn’t purport to concentrate on crafts and other handmade items. It is a much more general marketplace, including clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, furniture, etc. 

On the other hand, Bonanza is very upfront with their terms. According to the company’s FAQ, it does not cost anything to list your product(s) on the site or upload photos, and you do so on what Bonanza calls a “booth,” which is very similar to Etsy’s “shop.” Vendors are charged against what Bonanza calls Final Offer Value (FOV): “the amount that the buyer paid to you for the item sold, plus any portion of the shipping fee that exceeds $10.” The company also says it will sync your products with any other marketplace you’re using. 

Fees

• You pay a one-time selling fee of $14.99.
• If the FOV is under $1,000, you pay 25 cents plus 3.5 percent.
• Over that amount, you pay the same 25 cents plus 3.5 percent, along with 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. 
• That 25-cent transaction fee on all sales disappears if you become a Bonanza member. Membership costs $40 a month / $300 a year for Gold, $125 a month / $1,356 a year for Diamond, and $200 a month / $2,004 a year for Titan for a variety of features starting with analytics, lower-priced shipping, featured searches, and the ability to run promotions.

Trial period: Bonanza doesn’t charge until you make a sale, so there is no trial period.

IndieMade

IndieMade, like Shopify, is an e-commerce platform rather than a retail site — in other words, it helps you create a website where you can sell your items. Unlike Shopify, it is directed toward craftspeople and works on a much smaller scale. 

IndieMade offers four membership levels — and they all offer the same features, including a custom IndieMade-branded domain with SSL certification; the ability to sell directly from your site using PayPal, Stripe, or Square (each of which will have its own fees); the ability to generate coupons; the ability to allow customers to choose product aspects (color, size, etc.); and a blog. The only differences between the levels are how many products you can sell and how many 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.

Trial period: IndieMade offers a free 30-day trial.

Goimagine

Goimagine, like Etsy, provides a marketplace for craftspeople and artists who want to sell their handmade goods. Unlike Etsy, anyone who wants to sell on Goimagine has to comply with a stringent list of guidelines to ensure that their wares are actually handmade. In addition, Goimagine’s site says that the company donates all profits to four different charities.

Goimagine offers three membership levels: Launch, Thrive, and Mosaic. All levels include a shop on the site, a mobile app, and the ability to import from Etsy, along with several other features. The Mosaic level adds a branded e-commerce website and domain integration, among other things. The fees do not include charges from whatever payment processor the seller uses.

Fees

• Launch costs $2.50 / month plus a 5 percent transaction fee for a catalog of up to 20 items.
• Thrive costs $5 / month plus a 5 percent transaction fee for a catalog of up to 200 items.
• Mosaic costs $10 / month plus a 5 percent transaction fee for a catalog of up to 1,000 items.

Trial period: none.

Shop My Porch

Shop My Porch is a startup that provides an unusual online service: it concentrates on small, local businesses. If you create and / or sell handmade products or baked goods, you can make a page for each item with a photo, description, price, and the zip code where you’re located. The idea is that buyers find a product they like in their area and go pick it up; some products can be delivered locally or even shipped, depending on what the seller wants. Buyers can also request a custom order. Because of the nature of the site, selections could be limited (or unavailable) in your area, but it’s a nice idea.

Fees

According to Shop My Porch, there are no listing fees; the site charges a 10 percent transaction fee when the item sells.

Trial period: none.

eBay

And then there’s 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. And while eBay was originally known mostly for reselling used items, it is now a marketplace for almost anything you can find. There are also some useful features; for example, if you have customers who like your wares, they can easily set email reminders to appear whenever you add something new.

Fees

eBay charges two types of fees: a listing fee (known as an insertion fee) and a final value fee.

• You can list up to 250 items per month without having to pay an insertion fee. After that, you’ll pay 35 cents per month per 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 create your own shop via eBay’s Store subscriptions. Subscription fees depend on how much you will be selling per month and the type of sales and promotional tools you’ll need.

Besides a storefront, these subscriptions offer 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 with a 30-cent insertion fee for additional listings.
• Basic Store costs $21.95 / month and offers up to 1,000 free fixed-price listings and 250 free auction listings with a 25-cent insertion fee for additional listings. There are also 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 with a 10-cent insertion fee for additional listings and 500 free auction listings with a 15-cent insertion fee for additional listings. It also includes lower final value fees and $50 worth of eBay-branded shipping supplies.

There are additional levels for larger retailers.

Trial period: eBay offers no free trials.

Making

Making is touted as a community for “makers, crafters, and artists” that uses apps for iOS and Android mobile devices to, in essence, create a social network for crafters. While it is a nice concept, it hasn’t seemed to develop much over the last year. Still, it could be worth checking out.

Fees

Making has been offering a class system, where the teacher received a percentage of the class fees, but at the time this article was updated, classes were on pause. Making is also apparently developing a marketplace (currently, it looks like most of what is sold are patterns); the site charges an 8 percent transaction fee along with payment processing and payout fees, but the transaction fee is waived for sales under $50.

Update June 25th, 2024: This article was originally published on April 7th, 2022. The introduction and most of the entries have been updated.