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Why I ditched Etsy for Depop

And other art selling platforms

By Brittany Scharff-AlexanderPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Why I ditched Etsy for Depop
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

Since the site gained popularity in 2015, I’ve probably been told a thousand times to post my crafts on Etsy. It offers high traffic, easy shop setup, and a sense of security as a reputable platform. Nowadays, when you need something handmade you probably think of it first. So finally in 2016, I glued and snipped my nights away until I felt ready to show the world what I could do. I made jewelry, paintings, and all sorts of projects I thought no one could resist. I followed all the rules, watched hours of Etsy Youtube videos, took magazine quality photos, you name it.

Fast forward 5 years and I’ve made one sale. I did pause the account a couple of times, but stayed mostly active and positive it would work eventually. Many months and tons of changes later, I still got nothing. Titling, tagging, and measuring for hours got me 1 sale and a 4 star review because I forgot I had the shop active, and did not see the sale. Then, I got a letter about paying a fee on ad clicks you cannot opt out of. I gave up and stopped paying 10 cents per item to list. Etsy was making me pay THEM at this point. I was defeated, and stuck to local craft fairs for the next year.

When 2020 came along, I was still working but wanted more incase things got worse, so I opened up a depop for my throwback skinny girl clothes. I heard about the clothing app from some coworkers that flipped streetwear brands there and it seemed to be cool with younger adults. I threw up some old hats, bags, and even a box of hair dye and couldn’t believe how quickly things were selling. So, I put up a pair of handmade earrings and to my surprise, poof!

This sparked a week long hyperfixation on learning about the app. It’s a 10% fee with no listing costs before factoring in PayPal. They’re aesthetic friendly - encouraging shops to take creative pics and use cute backgrounds. They’re also LGBT supporters, and promote shops interested in becoming verified. Their algorithms play too much, but if you’re always posting good hashtags and new items with clear photos, you can do well. I started posting paintings, clay jewelry, upcycled bags, and old 90’s toys and found there was a huge demand for creative stuff on the Gen-Z based app. Take a look under their “art” category and you’ll find hundreds of successful sellers! With that said, your demographic is 18-24 before you put up an expensive fruit basket oil painting. They buy jewelry, little frog paintings, crocheted sweaters, and painted jackets to name a few.

Recently, Etsy bought Depop. A lot of people were concerned they would add insane fees and make unusual policies, but I personally reached out to ask, and they told me they are very adamant about maintaining their brand and Etsy is just investing. They have one of the lowest fee setups of any reselling app, and I have sold 53 items since last August. I recently quit my job to Depop full time, and am seeing a huge increase in sales since I began giving it more time.

So what about the other apps? If you do make those fancy oil paintings or gold plated ceramic mugs, remember Ebay? Yep. People will auction for this stuff and you could get twice what you wanted for it. Mercari is another one, alongside Poshmark. While all these apps are for clothes and clutter, they all have a home decor, jewelry, or handmade section. Don’t overlook these, my earrings and plant pots do well here.

Now back to creative sites; Big Cartel has website packages for all budgets, and includes the ability to add pay pal and neat themes. Many Etsy sellers come here to stop paying fees and have a unique site. The traffic is self made here, but it works great for lots of creatives with little time and cash for a professional site.

Next up, Saatchi art. I found this secret through a facebook group thread. They mostly deal very fine art and you have to get your high quality photos accepted. It’s a serious artists stereotypical selling platform. Items for thousands of dollars, even millions, but not to be looked over. As a crafter of literally everything, I plan on putting some bigger pieces here some day that I would never put on Depop. Which brings me to my final topic; cross-posting!

The average billionaire has 7 streams of income. Even Amazon’s owner has other projects. This is not to say your shop won’t take off into eternal success because that’s super possible! Just try them all. I have Depop, Poshmark, and Mercari, but I have tried a dozen apps. There are also apps like “vendoo” and “list perfectly” that uploads the info to all your apps for a fee. Something that refuses to sell on Depop might make someone’s day on Mercari.

All in all, I do love Etsy as a buyer, and I think it creates a great opportunity for a more refined, consistent artist. I have seen someone rake in $40,000 their first year there and it will always be a reigning craft site, but I wanted to share my experience with anyone who is concerned about their shops future or just wants to add more pathways to financial freedom!

Follow my journey on Depop! Depop.com/artrevenge

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