Starting an Etsy shop is the beginning of a beautiful adventure. Over time as your shop grows, there are more steps you can take to begin branding your eCommerce business. That’s why Etsy offers Pattern, a way to create your website that is still linked to your Etsy shop.
If you’re at that point where you’re considering using Pattern, you’re in the right place. In this blog post, we’re going to explore the pros and cons of Pattern by Etsy.
Keep reading to learn more about this exciting feature.
What is Etsy Pattern?
Etsy started offering Pattern to its sellers back in 2016. Many sellers have decided to use it as a growth strategy for their eCommerce efforts for five years now.
To put it simply, Etsy Pattern allows you to create your eCommerce website.
Therefore, while keeping your Etsy shop open, you can list your items on your Pattern website too. It’s a great way to build your brand and reputation but remain closely tied to the Etsy ecosystem.
What is the Price of Using Etsy Pattern?
Opting for Pattern is going to set you back $15 per month. On top of that, you’ll have to pay for the custom domain name every year. If you don’t want a custom domain, your domain is going to be yourshopname.patternbyetsy.com.
Since that doesn’t look professional, we suggest that you invest in a custom domain name. It’s much better if you want to build a brand.
You can use our Etsy calculator to figure out all of the Etsy platform’s costs. You can then add the monthly fee to figure out whether using Pattern is good for you.
How Does it Fare Against the Competition?
Pattern by Etsy faces a lot of competition. The most significant competitors are platforms such as Shopify and WordPress. While Pattern does pack a set of numerous benefits, we can’t say that it’s better in all aspects than competitors.
Let’s explore the pros and cons to help you understand whether it’s a viable option for your eCommerce growth.
What Are the Pros?
Numerous benefits make this platform very appealing. Let’s go over the most significant ones.
1. Inventory Management
Right off the bat, you get a single inventory to manage. Your Etsy inventory is the go-to place for all your listings. With only a couple of clicks, you can choose which listings you want to be available on your Pattern website.
On top of that, you can create Pattern only listings which have no $0.20 listing fees (If you list them on your Etsy shop at some point, those fees will appear).
Managing multiple inventories can be a very arduous process. If you use Pattern, you keep everything in one place.
2. More Selling Options
Pattern allows you to list items that you can’t post on Etsy. You get to explore more selling options and broaden the range of products on offer.
These Pattern-only listings are not subject to Etsy’s handmade or vintage policies. However, you should steer away from Prohibited items.
3. Etsy Payment is Supported
If you’re worried about supported payment options, you’ll love to hear that Etsy handles payments. Because Etsy Payments is supported, it offers a wide range of payment options to your customers.
That is an obvious benefit, but there are some cons which we will discuss later.
4. You are Automatically Running Two Stores
Having a dedicated website for your products doesn’t mean that your Etsy shop is no longer it’s own thing. You still keep the benefits of having an Etsy shop.
You’re simply adding another way of reaching out to new customers with your unique branding options.
That is essential as you keep your stability while taking new steps towards scaling your business further.
5. MailChimp Integration
MailChimp is a significant advantage of using Pattern. Integrating MailChimp will enable you to build your mailing list quickly. You get to build a community around your brand and skyrocket your success.
There are numerous benefits of having a big mailing list. For example, offering promotions to your subscribers.
6. Advanced Analytics Integration
You’re branching out when it comes to analytics. While you are enjoying Etsy analytics for your Etsy shop, you also get support with Pattern’s Google Analytics. You can easily explore how your audience is behaving on your website, how they are finding you, and much more.
Those detailed analytics can help you increase your conversion rates, which will result in higher sales figures.
7. Extremely User Friendly
The platform is straightforward to use. Like with Etsy payments, it’s a double-edged sword as well. It comes with both pros and cons. The more a platform is easy to use, the more limitations it has.
However, from the pro perspective, you’ll get your Pattern website up and running in a short time without any coding knowledge.
8. Blog Functionality
Blog functionality is unavailable on Etsy’s website. But that option is available with Pattern.
If you haven’t heard, blogging is an excellent way of getting organic traffic to your website.
Create a content strategy and work on developing your blog. Your Pattern website traffic will steadily grow after a couple of months of actively putting out content.
9. Shared Buyer Reviews
All your Etsy store efforts are not in vain. The reviews you have there can be featured on your Pattern website.
Getting reviews is very important in the eCommerce world. If you want to learn how to get them, here’s our guide.
10. Branding
Growing your business will require you to build a brand around it. Having your custom website is a step that you’ll have to take sooner or later. With the supported customization, you can steadily build a brand that happy customers will gladly revisit.
On top of that, Pattern by Etsy supports various marketing methods.
What are the Cons
While there are lots of pros to using Pattern by Etsy, there are also a couple of cons.
1. Etsy Payments
As already mentioned, Etsy Payments has its pros and cons.
While guest shopping is available with Pattern websites, customers who want to purchase products exceeding $250 will have to create an Etsy account to finish the purchase.
That complicates the payment process for customers, which might result in a low number of sales.
2. Limited Customization
User-friendliness comes at a price. You don’t get a lot of available themes. While you can make customizations, they are pretty limited in comparison to platforms such as WordPress.
If you’re looking for a completely custom solution, Pattern by Etsy might not be for you.
3. Etsy Fees
All the Etsy fees are still there. Going completely independent would allow you to avoid these expenses.
4. Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket
You’re still in Etsy’s ecosystem. Any changes by the platform can seriously affect you. What if they decide to stop supporting Pattern? You’d have to find a custom solution.
If you don’t like putting all your eggs in one basket, Etsy’s Pattern might not be the best option for you.
Finishing Thoughts
The question remains, should you use Pattern by Etsy? That decision is entirely up to you. It depends on many factors. Do you want to create a brand? Are the additional costs something you can handle?
Can you invest time in marketing efforts? It’s your job to get the traffic to your Pattern website.
These are the questions that you’ll have to answer before reaching the final verdict.
If you want to perfect your Etsy shop and Pattern listings, please reach out to us. You can rest assured that our Etsy tool will help you on the road to growth.
We look forward to hearing from you.
