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The Emergence of Handcrafted Goods as a Means to Make a Living

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The Emergence of Handcrafted Goods as a Means to Make a Living

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More recently people have been able to sell their crafts all around the world, one of the biggest sites to do this on is Etsy, this Padlet will explore how people are able to make this their job, and why it is becoming so popular.

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This is the breakdown of how Etsy charges its sellers. You can see here that the Etsy business model relies a lot on accurate advertisements as well as transaction and listing fees. Etsy essentially takes no risk in this endeavor, other than buying server space, and the entire risk is on the sellers.

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Since the majority if not all the stores on Etsy could be considered small businesses it is no wonder that ads for Etsy go on to support small business as major contributors to the economy.

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We #StandWithSmall | Support Small Businesses on Etsy

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While that Salary isn't the worst, it certainly will not be getting you through much without a second job, though some sellers on etsy can make over 70k a month selling items, they tend to not stick to the spirit of the small business, handcrafted goods model, and outsource much of the production of their good to other countries, touching them up with handcrafted elements when they arrive in the U.S.

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While Etsy is certainly the flagship of this handmade craft enterprising trend that has begun to become very popular, it is not the only name in the business. Other sellers have begun to emerge with big names behind them, like Amazon's "Handmade" site, and of course older sites like Ebay beginning to offer avenues for selling handmade goods instead of selling old items.

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Etsy and the trend of handmade goods doesn't end at the border of the United States. Even though Etsy was founded in New York way back in 2005, their growth has been incredible, and now they offer a way to connect with sellers from across the world. I was able to commission an artist in Mexico to make a piece of art for me, pictured above here, that took four days, and we were able to bridge the language gap quite easily to determine what I wanted done. This also extends to Africa, Asia, Europe, Etsy sellers are global and worldwide, something that handcrafted and small businesses didn't have access to until this point in human infrastructure development.

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I was able to open my own shop on Etsy quite easily, and it is due to this, and other sites that i think many sellers are drawn to quite doing jobs they don't quite enjoy, and go to sell the goods they love making online. It is completely doable these days to work completely for yourself, from home, making art that you love to make, and be able to make a full living for yourself from it!

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While I was able to find a good number of other stores across the internet offering similiar services to Etsy, which I named above, the reason I have chosen Etsy to remain as my example and focal point of all these posts is because of how central it is to the handcrafted goods market at the moment. Although I found other marketplace, serious sellers likely have shops across multiple sites, to increase visibility and traffic of their goods

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I think the main reason it is so alluring to so many people is autonomy and being able to do what you love. Artists, which these sellers are, love their craft, and being able to express your artistic desires and make a living off of it is a dream come true for many people. Although not everyone will be able to make a lot of money selling on Etsy, those that do manage to do it as a full time job I think are very commendable people, with a good business sense, I have purchased many things from sites like Etsy, and I can see why so many sellers are drawn towards turning their career and their work-life, to this online marketplace environment.

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So many people get worn down doing over forty-hour work weeks every week, when it comes to being your own boss you get to choose your hours. I found many sellers on Etsy saying that they either worked between twenty and forty hours a week in their shop, while still making the same money as some people in forty-hour jobs, this can be alluring to many people burnt out of corporate America

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During the Covid Pandemic, with many people locked inside, many have looked to ways to make money from home. With some turning to image selling sites like OnlyFans, others to selling their art as NFT's, the numbers do not lie when you consider the ease of selling and buying from inside the home, shops like Etsy have never had higher revenue.

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Works Cited:
“About Etsy.” Etsy, https://www.etsy.com/about.

How Many Hours Do You Put into Your Etsy Shop(s ... https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/How-many-hours-do-you-put-into-your-Etsy-shop-s/td-p/130506697.

Shmoop Editorial Team. “Etsy Crafter: Salary.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, https://www.shmoop.com/careers/etsy-seller/salary.html.

Weiler, Cherish. “Etsy: Success from Serving a Niche Market - but for How Much Longer?” Digital Innovation and Transformation, https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/etsy-success-from-serving-a-niche-market-but-for-how-much-longer/.

Phaneuf, Alicia. “Ecommerce Statistics: Industry Benchmarks & Growth.” Insider Intelligence, https://www.insiderintelligence.com/insights/ecommerce-industry-statistics/.

“Sento Coart on Etsy.” Etsy, https://www.etsy.com/people/0ijc5t8hpmagh2wz.