Etsy®¹ is an extremely popular platform in the UK and internationally, for individual sellers offering hand made, unique and crafted items, as well as digital and vintage products. Etsy sellers include professionals who make all their money through this platform, hobbyists who simply want a way to showcase their art, and individuals looking to make a side income through a smaller Etsy store.
If you’re looking for business ideas for Etsy this guide has you covered. We’ll walk through 20 of the most popular ideas for an Etsy shop, and also introduce Wise Business as a smart way to get paid on Etsy, in a broad selection of currencies.
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Before we get into ideas of what to sell on Etsy let’s start with the Etsy rules and categories. Etsy aims to connect customers with creators, as well as to offer a marketplace for onward sale of vintage items and craft supplies. Here’s how Etsy defines these categories²:
- Hand made- must be made by you as a seller, can not be a resale of something made by others
- Vintage items- genuine vintage products which are at least 20 years old
- Craft supplies - includes party supplies and items designed for special occasions
Generally items sold on Etsy must be available in a physical form, even where the item itself is delivered digitally. For example, many Etsy businesses offer personalised downloadable products like party invitations or CVs - these are acceptable under Etsy’s policies as they can then be printed at home by the end customer.
Deciding what to sell through your small business on Etsy depends a lot on your personal interests, and how much time you’re planning to invest. You’ll need to firstly make sure any ideas you come up with fall within Etsy’s policies, and also you’ll want to consider the practicalities of shipping and delivery - dispatching a digital product is always going to be easier than shipping an item of furniture, for example.
After that it’s best to consider your own personal interests and strengths, to make sure you pick something that’s both profitable and fun. We’ve got 20 great ideas coming up shortly to kickstart your research.
Learn more about how to sell on Etsy here
Etsy is huge in the UK, with some 30% of Etsy sellers reported to be UK based³. Unsurprisingly, there are also lots of tools out there to help you analyse the market to pick your niche, including details of UK top selling categories and individual stores.
At the time of writing, the UK Etsy best selling stores include⁴:
- Twist Stationery - paper/party/wedding supplies
- Hooray days - paper/party/wedding supplies, home and living
- Amy Lucy Designs - bath and beauty, home
- Pixel Perfection Party - paper/party/wedding supplies
- Hoolaroo - home and living, toys and games
As you can see, the top sellers are from a fairly diverse range of categories - tools also exist to allow you to dig deeper and look at top sellers across a specific category, which can be handy once you’ve narrowed down your niche and want to check out the competition. To help get you started, let’s look at 20 top Etsy business ideas for 2023.
Read more: Etsy UK fees explained: complete guide for 2023
To make it easier to assess your options, we’ve split out Etsy shop ideas by a few different key categories:
- Crafted and hand made items
- Craft supplies
- Vintage
- Digital items
We’ve covered just a handful of popular Etsy business ideas in each category, but the reality is that there’s an immense range of opportunity on Etsy, so if you can imagine it, the chances are you can sell it. Use this guide to get your creative juices flowing, and you could have your Etsy UK shop set up in no time.
Many Etsy stores act as a way of connecting creators to their customers worldwide - so let’s start with Etsy craft ideas from across some popular categories.
Unique and hand crafted jewellery is hugely popular on Etsy, with creators around the UK offering everything from earrings, necklaces, rings, and more. Jewellery has the advantage of being relatively small and light, making shipping more straightforward, so if you’re an aspiring creator with a talent for metalwork, beading or similar, this could be a great angle.
While accessories are available across numerous categories on Etsy, hair accessories and bows seem to be particularly popular with customers. Items like headbands, hair ties and bows, as well as hats, fascinators and wraps, can be unique and personal to the customer, making them a hit with anyone who wants to wear something nobody else has.
If you’re handy with a sewing machine, there’s plenty you can do on Etsy, including unique clothing items which could be intended for a special occasion or for individuals creating their own style. Etsy features clothing for women, men, kids and babies, so whatever you’re good at there’s probably a niche. You can also sell shoes, such as painted canvas trainers.
Artists use Etsy to showcase their work across everything from paintings and digital work, to sculpture and large impactful pieces. Canvas art is popular on Etsy as a way for customers to really stamp their mark on their home or personal space. Items available run from abstract art to fantasy images, to realism and personalised art products which are made to order.
Many Etsy purchases are bought as gifts - and toys, including hand crafted, sustainable and educational toys are a good option for those looking for a present for a new baby or a child. Handmade toys which are personalised, such as a unique soft toy or puzzle, are sold alongside wooden items, books and more.
Not a creator yourself? No problem. Another angle to look at is craft supplies - a category which is supported on Etsy to help creators get the things they need to produce their goods.
