What is better for you? Shopify or Etsy!

The industry of e-commerce is a world of opportunities, and more and more people are finding themselves exploring this space and making a prosperous career out of it. Creating a fully-fledged online store for your e-commerce business has become easy. Several platforms can help you build your online store such as Shopify and Etsy, both of them are the two of the most trusted & used platforms that can help you develop and scale your online store. Both of these platforms offer excellent features to help you get your site off the ground, but choosing between them can be quite confusing. This article dives into the discussion of Shopify vs Etsy and will help you choose the one meant for you.

Shopify vs Etsy!

Here are some of the insights to help you distinguish & choose which one’s best for you.

Let’s talk numbers

Etsy hosts approximately 1.7 million merchants, who are selling to over 96 million buyers. Shopify, on the other hand, hosts an even more impressive figure of 1.8 million merchants who cater to over 500 million buyers. When it comes to numbers, Shopify is way ahead of Etsy.

What can you sell?

Etsy lets you sell goods that are either handmade products, vintage items, or craft supplies. On the other hand, Shopify allows you to sell almost anything as long as it’s legal in the country you are selling it.

Ease of Use

Shopify will help you build and organize your independent store. In contrast, Etsy has a platform that aggregates sellers onto its site, making Etsy a marketplace unlike Shopify, which makes your business your marketplace.

With Shopify, you get an in-built App Store, through which you can download numerous apps, which can be integrated with your online store to help you optimize your operations, be it inventory management, SEO tactics, product reviews, or more. Etsy allows you to only use its built-in marketing tools or integrate third-party apps that specialize in Etsy-specific marketing tactics. 

It’s easy to set up an online store on Etsy considering that you just have to list your products, in contrast to Shopify, where you have to build an entire website and familiarize yourself with building templates, domain mapping & more. 

Cost-Effectiveness

When discussing Shopify vs Etsy, Shopify trumps the latter in terms of cost-effectiveness because Shopify doesn’t charge transaction fees, payment processing charges & commission charges. Etsy on the contrary charges fees that are quite high.

Branding & User Experience

With Etsy, there are limits to how you can present yourself. You’ll only be able to add a logo and a banner to your storefront. Shopify, on the other hand, gives you a huge amount of control over your brand and user experience with its arsenal of 1,400 Shopify themes and templates (Free & Paid) which you can alter to deliver a customer-centric experience. 

Dropshipping

When it comes to Dropshipping, Shopify helps you connect your online store to a large number of Dropshipping apps and source goods from them to fulfill the orders. Considering the restrictions on Etsy, Dropshipping isn’t an easy option.

Conclusion

When it comes to E-Commerce website design and development, both platforms are unique and come with numerous perks and benefits associated with their respective hosting. However, we find Shopify to be a better choice than Etsy. But we’d also recommend you try your hand at both before making the final choice.

Still, confused about what’s right for you? Choose a professional Website Design & Development Company in India.

Reference: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/compare/shopify-vs-etsy