Selling online is a great opportunity for crafters to profit from the items they make, without the need for any physical shop. With the specialist platforms available today, such as Etsy or Amazon Handmade, you can sell crafts online and reach millions of users across the world.

These e-commerce portals have their own strengths and weaknesses, so in this article we’ll delve into them both to let you know which of the two is the best option for selling your crafts.

What is Amazon Handmade?

Handmade is Amazon’s online platform designed for crafters to sell their handmade products online. Amazon’s aim is to allow crafters to focus on selling online without the need for any technical knowledge, and removing the entry costs of getting started on this market.

With Amazon Handmade, crafters can use Amazon resources to create their own online business, such as its logistics infrastructure or its platform with millions of registered users.

The advantages of Amazon Handmade

Selling handmade products on Amazon Handmade offers crafters a series of benefits, including:

• Access to the international market. The Handmade platform operates in various countries, allowing you to reach a much wider audience. Currently, it works in Spain, the UK, Germany, France and Italy. This means you can sell your crafts in all these countries, via the Amazon platform.
• No need to worry about logistics. With this service, everything concerning logistics and transport can be left to Amazon – including storing your crafts. When a sale is made, Amazon takes care of the entire process, from preparing the package to transporting it to your customer’s door, in exchange for a commission.
• Simple management. The Amazon back end allows crafters to manage their store on the platform quickly, easily and conveniently. They can upload new items, set prices and add detailed descriptions and images with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, without the need for any advanced prior knowledge.

What is Etsy?

Etsy is a platform designed to sell handmade products, craft materials and antiques online. On Etsy, crafters can create their own online store to sell handmade products to users on the platform. Divided into various categories, Etsy is presented as an online market where you can offer products to users seeking these types of items.

This is a web platform and app for the sale of crafts, which is hugely popular in countries like the US, the UK, Germany and Spain – allowing you to reach many customers in these regions.

The advantages of Etsy

In Etsy, crafts take centre stage, as users and sellers can interact in order to sell antiques, crafts products and, above all, homemade items.

The main advantages of Etsy are:

• Simple management. It’s very easy to create an online store on Etsy and upload items in order to make these available to users. The interface is simple and intuitive, so you can very quickly master all its options for creating and managing your online store.
• Mobile app. One of the key strengths of Etsy is found in its mobile app. Today, the majority of online stores sell on these types of devices and, with its app, Etsy works perfectly on smartphones and tablets. With Etsy, you can easily reach millions of potential customers using their mobile phones to shop online.
• Advertising and marketing. With Etsy, it’s easy to advertise your online store on social media: offering discounts, codes and promotions, and sending reminders to customers by email.

Amazon Handmade vs Etsy: which to choose

For crafters who want to start an online business without the need to make a huge financial investment, the choice of platform on which to focus their efforts should be a priority.

With Amazon Handmade and Etsy, you have access to the two best online portals for selling handmade products. The choice between the two should be made by taking into consideration their key differences, in various important aspects.

Cost of the store

In Amazon Handmade, you don’t need to pay to use the platform or upload items. The cost of selling on Handmade is found in the commission taken by Amazon for each sale. At the moment, this rate is set at 12% of the amount of the item sold, although from 2022 this will increase to 15%. This means that, if you sell a product for €10, Amazon will keep a commission of €1.20, with the crafter receiving €8.80.

With Etsy, you need to pay 0.20 cents for each item uploaded to the platform and, in addition, every time you make a sale, the platform will keep 5% of the total amount.

Registering on the service

In this regard, Etsy is much easier for crafters, as all you need to do is complete the simple registration process and you’ll be ready to start creating your online store and putting your homemade products up for sale.

Amazon requires a more complex registration process, and you’ll need to receive approval from the platform itself. The time taken to approve a request to register with Amazon Handmade often takes weeks or even months.

Payment process

Both platforms use secure payment gateways to guarantee a high level of security for users when they make payments online. On Etsy, the money is available to the crafter as soon as the sale is completed, while on Amazon, this will not be available until the item is shipped to the customer.

Product categorisation

On Amazon Handmade, product categories are strict and not as varied as those found on Etsy. Often, it can be difficult to find the right category for a specific craft. On the other hand, Etsy has a wider and more flexible system for product categorisation, with more than 160 different categories.

Potential customers

In this respect, Amazon Handmade is a veritable giant, offering crafters a greater number of customers than those found on Etsy.

With Etsy, you’ll have access to around 35 million potential customers, while on Amazon Handmade this number reaches 300 million.

Shipping

With Etsy, the crafter themselves takes care of preparing the order and shipping it to the buyer. With Amazon Handmade, you can use Amazon’s infrastructure to store, manage and ship orders, freeing crafters from the whole logistics process.

We’ve taken a look at the two online sales platforms for crafters: Amazon Handmade and Etsy. For those looking to get started selling their crafts and homemade products online, Etsy looks like the best option – as it’s very simple to get registered, launch your store and start selling immediately.

For more complex projects, Amazon Handmade offers a comprehensive service that even includes storage and the management of logistics and transport, allowing the crafter to focus on advertising and marketing their items.