Merch Selling Platforms: Do you have your own website or other platform for comic merch?

[nekocoa]

I've been wanting to start my own business for a while and I'm getting pretty close to launching it. I'm planning to have a lot of original stuff, but I think it would be fun to sell merch of my comic characters, too! As I'm getting closer to launching though, I'm having trouble deciding on where/how to sell my products.

I had wanted to start on Esty and grow an audience there and eventually move over to my own site with Esty as a backup for new customers. But with everything going on recently with Esty and the things I've heard about it, I'm not sure if I should start there.

Does anyone have a shop where they sell their comic merch or other products? What do you use (Esty, Shopify, BigCartel, Square, others)? I want some thoughts on different platforms and whether or not you would recommend using them!

(Also I just saw the announcement about Tapas Merch shops, but I don't have 500 subs and want to sell other things so I wouldn't be able to use it)

[allenT]

I use print-on-demand websites such as Redbubble & Zazzle, as I live in Asia & don't want to handle the items myself (and shipping fees).

Usually p.o.d websites don't have good printing quality. But for my main items such as postcards the printing quality is really good (last i checked on early 2021), although not so much for my other items (buttons, stickers).

I don't care about the profit, I only want to keep my 'basic' print merchs reachable & affordable. Not interested on Tapas merch program though.

[Aeneas1]

I don’t have one yet, but I hope to use Redbubble one day. If there’s demand for merch, that is.

[nekocoa]

Yeah, I've considered going on Redbubble before and I have bought from there several times. My only concern with it would be that I would like to sell some more custom things than print on demand can offer. But maybe I should consider starting on there

[MissEljebel]

I use Etsy, and I haven’t had too much of a problem, but I hardly make any sales so idk if I just haven’t had enough to see the problem

But, I had a recent sale the other day. Here’s how the fees broke down—

Sale totaled $71.14, which includes the sales tax paid for by the buyer, and the shipping fee. Besides tax and shipping, payment was $66.72, but Etsy fees took $7.72, leaving me with a net profit of $55.28.

Now, one complaint about Etsy is the offsite ads. You’re automatically enrolled in them, and if you make a sale from an offsite ad Etsy takes 15% of the sale for “advertising fees”. You can opt out of offsite ads though, thankfully!

Etsy lets you buy your shipping labels, which you calculate from the size and weight of the item when packaged. The buyer pays for the shipping, and you pay for the shipping label from Etsy, which is a heck of a lot cheaper than paying at the counter at UPS or whatever.

I don’t know about the other sites, but that’s the personal experience I can give you about Etsy. Hope it helps!

[nekocoa]

Thank you, that's very helpful! I've heard a lot of bad things about the fees recently, especially with the raise in fees and the advertising fee, which I think you can only opt out of when you're under a certain amount of sales but I'm not sure on that. It does seem like Esty offers a lot of convenience for shipping and gaining an audience though, so I may still try it out!

[MissEljebel]

You’re welcome! And to get the specifics- if you make under $10,000 off Etsy in the last 365 days. This was taken directly from their site: https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044099373-How-to-Turn-Off-Your-Etsy-Ads-Campaign?segment=selling

[Chaz]

I use RedBubble, too. The problem is you have to do a lot of self-promotion. Luckily, they have a link to help you out with that: https://help.redbubble.com/hc/en-us/articles/202270909-Self-Promotion

[nostalgicroxas]

You can also export your orders from Etsy over to a site like PirateShip, which'll give you an even better break in price than Etsy can. And it's one less thing for Etsy to take money from in the fees. You aren't paying Etsy for a shipping label, instead you're paying PirateShip.

[nekocoa]

Oh, I hadn't heard about that! I'll have to look into it

[sushy00]

I have some on RedBubble and recently Tapas came out with their own merch service.

[system]

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