Is Etsy Dead for Print on Demand 2026? (I Ran the Experiment)

About this video

The creator argues Etsy is not dead but has become harder for print-on-demand sellers, and describes an experiment building his own store as a second lane. He claims over eight years selling print on demand and over 100,000 products sold. He lists four problems on Etsy: stacked listing, transaction and payment-processing fees plus off-site ads of 12 to 15% when sellers are pulled in, which by his math can cut a 25% paper margin to 10% or less; ad saturation that buries small sellers below paid listings; algorithm/traffic drops with no warning on a platform the seller does not control; and no brand or customer ownership — buyers remember Etsy, and sellers cannot email or retarget them. Finding Shopify too slow to set up, he tests Everbe’s AI store builder: typing a single-sentence prompt generated a site with logo, brand colors and legal pages (terms and privacy); connecting Printify via its app market took, he says, about 30 seconds; and pushing a Printify product live with price and description brought the total to under 10 minutes. His comparison stresses brand control, owning the customer list, and no on-site competitors in his own store. He concludes established Etsy sellers should not burn down a working store, but should not depend 100% on one platform either, and discloses the Everbe link is his affiliate link.

Key takeaways

• Count all Etsy costs together: listing, transaction and processing fees plus 12-15% off-site ads can, by the creator’s math, shrink a 25% margin to 10% or less.
• On a marketplace you own neither the customer list nor the rules — traffic can drop without warning and buyers remember the platform, not your brand.
• In his experiment, Everbe’s AI builder created logo, colors and legal pages from one sentence, connected to Printify in about 30 seconds, and had a product live in under 10 minutes.
• An own store means only your products are shown, full brand control, and ownership of customer data for email and retargeting.
• His verdict: keep a working Etsy store, but build owned brand real estate alongside it instead of depending on a single platform.

Episode details: published February 28, 2026 · 7:00 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: Shopify Print on Demand 2026: The $0 to $10k Month Blueprint (Using Gelato) · Next: 5 Low Competition POD Niches in 2026 — AI Design Prompts Included →

All RJ Martinez videos · RJ Martinez profile · RJ Martinez on YouTube