8 Reasons Why Etsy Shops Need Their Own Website
If you’re dreaming of taking your brand to the next level, you should definitely consider launching your own external e-commerce website in addition to your Etsy shop!
Of course there are pros to maintaining your Etsy shop— the platform is established and a customer base already exists, but at the end of the day, growing and developing your brand is essential to your long-term success.
To keep up with technology’s rapid growth, you must have a well branded online presence. For starters, social media is a huge influence behind sales and a website’s main source of traffic. You want to make sure that you are growing your own brand; with that said, you should only be associated with yourself. Below are 8 reasons why you need your own online presence!
01. BRANDING
Branding is a huge part of your business! It provides your visitors with certainty while you earn their trust. Imagine if your brand was incomplete? Your prospect would sense a lack of establishment. Keep in mind, your brand identity is not just your company, but also an extension of you. People buy from people, so you want a website that will curate an emotional connection. This includes having the flexibility over the look and feel of your site and creating the users journey.
How many times have you purchased a product from Etsy and when someone asked you where it’s from you told them Etsy rather than the shop’s name? This is why brand recognition and an emotional connection is so important!
02. CONTROL
Hosting your shop on Etsy means that you have to adhere to their guidelines and regulations. This also taps into having control over your visitor’s user experience. Your brand should be yours and fully controlled by you.
03. OWNERSHIP
You own your business, so why share it? Now imagine if Etsy closes down or they shut down your shop unexpectedly-- you lose your source of income, which leads to my next point.
04. MARKETINGMarketing is the core of sales— when you’re running an established brand, majority of your marketing efforts stem from email marketing, targeting abandoned shopping carts, and building relationships with your clients by sending them valuable information. Since you can’t collect email addresses within your Etsy shop, you are easily losing out on sales.
05. SEO & BLOGGING
While maintaining your brand story, having your own website is an effective tool to help market yourself and boost SEO so your product or service can be easily found online. The more your visitors recognize your brand or come across you through your social media efforts, they should be able to easily find and recognize you on a search engine.
06. PUBLIC RELATIONS
When pitching to editors and landing editorial coverage you want you be able to send everyone to your website. Simply put, you want to be taken seriously in the market, and an editor won’t want to direct their following to an Etsy page.
07. COMPETITION
You need your own website because you have 0 competition! If you are hosting on a global marketplace you position yourself with the competition of other users selling and promoting a similar product or service.
08. FEES
If you run your business successfully through Etsy, chances are that you’re most likely paying high listing, seller and processing fees. This can really add up and take a chunk from your sales!