How Much Does It Cost to Sell on Etsy?

If you have been painting now for a little while and had some successes, you might be looking to sell some of your art and crafts to turn into some extra cash so you can buy more materials. Or if you’ve painted a lot and made some awesome artworks maybe you are aiming higher and looking to add to your household income with your art sales. Either way, you will need a platform to sell your art, and many artists and crafters choose Etsy. But how much does it cost to sell on Etsy?

How much does it cost to sell on Etsy. What are the Etsy fees for sellers This article sets out all the fees, several examples and gives new stores 40 free listings too!

How Much Does it Cost to Sell on Etsy?

There are several fees for listing and selling your art or other crafts and supplies on Etsy. It’s important to understand that Etsy Charges you fees on the total transaction amount, including shipping.

1 – Listing Fee: For every item that you add to your store, there is a flat fee of 20 cents. The item is live in your store for 4 months unless it sells earlier. If the item isn’t sold, the listing can be renewed for another 4 months for an additional 20 cents. Keep in mind that if you sell multiple items on the same listing, you will be charged 20 cents for each unit sold.

2 -Transaction Fees: Etsy charges 5% of the total transaction value, including shipping. This means that if you sell an item for $10 and your shipping charge is $3, you will pay 5% of $13, or 65 cents.

3 – Etsy Payments Fees: Once you make a sale, your buyers are going to need to pay you. While you can arrange to have them mail you a check, most buyers are going to prefer to pay online via their credit card. This is where Etsy Payments comes in. In the USA, Etsy Payments charges 3% of the total transaction value (including shipping), plus a 25 cent flat rate charge. In most of Europe, the charge is 4% plus 30 cents. You can consult the charges for your country here. If Etsy payments aren’t available in your country, then you can receive payment via Paypal, which charges a similar fee.

4 – Currency Conversion. If you list your items in a currency other than the bank account where you receive your payments, accept then Etsy will make a 2.5% charge for currency conversion when they make payment to your bank account. For example, you list your paintings in USD but you have a Pounds Sterling Bank account in the UK.

How much does it cost to sell on Etsy. What are the Etsy fees for sellers This article sets out all the fees, several examples and gives new stores 40 free listings too!

An Example of Etsy Selling Fees

If you listed a painting on Etsy and sold it for $50 plus shipping of $10, then the fees would be calculated as follows:

  • Listing fee: 20 cents
  • Etsy Transaction Fee: 5% of $60 (including shipping) = $3
  • Etsy Payment Fee: 25 cents plus 3% of $60 = $2.05 ($1.8 + $0.25)
  • TOTAL FEES = $5.25 (11% of the $50 price of the painting)

If you listed a smaller painting for only $15 plus $5 in shipping, then the fees would be:

  • Listing fee: 20 cents
  • Etsy Transaction Fee: 5% of $20 (including shipping) = $1.00
  • Etsy Payment Fee: 25 cents plus 3% of $20 = $0.85 ($0.60 + $0.25)
  • TOTAL FEES = $2.05 (almost 14% of the price of $15 painting)

As you can see, because of the listing fee and Etsy Payment fees include flat fees, the fee percentages are slightly higher on lower priced items.

On a related note, this is why finding your happy price as an artist is so essential prior to whichever online store you choose.

Should you choose Etsy for your online store?

With so many options available today, including Shopify and E-Bay, many people ask if they should use Etsy for selling their art. Here are some of the reasons why Etsy is still a good option:

  • The marketplace is already well established and thousands of people shop there every day for ‘crafty’ and ‘artsy’ items and gifts.
  • But competition is fierce, there are a lot of sellers, so you need to do more than just list and run if you want to be really successful.
  • Etsy stores can often come up well in search results if you use the right terms and tags in your listings.
  • It’s easy to set up and run the store. You will need to add a credit card to pay your fees and then you can have your first item listed and ready for sale in just a few minutes.
  • Fees are minimal unless you make any sales which is a better option than many of the other sales platforms where you have to pay a fixed monthly fee for your store even if you sell nothing.

You would do best by setting up the store and then publicizing it to send traffic to your store through your social media, business cards, and friends and family. Run the store as if it were your own website, promote it yourself, make it look good with great photos and graphics. If you just set it up and leave it, then you will struggle to be found.

How much does it cost to sell on Etsy All the fees explained plus a special offer for setting up your store for free

I had my first sale within 24 hours of setting up my own Etsy Store. I mentioned the new store on my social media and a colleague of my husband saw the post, went to the store, and contacted me to buy a painting. I was so happy!  It really made my day.

If at this point Etsy still doesn’t feel worth it to you, read how to get your art noticed online to learn how to boost your presence on other platforms you are probably already using.

Special offer – list 40 items for free!

I’m delighted to be able to offer you a special offer. Sign up using my special offer link from Etsy below and you will be able to list your first 40 items for FREE. So you can set up your shop, list your art or any other crafts you have, and give it a trial for 4 full months for no charge at all (unless you make a sale of course – selling fees will still apply).  Go for it, show your art off to the world, and fingers crossed you make some sales and can buy more paints  ðŸ™‚

Etsy store button

Now that we’ve covered how to sell your art on Etsy, take a look at our article about How to Sell Your Art on Facebook Shops. Facebook Shops are a great alternative to Etsy to consider when selling your art online.

13 thoughts on “How Much Does It Cost to Sell on Etsy?”

  1. Thanks for this article – very informative. I’m curious how people handle shipping in a cost-effective manner. I recently shipped some paintings to my son using UPS and it was pretty costly. Seems like the shipping could be almost as much as the price of the painting.

    1. Ginny,
      I had the same thing happen. I mailed two pieces of artwork, one valued at $20 and the other at $45. Cost to ship one to Florida and the other locally cost $68. I made 0. I’ve asked the same question, how can we mail artwork at a reasonable price.

  2. Ginny,
    I exactly have the same question as to how to ship big paintings as it comes out so costly.
    Any ideas then please share.
    Thanks
    Bijal

    1. “You don’t need talent to become a pouring artist.” Um, excuse me, not only is that an insult to pouring artists, it isn’t true. You DO need talent. There’s an enormous amount of bad “modern art” out there and the difference between something of value and random spills is real. It doesn’t take much experience before one knows the difference. If you want to just spill some paint on a canvas and then claim “everything is art” that’s fine. I recall a similar scenario from my kindergarten class. But it’s not doing the genre or yourself any favors and this idea of the “instant artist” is rotten. It’s flooding the field with bad art and giving pouring art a “anybody can do it” reputation.

  3. Great info. Can you expound on how shipping works on Etsy? Should you try to figure out things were taking them to UPS or the post office or doing the AutoShip option? Thanks

  4. The most expensive thing about Etsy is the marketing fees. If you don’t market you will probably never be seen by most people. If you market your work and go with the low dollar rates such as one or two $ still the chances are slim. Etsy brags they only charge you if a person visits your site due to their ads but the cost for your marketing adds up fast. Say you do sell from an Etsy ad, you may have spent $50 in that month on advertising, or course plus their other charges for the sale of the painting. The only people who do well financially are those who sell items in volume. For example I sell keychains. My price point is low, say $5 or so but I sell 100 keychains a month and spend $50-100 a month on advertising. Lots of people see my product but I still make money. Well, you get the idea.

  5. Yeah, you are correct here. Playing smartly and tactically in Kanvas are vital for selling your home faster, and most people will agree with my statement here. There’s nothing controversial about it.

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