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| yaaay! felt pennant / $16 each |
i'm excited to announce my handmade shop has moved to etsy! a little facelift and a new name: rank and file. almost everything has been moved over from the old shop and there will be some new cards and prints debuting next week.
it was a hard decision to move the shop from big cartel to etsy, but i'm pleased with the decision and feel like it's already worthwhile. i wasn't unhappy with my big cartel experience and feel like i would go back if/when my line can generate it's own traffic (perhaps when i start to wholesale?). right now, etsy provides a great community driven space that makes it easy for people to find you, even if they don't know they're looking for you. the exposure is definitely better, even when you aren't updating/refreshing/publicizing.
on the other hand big cartel does make things a little smoother when listing an item - you can provide color/size options within the listing, while etsy does not have these features available. it's also nice that you pay per month instead of per listing at big cartel. and there aren't transaction fees associated with big cartel when you make a sale (just the usual paypal fees).
i really could go on and on about this and would love to talk to more of you who are trying to decide between the two. i decided to try big cartel for my handmade stuff at first, just because it seems a little more professional and streamlined, but missed the networking that etsy has.
excuse the novel! i do think this is an interesting discussion, though. any online shopkeepers out there want to contribute?
// edit // here's a pro-big cartel article put out by the bc folks. great reasons, but you just have find what works for you.
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| one of a kind paper garlands / $14-19 each |
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| polka dot mini pennants on a stick / $6 each at rank and file |
I've been on Etsy for about 4 years now- last year I made the decision to move to Big Cartel; I love their highly customisable template and their one-page listing, but I agree with you- Etsy has a strong community that brings a lot of traffic. When I moved from Etsy to BC I thought I could bring all my traffic, turns out alot of my traffic comes from Etsy search! (You think GA would've been able to tell me that, but no.) I'm staying on Etsy for the immediate future, until like you I'm famous enough to move out on my own!
ReplyDeleteThat was my experience, too - so many sales come from random searching/treasuries, etc. I find that bloggers do a lot more Etsy surfing for things to feature and big cartel doesn't make it easy to look around.
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