Why I regret selling 3D prints on Etsy

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Deciding between Etsy and Shopify for 3D printing businesses can be tricky. I've been successful on both platforms and share with you my thoughts on them. Etsy has a big audience and polished back end but Shopify offers freedom and customization.
Which to choose...and why?

[@vrjonas]

Idea I was playing with for starting out. Start on etsy to get my first customers. With the shipped product, I'll put a business card of sorts (printed qr code for example ) towards my own site.

[@enb3810]

I hope most customers are smart enough to understand you're making more money and they may be saving money by going to your website.

[@vrjonas]

@@enb3810 Something I learned from coding. Program for the stupidest person you know. So even here, guide them to your site if they've bought from etsy.

[@davetriesthis]

And a discount for the first sale on your site. Eat the costs that Etsy would have charged you in that first conversion and consider it marketing.

[@vrjonas]

@@davetriesthisYes! was thinking the same. Subtracting the fees as a discount.

[@chalapathipenmetsa5820]

/copy idea

[@Dragon_G4m3r]

My issue with etsy was that a copycat issued a takedown of my shop by saying I copied them, when my listings had been there for nearly 4 months before the copycat even joined etsy

[@smileydog5941]

That’s just a dick move

[@glennstar2121]

I created and sell my own products on my website. I love that you are a mechanical engineer like myself. I choose to invest in a patent and it is a lot of work to keep up and is expensive but it does help with the copycats. Keep it up.

[@Rmharnisch]

Glad I stumbled across your brand new channel. Great work Travis. I've followed you on Shop Nation since 2020 and watched you grow. Love your content and you've inspired me to build out my workshop and start my Etsy business. I appreciate your effort. I'm definitely following.

[@PrintFarmAcademy]

Awesome!!!

[@rgitzelify]

I was wondering why copycats are less of a problem outside of Etsy.... is it because with Etsy there are a number of tools to help you find high-selling items? Presumably your Shopify sale data is available only to you.

[@PrintFarmAcademy]

Correct. It’s just easier to gather data on a massive platform like Etsy

[@yolo6741]

Again a great video, short, clear structure and explaination, summary at the end. Plus on top a sense of humor: "...avoid Etsy like the plague.." . Love your style.

[@Raytenecks]

Maybe I glazed over it, but I didn't hear anything about the $29/mo for Shopify, which completely changes the numbers for someone just getting started, IMO. I think for unique, self-designed things like you have, Shopify is indeed very tempting... So long as you know you can at least cover that $29 in fees each month. If you can, you'll probably grow from there and it'll be fine. If you can't, you don't know if you have a market and you're locked into a 1 year commitment on something that might not make you money.

[@d-rail7271]

I mean this in the most constructive and least dick way possible, but if you can't cover $29/mo for your website it's not much of a business

[@Raytenecks]

@@d-rail7271 Everyone has to get started somewhere, and I think the majority of people that need this kind of advice haven't got an idea that's going to make them decent money right off the bat. Other expenses were covered that also seem small, so it's weird to leave this one out.

[@razorseal]

We started on Etsy. It's easy, I don't have to deal with any tax stuff, and the fee isn't out of the world. I don't need the SEO, and I already have a full time job. yes, there are copy cats and people have copied and I have copied people. it's the biggest issue, but you're in a mall with same shops. people will go to the highest reviews and best costs. Works for someone doing this when they come home from work at night.

[@FilipLuch]

yeah and they randomly blocked my product for 3 months until they agreed it was a mistake..

[@Yahs232]

Massive idea here, have you ever thought about some kind of franchise system where individuals with a printer at home can print your products for you and send it off to people who have ordered on your website. This would be great for expanding to other countries/regions which currently don’t have access to your products, eg the UK

[@snowpaw360]

So make his own version of Etsy basically? Quality control would be an issue.

[@OmnipresntGaming]

Yeah just send them your autocad designs to print, what could possibly go wrong

[@Yahs232]

@@OmnipresntGaming oh yeah…. didn’t think about that

[@adamarzo559]

@@OmnipresntGaming You would obviously sign a contract, and if they stole your design while under contract they'd regret it.

