Best Platform to Sell Your Products

There are many options available when it comes to eCommerce. Perhaps some of the biggest names to sell on are WooCommerce and Etsy. While both platforms specialize in eCommerce, they are extremely different.

As such, it is natural to wonder which platform is best for your storefront. Each platform has strengths and weaknesses, so it ultimately depends on what you need and your technical skill level.

That said, it is worth pointing out one big difference right at the start. Etsy is only for hand-crafted or vintage goods, while WooCommerce handles everything. That simple fact may be the most important difference to keep in mind.

Today, I will compare WooCommerce and Etsy to decide the best platform for selling your products.

What Is Etsy?

Etsy is an online marketplace with a strong reputation and passionate community around selling and buying hand-crafted goods. With Etsy, you do not need to build a website, but instead, list your products on the marketplace.

As such, it is often one of the first options recommended to beginners because Etsy does most of the technical work for you. That way, you can focus on creating products and marketing them.

Sellers gain the advantage of being able to tap into an existing market that is passionate about buying handcrafted goods, thus sellers can make sales faster than they would on other eCommerce products.

However, it is worth pointing out that selling products outside of handcrafted goods is possible on the platform, but let’s just say they are not the most popular items sold on Etsy.

What Is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin for WordPress, that powers 35% of all online shops. This makes it the most popular eCommerce in the world and it is continuing to grow each year despite strong competition.

There are two reasons why WooCommerce is so popular. The first is that WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world making up more than 46% of all websites on the internet. Naturally, those websites are going to choose an eCommerce solution built for the platform.

The second reason is that it is really good at eCommerce. You can sell any kind of product including digital goods and subscriptions, scale your business to any level, and support virtually any payment gateway.

As such, any kind of store can utilize WooCommerce for any purpose. This has led to its widespread adoption and insane dominance across the eCommerce market. Simply put, it’s a platform that does everything well.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Ease of Use

When it comes to picking an eCommerce platform, or anything for that matter, ease of use is without a doubt the most important factor to consider for most users, especially beginners. If you can’t figure out the platform, you cannot sell products.

Let’s take a look at how Etsy and WooCommerce stack up to one another.

Etsy: Ease of Use

Etsy is perhaps one of the easiest platforms to sell products on and just requires three simple steps from the user. First, create an Etsy account. Then create a shop. And third is to fill that shop with products.

Unlike other eCommerce platforms, there is not anything to set up because you are simply listing your products on an established market where users can see them. In reality, you only have a few options that you can configure.

These include things like customizing your store page with your branding, setting up the price and stock of products, and choosing the shipping options. As such, it is one of the best options for beginners and users who are not tech-savvy.

WooCommerce: Ease of Use

As far as eCommerce platforms go, WooCommerce is rather simple to use but can feel overwhelming at first. This is because WooCommerce has an insane amount of options that allow you to customize your online store.

On top of this, it’s not just WooCommerce you need to learn how to use. Woocommerce is a plugin for WordPress, so the first real step is to build a website using WordPress, and then install WooCommerce. While WordPress is easy to use, building a website is still difficult.

While I won’t go too into depth on building a website, you’ll need to choose the theme, design the pages, choose a web hosting company, and more. That said, having your own website is usually the natural progression for most sellers online.

Results: Etsy Wins

Etsy and WooCommerce are very simple platforms to use, but there’s no contest between the two when it comes to accessibility. Simply put, Etsy is easier to use because it simply runs on basic input – list your item and sell it.

Meanwhile, WooCommerce requires you to build an entire website. While the process has been streamlined, it is still something that will require a significant time investment to achieve, as such Etsy is the winner.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Pricing

When starting a new business, every penny counts, thus finding the platform that fits your price range is one of the biggest factors. And make no mistake, eCommerce is no different. Each platform has its own series of costs that you need to keep in mind.

Let’s examine how Etsy and WooCommerce compare when it comes to the cost of doing business.

