Etsy can be a brilliant place to do business, but it isn’t for everyone. For some, there comes a time when your small business outgrows Etsy, and would benefit from its own website. For others, Etsy simply isn’t the right fit, with other options making more economic sense.
As such, we’ve compiled a list of the best UK Etsy alternatives below. From other third-party marketplaces to options for starting your own independent store, the Etsy alternatives below are all viable ways to find an audience for your products, and build or grow your online business.
How to choose a UK Etsy alternative
If you search for Etsy alternatives in the UK, you’ll usually be presented with a list of options to start your own ecommerce store. While this is absolutely a viable option for many people—and often the best way to grow your business outside of Etsy—it isn’t the right fit for everyone.
Some people are just looking for another marketplace to expand to. Others are looking to relocate away from Etsy because of issues with the platform, whether that’s because of its functionality, rates, or its competitiveness and the kind of audiences it attracts.
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As such, we’re splitting this guide into two sections: one for third-party marketplaces, and one for ecommerce storefronts. All of them are legitimate UK Etsy alternatives with their own strengths and weaknesses, but they also require different investments of time and money.
Third-party marketplaces
Third-party marketplaces are the most equivalent alternatives to Etsy itself. These are platforms operated by other companies that allow you to set up a profile and sell your goods. Some will charge a fee for each listing, while most will also charge a commission on each sale. Each comes with its own positives and negatives, ranging from the size of the marketplace to the demographics and competitiveness of the platform.
Amazon Handmade
Amazon Handmade very much does what it says on the tin. It allows individuals and small businesses to sell items on Amazon as part of its Handmade storefront, which has its own category in Amazon search. This not only gives you the benefits of Amazon’s huge in-built audience, but also features such as Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), which offers fast shipping for customers across Europe.
Amazon sellers can submit an application to become an ‘Artisan’, and sell their products on Amazon Handmade. If successful, they will then appear across the site and in the Handmade search category, as well as the Handmade section in the category menu. Their products may also be listed as part of a curated collection or gift ideas list on the Handmade page.
Amazon Handmade provides a transparent pricing model, charging a flat 12.24% commission on each sale. You’ll also receive Amazon’s Professional selling plan for free, which costs £25/month for regular Amazon sellers. This plan includes access to features such as bulk listing, software integration, and access to advertising and promotional opportunities.
Pros:
● Huge user base
● Benefit from Amazon delivery network
● Free access to paid seller features
Cons:
● High referral fee
● Competitive marketplace
● Ethical issues
TikTok Shop
One of the early signs of TikTok’s massive growth was the traffic it drove to shopping sites. Viral videos would sell out products in an instant, and gave the bosses at ByteDance an idea. TikTok Shop was the solution: an in-app storefront where individuals and businesses can sell products to TikTok users, without them ever having to leave the app.
Sole traders only require photo ID and some personal details to register as a seller, while other businesses also require a company certificate and company address. Once approved, you can start setting up your shop, although certain products will require specific approval, including food and cosmetics. TikTok charges a 9% commission on all sales, although there are incentives which can reduce this for some sellers when certain sales goals are met.
The major advantage of TikTok Shop as an Etsy alternative is the ability for TikTok users to promote and link to products directly within the platform. This can include creating your own videos to promote and link to your products, something which is allowed with certain restrictions. Videos must use the content disclosure system to make it obvious that you are a ‘brand’, and promoting a product in a way you stand to gain from.
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Your success on TikTok Shop will be largely tied to your ability to successfully market the product through TikTok’s ecosystem, either by creating catchy short videos, investing in advertising, or working with other content creators. While TikTok has a huge potential audience, it may also not be home to the specific demographics you are targeting, or be the right fit for higher ticket items.
Pros:
● Large and highly engaged user base
● Effective video marketing tool
● Simple set-up
● Sales incentives
Cons:
● Younger demographic
● Relatively high fees
● Reliance on video marketing
● Crowded marketplace
Not on the High Street
Not on the High Street is well-known for its collection of small brands, and there’s no reason why you can’t join them. The site is perhaps the most popular for gifts and homemade items next to Etsy, and offers excellent discoverability for brands who do get featured. Getting yours accepted can be difficult though, as the site maintains strict suitability criteria—and the fees may be off-putting.
