Etsy :: Friend or Foe for the Professional Artist

Today I was reading the Switchboard forums and came upon a thread about Etsy in all its glory and grime. In some ways, Etsy is one of the best things to happen to the world of craft and handmade goods in ages. It allows all sorts of artists access to an incredibly affordable online venue for their work to be seen and, if you are lucky, purchased. Etsy also allows for some great networking and community enriching communications. Craft and handmade goods have been bolstered in appreciation and recognition due in no small part, to Etsy.

However, do they have an air of being for those that are hobby crafts people and artists rather than for the professional and is that stigma going to be impossible to shake? The forum post I was reading started out with a quote from a recent InStyle magazine: "If you love to wear stuff nobody else has, allow us to formally introduce you to Etsy.com, an online flea market representing aspiring designers and artisans." Many of the businesswomen on Switchboard balked at this and quickly came to the support of Etsy and the artists that are represented on there. However, most of the people responding to the post had some of their own issues with Etsy. For one, they agreed with the sentiment that the general public does and will see it as a flea market. I will probably get in trouble for saying this but I agree and I think that opinion is not unwarranted. The issue with Etsy is the democracy of it. Anyone can have a page and sell their wares there, regardless of the professionalism, craftsmanship, uniqueness, etc. When a site is open to anyone, you are bound to get a lot of mediocrity mixed in with the rest.

Another poster brought up the branding issue with Etsy. When a customer makes a purchase on Etsy, it is usually one they will remember as an Etsy purchase rather than remembering the artist that made the piece they now own. Additionally, I must agree with another poster who talked about comparison-shopping on Etsy and I will even go a step further, and say that many Etsy shoppers are bargain hunters. Have you ever taken a look at the Alchemy section? Granted, there are many people that are truly looking for unique works on there, but many of them just want to find x or y for really cheap, or at least cheaper than where they originally saw it. This undervalues art and handmade goods and all the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into making those pieces. A professional that owns a craft or handmade goods company is going to have a hard time competing on Etsy if they want to sell elsewhere. How can a professional knitter compete with a hobbyist that does not have to account for the real cost of an item and include marketing, business management, retail vs. wholesale costs, etc. in their pricing structure? They are just not on the same level and it ends up being to the disadvantage of many professional craftspeople.

On the other hand, Etsy has allowed many people to become full time craftspeople and leave their traditional jobs to follow their dreams. They get the exposure and sales they need to get their foot in the door. I am curious where they go from there, however. Do some of them set up their pricing to accommodate for all the business costs that are not readily considered? Do they think about selling on Etsy with retail prices so they can still have a viable wholesale business, which is imperative in today's economy? I hope so, but I am not sure how many of them take those steps. Some shops must be able to do this, since there seem to be a fair amount of full time artists that make a living with Etsy alone. This again brings us to the issue of bargain hunters, however.

Having your own website and selling through a limited number of resellers that carry a small and juried sample of work may make better sense for a lot of artists. Selling where you are not competing with similar vendors but instead where you and your work are highlighted more has many benefits. If you are the only person selling handmade photo frames on a site, you will be more to that customer than just one of many frame making artists and you will gain more brand recognition and, therefore, more brand loyalty. This is doubly true for sales from your own site, as that is the best reinforcement of brand loyalty. Also, these other retail venues may be better at presenting a more professional image for your company and your products.

One solution I hear about over and over again from professional craftspeople and artists on Etsy is that they sell their seconds and discontinued items on there. That seems like a perfect use of Etsy for these artists to me, but it will not help to bring Etsy's reputation in the public to a higher level in the end. When people are using Etsy to get rid of things that they can't sell through other venues, then it really is the flea market that we don't want to think of it as.