[@d-rail7271]

Basically Shapeways, no?

[@d-rail7271]

The same applies to selling any products on eBay, Amazon, etc. Good place to get started but have a plan for how you're going to transition to also having a real business that's independent of them.

[@shuruna]

Etsy also can ban you everytime for no reason at all. They can destroy your business in a minute.

[@brianjonas9598]

Its the last part. The know how to drive the traffic to your own website. Any pointers on that would be greatly appreciated. I am eating fees on eBay and Etsy like crazy because my website does not get the traffic!!!

[@ZachAshcraft]

Social media marketing, start a KZbin channel, etc.

[@barnbuiltbeaters]

A way I found around the file limit on Etsy is to compress it all into a zip folder. From there you can just about fit as much as you need! I do agree with what is said. I have been selling on Etsy for about a year now. The fees are a bit ridiculous especially when hit with the marketing fee... I had one order where I only made $0.61 because of the fees on something with a 40% mark up....crazy. That being said, I have also had a decently successful shop in my first year and that wouldn't have been as easily accessible without Etsy Do you have any advice on Amazon Handmade?

[@RickJohnson]

Copycats - It seems that many sellers are grabbing designs from Thingiverse, Printables, Thangs, etc., ignoring the non-commercial license terms (or using before the owner changes the terms), and making a little money off of said print.

[@frool76]

Are you sure about 0:59? At least in my country you have a sales contract with the seller, not Etsy. It's the same as on Amazon Marketplace. You still have to care about the legality of your shop, product safety, warranties, returns and so on. Etsy only helps in closing the contract, payment and communication.

[@d-rail7271]

A big grey area IMHO. The big platforms play it either way when it best suits them.

[@ghoouulish6491]

‘’ Just take a deep breath and know your wrong “ love it lmao 😂😂😂😂😂

[@rookmorrigan8379]

This is certainly my biggest problem right now. I currently sell on Etsy and do okay. But I want to expand and Etsy's back end is actually starting to eat into my profits with their constant relisting fees. I tried to setup a shopify site, but I need to learn more about how to pull customers to that site.

[@scottwade3904]

not sure why your counting the listing fee twice

[@francisbeland8959]

Because when you list the item, it costs you 0,20$ but as soon as you sell your product, Etsy charges another 0,20$ to relist your sold item. For example, let's say I put an item and I have 20 in stock (doesn't really matter since I 3d print them but that's how it works). I pay 0,20$ to list it on Etsy. When I sell my first item, now the stock decreased to 19 BUT I get another 0,20$ fee to relist the item. When all the 20 have been sold, you don't have the 0,20$ fee but your listing is off Etsy until you renew it.

[@scottwade3904]

@@francisbeland8959 I still don't understand why you would count the listing fee twice on a single unit.

[@DanTup]

​@@francisbeland8959 Still seems like it's being counted twice. The first listing fee was for the first product. The second listing fee is for the second product. If you sell 20 products you've paid 20 listing fees, not 40 listing fees.

[@Klickor]

@@francisbeland8959 but those other 19 products don't pay that first listing fee since the first and previous products already paid for it and if you are out of stock product nr 20 I assume won't get a relist fee since you don't have anything to relist. So for 20 products you still only pay 4$ in listing fees and not 8$. First 0.4, the last 0.0 and the rest 0.2.

[@SirFrankoman]

While I generally agree with everything you've said, I think it's worth mentioning that etsy has a lower cost of entry and a built in userbase unlike a self-hosted website. Their model is great for users who are truly just starting out and cannot leverage existing social media or other means of marketing to quickly drive traffic to their website. Yes, you lose ~25% of your sale (depending on if you sign up for Etsy Marketing), and pay $0.20 to list the item, but that's it. 25% is quite reasonable considering most consignment shops will range from 40-60%. The cost of the domain, hosting, e-commerce platform, and initial marketing campaigns all represent an up-front cost not present on etsy which I think is relevant for your target audience of this channel. Keep up the great work, I'm definitely enjoying the content between both channels!

[@BogdanBershadsky]

I want to switch from Etsy to Shopify but I stuck because everyone from my friends told me that taxes are sucks with Shopify. Could you help me to understand what to do with taxes on Shopify? How to pay it properly for Shopify per each state and how much usually it cost with apps or accountant?

