I've Been Selling on Etsy Since 2005
My Etsy Success Story
Selling on Etsy… I can talk about it for days. 19 years (2005 to 2024).
It all started when we decided to move to a small town in Mid-West at the beginning of 2005. I was a manager at a retail store in California before that, then I got transferred to another store in Iowa.
Long story short, it didn't work out at my new work place. I quit. You don't have many options when you live in a small town. My ex husband was already working online, and I too was selling my crafts on Ebay since 2003.
I had to find a different venue for myself, because Ebay didn't feel like the right place for handmade things. Then one day, as I was browsing online, I came across this new platform: ETSY.
I decided to give it a shot. Back then we didn't have smart phones yet. So I was still using my camera to take pictures. I was making jewelry with beads and wires etc. I listed 20 items the first day. Then I went to bed.
In the morning, I woke up to my first sale. I was so incredibly happy. Then almost every day, there was a sale or two. I remember in my first month, I made nearly $1000. To me, that was heaven.
And I continued selling my jewelry for many years on Etsy. I tried other platforms as well, but none of them gave me the same results. None of them came close.
Then I decided to expand a little bit more. I opened a second Etsy store and started selling vintage clothing. Everywhere I went, I was visiting vintage and thrift stores to look for items to repurpose, and sell. My second store was OK, but my first one was the main one. After about a couple of years, I decided to deactivate my vintage store.
The jewelry business went on until about 2012. Then I got a bit bored of making jewelry and I decided to open a different Etsy shop. I thought, if this one does well, I might slowly start closing the first store. I started designing t-shirts (this is way before print on demand).
I had a friend who had a printing business and he was giving me really good deals. I only focused on black or white t-shirts to keep the costs low. I was creating designs on photoshop and then putting them on t-shirts. When I had a sale, I was going to my friend's print shop and then shipping the product to my customer.
Fast forward again, comes print on demand days. I offered some print on demand products, but my main thing was still the t-shirts I was shipping myself. So I didn't really hop on the print on demand train. Maybe it's a good thing, because now there are millions of mass produced products and it's a difficult category to get into. It is not easy to compete with wholesalers, and then of course print on demand is not really personalized. Then there are returns or damaged products, so it is a bit of a headache in some cases.
There were times I had multiple stores open at once. However, now I don't have the time or energy to run after each of them. I decided to focus more on digital downloads. I offer my designs or wall art etc. for download. And it is enough for me.
In my best years on Etsy, I made close to 80K per year, in my first year, I had made 6K. Nowadays, it is around 50K per year and I am happy with that.
It might not be a good enough number for some, and it might be a great number for many. So, when you read my posts here about Etsy, you know that I am not one of those get rich quick and make millions of dollars selling AI products type of writer. I am just me. An average middle aged woman who enjoys creative work. So my advice to you will always be down to earth and realistic.
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Thank you for reading!