Many paper items feature on Etsy, including origami, card making and stamping products. You can buy items in bulk from suppliers on online channels, and resell on Etsy to build your Etsy business. Party items can also be sold, which means the options here are pretty endless.
Beading - from professional jewellery makers using beads, though to bead type toys for kids developing their fine motor skills - is a popular area on Etsy. Not only is this a diverse category, beads and connected items such as the jewellery making supplies needed for finishing beadwork, are light, small and easy to post.
Both the physical accessories needed to make a sewn item, such as zips, buttons and thread, and digital items like patterns and instruction books can be sold on Etsy. In fact, sewing accessories can even fit into the vintage category, so if you have some retro items to sell on, this is also an option.
Candles are a popular crafted item available to buy on Etsy - but the supplies needed to make candles from scratch are also available. Candle making is a pretty accessible craft which means it’s a hobby for lots of people, and the supplies needed can be bought in bulk for resale through Etsy for a profit.
In keeping with the paper goods category, one oher niche worth mentioning is scrapbooking and journaling. Again a super popular hobby, enthusiasts look for unique books, pens, stamps and more, as well as ideas and templates to inspire their own work.
To be sold on Etsy, vintage items must be at least 20 years old, and can not be reproductions. Let’s walk through some of the popular subcategories for Etsy businesses specialising in vintage goods.
Vintage clothing lets people create their own style - and as an Etsy seller you can use this as an avenue to sell on items you’ve got at home or that you’ve thrifted. Clothing can be for any age, and is light and easy to ship, with little chance of it being damaged in transit.
Art and collectibles is a huge Etsy category, and again spans a very broad range. From classic art items, through to collectible kids toys and retro home furnishings, it’s an area you can let your imagination run wild. If you have an eye for a unique look, this may be the Etsy business idea for you.
Coins and stamps, both as bulk items and as presentation pieces for gifts, are popular on Etsy vintage stores. Coins can be selected from a specific birth year, and packaged to be given as a birthday present, increasing their resale value - while stamps have often got beautiful, interesting and eye catching art work which can again be made into a unique gifting item.
All sorts of vintage accessories are offered on Etsy, such as hair items and hats. Pick the items you sell with a mind to their ease of shipping, and this can be a lucrative way to turn a thrifting hobby into a money making side hustle.
Many crafters buying on Etsy are looking for something pretty unique, so vintage is a natural category to turn to. You’ll find a huge range of options to download vintage patterns for sewing, crochet and knitting, so customers can create their own new-retro clothing to their personal taste.
Our final key category is Etsy shop ideas focused on digital and downloadable items. Generally items you sell need to have a link back to a physical product - so products customers can print at home are ideal.
If you’re a graphic designer with an eye for sleek and usable design, you’ll find customers looking for planners, journals, diaries, calendars and similar, which can be downloaded at home for printing and use. Some items are custom made for individual client needs, which can further increase their selling price.
Maybe you’re not so much the creative type, but you’ve got a goo idea for a downloadable tool others can use, such as budgeting pages and guides. Etsy stores currently sell things like budget pages you can download to Google Sheets, which come with prefilled categories and instructions to help customers tailor their own tools to their needs.
Special occasions call for special invites, and Etsy is full of designers selling invitations for weddings, birthday parties and other events. Generally these are either templates you can complete yourself, or a higher end custom made piece where the client can more fully specify the design needed.
If you’ve got some abilities in digital design and if you’re confident in modern CV and resume requirements, selling professional CV templates may be a good avenue. Different industries and different career stages lend themselves to different CV designs, so there’s the option to have a broad range of products which customers can then fill in for themselves.
Our final idea for an Etsy business is to stick with custom made items which can be digitally downloaded by customers. These could be more or less anything, from photo art and line drawings, to business logos and badges - but they all have the advantages of being pretty high margin with no shipping costs or delay.
Once you’ve started making sales, it’s time to work out how to get paid on Etsy. Generally, this will involve using Etsy payments, which lets customers pay securely, before passing on the funds to your linked bank account or card⁵.
Depending on where you’re selling, and which currency your linked bank account or card is in, you may find you have to pay a fee for currency conversion. One way to minimise the costs involved in selling across currencies, is to use a service like Wise Business to receive, hold, exchange, send and spend in a broad selection of currencies. You can use Wise to get paid on Etsy, and have your funds deposited to Wise in any of the 9 currencies offered with linked Wise bank details.
Once you have money in your Wise account you can spend in 150+ countries with your Wise card, or send payments to 160 countries - with the mid-market exchange rate and low fees from 0.43% every time⁶.
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Selling on Etsy can be a great side hustle - or a full time business, depending on your personal preference. Use this guide to help you decide how you can make an Etsy business work for you - and remember to check out Wise Business as a smart way to cut the costs of currency exchange so your money can do more.
Sources used in this article:
Sources last checked June 29, 2023
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