Etsy: Pricing

Etsy feels like a subscription with a variety of fees you need to pay. Firstly, while there is a free option that allows you to list 10 items, you will still need to pay a listing fee ($0.20) per item. 10 items is not a lot so most user often purchase a subscription ($10 per month).

You then have a hefty transaction fee every time which is a whopping 6.5% of the total product cost. This is on top of the payment gateway which is about 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction.

When starting, this would end up being the only cost associated with Etsy. However, if you are a big seller, that’s not the whole story. Once your shop exceeds $10,000, you can no longer opt out of Etsy advertising.

This will place a flat 12% on top of everything else. Sellers under $10,000 can opt out. Or, if users choose to enroll, the fee is 15%. While Etsy does not have a lot of upfront costs, the fees will quickly add up.

WooCommerce: Pricing

WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress. As such, there is no cost associated with using it, but that doesn’t mean you won’t spend money.

Remember how I said you will need to build an entire website with WordPress? Well, that will cost money.

WordPress itself is a free platform, and you can build a website using free plugins and themes, but one thing you can’t avoid is paying for a web hosting company. Luckily, a month of web hosting will cost less than a cup of coffee.

Web hosts allow you to rent a server on which you can store your website. Whenever a user accesses your website, they are connecting to that server. The web host will maintain the server for you, so you only need to worry about running the site.

Now, the upfront costs are only one side of an eCommerce platform. You will also be subject to the transaction fees. In the case of WooCommerce, that equates to what the payment gateway you choose uses.

For example, WooPayments will take 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction made. Or PayPal will take 2.9% + $0.49 per transaction. Again, you can use any payment gateway, but these are the real costs that are associated with WooCommerce.

Results: WooCommerce Wins

This is a tough one because realistically, Etsy does not have any upfront costs and everything is associated with fees, but they are extremely high fees compared to most eCommerce solutions.

WooCommerce on the other hand is also free and does not have any transaction fees outside of the payment gateway, but does require you to build a website and host it. Again, web hosting is cheap and you can build a website for virtually nothing.

As such, I think WooCommerce wins this category, but I think an argument can be made for either one.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Appearance

When you look at most online shops today, each one has a style that users recognize on sight. Most businesses spend hours fine-tuning their store’s appearance to maximize sales and build brand recognition.

Let’s compare what design options Etsy and WooCommerce provide for online stores.

Etsy: Appearance

While each seller can create a store page, they cannot significantly customize the appearance of it. Most users can add multiple banner images (Etsy Plus required), which is essentially just adding static images that rotate on your store page.

You can also adjust the layout of the store page with a variety of grid layout options to choose from. However, no matter what you do, virtually all Etsy store pages look identical. The only other thing you can add is your branding (adding a logo).

There are also some more general options like choosing the color scheme and font that is displayed in your store. Outside of this, Etsy offers very little as again, you are just listing your products on their site.

WooCommerce: Appearance

WooCommerce itself does not have any customization, but the WordPress platform that it requires does. You can choose from thousands of themes that were built for eCommerce and customize each one to your liking.

That said, it is worth pointing out that many of the themes are ready for use without you needing to customize them beyond just adding your text and images. As such, you can have a website that looks professionally made without much effort.

You will also have access to page builder plugins like Elementor that allow you to build a page from scratch using a drag-and-drop interface (no coding required). All of this is free to use, although premium options do exist.

Results: WooCommerce Wins

WooCommerce takes this category hands down. The level of customization you can achieve using the WordPress platform exceeds everything offered by Etsy. Having access to thousands of themes that you can customize yourself makes it infinitely better.

On top of this, many themes today will come with pre-built templates that have a professional quality to them. In comparison, Etsy gives you the bare minimum when it comes to design, and ultimately, most Etsy shops look identical.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Marketing

You may think you are done when you get your store up for business, but that’s not true. You need to market your store to the world to help drive sales. For many businesses, marketing efforts are make or break.

