Should I switch from Etsy

[PamJHB]

I'm thinking of switching from Etsy, because of the flood of offshore manufactured items now that the rules have changed.   I am considering Icraft, but can't find any information on its customer base, sales figures, etc.

For those of you who are vendors, what has your experience been with Icraft?   What do you like about it and what do you think could be improved? 

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Here's my honest review. I would classify myself as a hobbyist seller. In equal time on Etsy and iCraft, I have:
- 61 sales on Etsy
- 38 sales on iCraft
-- however, iCraft got me some custom orders, completed outside of the site, so my sales $ have been much higher than Etsy. (On Etsy, that would be called fee avoidance. Since iCraft is fixed fee, there's no such thing to worry about!)

I don't know ANYthing about any official stats. Here's my take:

iCraft has WAY less traffic than Etsy. It's probably a combination of things like: smaller advertising budget and a smaller and less-engaged seller community. Take this with a grain of salt, because I will take lesser traffic of the right kind over massive traffic of the wrong kind any day.

I watch the "just sold" section and I see things selling every week, but it's not in the hundreds (or thousands) like Etsy. (I remember when Etsy used to have their "just sold" type scrolly thing and there were hundreds of items a day.) I don't know what it would work out to "per seller" though, because Etsy also has massively more volume of sellers than iCraft, so, naturally, it should sell more stuff per day.

PRICING PLANS
Currently, iCraft is fixed fee, meaning iCraft currently gets no commission on your sales. You pay only the monthly plan fee.

For small time sellers, Etsy is cheaper because it's kind of pay as you go.
For high volumes of listings, iCraft works out to be cheaper. (High volume = in the hundreds - I'd guess 200+)
For custom work, iCraft is WAY better.
-- Because of the fixed fee structure, you can set up a small number of listings as a sample gallery of your work. Customers can contact you for custom work and you can settle up those sales outside of iCraft. Consider the monthly plan fee a "display fee" in that case. If you were to settle outside of the site on Etsy, that would be fee avoidance. If you settle on-site, then Etsy takes a commission on your sale, which, for high value custom work, could be a lot.

I watched for promotions and nabbed some over my time spent here. So, even though I don't have gobs of volume of goods, I have been paying about the same monthly cost as I am on Etsy for the same average number of listings (but I have room to put more on here, so I've been slowing concentrating more on iCraft than Etsy of late).

SIMILARITIES
- automatic feed of your new listings to your social media
- you can set your promotions (like sales/free shipping)
- there's a widget you can add to your own external blog or signatures for email/forums
- I'm sure there's more but it's not coming to me

COOL STUFF
1) Scrolling product pages
Buyers don't have to click to see next pages.  More products load as they scroll down. (love this!)

2) Collections
You can create your own "groupings" for products.  Main product categories like "Christmas Cards", "Birthday Cards" are already something I choose from dropdowns when listing.  However, I can make a category by technique like: "Quilled Cards", "Hand Stamped Cards", etc.  A jewellery designer, say, would use the dropdowns provided in the listing process for "necklace" or "bracelet" but could create collections for materials "Pearls" or "Pewter" or "Birthstones" or by colour families.  Endless possibilities, but you must use your brain for the best marketing effect.

3) Set Discounts
You can flag individual items as sets.  If buyers add items to their cart that form a set, they get a discount (which you set).  So, you could have a necklace and matching earrings and bracelets.  The buyer can buy individually or make a set.  (If you want to sell it only as a set, you would make a listing containing all three.)  I made a Mother Set: I listed 3 mother-intended cards individually but flagged them as belonging to the Mother Set for 20% off if you buy all three in the set. If you were a potter, you could make a set of mugs + creamer + sugar or something. (love this too!)

4) Coupons
You can give free shipping or some other kind of coupon.  There is also a "thank-you" coupon feature.  I haven't used the coupon thing, but I believe once you set it up, it will automatically email a discount code (that you set) to your buyers as a thank-you and encouragement to come again. (I don't know if Etsy is the same.)