[@reidstephenson3898]

Etsy now reduces their fee from 6.5% to 2.5% if you are responsible for sending the customer to your Etsy store. So depending on your monthly Shopify fees of $29-299 a month, you need to sell between $1,500-$12,000 a month to start saving money.... and you lose money if you sell less than that.

[@IvanJoel]

I started selling in Etsy a few months ago. I made a super nitch item and marketed well outside of Etsy to this new market. But now I see two copy cats, down to the types of pictures and videos they put. Its so discuraging. Etsy doesnt support creative sellers bringing value to their platform.

[@fredbuchanan2560]

Travis - This is definitely the way to go. My biggest fear is patenting, or lack thereof. I have two ideas I've spent a lot of time researching, but my concern is someone stealing them, patenting them, and flipping me the bird legally, because I didn't patent the idea.

[@jacevincent2574]

depending on your idea, people will probably rip you off and give you the bird regardless of whether it's patented. Good luck paying for litigation to enforce the patent, and good luck that the person ripping you off has anything valuable to win in a lawsuit. If your idea has commercial promise for large corporations, patent it and make them pay to use it.

[@TheSnekkerShow]

You can't patent an idea that's been released to the public, so if you put something online, nobody could ever patent your idea, not even you. If they modify it substantially from the original, then they could.

[@enb3810]

Really appreciate the video, I would say that mentioning shopify LESS (maybe once at the end) would make this seem less like an ad. Otherwise I appreciate the seemingly very realistic view of the pros and cons.

[@PrintFarmAcademy]

Not an ad, just what I use!

[@enb3810]

@@PrintFarmAcademy of course, I understand! Thank you

[@Hunt904]

Loving this new content. Keep up the good work

[@magicbeanman772]

etsy banned me and wont even tell me why, still have not given me my last 17$ and its been months.

[@noobofnoobs_]

do you have a price range for how much your course will cost? I'm assuming its a big number because your website says there is a 4 month payment option.

[@natesgt]

Great video! What resources have you used to learn Shopify?

[@alexanderblicher9092]

hej, thanks for the amazing videos, can you please make a video about, what printer to choose

[@deviouscat0]

How come you don't promote this channel on your shop nation channel? Also if you show that you are shop nation people will see how trustworthy you are.

[@PrintFarmAcademy]

I do plan on cross sharing, just went ahead and got it launched first

[@deviouscat0]

@@PrintFarmAcademy If I were you I'd probably also set up the channels section on shop nation and put this channel there

[@BeefIngot]

I imagine maybe he wants the channel to feel a bit more filled out before sharing for higher retention or something like that.

[@protennis365]

How about print a couple dozen firearm and take it to the gun buyback program, profit.

[@DanielSchweinert]

Great ideas, now what the heck should I design and sell, that also makes fun to create? 😄

[@akaegotist]

Something that you made that was useful for you or a family or friend is a great genuine place to start!

[@howi5065]

Hi Travis. Great work on both Shop Nation and this channel. I`ve been following your journey for a long time and you have inspired me to dip my toes into the 3d printing world and maybe start a side hustle selling 3d printed parts. But I live in Norway and I am curious to what would be the best way for me to start an online store. Etsy or Shopify? And is there even a point to try selling all the way from Norway because of shipping prices!

[@OmnipresntGaming]

Did you watch the video?

[@LayerByLayer3dPrints]

how did you manage to attract so many subscribers and watches in just 4-5 days of posting videos?

[@yovarniyearwood]

He has another channel.

[@Londonbred]

This may not be the case but if you owed a site like Etsy it wouldn’t be a stretch to check my analytics and sell the products that are doing well on my site and divert the traffic from the sellers to my new products but I’m sure it’s just random copycats and not the store. Probably.

