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Etsy Fees Are Killing Small Businesses

Looking for a way to sell your products on a virtual storefront without having Etsy fees kill your small business? If you’re a small business owner outside of the military community then you need to start your own website on Wix, Shopify, or Square. If you’re lucky enough to be in the military community, then you need to use Spouse-ly for your virtual storefront!

Etsy Fees

Etsy just isn’t the business that it used to be. It used to be home to a number of incredible vendors, and was easily the best platform to support local makers. Unfortunately, Etsy has turned into a money hog that only gives customers to those who pay for advertisement boosts. Unfortunately, Etsy fees have been on the rise for quite some time now. Here is a look at the fees associated with sellers on Etsy as of March 2021:

  • It costs sellers $0.20 to list an item and to renew it. Renewals are required every 4 months.
  • There is a 5% transaction fee for sellers that includes whatever you charge for shipping and gift wrapping.
  • Etsy charges extra for on-site and off-site advertisements. You set your budget for on-site advertisements. Off-site advertisements are billed whenever they result in a sale, and you are charged 12-15%.
  • Etsy Plus costs users $10 monthly.
  • Payment processing fees are charged to sellers based off of the location of their bank account.
  • Sellers that choose to have a personalized domain are required to pay $15 monthly.

How can you possibly afford to sell on Etsy anymore? You’re barely able to break even with the rising fees. Without purchasing the extra advertisements your shop falls into a black hole. You’re undoubtedly required to spend that money to have your shop seen in searches. How unfair is that? That isn’t equal representation at all.

Not only has Etsy continued to increase their fees, but they no longer filter who can sell on their site. You’re competing with sites all over the world, including large named companies. No site that claims to be the ultimate marketplace for small businesses should allow for large scale corporations to join. How can you make a living when you’re up against a company 100x your size who is able to mass produce products and afford an unlimited amount of advertising?

Benefits of Spouse-ly

When you host your virtual storefront on Spouse-ly you are seeing exactly where your money is going. Your money is being poured back into expanding the site. A huge benefit to being a vendor on Spouse-ly is the customer service. They offer 24-hour customer service for both vendors and customers. You don’t have to worry with designing a website, credit card processing errors, site maintenance, or anything of the like. Spouse-ly makes it easy for you to upload your product pictures and host your own storefront on their platform.

Spouse-ly offers everything Etsy sellers wish they could have. All vendors are represented equally. You’re not required to pay more for your business to be featured to customers like Etsy requires. The CEO makes sure to regularly post vendors and service providers on the Spouse-ly Instagram page as well as giving everyone equal representation on the website.

Etsy can absolutely afford to charge smaller fees, but they’ve gotten money hungry. As you can see below, Spouse-ly only charges a 3% transaction fee as of March 2021. Why does Etsy charge 5%? You’re essentially only paying $32 a year to have a virtual storefront for Elite product vendors where you can list up to 60 products. You’re not paying a fee to list your item and then required to pay another fee to renew the item even if it doesn’t sell.

Selling on Spouse-ly means you’re keeping it in the military community. You’re supporting a military spouse’s dream to create a platform where all military entrepreneurs have equal representation for their craft. This is not a paid review. Homegrown Happiness is a proud partner of Spouse-ly, but we stand by our agreement to our readers to offer our unbiased review.

This article was originally published on Homegrown Happiness.

About the Author:

Camille
A North Carolina born and raised military spouse and boy mom who lives in Savannah, Georgia. Camille is a regular volunteer for the 1st Ranger Battalion. She is passionate about providing resources for military spouses and veterans to launch, scale, and maintain their dream businesses. 

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