Let’s take a look at how Etsy and WooCommerce stack up to one another when it comes to marketing.

Etsy: Marketing

Etsy has a built-in marketing system that you can use to promote your store on and off of Etsy. However, that does come at a steep price for your business due to the flat 12% or 15% rate depending on your store size.

That said, larger stores do not have a choice. They are forced into Etsy advertising. It’s important to point out that you will be directly competing with other sellers on Etsy, thus those ads could show your handcrafted mug, or someone else’s.

Buyers on Etsy can also follow specific sellers on the platform. That way, when their stores are updated with new products or launching a deal, they can receive notifications about it directly on Etsy.

Naturally, you do not just need to rely on Etsy. You can also market your store offsite by posting on social media.

WooCommerce: Marketing

WooCommerce does not have any marketing tools. Instead, you would need an individual marketing plugin that can reach the masses. Simply put, if you are using WooCommerce, you are going to have to promote your store yourself.

Luckily, this has never been easier to achieve due to social media. You can create store pages on every social media site, work with influencers, and directly purchase ad space on Google, Facebook, and more.

Your most powerful weapon is your search engine optimization or SEO. This allows you to rank as the first result on Google when a search is done, and if you focus on a niche, you can reliably rank high.

WordPress also has a variety of plugins that can help. For example, you could use a newsletter plugin to create a weekly email for customers to see the latest items and deals you are offering.

Results: WooCommerce Wins

This is a tough one to decide because, while Etsy has a built-in marketing system that just requires you to opt in, the high fees associated with it can scare away many stores. And your actual options are very limited in how your store is displayed.

You also have to rely on users following your store on Etsy for them to receive updates, which are only visible on Etsy. In comparison, WooCommerce simply gives you more control over your advertisement options.

You can create dedicated ads and put them on other platforms (for a fee), create weekly newsletters that you can opt users into more easily, and have a higher level of control over your brand in general. WooCommerce wins.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Inventory Management

Keeping stock of your products is one of the most challenging aspects that businesses need to do. This is something you will need to keep an eye out for every day to ensure you have products to sell, but also avoid overstocking a product.

Let’s compare how Etsy and WooCommerce handle inventory management.

Etsy: Inventory Management

Etsy has a simple, but highly effective inventory management system. When you list a product on Etsy, you can input a variety of information. This includes the price, quantity, SKUs, sizes, shipping options, tags, and more.

The product listings can be updated at any point as often as you need to without any additional cost. Just keep in mind that listing a new product will incur a $0.20 listing fee. Everything is straightforward and only requires a few clicks to access.

One drawback of Etsy that is worth mentioning is that you cannot schedule product releases. So for example, let’s say you want a new product to go live at a specific date, the only way to do this is to post it on that date manually.

WooCommerce: Inventory Management

WooCommerce has a far more robust inventory management system than most eCommerce solutions, yet, it still manages to remain easy to use at any skill level. You can manage all of the products on your storefront from a single location.

You can either do a full edit here, which allows you to change product parameters like price, quantity, SKUs, shipping, and even select product sizes (small, medium, large, etc.), or do a quick edit from the list itself.

Perhaps the most notable feature of WooCommerce is the ability to bulk edit products. This is extremely useful in a variety of situations, but as an example, if you were having a deal, you could bulk edit all of the products on sale and apply a flat discount rate.

Results: WooCommerce Wins

Etsy is a great inventory management system for what it is, but it lacks bulk editing capabilities, which makes it more tedious to use. You need to manually edit each product, which takes a lot of time for larger stores.

Many users who do not sell with WooCommerce will connect their store to WooCommerce just to utilize the inventory management system. As such, it is the clear winner, and you can even do this for Etsy.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Shipping

Making a sale is not the end of your job as an online shop. Instead, you need to ensure the product gets to your customer promptly and that they can send it back without much issue in the event of a return.

