If you make cool handmade items for friends and family and want to grow your market a bit, opening up an Etsy shop is an excellent way for the world to see (and buy) your work. Here’s how to set one up.
Keep in mind that you’re required to collect and remit sales tax in some states when selling either tangible or digital items. And to collect and pay sales tax, you need a sales permit. Some states even require you to register as a business regardless. This guide will only show you the steps to setting up an Etsy shop and listing your handmade items—for the business, tax, and legal side of things, be sure to talk with an accountant, lawyer, and your local small business administration.
Etsy Selling Fees
Just like on eBay, Swappa, and most other selling platforms, Etsy charges fees to sell your handmade stuff. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- You’ll be charged $0.20 for posting a listing. Listings expire after four months, but you can automatically renew for another $0.20.
- You’ll be charged $0.20 for additional quantities that sell. So if you post a listing for a keychain and have 10 of them to sell, you’ll be charged $0.20 up front for posting the listing, and then $0.20 each for the rest of the nine keychains—but only if they sell.
- Etsy takes a 5% cut from the total price of your item, including shipping fees. So if you’re selling keychains for $5 each and charging $3 for shipping, Etsy will take a 5% cut from the total $8.
- If you decide to use the Etsy Payments platform to accept payments for your shop (which I highly recommend), you’ll be charged a small percentage fee for that as well. This varies by country, but in the US it’s 3% of the total cost plus $0.25. You could use another payment platform if you wish, like PayPal, but you’ll still be subjected to payment processing fees no matter which platform you use.
So in total, you’ll be charged 8.5% of the total selling price of your item, plus $0.45. So if you sell a necklace for $50, expect to give $4.70 of that to Etsy as a selling fee.
Getting Started
With all that said, if you’re ready to open up your Etsy shop, it’s a pretty simple process. Here’s how to do it.
Start by heading to Etsy’s homepage and clicking the “Sell On Etsy” link in the top right corner.
On the next page, click the “Open your Etsy shop” button.
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