I get a lot of searches on my website from people wondering
“Can I integrate my Etsy shop onto my own website?
And if so … how?”
Over the years many solutions have come and gone … let’s go over them and what you can do now!
So, ready? Let’s dive in.
Transitioning to your own website is a big step, and can be very exciting – but also very overwhelming!
If you’re in the beginning of that process I actually have an article all about how to transition from Etsy to your own website, pain-free – so if you are on Etsy and want to start your own website, but are wondering where do you start and what steps should you take to easily build that site – you will definitely want to read it next!
But for this article I’m going to focus on one specific part of creating your own website.
Once you’ve got that website started, you might at first want to integrate Etsy with your website to avoid the time-consuming ecommerce setup until you are ready and have the time to do it properly.
We’re going to explore that in this article, plus I have a FREE one page website planner you can download!
Back in the days there was something called Etsy Mini that you could integrate with your website, but it’s long gone – so what can you do today?
This free website planner will help you create a simple yet professional one-page website for your handmade shop.
The first solution I want to talk about is the simplest, and that is to have a simple link to Etsy on your website pages.
I know, I know – very simple and your website won’t look like a store – it would just have information pages that link to your Etsy store . . . but this is a good in-between that allows you to work on creating your website without the pressure of also creating the ecommerce portion of it at the same time.
It’s not a perfect long-term solution but it’s the absolute easiest way.
So in this case your website pages will have links that say “shop on Etsy!” or “buy this on Etsy!” that will take people to Etsy for the ecommerce portion of buying your products.
Now – If you want to up your game a bit and have your website look more like a full ecommerce shop but still without integrating YET with something like Woocommerce or a full Shopify setup, then you will want to consider option 2 which is Etsy 360.
Etsy360 is a plugin that lets you use your Etsy listings and display them on your site as if it was a full ecommerce integrated website… while still only using the Etsy platform to complete the customer purchases of your products.
So you will use Etsy 360 as an interim solution if you don’t have time to input all the information about your listing – your price, your photos, your product descriptions – into whichever ecommerce platform you have chosen.
So let’s say you’re in the process of creating your website.
First, you will pick the platform you want to end up on: what I mean by that is the platform you want to use to sell your products once you’ve had time to upload all of your product information.
If it’s WordPress – great, if it’s Shopify – great, you are going to sign up for that platform that you want to end up on.
Once you have signed up, you can create your home page, your contact us page, and any other pages you need, but instead of inputting all of your product data into the ecommerce platform you will install Etsy 360.
Etsy 360 buys you time before you input all this product information by embedding your Etsy product information into simple product information pages on your website.
The plugin displays your items and categories and lets your website visitors browse your site as if they were in an online store.
Let’s take a quick look at it:
Now that you’ve seen how it looks, let’s talk about the pros and cons of this option.
There are a lot of advantages to using Etsy 360 with your shopping platform.
Etsy 360 makes it nice and easy to have your new website look like a store even if you haven’t had time to do the ecommerce store setup on your platform yet.
It allows people to shop on your website, navigate easily through your sections and through your listings. When they are ready to purchase they will be taken to Etsy, but until that point it gives shoppers a nice user experience on your website.
You can use Etsy 360 with WordPress, Weebly, Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, Instagram, Facebook, and WooCommerce — it’s quite flexible!
It is easy to set up, they have step-by-step instructions on their website plus instructional videos for installing it on Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace, and Weebly.
No work is needed on your part, Etsy 360 will automatically update the product information to match any changes on Etsy, and you can focus on other areas of your business.
Another thing I like about Etsy 360 is that you can make your website look exactly like an online store: it allows your visitors to add to cart and browse your pages as they would on any other online shop.
So you are able to offer a “real” shopping experience on your website right off the bat even though you haven’t had time to add your products to your ecommerce platform yet.
Being able to send people to your website before investing a huge amount of time into setting all your products up on your ecommerce platform means you can start building your email list and have better control of the branding that shoppers see much sooner!
In addition, you are less likely to lose these customers, because when they shop on your website using Etsy 360…
When people shop your Etsy shop, there are competitor products displaying on each page, which of course can lead to lost business.
Etsy 360 allows you to have shoppers browse on your website instead of your Etsy shop, so they are only seeing the products from your shop – which is of course a huge plus.
AND when they do go to Etsy to checkout, the listing page on Etsy doesn’t have the other links and products at the bottom!
Now despite all these advantages, there are of course a few disadvantages to using Etsy 360.
The first is something I just mentioned, which is that shoppers may be a bit surprised when they click to check out and they are taken to Etsy. Let’s take a look at this so you see what happens:
This is why it’s important that you make the Etsy checkout very clear on your website so there’s no surprise, if you don’t it could potentially kill your conversion rate.
If people are on your website, they trust that website. If you don’t clearly tell them they will be checked out on Etsy and suddenly they click purchase and it takes them there, that element of surprise could make them hesitate to continue the purchase.
The next disadvantage of Etsy 360 is that – in my opinion – it’s not a long term solution.
There is an element of inconvenience if you’re using Etsy 360. It’s not an ecommerce store that you own. It’s still Etsy, you are still paying the Etsy fees, it is still sending shoppers to Etsy.
So it’s not a long term solution if you really want to have a full ecommerce store. If that is your goal, then at some point you need to add your products to your shopping platform.
Etsy 360 is absolutely a good in between, but it can’t fully replace having your own ecommerce store – if you go to the effort of creating your own website, you want to reap all the advantages of having your shoppers shop and stay on your site!
The final disadvantage is that Etsy 360 has a monthly fee, so this will be an added business expense that takes money away from your profits. You are getting a valuable service for that money, but this again reinforces using it as a short term service to buy you some time until you have the time to add all of your products to your ecommerce platform.
Of course you don’t need to do this, and if you have the time you can set up the ecommerce section of your website right away, but if you’re looking for a short term solution to integrate your Etsy store with your website, then Etsy 360 helps you avoid the time-consuming ecommerce setup until you are ready and have the time to do it properly.
Now if you’re just starting to create your website I actually have a FREE one page website planner you can download that will help you through each step of the process, so be sure to go download that next!
Thanks for reading and until next time, aurevoir!
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I’ve done this before but link no linger works and I can’t find anything in the Etsy admin that makes a reference to ‘Etsy Mini’. Is this a feature they removed?
Hi Deb,
Great article. Have you tried and tested Etsy360? I was interested based off all the features listed on their website, however after visiting the plugin page on WordPress.com I discovered it has mostly bad reviews. If it works as they describe it would be the perfect solution, it would be nice to get a critique from someone who has used the plugin with more success.
Best wishes,
Be
I have used it without much issues but in all transparency that was a few years back, it might have changed a lot since then. What were the problems mentioned?