When you’re planning to take your business online - no matter how big or small, the very first step is to identify the eCommerce platform you’d like to use. One of the questions we often come across is whether one should use Etsy or set up an online store on Shopify.
Unbiased, our answer is often Shopify. The reason being that it gives businesses a platform to not just set up their store online, but also ensure they can scale in the coming future.
As a growth-focused eCommerce agency, it comes as a priority for us to help the brands we work with to get set for the future. And not just the present.
So we are sharing why we nudge brands to choose Shopify as their eCommerce platform alternative to Etsy.
In case you’ve set up your store on Etsy already, don’t worry. This blog will also answer how you can migrate from Etsy to Shopify.
Why should you migrate from Etsy to Shopify?
If you go online and look for reasons to choose Shopify as an alternative to Etsy, you’re going to find plenty of them. We’ve picked out and explained those that should matter to you as an online business owner.
1. Shopify gives your brand an exclusive space to set up an online store
Etsy is an online marketplace where you can join a community of people to make, sell, buy and collect unique items from across the world. On the platform, you’re essentially sharing the space with a number of sellers at any given time.
Shopify, on the other hand, gives you the ability to set up a full-fledged online store for your brand, that is exclusive to you. You’re not sharing the space with any other seller or competing with them for consumer attention.
2. Shopify has bigger and better eCommerce capabilities than Etsy
Etsy was built to enable sellers across the world to get online, share their work and reach their audience. Pretty much in a similar fashion as social media or even Facebook shops, with the added capability of receiving and making online payments.
Shopify, on the other hand, was built keeping in mind an eCommerce business model. So every feature that the platform offers is associated with making it easy to run an online store. Everything is tailored to the needs of an online business.
We have listed some of the reasons to choose Shopify, much in detail here: Why Shopify?
3. Shopify equips you with all the apps you need for running your business
One big difference between Shopify and Etsy is the added capabilities that the former offers. Shopify does this with a host of apps that enable an online store to customize the look and feel of their site (adding popups, announcement bars, etc), manage inventory better, or even set up marketing campaigns that help them increase sales, and more, to a name a few.
The Shopify apps are plug-and-play solutions that make it easier for store owners and marketers to experiment with different strategies to grow their business online. There’s an app for everything you can think of!
Etsy on the other hand is a marketplace. It does not let you add any additional features or capabilities to your account, as it is a shared platform with others. So the features you get are the same as those that the others do.
Did you know that Shopify has over 4k apps that help you do everything from marketing to printing and more? In fact, it has thousand of eCommerce experts (us included) to help you set up your store online and put these apps to use.
Want to know if we’re telling the truth? Check out the app store here.
4. Shopify enables a higher level of customizations than Etsy
Shopify’s eCommerce platform offers endless possibilities when it comes to customizing your online store. Whether or not you know how to code, you can make your online store look and feel absolutely exclusive to your brand.
For instance, if you’re a non-coder, you can find a free or a paid theme for your Shopify store. The theme will then offer easy-to-make customizations that you can do to give your site an exclusive look.
And if you do know how to code, Shopify gives you the flexibility to develop the site as per your needs.
Etsy, on the other hand, only lets you upload your products onto a set framework they have in place. It gives lower customization capabilities and the features available are common to all the sellers.
5. Shopify enables better search engine optimization than Etsy
60% of consumers begin their online shopping journey from the search engine. But ranking on search is tougher than you think. You need to ensure your product descriptions include the right keywords, your images are well-optimized and most importantly your online store site URLs are crawlable.
When you set up a Shopify store, most of this is taken care of - especially in terms of the URL structure of your website. On top of that, you can make use of Shopify apps to optimize your product listings, images, and more.
On Etsy though, the URL structure is what the entire platform follows. It only gives you the ability to add keywords in the product description.
Also, Shopify’s prompt 301 redirects are also very powerful as compared to those of Etsy; for times when you have changed the product name.
6. Shopify supports a wider range of Payment Gateways
A whopping 35% of online shoppers will abandon a purchase on not finding a preferred payment gateway on the store.
Shopify provides a much wider range of payment gateway options with integrations with over 100 external gateways (third-party processors that process payment transactions) to help you tackle this easily. So your customers will always have plenty of payment options available to them.
Moreover, the addition of dynamic checkout buttons makes Shopify a preferred choice compared to Etsy, which uses WorldPay to accept credit card payments and PayPal guest checkout.
Dynamic checkout allows users to choose payment via Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Paypal on the product pages themselves. Let’s just say, Shopify is more established to suit the modern consumer’s online shopping expectations.
