I just laid that idea to rest for good. Thank you! And I love what you said about the best thing to do is work on my own website twice as much as I do on any other platform.
Right there are the only words I needed to hear tonight! Interesting article. I have applied to sell on Amazon Handmade, not as a substitute for Etsy, but as a supplement to it. A VERY successful Etsy seller recently recommended it as a trial, during the fee waiver period to see if that platform is a good fit. I look at Amazon as a parallel of brick and mortar retail options. I have used Etsy, and sold retail since Amazon owns their customers.
Retail outlets own their customers. Most retail locations that sell on consignment have terms and conditions similar to those of Amazon. The retail outlets where I sell do all of the advertising and bring customers to me just by virtue of their reputation of having unique items that are unavailable elsewhere. Amazon has a huge customer base already in existence.
As a customer of Amazon, I see identical items sold at wildly different prices, which only stands to reason, would not sit well with the parent retailer. I cannot see that being an issue with uniquely handmade articles.
I like Etsy. Just as Etsy has evolved over time and not always in a good way , I think Amazon will evolve, based on making their concept work for every entity concerned. Until the end of , the risk to try it is minimal. I already signed up and after reading this article and the comments, I was worried I made the wrong choice. Hi Mary, and many thanks for your comments. I hope Amazon works out well for you. However, my work with clients centers upon making decisions that are rooted in the long-term best interest of these small creative brands and I spend a great deal of time working to reposition them from commodities to real brands.
What they gain in the short term in terms of sales pales in comparison to what they lose in terms on long-term opportunities. I agree that the cost of Etsy fees described here are not entirely accurate. I have sold on Etsy for 10 years and have had a successful shop there.
I also have started a shop on Amazon handmade. Listing fees, transaction fees, and fees charged for credit card processing etc, then your shipping is added to your bill. I pay enough in Etsy fees to rent a small retail office space.
I am feeling ripped off. Amazon fees are very expensive for sure, but at least all the fees are deducted out of each sale so you never have a big bill to pay at the first of each month, you pay as you go. I like that. The Amazon platform is slow and awful to work with.
It is not user friendly, is hard to use and so time consuming to list items. You have to use a regular desktop to do it, so the seller mobile app is a joke!
I hope over time it will improve. I am still trying to work with it though. I found this blog while I was searching for answers. Do I give percent of my listings over to Amazon? The Etsy platform is the best user friendly site though, however it is getting so expensive now and they are constantly making stupid changes!
Every time Etsy makes a change, views and sales drop. I have no control over it. Instead of creating, I spend all my time on SEO. Now most of the traffic in my Etsy shop comes from my own efforts promoting on social media, repeat business etc. I am wondering why I pay Etsy such huge fees when I do all the work to get my own traffic! I can do this promotion on my own site and pay no fees. Advice for new shop owners? My shop is my full time job. Great advice from Lela however.
MaryAnn Montour makes a solid case about the Etsy bias presented on this page. Amazon encourages well-valued pricing but not at the cost of losing unique lines of merchandise. Amazon supports fair margins on valuable unique merchandise as opposed to high margin on competitive items. Amazon is a mass marketer, so never expect to see similar items carried with large differences in buyer pricing. No big retailer can allow that.
On the other hand, for unique products that have good market demand, Amazon is all too happy to support higher profit margin, simply as that means more profit in their bank. Smart producers know their sales channels v.
One sales channel does not fit all products normally. Many thanks for taking the time to comment. I have been on Etsy for many years and struggle to get seen. I started HAndmade on Amazon about a year ago and my sales has surpassed Etsy by a landslide.
My feeling on the fee structure is that it will weed out the hobbies that are all over Etsy. Amazon still has lots of work to do but overall I have been very happy at Amazon and very disappointed with Etsy. I have had the same experience with Etsy! I am moving forward with Amazon Handmade and hopefully will have similar success!!!
I found your website and you make some beautiful things! The black and white mugs in the video on the homepage are especially cool. I respect that each of us needs to find what works best and aligns with our goals. For so many reasons that go beyond the simple math of the financials, I continue to advise my clients against Amazon Handmade. Best wishes to you!
Etsy nightmare. I had my credit card number stolen by another etsy seller, but no way of finding out just who that would be. I quickly stopped payment through my credit card holder. So no they are treating me as the crook, strong arming me to pay them the money. When I try to contact them to explain what has happened.
They just tell me to pay up or they will keep my shut down. This is double trouble when I had nothing to do with this. I will probably close my shop based on my own principles of not being forced to fess up to something I had nothing to do with.
But I will hurt some. In other words — you give them the license to rip off your handmade item, have it manufactured in some third-world country and then sell it at a price that undercuts you. Any artist that signs that agreement is a fool. When I read that, I ran quickly in the other direction. Nancy, Etsy has a similar statement. Most marketplaces do. It means that they can use your images and copy for advertising. They have clarified all this in the Handmade forums.
I too read this and jammed on the brakes! Way too controlling. I really hope others are reading the terms and conditions!! I just signed up for Amazon Handmade hoping for another avenue to sell products.
