I've had a shop on Etsy since Jan. 2008, and opened my ArtFire Studio in November 2008. Even though they both offer a venue to sell handmade, fine art, vintage, and craft supplies, they are as different as night and day! Both have nice features, so if you are looking to sell in just one place, you need to be well acquainted with both so you can figure out what will work best for you. I think what works for one person, might not work as well for someone else. I think it's worth mentioning right up front that my sales on ArtFire were almost 3 to 1 over Etsy last year.
My first year on Etsy was much more successful than I had imagined it would be, so I kind of ignored my ArtFire shop for a long time. But as the months moved along, I realized that Etsy was more into branding Etsy and swallowing us all up under their brand, stripping our shops of individuality and unique personality. As it became more and more about Etsy, and less about the individuals who make up the community, my sales took a major nose dive, and never came back.
ArtFire, on the other hand, had been busy building the seller tools that weren't available elsewhere. Enough can't be said about this! In order to run a smooth online business, we must be able to make studio wide changes with a couple of clicks, which we can do with
Global Editing. This tool allows us to change prices, change tags, change shipping profiles, change category placement of listings.... the list goes on. These changes can be made with three or four clicks! It takes seconds! I can't even tell you how amazing this tool is, and how often I use it!
On ArtFire, you can
have a sale in your studio with Sales Mode, and adjust all of the prices by any percent you want, within a couple of minutes. On Etsy, we have to either manually change every listing (and then change them all back) or ask the shoppers to request a reserved listing, or (the worst of all) give a refund of the difference, while Etsy keeps its cut from the original price. None of these choices are professional or easy, and can be very off-putting to potential customers.
On ArtFire, you can
create promotional coupon codes that can be used at checkout. I love to give these out to return customers, my friends & family, or when I'm trying to attract new shoppers from Facebook or Twitter. They can be codes that give everything to a percentage off, dollar amount off, free shipping, gift with purchase... literally anything! You customize them to fit your exact needs and style!
ArtFire's Fusion Studios are incredible. Pro shops have the choice of three different banner sizes, and many color options. You can
add widgets to the sidebar that show your feedback from ArtFire, Etsy or other online venues, your Facebook page, your Twitter page, and anything else you can think of! You can even put up videos of you working on your craft, your cat chasing its tail, the last gem show you attended, whatever suits your fancy. It's
your shop, make it you!
Etsy's shops all look the same, except for the banners (which are all the same size.) There is no other way to show your personality or invite people to find you on the social sites.
There is no comparison in the
customer service. On Etsy, it can take up to two weeks to get a response to an email, and I've had at least one email that was never answered at all. The only other way to contact Etsy admin is via "convo" or in the forums. On ArtFire, my emails have always been answered within hours, if not minutes, issues brought up in the forums are always addressed quickly by ArtFire admin, and if all else fails, there is a phone number that will connect you to a live human who will answer your questions and help you with any issue you might be having.
The prices of the two sites is also something to consider. Etsy charges 20 cents per listing and renewal, and takes 3.5% of each sale. In order to stay at the top of Etsy's internal search, you have to list or renew everyday. Many sellers renew their whole inventory everyday in an effort to stay at the top of the searches. This can get very expensive!! If you just list or renew five items per day, every day for a month, that's $30/month plus 3.5% of any sales. Note that only listing or renewing five items per day is probably not enough to keep you at the top of searches for very long.
ArtFire has two shop types. One is the basic shop, which is free. You have unlimited listings with very few tools, and it's totally free. You pay nothing.
Of course the
preferred studios are the Pro Studios, which come equipped with all the tools I've talked about, and many more. How much does a Pro Studio cost?
The current price is $15.95/month, but for a limited time, you can opt into the ArtFire Group Deal at just $5.95/month. That's 20 cents a day for your whole shop! No renewals necessary EVER because ArtFire's internal search is random, giving every pro shop equal exposure.
This is an amazing deal and is open to everyone who already has a shop, and to newbies. If you are currently paying for a pro shop, opt in! You'll save! If you currently have a basic shop, opt in! You can afford 20 cents a day! If you don't already have an ArtFire studio, get one! It's quick and easy.
The only catch is that, being a group deal, we have to get 20,000 shops to opt in before the price goes into effect. If we don't hit that number, nobody gets the price, and that would make me cry. ;-) This will be the best $6/month you'll ever spend, so check it out!
For all the details and more information, click here.
ARTFIRE GROUP DEAL
This forum thread is filled with questions and answers, and opinions!
ARTFIRE GROUP DEAL, HOW DOES IT WORK?
I have plenty of food, chocolate, wine and DVD's, so I'm actually glad to have the weather to use as an excuse to stay in and hang out with my little blue budgie (Noodle) without feeling guilty.
