Why I Closed My Etsy Shop After 9 Years

With 12,039 Sales on Etsy since 2009 one might think I'm cray cray to leave that selling platform but here's why it's the smartest move I'll ever make for my brand.

Starting a business takes a ton of work especially when you are the one making the items, setting up a website, payment processing and shipping procedures... so when Etsy was becoming so popular in the early years of '06-'09 and was going to be bringing a shop free traffic (for the most part) one would be silly not to take advantage. So we signed up!

My main "MADEforMEshop" Etsy Business (I've had a couple over the years!) grew our brand just like we had wanted and hoped. My business partner and I were getting orders all over the country and growing at a steady rate until we weren't.  It was getting harder and harder to differentiate our products and brand from other shop owners selling the same thing.

Facebook wasn't a hip community as it is today and we felt we couldn't connect well with our clients, and grow fast enough using just the Etsy platform so we also had an online merchant shop thru GoDaddy that we set up for our online children's clothing boutique. A BIG downfall for using Etsy is the lack of having buyers emails and contact info readily available to download and use for email marketing. The emails we grabbed from our online shop were HUGE for getting clients to re-purchase. 

Fast forward a few years and we closed the clothing business but I used that same Etsy Shop to sell children's headbands and bows when my two girls were babies... then as my passion for creative design kept growing the shop transformed into personalized invitations, notecards, business cards and more printed items.

When I started my personalized items is when I saw the most sales I'd ever had on the platform ... but with higher sales meant many, many more hours of ME manually designing and personalizing every birthday, retirement, and party invite in Photoshop as the orders rolled in... let's just say, when you LOVE creative design and all your time is spent personalizing designs with name, date, location instead of DESIGNING new ones... it kills that love real quick.

Although my clients LOVED their end product, I knew something needed to change for me. So I started converting all my invitations to a Templett Program where they can be edited EASILY by my clients and they own the template to use over and over again! YAY! Win-Win for me and them. 

By the time my invitation debacle was being solved I had already started growing my new online web store in 2017 - LifewithPurpose.Shop - using Shopify. Loading the new shop with the best selling items from my Etsy Shop... then adding new products and more new products on the new shop. I was capturing emails when clients hopped on the site, using Facebook and Instagram to grow my brand following and feeling very happy again that I was able to spend time DESIGNING new products.

After a year of growing my brand and online shop presence... the time came... Etsy had to go. Not only because it's a pain to manage two online shops and try to get your products on both platforms, keep up with Etsy conversations and custom requests (ok, that right may have done it for me! lol)... but there's just something powerful about having your own BRAND and SHOP! Oh, and the fact that in 2017 Etsy was now controlling what payment types clients could use during checkout as they introduced their own "Etsy Payments" and rid their sites of the ever popular PayPal, which I use most.

I mean, I've worked REAL hard and consistently to develop Life with Purpose by Kristin Korn ....and to only be known for an "Etsy shop" is a real buzz killer. It hit me again recently while at a local sports game and a girl asked me "do you still have your Etsy Shop?" ... that sealed the deal for me. I don't want to be known for an Etsy Shop... there are thousands of sellers ok with that... but for me I want a unique brand that people the know the owner of... one that I know the faces of my clients ... one that is a brand not just a shop.

In my 9+ years I've made incredible life-long friends across the globe with clients on Etsy... the ones who truly cared about me, appreciated my talent and understood my deep passion for my brand.  I've even seen them convert to purchasing from Etsy over to my online shop and even become affiliates for my shop.

But the other downfall of these third party platforms, is that people can be downright rude and hide behind their username. I first noticed it when selling on Ebay years ago. It puts me in such a bad mental place when I have to deal with these types of customers... because I really would hope that if they walked into an actual store, they wouldn't talk to a company owner the same way they type their aggravations into a text box. 

But in the end... it's my ultimate decision to do what's best, easiest, convenient and focused for my brand and the purpose behind who I'm targeting.

Etsy, it's been a great ride... but it's time I take this train on my own track where I can control more variety and give my clients a way better shopping platform. One where I can grow my business at a faster rate, allow them to connect with me - Kristin Korn - and I know their NAME. 

I can follow their own life and journey on social media and have a real connection with them. 

So if you were one of my Etsy clients... I THANK YOU! The same items you've loved over the years are still available ... just on a new platform ... 

Good Bye. "Etsy Shop"

Hello. "Life with Purpose Shop"

... where you know the owner, her family and follow her life on social media.

Owner, Creative Designer of Life with Purpose Shop