Wow…after reading all of this, I have no idea what to do! I feel like the decisions I make can and will effect everyone involved.
Thank you Lela for this information, and all of the commenters too. The last one that Nancy Sutton wrote is the nail in the coffin for me. That is horrific. Thank you all very much. I was invited to sell on Amazon Handmade and thought it was a great opportunity. Aside from the ineffective system, the Amazon customer is a different breed. How could anyone go with Amazon if they had to sign what Nancy Sutton shared above?!?!
I was thinking about Amazon Handmade. Not anymore. I believe that statement about granting rights was for the online content you upload to your Amazon seller account.
Essentially you are granting them the rights to use your product image in other marketing materials outside of AHM. If you have ever seen Amazon ads on sites like Facebook that contain pictures of items you were recently looking at on Amazon, those ads are what you are granting the rights for them to incorporate your product photographs into among other things. With respect to this overall article and specifically the author I say well done.
I consider this to be the best e-commerce advice ever given. I Started with Amazon back in because…. I thought it was a good idea to get my products on a platform as big as that. I was mistaken. My products are relatively big so shipping would usually be in the teens.
No room for profit. I removed all my products and decied to sell only small items. Thank you for the very good article. I was considering selling on Amazon Handmade….. This is an old post I hope to renew. What it boils down to is … the handmade items. Are they really made in the US or just a listing from China. I have the same concern which is why I make big noise on my Etsy shop about where I am located, how my items are made and where. Each item listed is detailed out in the description….
Motivated by my own shopping experience…sadly few people look at this. Great post, I wish I read it prior to opening my Handmade shop. I had a harrowing experience. This discretionary disclosure is in the seller agreement they make you sign.
Even when I did make money, it was eaten up by fees and advertising campaigns. I have hired a lawyer to try and recoup my loss, but definitely not worth the time.
Wonderful post which I found with a Google search after applying and being accepted by Handmade by Amazon. I was reading through the agreement and right off the bat this is why I ran, as an artist I will NOT relinquish my rights to this extent!!! I supplied all the necessary information, bank accounts, credit cards, photos, etc. I followed and Tips for New Seller Success, and started listing products, but everything showed up as Currently Unavailable. I tried everything I could think of and also looked on the forum for answers.
Nothing worked, so I decided to contact Seller Support. After chat and phone call with Seller Support I received the message below, even though I had supplied everything they were now asking for again! Upon checking your account, I was able to find that there are some documents missing regarding the Identity Verification.
This is the reason why your listings are not displaying on the website. Submit a scanned color copy of both sides of your government issued national ID and merge the images into one file. Can you ship every business day? If so, then you can apply for Seller-Fulfilled Prime. Since most Amazon shoppers expect free shipping, I highly recommend adding all your shipping charges to the item price and offering free standard shipping at the very least. This allows you to compete directly with other Prime sellers, which is the whole reason to be on Amazon, right?
This is super easy to use, and they offer all kinds of shipping services UPS, Fedex, USPS, DHL, and more , so you can take advantage of these services without having to sign up for accounts with each carrier.
If someone does want to purchase something custom made or otherwise not in stock, you have the ability to create a private listing and share the Amazon URL with only them. Just check the radio button to turn your listing private on the Additional Info tab of your product page, then view it on Amazon to get the URL. Unlike other sales channels, Amazon requires that sellers keep a high approval rating in order to continue selling there.
I did ship a package a day late once, and I was penalized by having my expedited shipping rates removed for a few weeks. This is helpful, because I sometimes to forget to respond to a customer message, and this dashboard reminds me if someone is waiting for a response.
Overall, I love selling on Amazon Handmade. Getting my products in front of so many customers is incredibly helpful in this competitive marketplace, and Amazon helps me reach a much wider audience than any other e-commerce site. I already have my handmade products in an azmazon store. Is there a way I can have all of those products moved to the handmade store? ThAnks, I am thinking of going online to sale my crocheted items.
But have no clue how to start it. I tried for two days including contacting Amazon HQ in Seattle. I sell on ETSY. How much time are you given to get the product to the customer? Does it just have to be shipped out within 24 hours as you cannot guarantee delivery anymore with Covid? Very useful post thank you very much for that great content. Etsy charges. Etsy charges a 3. Should you be selling on Amazon, or Etsy?
Many sellers list on both, as a sure way to calculate which site is performing best. The impact of fees lessens and profit margins improve when the numbers of sales increases. This is step 1 of the program. The professional selling account requires a complete registration. At tax time, your business can deduct the cost of the subscription fee for the professional selling registration.
Amazon will provide tips to get you started with a professional selling plan for your shop. As part of the sign up process through seller central, you will create an artisan profile with a picture. This will help promote your business within the artisan community, and will help customers identify you on a future search. You can feature your home state or area of the country.
This is an advantage, since your handmade store will display the Prime banner, with will help with customer confidence. You can also use Amazon FBA. To do this, you must be sure that you can keep the warehouse stocked in a timely manner. You must choose the category where your product will appear.
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