[@cheese_da_dragon6082]

ive had copy cats copy my stuff already, they usually make it worse

[@kylebyers9824]

I recently found some people on Etsy selling my designs on their Etsy page without my permission, I put my designs up on Thangs, Printables, etc. for free and under a non-commercial license because that's what I love about the 3D printing community (people sharing their creativity with each other for personal use not personal profit) but now after seeing people selling my intellectual property online without my permission it has completely and unfortunately changed the way I look at uploading my designs to the 3D printing community.... Its sad how a couple of bad eggs can ruin it for everyone else. Has anyone else in this comment section had the same thing happen to their designs?

[@TheSnekkerShow]

I've started being more restrictive with the licenses for the same reason. Even on KZbin, I've had people copy my work and get millions more views than me. If you invent a physical product and don't publish the digital version, the maker "community" will steal it. If you do publish the digital version, the maker "community" will steal it. I want people to benefit from my ideas, but I don't like it when my own ideas are used to compete against me. At least patent prices have gone way down for smaller entities.

[@adamarzo559]

@@TheSnekkerShow There's a guy here on KZbin. BoBo Inventions or something. He made a 3D printable airsoft conversion kit for your gbb's. It would turn them into shell ejecting rubber bandish~ style and they had lasers in them. Basically shell ejecting laser guns. He patented his idea, tried to get into the market and China ran him out. I seriously would rather deal with smalltime copy cats than deal with something like that. Also my solution is that I just don't publish anything, why bother? Forcing people into learning CAD and designing their own things, and then honing in on those skills provides more than spoon feeding people.

[@whatschoen]

Do you still need to fear copycats when you designed the parts yourself? Because that would mean they would need to reverse engineer it, so I assume this adds some resistance to the copycats? Also does shopify solve this issue? People on Etsy could still see your design on shopify and copy it anyway?

[@PrintFarmAcademy]

I also sell digital files for folks to print themselves…so they steal that way. And yes they could still find the Shopify sites and steal

[@ClintonCarawayPwncnc]

Travis, I love your main channel and this is more just interesting to me. However I think your opening yourself up for a million EXPERTS who are going to do no learning because they are to interested in showing everyone how much they KNOW vs how much they could possibly learn.

[@PrintFarmAcademy]

Welcome to KZbin ;)

[@JTTheDrummer]

Don't sell on Etsy. 5:38 .. Sell on Etsy.. cmon

[@TheTranq]

I gotta get off Etsy, I hate the fees

[@got_logic1320]

You have to look at the fees as you're basically paying for them to do a good chunk of the backend work. As pointed out, Marketing, and making a lot of the processes automated and more convenient for you. You have no idea how much more work you'll have to do own your own if you just jump ship right away.

[@bleed4glory10]

@got_logic1320 has got it. You will be starting from zero in terms of generating traffic to your site. There is no better time to start than today, however just know that it's going to be a significant amount of work. You will need to identify where you are going to pull your audience from such as social media or ads. In either case, it's going to cost you time and money.

[@rcmadiax]

16.5% is nothing..... You should see what I paid last year on eBay doing $180,000+ in sales....

[@Jokershadow696]

You wrong with numbers. You forgetting vat which add additional 20% of all fees, at least in UK. And marketing is 15% unless you made 10k in 365 days. And processing fee in UK is 4% but you mentioned that us is 3.

[@CreatingCreations]

The worst part about Etsy is the anticompetitive bullies that go around trying to claim that trademarks give the same protection as patents!😂

[@candidskyproductions7925]

Do your own website PERIOD. You control it all. You put yourself on other sites and promote your website through these people. So yea you can do some bizz on etsy or whoever but you drive most of the bizz to your website and other promotion you do. Why pay some other morons? Bad business. To start a little is okay but don't depend on it get your site going.

[@dkev001]

Etsy is an absolute race to the bottom.

[@affliction91six]

Man, now you're gonna take your huge follower base and funnel them into being 3d printing businesses. Making more competition for all of us. Yay?

[@OmnipresntGaming]

I think you're gonna be ok bro

[@Rifat_Hossen_]

I can create better thumbnails for your videos and optimize the thumbnails for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and KZbin's algorithm by including relevant keywords and phrases, which will help you get higher CTR and reach more audiences. What do you think?

[@wolframherzog636]

I run my own online shop from the very begining since otherwise you are a slave of etsy algorithms plus some of their silly woke manager decisions.