Check out all the payment gateways that Shopify supports here.
7. Shopify supports more marketing and sales channels than Etsy
Every online store leverages marketing to promote its products, attract more customers, and build its brand. Shopify’s built-in marketing and sales channels help online store owners reach their audience faster.
Integration with Google tracking ID and Facebook pixel makes Shopify a favorite for larger brands looking to market their products on a large scale. On the other hand, Etsy offers no such feature, resulting in you tackling marketing all on your own.
Shopify also offers integrations with sales channels such as Etsy, Facebook, Instagram, and others so that it becomes easier for you to list your products on multiple platforms. Etsy lacks this ability.
Explore all the sales channels that Shopify lets you tap into here.
Reason enough to migrate from Etsy to Shopify? We know you’re convinced.
So now let’s get to work.
How to migrate from Etsy to Shopify
Step 1: Export your store data from Etsy
Begin with exporting your product data from Etsy by following these steps:
- From your Etsy account dashboard, go to Settings > Options > Download Data
- Under Currently for Sale Listings, click Download CSV. A CSV file containing your product data is saved to your computer
Next, export your customer and order data from your Etsy account by following these steps:
- From your Etsy account dashboard, go to Settings > Options > Download Data
- Under Orders, select Orders as the CSV type to download the file
- If you want to download order data for an entire year or more, then select the same; or mention the month and year you want the data of
- Click Download CSV
Your next step needs to be to export your order items data from Etsy. You can do this by following these steps:
- From your Etsy account dashboard, go to the Shop Manager
- Click Settings > Options > Download Data
- Under Orders, select Order Items as the CSV type to download
- Select the time span for which you want to download data
- Click Download CSV
If you’re not sure how to go about exporting your data from Etsy and fear losing it in the process, you can reach out to us for help.
Step 2: Import your store data into Shopify
After you have all your data downloaded from Etsy in the form of CSV files, you need to import them into Shopify.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
- From your Shopify admin, click Apps > Store Importer
- On the Import your data into Shopify page, select Etsy from the drop-down menu you’re shown
- In the Upload Files section, click Add file and select the exported files in CSV format
- Click Continue import > Import
- Under Upload files, click Add file and select the exported files
- Click Continue import > Import
Step 3: Sign up on Shopify to create a store
Now that you’ve completed your data export out of Etsy, the next step is to create a new store in Shopify before migrating your store data into it.
Sign up for Shopify and create your development store where you can prepare everything for your new site and choose how it’ll look and behave.
Once you’ve set up your development store properly, take your time to adjust all settings before you get started with importing your store data.
Step 4: Review and update your imported data
Once your data import is successfully complete, your product, customer, and order data should be available on the Shopify admin dashboard.
At this stage, you should review all the data imported to identify the missing pieces. If you feel some of your data hasn’t been imported successfully, you can add it to Shopify manually. Here are two links to help you with the same:
You can see more details of the behavior you might see while importing your Etsy data into Shopify here.
We recommend reaching out to a Shopify expert to help you migrate from Etsy to Shopify to ensure you don’t lose any data in the process.
Step 5: Import data on top of an existing import
If you’ve missed out on something in your previous import, then you can import your store data again on top of your existing import.
You can do so by clicking Start new import.
If the new import contains products that are already within your Shopify store, then the matching products are not imported; so you don’t have to worry about that!
Step 6: Delete incomplete store data input
If your data import contains incomplete items, you must remove the entries and try fresh new data import again.
Completely delete your existing imported data before you try another import in this case.
On the Import complete page, choose Delete Import. Once the delete is complete, click Start new import to start another import.
And you’re all set with an exclusive domain for your brand on Shopify!
Should you be migrating to Shopify?
Etsy is a wonderful platform for professional services and artistic websites due to its community-like functioning. It’s a great place to start out, especially if you want to get inspired by others and wish to start small to test out if your products really do sell.
However, if you’re scaling your eCommerce business, Shopify is a better option for you.
Owing to its expansive functionalities enabled by thousands of apps and an easy-to-use dashboard, Shopify gives you more room to grow - without having to compete for consumer attention as on Etsy’s marketplace.
But the transition from Etsy to Shopify is a tough process and can even put your store data at risk of loss if not done properly. So take your time, reach out to a Shopify expert to help you through the process.
Know the pros and cons of both platforms before you make a decision because one is a marketplace and the other is giving you an eCommerce platform to set up your own site.
If you’re not sure Shopify suits all your current and upcoming needs? You can reach out to us for a consultation here.