Whether you are looking for a place to sell products you have created or just browse for interesting things to dress up your apartment or add to your outfit, find it on Etsy.com.
Etsy.com is a site made for those seeking to create an online business for their handmade items. The site offers these handmade items, commercial and handmade supplies as well as vintage items from people all over the world.
A vendor makes their products, lists them on Etsy and once a consumer has purchased an item from the seller’s shop, the vendor is notified and in turn will then ship their item to the consumer directly. Ship time varies by vendors’ locations.
The site is a hosting site where people pay to have their products displayed for purchase. The cost to host is 20 cents per item. This keeps the item hosted for up to 4 months.
“It seems really safe. From what a friend of mine has said, it’s much more successful and easier to get noticed than eBay,” Andi Pace, freshman graphic design major, said. “But it’s still big enough to where a lot of people will see your work.”
The site also allows promotion on their site. In which vendors pay $15 to have their items placed in the Main Showcase for 24 hours or $7 dollars to be placed in The Storque Showcase, Category Showcase or Jewelry Subcategory Showcases.
Etsy is organized to make searching easy for potential consumers. The categories listed are specific and as shoppers search it makes note and adjusts the front page to appeal more to their taste for future shopping.
“I have bought jewelry, hair accessories and handmade note cards on Etsy,” Jessica Tracy, junior nursing major, said. “I’m more drawn to paper things like note cards or stationary but fun handmade jewelry catches my eye every once in awhile.”
However, Etsy is not just a online place for people to sell and purchase items. It is also a community.
There are forums on the site for users to join teams, share ideas, attend events, chat, stop by the Virtual Labs or even join an online workshop.
Crafty students like Pace, Tracy and Kristina Osbourne, senior liberal studies major, also sell their creations on Etsy.
Pace runs an Etsy shop entitled ‘Nighttime Birds’ where she sells watercolor creations. She will soon be adding digital media.
Tracy and Osbourne co-run an Etsy shop entitled ‘Trademark Pages’ and are in the process of getting it up and running. They plan to sell book canvases.
“Basically, we take a blank canvas and decorate it with book pages from old books we’ve found at thrift stores and other crafty things,” Osbourne said.
Etsy makes it easy to make a couple of extra dollars for producing something from the heart.