Sellers can apply through the ‘Apply to sell with us’ link at the bottom of the site. To apply, you’ll need images of your products, along with information about your business. If successful, you will be charged a £199+VAT joining fee, along with a hefty 25%+VAT commission on all sales, although all listings are free.
Not on the High Street spends a large amount on traditional advertising, and by some metrics has better name recognition than Etsy. While its shops operate in much the same way as Etsy, the experience of using the site is more like a traditional ecommerce site, with a large degree of uniformity in terms of imagery and the user experience. As a result, successful applicants tend to be those with a high quality existing brand, including a strong identity, logo design and existing website or social media presence.
Pros:
● High traffic website
● Curated lists
● High prestige
Cons:
● Very high fees
● Difficult to gain access to
● Better suited to established companies
Depop
While some people do sell handmade items on the popular site Vinted, this is against the site’s rules on commercial sellers, and will be detected if done in volume. Depop is the nearest competitor to Vinted in the used fashion space, and also supports individual creators—allowing you to sell handmade clothing and accessories completely above board.
Setting up on Depop is similar to Etsy. Sellers have their own storefront, which features your username, profile photo, and a short bio. All of your listed items will appear here, along with your review score (out of 5) and how many items you’ve sold so far. There’s also a public tab for other people’s items that you’ve ‘liked’, allowing you to help out other creators, and potentially receive some free advertising back.
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Much like Etsy, items can be bought directly by users or added to their ‘bag’ for later. Users can follow your store for alerts on new items, and individual items can also be ‘liked’, which will add them to the user’s Likes tab. Payment is currently exclusively via PayPal, but more payment options are currently being rolled out to a small number of sellers.
Depop charges a 10% fee on the whole transaction, including shipping, plus the transaction fee charged by either PayPal or Depop Payments (the new internal payment option). Depop Payments charges a further 2.9%, while PayPal fees in the UK are 2.9% + 30p for transactions in pounds sterling. Unlike Etsy however, there are no listing fees.
Pros:
● Eclectic and creative marketplace
● Engaged user base
● Easy to transition
Cons:
● High fees
● Lack of store customisation
● PayPal only (for now)
Bonanza
Bonanza is one of the biggest and longest running online marketplaces, making it an Etsy alternative worth considering for your handmade goods. Its homepage and design are centred on gifts, fashion and collectibles, with items being listed by individual sellers and small businesses. As a result, it can feel like a unique combination of eBay, Etsy and Vinted.
Setting up a store (or ‘booth’) on Bonanza is simple. You can choose both a username and a name for your booth, then use the handy import function to transfer all of your listings from an existing storefront, including your Etsy shop, eBay or Amazon store. You’ll then fill in some personal details before setting up your payment options (PayPal or Stripe), and a credit card to verify your identity.
Bonanza requires an initial $14.99 setup fee, but benefits from reduced fees after this point. You can post up to 75,000 listings completely free, with a $0.25 transaction fee for basic users, plus 3.5% of the net price (item + shipping) for transactions under $1000. Transactions over £1000 are charged an additional 1.5% of the amount over $1000, with a mandatory minimum fee of $0.50 per transaction.
Sellers can benefit from some interesting storefront features, including information panels, item sorting, and a real time chat function. As the prices might indicate however, the site is dominated by North American sellers and buyers. This may be a positive if that is a market you’re interested in, but could also pose issues in terms of shipping, currency conversion, and taxes. The site also offers an ecommerce variant which allows you to set up your storefront on your own domain, complete with custom templates.
Pros:
● Competitive fees
● Popular marketplace
● Good storefront features
Cons:
● Predominantly American
● Smaller than competitors
● Dated website
Ecommerce
Ecommerce is a general word for selling goods and services online, but it also refers to online ecommerce platforms such as the ones listed below. These allow you to set up a website with its own storefront for selling goods, generally without commission. Instead, you pay a fee to use the service, whether that is web hosting or the provision of a bespoke platform, along with a card or transaction fee if using the provider’s payment processing service.
Shopify
While there are more famous website providers, Shopify is perhaps the best-known platform for ecommerce. It provides a powerful and flexible storefront, with a large range of templates and customisation options. It’s also great for multi-channel selling, with the ability to process in-person sales as well as online ones with its Shopify POS system.
