Elizabeth Benotti, of Elizabeth Benotti Ceramics. Courtesy Photo.
If you’ve ever flipped through Better Homes and Gardens magazine or browsed at Anthropologie stores, chances are you’ve seen the bright, playful ceramic bowls and trays by Elizabeth Benotti.
And she has Etsy to thank.
Benotti, a 33-year-old from Henniker who has been selling on Etsy since 2008 through her shop, Elizabeth Benotti Ceramics, is a prime example of how Etsy can become a jumping off point. In addition to her estimated 700 Etsy sales, the online marketplace has given her exposure beyond her wildest imagination, from spots in magazines to numerous wholesale opportunities. In seven years, she’s gone from working as an office administrator and selling on Etsy on the side to making enough to open a shop and studio in Henniker. “If I hadn’t been on that site and was just selling my stuff off my own website, I never would have gotten these kinds of opportunities,”she says.
Etsy, a massive online marketplace focusing on handmade or vintage items, was created 10 years ago as an antidote to mass production and offers a path to entrepreneurship for artisans who want to do more than sell their wares in local craft fairs. Millions of registered members sell everything from jewelry, art and photographs to bath and beauty products, decorations and toys.
But there is a big difference between an Etsy seller and an Etsy business that can supplant a full-time job. A 2013 study by Etsy found that the average Etsy income was $44,900 and that 26 percent of Etsy sellers earn less than $25,000. The study also found that the most successful sellers spent about 33 hours a week on their shops. Etsy sales account for only about 20 percent of Benotti’s sales, but Etsy has led to retail and wholesale opportunities that would otherwise not have transpired.
Etsy sellers, though, face overwhelming competition. As of December 2014, Etsy had 1.4 million active sellers displaying 29 million items. The company is now open to scrutiny, as it filed a $100 million IPO in March and revealed that the company generated $195 million in revenue in 2014, but posted a net loss of $15.2 million.
Making it on Etsy
Etsy works like an online craft fair, giving sellers personal storefronts where they can display and sell their work. Sellers pay Etsy a listing fee of 20 cents per item, plus a commission equal to 3.5 percent of sale value for each completed transaction.
Setting up that storefront can take as little as an afternoon. Getting traffic and sales is another matter. It’s not uncommon for sellers to go months with only a handful of sales, and new sellers often give up altogether, says Meredith Jordan of Newmarket, who has been selling artisan jewelry through her Etsy shop, Wild Woman Beads, since 2009. “It takes a lot of work to build a following,” she says. “So often I see people posting on Etsy [message boards] saying, ‘My shop’s been open for six months and I’ve only had 10 sales.’ The expectations are so unrealistic. It will probably be a good year before you’ll even begin to see regular sales.”
A bracelet made by Meredith Jordan of Wild Woman Beads in Newmarket. Photo courtesy of Wild Woman Beads.
So what does it take to become a successful Etsy entrepreneur? New Hampshire sellers say it’s not just about making quality products—it’s also about providing excellent customer service, taking high-quality photographs, pricing products well and tagging products with the right keywords to optimize searches on Etsy.
But to really break out of the pack, sellers must be aggressive promoters, says Hampstead’s Lauren Goodwin, 29, who sells hand-painted trays through her Etsy shop, Long Eared Designs, and who is a co-leader of the Etsy NH Team, a networking group of nearly 700 NH sellers who actively promote each other’s work. “There are a million things on Etsy … the more visibility you have, the more you can stand out,” Goodwin says.
Most sellers use Facebook and Twitter to help promote their work, while others pay to appear among Etsy’s promotional listings or rely on Etsy’s tips and networking tools, such as message boards and teams, like the NH team, which help people promote their work and connect with others. Etsy’s search algorithms favor new listings and highly rated products or shops, so many sellers work together to help boost visibility and rankings, such as creating “treasuries”—a kind of mini gallery that can be featured on a rotating basis on Etsy’s home page.
Sometimes, all that promotion means sellers spend more time marketing than creating. “I put in an hour and a half on Etsy and an hour and a half on Facebook (marketing) every day. It really takes that much time,” says Jordan, who estimates that her Etsy sales make up 30 to 40 percent of her jewelry sales.
Not so Homemade
When people think of crafts they often think of one-of-a-kind items. While it began as a marketplace for artisans who handmake or design their items—no mass production allowed—that changed in 2013 when Etsy began allowing manufacturing partners to make sellers’ products. Suddenly, sellers were facing competition both from other solo artisans and from factory-made goods and sellers who outsource all or part of their process.
The policy change means sellers can hire help, work with individual collaborators or use shipping or fulfillment services, as long as they disclose to Etsy everyone involved in their shop, that the work is still handmade, and that the manufacturers meet a list of standards regarding labor and ethics. Sellers who intend to use manufacturers must submit an application for review to Etsy.
For sellers like Goffstown’s Marcia Wood Mertinooke, who sold organic t-shirts adorned with her original artwork, Etsy’s policy shift was a death knell, making it impossible for her Etsy shop, seriousface, to compete with the sudden glut of sellers offering inexpensive, mass-produced t-shirts.
“We went from selling $500 to $600 worth of products a month to $40,” she says. Etsy entrepreneurship, she says “is such a great dream. I think there’s people who think it’s going to be their ticket to be an entrepreneur, but Etsy is just a small piece of a larger puzzle.”
Other recent changes come with opportunities. Last year Etsy introduced Etsy Wholesale, a special juried section of the site for sellers to access wholesale buyers. On its website, Etsy describes it as an “online trade show.” Prospective sellers and buyers must apply and be approved by Etsy in order to gain access. Buyers must represent retail businesses. Sellers are approved based on criteria such as brand identity, variety in product offerings, pricing and product photography. Etsy has not disclosed how many sellers are part of Etsy Wholesale.
Etsy is also facing outside competition. Etsy is easily the largest and best-known marketplace for handmade goods online, but Amazon is in the process of launching Handmade at Amazon, a new store for artisans to sell handcrafted goods. Amazon’s user fees are steep compared to Etsy—commission rates are reportedly 12 percent instead of Etsy’s 3 percent, and users will also face a monthly fee of $39. But with 278 million user accounts, Amazon offers exposure Etsy can’t match, says Jordan.
If her application to Amazon is accepted, Jordan says she will likely have a shop there and keep her shop at Etsy as well.
Still, the dream of becoming an Etsy entrepreneur is alive and well. Alexi Galica-Cohen, 27, of Mont Vernon, just opened her Etsy shop, Downeast Traditions, last October and was encouraged by immediate sales. She sold enough quilts and quilted items, including tree skirts, to cover the cost of her materials and make a small profit, she says, and is now devoting eight to 10 hours a day making quilts and promoting her Etsy shop.“When you think of homemade and well-crafted, Etsy’s the first place you think of,” she says. “I’ve been quilting since I was 6 years old. It’s time to start trying to sell these things.”
And it is a viable dream. Mountain Girl Clothing in Nashua ranked among the top 100 Etsy clothing sellers as of July with 9,226 sales, according to craftcount.com. The company makes bohemian chic-style custom creations from clothes and fabrics found at thrift stores. Business has grown from $13,000 in 2008 to $100,000 in 2014. To accommodate the growing number of sales, Owner Margaret Kasper recently moved to an 1,800-square foot studio and hired a part-time employee. “I worked it like it was my full-time job until it finally became one,” says Kasper.
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