Etsy & Big Cartel

{image by papermichelle}

After a few months of hemming & hawing about whether I should establish  a “stand alone” shop, I have finally taken the plunge! I don’t know what took me so long now that I see how easy it  is using Big Cartel. Big Cartel provides a simple format for setting up your own independent store for selling your goods on-line.

Don’t get me wrong, I love etsy! I love how I was able to easily set up shop among so many other AMAZING shops.  However, that is wonderful and not so wonderful at the same time. Etsy is so huge now that you can easily get lost in the ever-growing sea of etsy shops. Trying to maintain my wee little shop on the first few pages in their search was getting quite costly to say the least. But in that same breath, etsy is tops for exposure. I’ve had so many wonderful people find me through etsy & for that I am extremely grateful. Etsy also has a strong sense of community & tons of helpful information to help you grow your online business. For those reasons I will certainly continue my relationship with etsy.

So why set up my own independent shop? In my desire to grow my business it just felt like the right time to branch off a bit in my own direction. With etsy I was starting to feel just like an extension of etsy and not necessarily my own shop. Does that make sense?  Granted, with establishing your own independent shop this means promoting & bringing the customers to you. Promoting & marketing is one of my favorite things to do, so for me this is ok.

One of the biggest positives of using Big Cartel is that it will allow me to further customize & brand my shop the way I want to. Yes, you do have to learn how to play with html codes to really be able to customize your site. However, I have found some excellent online sites that allow you to literally cut & paste the code you need right into your site. Once again, I also love learning how to design my own site so this is fun for me. If this isn’t for you, and you have the budget, there are plenty of web designers that could also help you.

The biggest “perk” of having  my own independent shop is that I won’t have some of the fees associated with my etsy shop. This means that  I will be able to pass along those savings to my customers :)

So that’s it in a nutshell. Just me needing to spread my wings a bit. Just me venturing into the next level of this ever evolving creative journey that I adore!

I’d love to hear your input about etsy, big cartel or maybe another venue you might be using for your online shop. Also, if you have been thinking about taking your next level & want to chat about it, or need a little supportive push, feel free to contact me. :)

{note: Until I can get everything listed & all the kinks worked out on my big cartel site you will notice  two shop links : “my etsy” shop and “the shop”. I’m hoping to have the link to my big cartel site all set up over the next couple of weeks which will take the place of the etsy link.}

~create, love & inspire!~