Shopify is one of the most widely supported ecommerce sites, including more than 8,000 third-party apps to improve the functionality of your site. It also benefits from deals with delivery companies to provide you with better shipping rates, and includes unlimited bandwidth and storage as standard in all of its packages.
Shopify has three paid options ranging from £19/month to £259/month, along with a free trial and £1 starter plan for selling on social media. Transaction fees are lower for more expensive packages, while you’ll have to buy your own custom domain name from Shopify or another domain registrar. You will have to pay for many of the best templates, as well as a large number of the apps.
Pros:
● Popular and well-supported
● Highly customisable
● Multi-channel and POS options
Cons:
● No free option
● Requires a custom domain
● Some apps and templates cost extra
● Scaling transaction fees
Squarespace
Squarespace is best known as a website builder, but it also has excellent ecommerce functionality. By using Squarespace you’ll benefit from one of the largest collections of high-quality free templates of any website builder, allowing you to build an attractive and functional storefront. Squarespace also allows for plenty of customisation, including custom code, so you can invest in professional development further down the line.
Squarespace business packages start at £17/month, but every package comes with a free domain name and SSL certificate, which provides you with secure encryption for safe browsing and transactions. Bandwidth and storage are unlimited as standard, while a 3% transaction fee applies to the £17/month package, though not the £23/month basic commerce package or above.
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The commerce packages also include POS functionality, but there is no option for multi-channel selling. Features such as basket recovery which are included as standard on other sites are also paid extras on Squarespace, and it lacks some of the other advanced ecommerce features of its more specialised rivals, making it better for a small storefront or business that is just starting out.
Pros:
● Easy to use
● Beautiful templates
● Reasonably priced
Cons:
● Somewhat limited ecommerce functionality
● High transaction fee on cheapest package
● POS only available through app
Wix
Wix is another popular website builder that’s also made strides to be competitive in the ecommerce space. Like Squarespace, it is simple and intuitive to use, and all of its templates are free, empowering you to beautify your storefront. However, Wix also offers a powerful and dedicated ecommerce platform, with a range of features to suit your business needs.
The cheapest Wix package with basic ecommerce features is £16/month, and includes a free custom domain, SSL certificate, free logo creation, and abandoned cart recovery, among other features. However, it only comes with 50GB of storage, and does not include automated sales tax calculation.
£25/month will give you double the storage and tax calculation on 100 transactions per month, while for £119/month you get unlimited storage, tax calculation for 500 transactions, and the ability to create a loyalty programme for your business. Other features such as multi-currency support, advanced reporting, and review aggregation are also package dependent.
Pros:
● Easy to use
● Beautiful templates
● Advanced ecommerce features
● Dropshipping support
Cons:
● Limited features at cheaper tiers
● Big jump from Business to Business Elite package
● Low transaction limit for sales tax calculation
Square
You may know Square best for its POS service, which it offers to many small businesses through its contactless card readers. Expanding to ecommerce was a natural fit, and setting up a storefront with Square will provide you with excellent POS integration. Unlike most of its competitors, it also offers a free option, though you will have to put up with ads and a Square.com subdomain.
The free package is relatively feature-rich, and includes multi-channel selling and an inventory management system, Paid plans start from £9/month which remove the ads, and also give you a free custom domain. More expensive plans provide features such as abandoned basket recovery, lower processing fees, and QR code payments.
Square is relatively affordable and capable across its different packages, but all of them suffer similar drawbacks. The site builder is a bit less intuitive and well-supported in terms of templates than some competitors, and fees are consistent across all except the most expensive plan, with 1.4%+25p credit card transaction fees, or 1.4%+15p on the Premium plan.
Pros:
● Well-suited to bricks and mortar businesses
● Fairly consistent features across packages
● Free and cheap entry level options
Cons:
● Consistent transaction fees across most packages
● Some features limited to expensive packages
● Less capable website builder than competitors
Whichever Etsy alternative you choose, we can help you to set up or expand your business. Euro Start Entreprises have helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to set up businesses in the UK, France, and across the world over the past two decades.
Along with company formation, we offer a range of business services, including tax planning and accountancy, registered address and services offices, and VAT services. Get in touch with us today to learn more, and start your new online business in the UK or abroad.
