Making Millions 💰 on Etsy

Issue #105

October 1st, 2024

Quick Hits:

🛶 Dogs are everywhere in the rocky mountain state

🗣️ Are you a college student and a first-time pet owner? This is for you

🛏️ Danny Trejo loves sleeping with his 3 dogs

🍁 Top 5 fall destinations to travel with your dog

✈️ Pets are becoming part of the travel team

🇰🇷 In South Korea, vets are making more money due to Koreans having more pets and less kids

The pet market on Etsy, although niche, has seen considerable growth, reflecting the wider trend of rising consumer spending on pets, which was over $147 billion in the U.S. in 2023. The online marketplace, which sells handmade, vintage, and unique goods, allows small business owners and artisans to sell directly to consumers. Etsy covers a wide range of product categories, including art, jewelry, home decor, and our favorite category—pet products.

Here are some numbers:

• As of 2022, Etsy had over 100 million items in its marketplace

• Their current market cap is $6.55B

• Their marketplace connects 7 million sellers with 92 million buyers

• At the end of 2023, Etsy had 2,420 employees

• In 2023, Etsy’s total sales, or gross merchandise sales (GMS), were $13.2 billion

• Etsy’s revenue In 2023, was $2.75 billion

Unlike its humble beginnings, Etsy is no longer your little antique mom-and-pop shop in Tightsqueeze, Virginia (yup that’s a real place) - but a highly sophisticated tech company with high-grossing sellers and customers that love to use the platform.

If you check their “pet aisle” you can find everything from a light when farts candle (you’re going to have to click to understand) to fried chicken flavor doggy bubbles to a custom royal pet portrait and engraved bracelets and so many more cool, fun, and wacky things you could buy for your pet. Let’s face it we buy a lot of cool, fun, and wacky things for our pets.

Etsy offers artists a platform to showcase their creativity while tapping into a passionate and dedicated audience. As the demand for bespoke pet items continues to grow, pet artists are finding ways to turn their passion into profit.

How much can a pet artist make on Etsy? While getting exact figures on how much individual sellers make can be tricky, we did find this website that gave the following figures. These are the top 20 sellers on Etsy (in the pet category).

As you can see, top earners can earn between low to high 7 figures. However, earnings vary widely depending on the type of product, the artist’s following, and pricing strategies.

Some of the best-selling pet products on Etsy include custom pet portraits, personalized collars, and handmade pet beds. Many buyers are drawn to Etsy for the one-of-a-kind nature of these items, where they can find products that reflect the unique personality of their furry companions. Custom pet art, in particular, has become a fan favorite. Many pet owners commission watercolor or digital portraits of their pets, often to celebrate their bond or memorialize a lost pet. Personalized tags, apparel, and even pet-themed home decor also rank high among popular choices.

One key to success is standing out in a crowded marketplace through quality, consistency, and effective use of social media for marketing. Those who offer a distinct style, engage with their audience and maintain a strong brand presence can build a loyal customer base and generate significant revenue.

Success on Etsy requires a mix of artistic skill, business savvy, and an understanding of your target audience. For aspiring pet creators, the platform is an excellent place to turn a hobby into a full-time business.

Just like any entrepreneurial endeavor on any platform figuring out Etsy takes some doing.

According to Digidoggo who makes hand-drawn digital illustrations for pets & humans, these are some of the tools she uses to manage her Etsy shop.

1. Placeit and Mediamodifier to present illustrations professionally on physical products.

2. Adobe Stock - to create harness patterns.

3. Procreate - for drawing illustrations

4. Affinity Designer helps format files into SVGs and also creates beautiful product mockups.

5. Unfold - an app that helps create beautiful stories for Instagram.

6. Suxov - editing photos with ready-made beautiful presets

7. eRank - navigate around Etsy while improving SEO.

8. Alura - tags for products.

What are some of the more popular niches?

1. Personalized Pet Products: Sellers offering customized pet items, such as engraved dog tags, personalized collars, or unique pet portraits, can make significant sales. Personalized pet tags are particularly popular due to their practical and aesthetic appeal, with some top sellers generating thousands of sales annually.

2. Pet Apparel and Accessories: Custom pet clothing, like hoodies, leashes, and bandanas, is another lucrative niche. For example, Etsy sellers who specialize in handmade or customized pet outfits have grown their businesses by capitalizing on the pet fashion trend. Some top shops report selling over 50,000 units annually, with revenues in the six-figure range.

3. Pet Beds and Furniture: Offering high-quality, custom-designed pet furniture, such as luxe pet beds or cat trees, can also be highly profitable. These items often sell for premium prices, allowing sellers to hit six-figure incomes if they can differentiate their products through design and quality.

4. Pet Art and Portraits: Custom pet portraits and illustrations, especially digital downloads, have become a major trend on Etsy. Artists who focus on stylized or unique interpretations of people's pets can charge high prices for their work, with successful shops earning tens of thousands of dollars annually.

5. Print-on-Demand Pet Products: Another successful model is print-on-demand pet products. You can literally put your pet’s face on ANYTHING! This model allows for low overhead while scaling easily through platforms like Printify, with successful sellers making six figures by offering unique designs for everyday items​ but now with your sweet pet’s mug (on a mug).

Overall, the pet market on Etsy is competitive but offers strong growth potential for sellers who can carve out a niche and offer personalized, unique, or high-quality products.

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Finally, What is a dog’s favorite historical figure?

Joan of Bark 

See you Friday!