If you’re selling on Etsy or considering it, you’ve probably heard of Pattern, Etsy’s website builder. This is not a new feature, it was first released in 2016, so it’s time for a review!
Should you use it?
Is it worth it?
Let’s get into it.
When Etsy announced it, I was pretty excited, because I am the website girl. The branding girl. I love graphic design, web design… That’s my background originally. I was excited about the opportunity of having a professional looking site without the hassle of setting up a website from scratch. It would pull your listings from Etsy and help you set a shop on your own domain with an easy drag and drop builder.
Sounds perfect, right? Well, to be honest, I am not really sold – in fact in a couple of minutes, I am going to advise you NOT to use Pattern (just being honest here).
But first, let’s review the basics:
Here’s the breakdown of the costs:
FREE WORKBOOKS, CHEAT SHEETS, AND RESOURCES TO HELP YOU START, GROW AND PROFIT FROM YOUR HANDMADE SHOP.
It takes your Etsy listing (or any new listings you might want to add) and adds them to a custom domain/website (e.g. www.mycuteshop.com) so that people can buy from you there instead of the Etsy marketplace.
It will also let you pick up a theme (design and layout) for your shop and make changes pretty easily. I think there are better options with Shopify or WordPress, but it is easy to make changes to it and it is really, really easy to set up if you already have an Etsy shop.
It is more professional to get your own website and it is a growth strategy that I always end up recommending to Etsy sellers as they grow out and want to expand outside of Etsy. For some people, I would also recommend getting your own website from the start. The fact that Pattern is easy to set up and that you don’t have to understand how WordPress or Shopify work because you already have your Etsy store is really attractive.
There’s also no need for stock management like with Etsy store + WordPress or Shopify website. I know a lot of makers often complain that once they have their own website, they got to watch out because some people will be buying on their Shopify store and then on their Etsy and so they have to make sure that the inventory and the stock is dealt with. You don’t want to be selling something on Etsy that maybe you sold out and because you sold it on Shopify and Pattern simplifies that as well because it really is all under the same Etsy umbrella.
I believe that when you sign up for Pattern you’re losing what Etsy does best, which is bringing traffic to the platform for you and putting buyers in front of your products, without getting any of the benefits that you would have from a website building platform like Shopify or WordPress.
Building a platform the way WordPress and Shopify have taken time and a lot of work. That’s why they both do it so well because it’s their CORE purpose and sole focus. That’s not the case with Etsy.
Etsy is good at gathering handmade shop buyers and driving that traffic to the Etsy platform to give you an opportunity to show your products to them if you use the right tags
BUT Etsy is not going to focus on Pattern the way they would need to to take it to the next level and offer as good of a service as WordPress or Shopify do. It’s just not their thing.
So use Etsy for what they’re good at: a marketplace with traffic.
The moment you lose that traffic Etsy doesn’t really give much with Pattern.
Have you used Pattern or are using it? What’re your thoughts on it? Id’ love to know and continue the conversation below.
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