The short answer
Yes, and many sellers do. Etsy brings new shoppers and your own store keeps repeat buyers. The hard part is syncing stock so you never sell one item twice.
A lot of sellers think moving to Shopify means leaving Etsy. It doesn't have to. Plenty of small shops run both: Etsy for the shoppers who browse the marketplace, and their own Shopify store for repeat customers and their social media following. It works well, as long as you plan for the one thing that goes wrong.
Is it allowed?
Yes. Etsy doesn't ask you to sell only on Etsy, and Shopify doesn't mind where else you sell. The rule to know is Etsy's: you can't use Etsy messages or listings to steer a buyer off Etsy to complete a purchase. Your Etsy About section can link to your own website, and a card in each parcel can carry your web address. Read Etsy's current house rules before you add any links, because they're updated from time to time.
Why sellers run both
- Etsy brings people who have never heard of you. Your own shop can't do that on its own, at least not at first.
- Your own shop keeps more of each sale. Etsy's fees usually come to 10% or more of an order, while a Shopify card payment is closer to 2% to 3%. We break both down in moving from Etsy to Shopify.
- Your own shop lets you build an email list, with permission, so you can tell customers about new products without paying for ads.
- If Etsy changes its fees or search, or suspends a listing by mistake, you still have somewhere to sell.
The real problem: selling the same item twice
If you make one-off pieces or keep small stock, the risk is that someone buys your last item on Etsy while someone else buys it on Shopify. One of them gets an apology and a refund, which is a bad first impression either way. There are two ways to stop it.
- By hand. If you have a small range and sell a few items a week, update the other shop as soon as something sells. Set a daily reminder to check both. It's free, and it's fine until it isn't.
- With a sync app. Shopify's own Marketplace Connect app links your Shopify products to Etsy and keeps stock, prices and orders in step automatically. At the time of writing it's free for the first 50 synced orders each month, then 1% per order, capped at $99 a month. Other apps do the same job with different pricing.
With a sync app, Shopify becomes the place you manage everything. You add a product or change stock there, and Etsy updates to match. That's much easier than keeping two shops tidy by hand once you have more than a few dozen products.
Should prices be the same on both?
Not necessarily. Because Etsy's fees are higher, some sellers charge a little more on Etsy, or keep prices the same but offer something extra on their own shop: free shipping above a certain amount, a loyalty discount, or early access to new pieces. That gives repeat customers a reason to buy direct without making Etsy shoppers feel cheated. Whatever you choose, keep it simple enough that you can explain it in one sentence.
What to list where
You don't have to put everything everywhere. A pattern that works for many sellers:
- Your full range on your own shop, including bundles, gift sets and custom orders.
- Your bestsellers and the items people search for on Etsy, which act as a shop window for new buyers.
- Seasonal or limited pieces first on your own shop, for your email list and followers, and on Etsy a few days later.
Keeping customers on the right side of the rules
Treat the two sets of customers separately. Someone who bought on Etsy is an Etsy customer: answer them through Etsy and don't add them to your mailing list unless they sign up themselves. Someone who buys on your own shop can tick a box to hear from you, and that list is yours to keep. Over time, the parcel card and your social media do the work of bringing Etsy buyers over by choice.
What it costs to run both
You pay Etsy's fees on Etsy sales, Shopify's plan and card fees on Shopify sales, and the sync app's fee if you use one. For a small shop, the Shopify plan is the only fixed cost; everything else rises and falls with sales. The full Shopify bill is in how much a Shopify store really costs.
A simple weekly routine
- Check that stock levels match on both shops, even with a sync app.
- Answer Etsy messages in Etsy and Shopify messages in your Shopify inbox or email.
- Look at where this week's sales came from.
- Post at least once on social media, pointing to your own shop.
- Once a month, send an email to the customers who signed up on your own shop.
When to stop running both
Keep Etsy while it brings you customers you wouldn't otherwise reach. If, after a few months, almost all your Etsy orders come from people who already know you, the fees are buying you very little and it may be time to move fully. If Etsy still finds you new buyers every week, it's earning its fees. Let the numbers decide, not a feeling.
Getting your own shop set up
If you're adding Shopify alongside Etsy, how to move your Etsy shop to Shopify walks through the setup step by step. Or our Shopify store setup can do it for you, including bringing your products across and, if you want, connecting the two shops so your stock stays in sync.
