From Etsy to your own brand: moving to Shopify

Measure first

Before you move, put numbers on what Etsy does for you. Answer three questions:

• Where do your visitors come from? Etsy’s Stats page shows how shoppers find your shop. If most visits come from Etsy search, expect your own store to start with far fewer visitors.
• What does each order cost you on Etsy? Etsy lets you download your monthly statements as CSV files (plain spreadsheet files). Add up last year’s listing, transaction, payment and advertising fees, then divide by the number of orders.
• What sells best? Your sold-order history is a CSV download too. The products at the top of that list belong on your new store’s front page first.

These numbers set your pace: the bigger Etsy’s share of your sales, the longer you should run both channels side by side. Write them down; once the new store opens, they’re your benchmark.

1. Keep Etsy as a second channel

A new store won’t replace Etsy on day one, so run both for a while.

If the same product sells in both places, manage the stock in one place, or you’ll sell the same item twice. Shopify’s own Etsy migration guide points to third-party apps that sync listings, orders and inventory between the two. Shopify’s Marketplace Connect app can’t make new connections to Etsy at the moment.

If you make one-of-a-kind pieces, such as handmade items or original artwork, decide up front which channel each piece goes on.

2. Make the name and the address yours

On Etsy, your shop’s address sits inside Etsy. Your own store’s address belongs to you, so get a domain that carries your brand name. You can buy one through Shopify, or connect or transfer a domain you already own. Every store also gets a myshopify.com address, but give customers your own domain.

Use the same name on your social accounts, so customers find the same brand everywhere. If it matches your Etsy shop name, past customers will recognize you too. Keep your logo and your product photo style the same on both channels.

3. Set up the foundations

Some jobs Etsy did for you are now yours. Before you add products, set up these four:

• Payments: Shopify Payments, Shopify’s own payment system, is only open to businesses located in supported countries. If your business isn’t in one of them, you’ll work with another provider, and Shopify adds a transaction fee to every order. If Shopify Payments is your main provider, PayPal orders don’t carry that extra fee either. We explain this in WordPress or Shopify?
• Shipping: set up your shipping zones and rates. Your Etsy shipping settings are a good starting point. If you ship abroad, also decide how you’ll handle duties and import taxes; Shopify’s international sales tools include settings for them.
• Tax: in the US, marketplaces such as Etsy collect and remit sales tax on sales made through them. On your own store, tax is your responsibility. Shopify can calculate it automatically, but unless you use Shopify Tax’s automated filing (US stores only), filing and paying stay with you. Talk to your accountant before launch.
• Policies: returns, privacy, shipping and terms of service. Customers can see them before they complete checkout, so keep them short and clear. Shopify offers ready-made templates, but says itself that they aren’t legal advice.

4. Move your products from Etsy to Shopify

Etsy lets you download your active listings as a CSV file, under Shop Manager › Settings › Options › Download Data. The file includes titles, descriptions, prices, quantities, tags, materials, image URLs and SKUs (stock codes), if you use them.

Shopify’s free Store Migration app takes that file as it is, with no edits, and imports your products. Four details to know:

• The file only contains active listings. To bring sold-out or expired ones too, renew them on Etsy first; Etsy charges a listing fee for each renewal.
• When you renew a listing with variations, Etsy sets each option’s quantity to 1, so check your stock after the import.
• Listings with 101 or more variation combinations are imported without variants.
• Products imported as hidden stay off your store until you make them available to your sales channels.

If you’d rather edit the file yourself and upload it through Shopify’s product import, be careful: the column headers must match Shopify’s sample file exactly, or the import fails. A CSV import can’t be canceled once it starts, so try a few products first. Images come in from the URLs in the file only while they’re visible on a public page, so keep your Etsy listings live until the import is done.

After the import, go through every product: price, images, variants, stock. Then group them into collections, Shopify’s equivalent of your Etsy shop sections. It’s also the right moment to rewrite your descriptions for your own store; What makes a product page sell? lists what to check.

5. Rebuild trust

On Etsy, buyers trust the marketplace first. On your own store, they have to trust you. That’s why reviews, clear return and shipping information, and an easy-to-find contact page matter even more here. Add an About page that shows who’s behind the brand: your story, your workshop, photos of you at work.

Etsy also lets you download your reviews, from the “Take your data with you” section of the Download Data tab. According to Shopify’s guide, third-party apps can import them into your Shopify store. Before you publish them on your own site, read Etsy’s current rules.

6. Reach customers within Etsy’s rules

This step needs the most care. Etsy’s rules are clear:

• You can’t add Etsy buyers to your mailing list, or use them for marketing, without their consent (Seller Policy).
• You can’t steer Etsy buyers to buy your items outside Etsy, for example with a QR code that sends them to your own store (Off-Platform Transactions Policy). A discount for buying outside Etsy is a way of steering them too, so leave it out.

So build your audience outside Etsy: your Instagram or Pinterest account, a newsletter sign-up on your own site, new pieces shown to subscribers first. Shopify, too, asks you to send marketing emails only to people who have agreed to receive them.

7. Bring in your own visitors

On Etsy, the marketplace brings the buyers. On your own store, that’s your job. Three channels for the first months:

• Google: Shopify’s Google & YouTube app syncs your products to Google Merchant Center, Google’s service for product listings. Your products can then appear in Google’s free listings, in places such as Search, the Shopping tab and Images. The app is only available for certain countries and currencies. Shopify’s Etsy guide also suggests submitting your sitemap to Google and writing meta descriptions for your pages.
• Social media: point the links in your profile and posts to your own store.
• Email: build your own list with a sign-up form on your site. Shopify lets you send email campaigns straight from your admin.

Think twice before adding an app for every need: each one can add its own code to your pages and slow the store down. Why is your site slow? explains how.

8. Test, then announce

Before you open, place a full order from start to finish:

• On Shopify Payments, use test mode.
• Otherwise, use Shopify’s test payment gateway, or place a real order and cancel and refund it straight away.
• Testing a payment gateway requires a paid plan.

Test a refund and a cancellation as well, and read every notification email. Try it on a phone too: product page, cart, checkout, order email. 8 ways to reduce cart abandonment covers the small obstacles that lose customers at checkout.

Finally, take the store out of private mode. While it’s private, its pages are hidden from visitors and search engines.

Where to start

This week, just measure: Etsy’s share of your visits, your cost per order, your best sellers. Open the store with those best sellers and add the rest step by step, then compare the new store with your Etsy numbers every month. Once the store is live, and before you announce it, our free 48-point inspection reviews it from speed and SEO to the checkout flow and trust signals. You’ll see the gaps before your customers do.