Pattern by Etsy: an unbiased review

Overview

Etsy sellers can create their own websites using Etsy Pattern.

Pattern by Etsy lets sellers take their existing listings from Etsy and use them on their own customized website hosted within the Etsy platform.

According to the latest 2022 statistics on Etsy, There are around 4.4 M Etsy shop owners around the world: artisans, creators, and vintage lovers in need of a place to sell their work.

But once their business has grown, they often find themselves migrating to an e-commerce platform. Why? Because it’s much more rewarding to have a customer purchase from the creator’s website rather than simply “from Etsy” or any other marketplace.

In this article, you will learn more about what Etsy Pattern is, how it works, and whether it’s worth it to use it instead of having an eCommerce platform.

What is Etsy Pattern

If you’re an online seller, who wants to improve your brand exposure and awareness, at some point, you need to consider creating a custom website. Having a custom store, allows you to communicate the brand values better, create more awareness around your brand, foster the brands’ federalization process, and, above all, keep you away from the stiff competition typical for the marketplaces’ environment.

Building your own unique site can be very beneficial in many different ways. However, choosing where to create and host your website it’s not a piece of cake, especially because you should consider all the different platforms’ pros and cons and strike a balance between them.

One of the best compromises in terms of customization, expenses, and the possibility to tap both into the built-in marketplace and Google traffic is Pattern by Etsy.

Etsy Pattern is a way you can create your customized e-commerce website. Pattern doesn’t represent a replacement of your existing Etsy store, but rather an extension of it. Indeed, all your products, inventory, and content are uploaded by Etsy to your custom store, where you’ll have the opportunity to play and give vent to your creativity, building from scratches your the e-store design and appearance.

More branding = more chances of returning customers
More returning customers = more sales in the long run

Etsy Pattern pros and cons

Let’s dive into it and learn what are the pros of using Pattern by Etsy:

1. Easy to set up. There’s no need to learn new software or attend web design sources or hire pricy web designers to help you out. Just chose the already coded template provided by Patten, customize it, and have your own site ready to use.
2. Stand out among others. Having your own design will help you to differentiate. You can create a website as unique as your brand.
3. Become more independent with your custom domain. Pattern provides you with a personalized, separate website for your business.
4. Sell all you want. With Pattern, you don’t need to be compliant with Etsys’ handmade policies anymore. You can sell anything you want.
5. Unlimited listings. There are no limitations so far. List as many products as you need.

Get access to several marketing tools to help your business flourish:

• E-mail marketing with MailChimp
• Domain purchasing and connection
• Blog and social media sharing
• Search engine optimization tools
• Facebook Pixel to create lookalike advertising campaigns

Also, on the business management side, Pattern will provide you with tools and tips for improving your performance:

1. Secure payment processing. This will make you more trustable for users.
2. Advanced website analytics, useful to improve your business statistics.
3. Help articles and support. Valuable information that will support you along the way and teach you how to use the platform.

Despite the several pros, Etsy Pattern has – of course – cons to be aware of:

1. Even though your store and inventory are connected to Etsy, your website will not appear in Etsy’s search results. Meaning that the Etsy built-in traffic won’t be driven on your Etsy Pattern website.
2. Customers need to be subscribed to Etsy to buy in your e-store.
3. A big price for a little customization. Etsy Pattern provides a limited number of coded templates compared to eCommerce platforms.

Is Pattern by Etsy worth it?

Shopify vs Etsy fees

When sellers look for an easy way to start creating their first online website, Pattern comes to play. It allows Etsy sellers to turn their shop into an online store in a very easy and intuitive way. But how much cost it? And is it worth it compared to an e-commerce platform such as Shopify?

A Pattern website is free for 30 days, then you will be charged $15.00 USD per month. You can cancel your subscription anytime.

