Etsy vs eBay – Which Platform is best for sellers in 2021?

It was a beautiful summer evening, and I was hanging out with my friends. One of my friends expressed his idea of selling his raincoat – with batman theme – that he designed himself and asked me to suggest a platform from Etsy or eBay to sell this item.

That’s where the dilemma of selling on Etsy vs eBay struck my head.

So, I realize how about evaluating both platforms on some premises to find out the most conducive answer to this question.

P.S. My friend is still waiting for my answer: D

Etsy vs eBay: What is the difference?

The biggest difference between Etsy and eBay is the product that sells on these platforms that delineates the audience who come on these platforms.

What to sell on eBay?

eBay is the platform that work for any product to sell on this platform, including new, old, wholesale, handmade, vintage, and many other items. It has fixed as well as auction-based pricing. That means it is not necessarily a fixed price for every product, and sometimes the buyer has to bid a price for a particular item. So, if your product falls into multiple categories, then this is an ideal platform for you.

What to sell on Etsy?

Etsy is the ideal platform to sell handmade, antiques, and unique items. This platform has a persona of creativity that carries a creative vibe, which attracts a specific niche that are more likely to possess these kinds of eccentric goods. Content creators who make creative products or deal in these kinds of items Etsy is the best platform for them to sell their products.

I could not agree more when I found that it is the second-largest platform for content creators.

Source: Statista

Etsy is more focused on individual items. If you have a flair of creativeness that you can add in your product that could easily attract a particular niche, then your product could quickly become one of the best-selling items on Etsy.

How to Choose Best Marketplaces for yourself?

Putting first thing first, find out the profitable niche, you have to figure out that the niche you are about to penetrate would give you any fruitful results or not?

After that, find out the product that fits best for your niche audience. Once you have the niche, audience, and product, then you should understand the marketplace where you can find the best audience for your products.

Etsy and eBay both platforms have their own unique audience for that you have to understand several factors to select the best marketplace for your business.

Etsy vs eBay: Types of Buyer

There is a significant difference in the psyche of the buyer from both marketplaces.

The Etsy Buyer

They are looking for something creative and unique that cannot be available easily on any other platform or in large volumes. Usually, these buyers are looking for the product for their own use or want to add in their collection.

The eBay Buyer

They are usually looking for a general product that they can find at a reasonable price compared to any other marketplace.

So, if you have a much specific niche that you can easily target with the right product, then you probably go for Etsy where you can easily find your type of buyer.

Etsy Vs eBay: Seller Tools

eBay Seller Tools

eBay, as a general marketplace, provides multiple tools to its seller for business optimization. Once you completed the first 10 sales, eBay offers a seller dashboard to track the performance of eBay store. You can analyze customer satisfaction by analyzing your store rating and add improvement in the required areas.

Also, eBay offers multiple sellers tools to make the selling functions comprehensive that includes,

Seller Hub – Helps to optimize the business and management

Selling Manager tools – Helps to manage, create and monitor the product listing

Selling templates – Helps to ease the process of product listing

Find out how using listing templates can help simplify the listing creation process.

Promotions Manager – For store subscriber, it helps to create promotions to target potential buyers.

Find out more information about eBay seller tools here.

Etsy Seller Tools

On the other hand, Etsy does not offer any tool to optimize the selling process. However, Etsy gets the advantage of easy to use that even does not require any in-depth knowledge of the ecommerce sector to sell on this platform.

These seller tools make eBay an excellent platform for professional online sellers.

Etsy vs eBay: Seller Fees

Let’s analyze the seller fees of both platforms.

Selling on eBay Fees

The fees of eBay depend on either you buy a store or not, the store subscription fee is not necessary to sell on eBay. Here is the monthly and yearly renewal fee of the eBay store.

These fees depend on the plan you choose for your store and payment duration (monthly or yearly).

In case, if you do not buy a store plan, then you only have to pay the insertion fees. An insertion fee is charged on per item listing. The sellers can list up to 100 listings per month in the range of $0.01 – $0.99 free; if the listing exceeds 100, then $0.10 will be charged per listing. The fess for the different listing price is as follows.

There is also a final value fee that is varied for fixed price and auction price. You can check the detail list of eBay pricing here.

Selling on Etsy Fees

There is no monthly fee or yearly plan to sell on this platform. However, Etsy charges $0.20 listing fee and a 3.5% commission fee on the selling of an item. (the listing fee is valid for up to 4 months or until the items are sold). Also, there is a 5% transaction fee on payments.

It has been quite clear in terms of sellers fees eBay charges are more complex compare to how much Etsy charge which seems to be pretty comprehensive and reasonable platform.

Related Articles:

How to Sell on Etsy
15 Best Things to Sell on eBay

Conclusion

After analyzing both platforms, I have decided to suggest my friend Etsy platform as he is selling his own handmade Batman theme raincoat.

However, these marketplaces’ preferences are highly dependent on some factors that make one of them a perfect platform for some users.

Here is my final wording on why you should choose to sell on Etsy vs eBay.

Why eBay?

If you are a professional seller, who wants to sell the product in bulk quantity and want to sell a generic product in the large market with competitive prices, then eBay is an ideal market for your product.

Why Etsy?

If you are content creator, an artist or even like to deal in the artistic and creative product, then you will find the perfect audience on the Etsy platform. It is very simple to use that does not require much knowledge of the ecommerce market, just novelty in product and the right audience targeting.

So, if you are still confused to choose between Etsy or eBay feel free to comment down below or join our Facebook community to become a part 5000+ ecommerce enthusiasts.