Buyers looking for handmade, personalized and vintage pieces. Your setup is about making, photographing and wrapping each order well.
The kit our builder picks for a typical Etsy seller. Change the answers to fit yours.
Storage
Holds tubs or boxes floor to ceiling in a small footprint.
Label printer
A compact thermal printer for your first few hundred labels.
Each step in the order you'll need it.
You open a shop, add listings with photos, a price, shipping settings and a processing time, and buyers check out through Etsy Payments. Etsy is for handmade items, craft supplies and vintage, so check its rules on what each of those means before you list.
Pick a tight niche: hand-poured candles in one scent family, name necklaces, illustrated house portraits. A focused shop is easier to photograph, price and pack.
Add up the fees on a typical order before setting prices. On a $30 order with $5 shipping, the transaction fee and payment processing come to about $3.58, and the listing fee adds $0.20.
Offsite Ads can take 15% of an attributed order, so price with that in mind if you stay opted in. Share & Save refunds part of your fees when sales come through links you share yourself.
The first photo shows in search results as a small square, so the item needs to fill the frame against a clean background. Follow it with a scale shot in a hand or on a table, a close-up of the detail and a styled lifestyle photo.
Use the same backdrop and light for every product so the shop page looks like a collection. A light tent or a white board by a window covers most small handmade items.
Kit for this step
Many Etsy orders go straight to someone else, so wrap the item in tissue inside a rigid mailer box and add a printed card with care instructions. Leave out any price slip, as the package may be a present.
Fragile pieces such as ceramics and candles need a box with enough fill that they float in the middle. Test-drop one packed order from waist height before you list the range.
Kit for this step
Set a processing time you can keep in your busiest week. Etsy uses it with the shipping service to show buyers an estimated delivery date, and late orders hurt your shop's standing.
Buy labels inside Etsy so tracking uploads to the order on its own. USPS Ground Advantage covers most small handmade orders, and a slim box keeps flat prints and jewelry boxes light.
Kit for this step
Keep making and packing on separate surfaces if you can, so glue, wax or glitter stays away from finished stock. A shelf of mailers by size, a roll of tissue and a label printer above the packing bench keep each order to a few minutes.
Store finished stock in labeled boxes by product, and note the box in the listing's SKU field. Give personalized orders a clipboard or tray of their own so the details stay apart.
Each one costs you money or reviews, and each has a fix.
Complete kits for one kind of seller, costed and laid out.
Step-by-step help for the jobs that come next.
Etsy buyers come for things they can't find at the mall: handmade jewelry, prints, candles, personalized gifts and vintage home decor. Many orders are gifts, so the buyer judges the wrapping and the delivery date along with the item.
Etsy charges more fees than the clothing apps: a listing fee, a transaction fee and payment processing on every sale, plus Offsite Ads on some orders. Your setup needs a tidy making and packing bench, a repeatable product photo spot and shipping labels you buy straight from Etsy, mostly USPS.
Straight answers to what sellers ask about this.
A listing fee of $0.20 per item, which lasts four months. A 6.5% transaction fee on the item price, shipping and gift wrap. A payment processing fee of about 3% plus $0.25 for US shops. Check Etsy's fees and payments policy before you price, since rates change.
Etsy advertises your listings on other sites and charges a fee only when a sale comes from one of those ads. Shops under $10,000 in sales over any 365 days pay 15% and can opt out. Shops over that line pay 12% and must stay in. The fee is capped at $100 per order.
Etsy charges some new sellers a one-time setup fee when they open a shop, and the amount depends on the country. If it applies to you, it shows during shop setup.
Yes. US sellers can buy USPS, UPS and FedEx labels in Shop Manager at discounted rates, and tracking uploads to the order on its own. The label cost comes out of your Etsy payment account.
Each listing runs for four months or until it sells. Turn on auto-renew and Etsy relists it for another $0.20 fee, which also applies to each extra unit sold from a multi-quantity listing.
Both work on Etsy. Made-to-order needs an honest processing time in your listing, since buyers see an estimated delivery date before they pay. Ready-made stock ships faster and suits gifting dates such as the holidays and Mother's Day.
Etsy issues Form 1099-K to US sellers above the federal reporting limit, or a lower state limit where one applies. Etsy also collects and remits sales tax on orders in states with marketplace facilitator laws. Read the IRS guidance or ask a tax professional about your own case.
