Etsy is a great place to get your first online shop started, it’s a great community for artistic and creative people to be a part of.

Another huge advantage is how easy it is to get started with Etsy.

I’ve used a lot of sites such as Amazon, eBay, and many others, but Etsy is by far the easiest to use site I have found for selling items.

However, even if you love Etsy as much as I do, it’s a terrible idea to put all your eggs in one basket.

Setting up your own website is very important, there have been situations where Etsy and a seller disagreed about something and Etsy promptly removed their shop.

It’s tough, but ultimately it’s Etsy’s brand and visitors, selling on Etsy is a privilege and it shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Here are a few big reasons that I have my own website alongside my Etsy shop.

1. Differentiation from other Etsy shops is difficult

Etsy is an online marketplace for individuals to sell their hand-made items. In a sea of shops selling hand-crafted goods, it’s difficult to make yours stand out and be one of a kind.

Your only chance at doing this is through listing descriptions, but these can easily be copied from you, and it is not long before all descriptions start being alike.

When a customer searches any keyword on Etsy, your items are competing head to head with tons of other excellent shops out there.

Price is the biggest deciding factor, and I hate being the cheapest.

When selling on your own storefront you are not competing with anyone but yourself.

This makes it a lot easier to drive offline traffic to your own site from places like Pinterest and Facebook.

When sending the traffic to your site, you don’t have to worry about paying for a sale on someone else’s shop.

2. Shops Rank Lower on Search Engines

The newest addition to Google’s search algorithms is that duplicated content is ranked lower on search engines.

So, the overflow of similar descriptions on Etsy tends to lead to Etsy shops being ranked lower on Google than regular websites.

This means that the potential of gaining customers through search engines is much lower, and this can affect your sales greatly.

3. Etsy is Controlled By Its Owners, Not You

Unlike on your own website, you cannot really alter much about the way Etsy works.

So, while many say that they gain a lot of exposure by being available to the huge population browsing Etsy every day, it is also possible that they are losing prospective customers in the same way they are gaining them: to other sellers on the platform.

That being said, the major downside of Etsy is that its rules and policies are out of your control.

Instead of over-relying on its benefits, you should dedicate a portion of your time to working on your own website.

This will provide a great safety net in case something changes at Etsy and it becomes unprofitable or impossible for you to sell your products through the platform.

Remember that the owners of Etsy are always looking to increase their profits, and this may turn out to be less profitable for you.

Let me know what you think in the comments section below!