5) Blog
Every vendor account has a blogging ability. Vendor blog posts go to the community blog. iCraft admin approves content for the community blog, so you have to follow some guidelines. For those without another blogging venue, this works well.

SERVICE/SITE PERFORMANCE
- iCraft loads a lot slower than Etsy (like, when you go to edit listings).
- iCraft's shipping is not as integrated as Etsy. I don't use any of the Etsy shipping goodies (like printing shipping labels) so this makes no difference to me.
- From what I can tell, iCraft has fewer resources for program changes and what not. Etsy has an army of employees by comparison, IMO. Having said that, I have always gotten a response from admin within 2 business days whenever I've sent in a question or IT glitch. I have contacted them maybe 5 or 6 times in as many years.
- The forums are not well engaged. I would rate the average level of engagement on the site for both vendors and customers as low at the moment.

CONCLUSION
Overall, I like it. It has some neat features and it is all hand made. The only thing is, you need to be able to drive your own traffic. You cannot depend on the site to funnel customers to you. You must have a strong marketing strategy of your own. It would be even better if you already have a loyal customer base. Otherwise, you'll need to be very patient for sales.

I see iCraft as having my own website, minus all the computer programming stuff:
- They offer you a pretty storefront
- They offer you an easy shopping cart
- They offer you some advertising (on the iCraft Twitter account, your vendor blog, and iCraft newsletters, plus whatever else is in their budget)
- The cost is probably about the same as paying for a host for your own stand-alone website.

But, as though it were my own stand-alone website, *I* have to generate traffic to *my* shop and keep my products fresh and my customers engaged. (Not that I do a stellar job at any of that, but I do understand that it's *my* responsibility.) On Etsy, you can sometimes get a sale just from the sheer volume of traffic - SOMEbody is bound to like your stuff. But, it's always better if you can bring your own traffic.

The way I see it, I'm not willing to do all this programming mumbo jumbo, so I just exercise some patience if the site is frustrating me or changes take forever (or never take place).

If you decide to join us, feel free to use my referral key!
ff4d9a12e9

If any other vendors would like to share their experiences, I'd like to see it too. What has worked well for you here? What doesn't?

[PamJHB]

Thanks so much for your reply, and for your honesty.   I think that Etsy has as well reached the stage where you have to drive traffic to the site, rather than relying upon traffic from the site -- the realistic chances of placing in the first two or three pages of a replacement result are slim to none unless you have a very specialized niche calling for a very specialized replacement term.  Its new policy is also starting to drive away some of the buyers, who don't want to have to wade through pages and pages of results for stuff made in China  to find interesting handmade items.   

I would expect that we will begin to see the movement of both buyers and sellers to other sites that limit themselves to handmade goods.   Icraft does a good job of placement within a Google replacement result, for any buyer that is replacementing for a different online market. It also has attractive fees for any seller thinking of switching from Etsy.  However, it doesn't have enough product to really hold the consumer interest, and the front page looks a little bit too folksy for anyone interesting in trendy or unique handmade items. 

And should I make the jump to Icraft (which I might just even just to test the market) I will certainly make use of your referral code! 

[Agnes Jast]

HI
You have a beautiful sales. Is it the whole year?
I can not say the same about my sales. Issue a bracelet that I do about three hours, they are not expensive. Similar costs are large coral bracelets and those done quickly. At present, I am disappointed. Despite the discount and exchange pictures next, new bracelet did not sell anything 

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I saw your bracelets on iCraft's Twitter feed. I actually quite like them. But you have so few. You need more selection.

My sales numbers are a total of 6 years. On average, I get 2 orders per year but I've had a number of larger orders randomly sneak in there! Those are always a welcome surprise! Keep in mind, I am not a full-time seller. If I were, I would be marketing a LOT more than I do and using other venues to sell and drive awareness of my online shop too.