– Listings are taken directly from the Etsy store, with no need to pay additional listing fees;
– The payment processing fee is the same as that of an Etsy shop;

Pattern by Etsy vs Shopify

Shopify vs Etsy pricing

While Etsy is a marketplace, Shopify is a popular eCommerce platform where sellers can create their online store. Shopify is provided with tons of already coded templates, that can be tailored to the needs of any vendor.

Despite a higher initial cost than Etsy, Shopify does not charge any listing fees. So you can list hundreds of listings, avoiding the $0.20 listing fee asked by Etsy for each listing published on the platform. That also asks for a 6.5% transaction fee on customer purchases.

Nevertheless, even on the cheapest Shopify $29 plan, you will additionally pay a 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee on each purchase made on the Shopify platform.

So let’s do some maths, comparing Shopify and Etsy Pattern pricing:

Let’s suppose that, at the end of the one month, you have listed 100 products and sold 10 items, priced at $15 each. How much of your initial profit will you have spent in taxes using Etsy+Pattern?

For a total profit of $150, you will subtract $20 from the listing fee, $9,75 from the transaction fee, and the $15 fixed cost of Pattern. Basically, you will pay Etsy $44,75.

And – with the same starting premises mentioned above – if you had used Shopify instead, how much would you have spent?

= ($29 + $4,35 + $3) = $36,35, you would have paid 18.7% less.

Etsy Pattern vs Shopify

Is Shopify better than Etsy

Despite Etsy Pattern’s custom website service, Etsy and Shopify are very different channels.

Indeed, Etsy is a marketplace with a built-in audience where customers search and buy products by comparing hundreds of different seller offers. While Shopify, on the other hand, is an eCommerce platform where sellers can create their own store by leveraging their brand without having to compete with other retailers.

Whether this difference may be unremarkable for the consumer’s shopping experience side, from the sellers’ side, the implications of using a marketplace instead of an eCommerce platform are relevant and have a lot of implications:

Marketplaces already have a built-in online system for selling and purchasing. As a seller, all you need to do is load in bulk your products, optimize your listings, and Etsy will feature your products in its search results.

Because of their trustworthiness, marketplaces are commonly used as purchase venues:

• They are ranked up in Google search results
• Their trustworthiness increases the willingness to buy online.
• Provides marketing tools that allow sellers to get closer to consumers (sponsorships, advertising, etc)

On the other hand, asks you to pay a variety of fees in exchange for all of those services and selling opportunities, fees that, in the long run, affect your profits.

eCommerce platforms offer a pretty different service. They allow you to

• Build your website from scratches
• Customize the look and feel of your store, to foster your brand identity
• Pay fees less listing fees compared to marketplaces.

Nevertheless, the other side of the coin of using eCommerce platforms is sellers will need to drive traffic on their own, building their customer basis as their marketing strategies.

So, now you know all the pros and cons of using eCommerce platforms, like Etsy and Shopify.

Lets’ sum up:

Etsy has a built-in customer base and is perfect for selling online, and Shopify has a great website automatization and gives its users access to valuable tools and features. The strategy of using both Etsy and Shopify can be very beneficial for your brand.

It can create more awareness around your brand and, eventually, grow your sales.

More than that, instead of using the limited Etsy Pattern feature you can open your Shopify store and sell both on Shopify and Etsy, with Nembol.

Nembol will help you to link, list, and sync inventory across Etsy and Shopify (and other integrated channels).
This will save you a lot of time and effort, which can be spent on something more enjoyable, like hiking in the mountains, spending some quality time with your family, or enjoying a weekend in the countryside.

Etsy Patterns alternative for small business

Nembol has recently released new features for Easy Website, the best eCommerce website for small businesses.

With Easy Website, all Nembol users can freely access several features and can automatically generate a simple website that collects all the multichannel products imported into Nembol.

With Easy Website you can:

• Have a custom domain
• Sell on Telegram and Whatsapp
• Gather all your products in one place
• And more!

Do it smoothly with Nembol.