The Pros of Having
Your Own Website
Let’s start with the pros of having your own website. Why would
having your own website instead of selling your products on Etsy be beneficial?
01
Level of Control
Deborah is the founder of Tizzit.co and host of the Maker’s Biz summit. She helps makers and handmade shop owners start, grow, and profit from their handmade shops via her weekly video show and her membership community, Tizzit HQ. You can access Deb’s free library of resources for handmade sellers right here.
50 WEBSITES | DO YOU NEED ONE
The first point that comes to mind, and by far the most important, is that it gives you more control over your business and shop.
Etsy (and any other platform you might be using to sell your products) can ultimately make whatever changes they want to their platform; changes that could greatly affect your own store and they can do that without needing to ask you for permission. That’s the deal. You are renting space on their “land.”
They provide you with tools to help you open a shop and sell your products without any technical knowledge and they work hard at marketing the platform so that people who are interested in buying handmade products visit it every day, looking for their perfect purchase (hopefully, that’s your product).
This is wonderful, but it comes at a price and it’s that you don’t own that space. They can change their fee structure, their SEO algorithm, or even close your shop without notice. They have done it many times in the past and will do it again in the future.
However, It’s not always doom and gloom and some of these changes might be beneficial to your shop. But yes, some changes can lead to a serious drop in sales and traffic or an increase in costs.
Having your own website guarantees that no matter happens on Etsy, your business does not entirely depend on it, or at all. It gives you more autonomy and control.