Let’s compare how Etsy and WooCommerce handle shipping operations for your business.

Etsy: Shipping

Etsy has a great shipping system in place that is easy to use. You can create shipping profiles for multiple delivery services like USPS, FedEx, UPS, or the Canada Post. This allows you to quickly choose a shipping method and already have the info filled in.

Once an order is placed, you’ll be able to print out the label and get the goods out the door the same day. You can customize the shipping options based on the user’s location. For example, if your shop is in the US, you can select the USPS as the default option.

If you’re in Canada, you can select Canada Post. For other countries, international options like FedEx or UPS are excellent options. It’s a really smart way to make the shipping process intuitive for all users.

It’s also worth discussing your return options. Sellers are not required to accept returns, but users can request them from you, and then escalate it if they are not satisfied with the result. If a return is agreed upon, it is the customer’s responsibility to ship the product back.

WooCommerce: Shipping

WooCommerce shipping is another robust option that allows you to fine-tune your shipping options. It supports local pickup, flat-rate shipping, and free shipping. Each one can be set up individually to save you time and apply the correct one to each product.

And yes, you can use bulk editing to apply shipping options to products.

Virtually all shipping methods are possible with WooCommerce like USPS, FedEx, UPS, and so on. It also has a variety of international options that are easy to understand.

As such, even if you are unfamiliar with options in a country, you can set them up to customize how products arrive. And you will be able to print shipping labels directly from the WooCommerce dashboard the moment a sale is made.

When it comes to returns, you have full control over it. Most stores will set up a return order form where users can request a return. In most cases, stores will require the customer to handle shipping arrangements. WooCommerce has return forms you can use.

It’s also worth pointing out that you can install a dedicated form plugin that will give you even more options on the forms you create.

Results: It’s A Tie

Both platforms have excellent and intuitive shipping options. WooCommerce might have a slight advantage due to bulk editing options and more integration, otherwise, they are nearly identical in practice.

When it comes to returns, generally speaking, they are also identical. But since WooCommerce is a self-hosted site, you have free reign to deny or accept returns as you see fit without having to worry about Etsy forcing them on you.

Since this is so close, let’s just call it a tie.

Etsy Vs WooCommerce: Final Verdict

Ultimately, both platforms are excellent choices for small businesses to utilize. However, Etsy is a very specific kind of platform that deals exclusively with hand-made or vintage goods, thus what you can use it for is limited.

Yet, if that is what you are selling, it is perhaps one of the best platforms to use due to an established audience that is interested in those types of goods. Meanwhile, WooCommerce is the more robust option that allows you to sell anything from shoes to furniture.

It even supports digital goods like ebooks, music, and more. As such, WooCommerce will offer you more room to grow.

Speaking of growth, as your business grows, you’ll likely want to avoid the high fees on Etsy. These can cut into your profits as transaction fees stack on top of marketing fees, which isn’t an issue on WooCommerce.

As such, while Etsy is a great platform to test the waters and see if customers are interested in your products, WooCommerce is the better option as far as long-term growth is concerned, as well as just having more options for stores in general.

Etsy Vs WooCommerce FAQ

Naturally, you may still have some lingering questions when it comes to Etsy and WooCommerce. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions. If you have any more, feel free to ask them in the comment section.

Start Building Your eCommerce Presence Today

The eCommerce market is massive, which means the longer you wait to get in, the harder it will be to make a name for yourself. Regardless of what you choose, Etsy and WooCommerce are excellent platforms that focus on different audiences.

One thing we did not cover in this comparison is the outside challenges between Etsy and WooCommerce, and that’s because they are identical.

Regardless of what platform you choose, you are still going to need the capital to purchase or produce goods on a scale to meet customer demand, a place to store those goods, and the materials to ship products.

Neither platform will help you with this, so make sure to research this aspect carefully to ensure the best results.

Which platform do you think is the best option for beginners? What is the hardest part of running an online store?