Why START On Etsy in 2022 When Everyone is QUITTING Etsy | Not Amazon, Shopify or Your Own Website

About this video

The creator, who introduces herself as an Etsy seller of six years and Shopify seller of three years, argues sellers should start on Etsy instead of their own website. She claims about $1.25 million in sales on Etsy versus about $120,000 on her own website, and says she operates at a $30,000-$40,000 per month level and is speaking to people who want full-time income, not a small side hustle. She breaks down Etsy fees at the time as $0.20 per listing plus 6.5% transaction fee plus 3% processing plus $0.25 payment fee — 9.5% plus $0.45 per transaction — which she compares favorably to the 15% she cites for Amazon and eBay. She does not recommend Etsy Plus or offsite ads for beginners (noting sellers are forced into offsite ads after $10,000 in yearly sales), and recommends Etsy advertising only when launching a product. Against Shopify’s basic plan at $29/month plus 2.9% + $0.30, she argues a standalone store has no traffic: you must pay to acquire customers and master Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest ads, which can take years, whereas Etsy fees buy an outsourced marketing team driving warm, ready-to-buy search traffic — roughly a 6% per-transaction premium over Shopify that is cheaper than customer acquisition. Her central principle is that success loves speed: traction in sales and positive reviews creates momentum and prevents sellers quitting, and Etsy gives that traction fastest. She recommends doing both platforms eventually but not starting both at once — focus 100% on Etsy first (she opened her Shopify store three years in, and in hindsight says after the first year, when she claims $134,000 in sales, would have been better), then improve profitability later, comparing this to Amazon growing gross margin from 22% in 2009 to 42% after building demand first.

Key takeaways

• Start on Etsy, not your own website: Etsy searchers are warm, ready-to-buy leads, while a new Shopify store has no traffic
• Reframe Etsy fees (cited as 9.5% + $0.45 per transaction) as a marketing budget — cheaper than learning and paying for ads to acquire customers yourself
• Skip Etsy Plus and offsite ads when starting out; use Etsy advertising only for product launches
• Prioritize speed and traction — early sales and reviews create momentum that keeps sellers from quitting
• Add your own website only after Etsy momentum is established; build demand first, then pull profitability levers like expanding to Shopify

Episode details: published July 30, 2022 · 8:41 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dylan Jahraus’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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