Selling and buying handmade products is a rapidly growing trend on the internet. It's become even more popular with the economic downturn. Sellers are looking to make a few extra dollars each month and buyers are keen to save money on luxury items like jewelry and beauty products. At the same time, they're supporting small and local shops.
Etsy has been the industry leader in providing a venue for these buyers and sellers. Until recently, they've largely gone without competition. Artfire arrived on the scene in 2008. With canny promotions and an impressive advertising push, they're angling to be the first real, lasting alternative to Etsy. How do these two sites stack up against each other?
Pros and Cons of Etsy
Etsy is superior to Artfire in two significant areas: design and visibility. Etsy's clean, streamlined design is visually appealing and easy to navigate. Their simple blue and white color scheme is uncluttered. The important links to buy and sell are right at the top next to their unfussy logo, for maximum visibility. Along the side is a list of categories, long enough to show versatility but short enough to not be overwhelming. Filling the rest of the space is a constantly changing featured items gallery, a featured seller, and the most recently listed items.
Etsy also wins in visibility and popularity. Having been around since 2005, it's a proven commodity. Its userbase of buyers and sellers is large and diverse. It has a Google PageRank of 7 out of 10 and returns over 11 million hits on a Google search. It's been featured in the mainstream press and made over $90 million in sales in 2008. It's been credited with single-handedly creating the demand for handmade goods on the internet.
That size can be a negative, however. New sellers find it difficult to get a foot in the door when there are already so many others selling similar items. Additionally, Etsy has been criticized for playing favorites with their featured sellers. They have been accused of focusing on high-volume sellers, those who can put more into Etsy's coffers with the fees Etsy takes.
Speaking of those fees, they're another drawback. There are no fees for buyers other than what they spend on an item, but it costs sellers. Etsy takes .20 for each item listed, then an additional 3.5% of the price for each item sold. Relisting items regularly can boost a seller's visibility and sales, but those fees can hurt profits. For a new seller particularly, it's a double-edged sword.
Pros and Cons of Artfire
Artfire's biggest draw is its complete lack of seller fees. Sellers can sign up and sell their items completely for free. A basic account includes other free perks such as a custom URL, access to the forums, statistics, and one-click relisting.
If a seller wants a few additional perks such as participation rewards, rapid cart, and a blog (still in development), a verified account is available for only $7 a month to the first 5000 who sign up. After that, the verified account price will go up to $20 a month. For an established seller with a loyal customer base, that flat rate could be cheaper than Etsy's fees in the long run. Artfire also offers a referral promotion. Refer 10 people to Artfire and a verified account will be free for life.
Artfire's homepage is also less discriminatory than Etsy's. It offers a large rotating gallery of recently listed items. Also, its item of the hour is chosen at random. Additionally, it's taking strides in integrating social networking. It makes it easy for sellers to integrate their listings with Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.
As for negatives, Artfire's current homepage design is cluttered and overwhelming, although a new design is on the way. There are too many categories and although it's nice to feature newly listed items, the gallery is too big. It requires too much scrolling to get to other homepage items, such as the featured seller and Artfire's official blog.
Artfire is also still far behind in visibility. Its Google PageRank is 4 out of 10 and a search brings up fewer than 500,000 hits. Despite being able to sell for free, sellers have been reluctant to jump ship from Etsy while Artfire is still in beta and building up traffic.
Etsy or Artfire?
For the time being, the market needs and can support both Etsy and Artfire. Etsy has the visibility but Artfire offers a better financial deal for sellers. It's most beneficial for sellers to have shops in both places and cross-promote heavily. Regardless of which site comes out on top in the end, the buyers win.
Annie Taylor - Annie Taylor has been working as a freelance writer since 2004. For the last two years she wrote TV episode recaps for Recapist, a ...
