Etsy vs. Creative Market – a comparison for shop owners – Part 3

Alright guys, it’s finally here.  Part 3 of the Etsy vs. Creative Market comparison! I’m truly sorry it took me so long to update this but the new year has been crazy here! I’ve been so busy, but I wanted to make sure I provided you with quality content so it did take me a little longer 😉

What’s the listing process like?

This is such a huge difference! While I like that I can be very detailed on etsy by adding my own terms, return policies etc. So far, Creative Market has been a lot smoother. I can probably add about 5 listings in the time it takes me to add a single listing to etsy. I guess part of this is just how broad of a market Etsy is, which as a shopper, is awesome really 🙂

Creative Market, being digital only, has much narrower parameters. I counted 18 fields I need to fill in on Etsy. 10 of which are mandatory, you don’t want to skip at least 2 of the optional fields because that’s how people find your items! A couple of the Etsy mandatory fields also have sub categories which means you are clicking and filling out even more.

On Creative Market I am counting 8. You could proably get away with 7 if you don’t need to add extra parameters. The major downfall I find on Creative Market though is I can only add one download per listing! I love to throw in an Instagram bonus or Pinterest bonus whenever I can, so this is a little bit of a downer for me. I do mention in my listing if a bonus is available and just ask the client to email me for it. I have read that some sellers create a zip file to include multiple files. It’s something I have yet to look into though, if it works out, that would be awesome!

The process of adding Keywords or “tagging” is much better as a seller on Creative Market. On Etsy you are limited to 13 tags and 13 materials. Creative Market does not differentiate however and I haven’t run into limitations as far as how much I can list. I find the Etsy limitation of 20 characters per entry a bit restrictive. Considering one of the common search terms would be the word “photography” in combination with other words, there go 11 characters, 12 God forbid a space is involved!

How will my products look to clients?

I think the most noticeable difference is that Creative Market has a much more condensed listing title with only 36 characters. On Etsy, some of my listings have over 100 characters. Etsy does allow for potential clients to know a lot more about your item just by reading your description. I do prefer the much cleaner look of my Creative Market lisitngs. It’s much less busy so the focus is really on the listing being considered. Again, I think this has a lot to do with Etsy offering such a variety of products whereas Creative Market is digital only. For the sake of comparison, here is the same item listed on Etsy – Etsy candy cane stock photo and Creative Market Creative Market candy cane stock photo. See how on Etsy your eye sort of goes all over the place? It’s nice that so much information is available but it can be overwhelming. I do like that more listings are put in the client’s view, however, Creative Market does that too and it’s much less obtrusive.

Etsy does allow for your shop to have it’s own sections, or no sections based on your preferences. Creative Market has it’s own product type and subcategory so your items will fall into these categories along with other shop owners. On Etsy, a shopper can browse sections specific to your shop only!

I will say I do prefer being able to set my own terms of use on Etsy rather than deferring to the Creative Markets definition of basic vs. extended license. On the other hand, it is one less thing to stress over about listing, wording, covering your bases while remaining fair etc. It’s also a bit of a struggle to find the right balance between too much information and not enough.

In my opinion, the way Creative Market is setup, the readability is much better. It’s much more streamlined, and with less information that I have to input, I’d say there is less room for confusion on the client’s part.

That’s all for this time.  Next week, find out what it really all boils down to AND what happens when you make a sale woo-hoo 🙂