How to Sell Things on Etsy: A Realistic 2026 Guide

Learning how to sell things on Etsy takes an afternoon. Making a shop pay takes longer, and it starts with knowing what Etsy lets you sell, what it charges and how much of the work stays with you. This guide walks through opening a shop step by step, Etsy's fees in 2026 with a worked $100 example, what sells and what Etsy doesn't allow, and when an eBay store makes more sense for the kind of selling you have in mind.

Quick answer: To sell things on Etsy, go to Etsy.com/sell, set your shop language, country and currency, choose a shop name, connect a bank account and a card for fees, verify your identity, then add your first listings with clear photos, a descriptive title, tags and attributes. Each listing costs $0.20 to publish. When an item sells, Etsy takes a 6.5% transaction fee on the item and shipping price, and US sellers pay a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee. Etsy only allows items you make, design, handpick or source for buyer creativity, so reselling ready-made products belongs on a marketplace like eBay instead.

• Startup cost: $0.20 per listing, plus a one-time, non-refundable shop set-up fee if Etsy asks for one when you open your shop.
• Etsy's cut: about $9.95 on a $100 sale with no shipping or tax, before Offsite Ads or other optional extras.
• What you can sell: handmade items, your own designs (including print-on-demand and digital downloads), vintage items at least 20 years old, and craft and party supplies.
• The trade-off: Etsy is hands-on. You make or design, photograph, list, message buyers and ship, so sales track the hours you put in.

What you can sell on Etsy

Etsy is not a general marketplace. Its Creativity Standards set four groups of items that are allowed:

• Made by a seller: physical items you make by hand or with personal or computerized tools, such as a 3D printer or laser cutter working from your own design.
• Designed by a seller: your original designs produced or printed by a third party, or sold as a digital download. This is where print-on-demand and production partners fit, and Etsy requires you to disclose a production partner.
• Handpicked by a seller: vintage items at least 20 years old, items from nature you found or grew yourself, and curated collections such as themed gift baskets.
• Sourced by a seller: craft and party supplies, and items personalized with the buyer's own text or image.

What Etsy does not allow is reselling commercially available items without creative transformation: blank ready-to-use products and generic resold goods. Flat-pack furniture assembled per the maker's instructions doesn't count as seller-made either. That rule decides whether Etsy fits you at all. If your plan is to buy finished products and resell them, Etsy is the wrong marketplace.

Within those rules, shoppers come to Etsy for personal, original or hard-to-find things: personalized jewelry, custom prints and apparel from your own designs, wall art, planners and printables, wedding and party stationery, candles and soaps, and vintage clothing and homeware. Digital downloads carry no shipping and no per-unit cost, which makes the fee math friendlier once a design sells. If you are still choosing a product, our guides to things to sell to make money and hobbies that make money help you check demand before you commit.

How to sell things on Etsy, step by step

Etsy's own shop setup guide runs through ten steps. Here they are grouped into what you actually do.

Step 1: Start at Etsy.com/sell

Select "Get started", answer a few questions about your selling experience, and set your shop language, country and currency. Your country and currency should match where your bank account is.

Step 2: Choose a shop name

Etsy's rules: 4 to 20 characters, no spaces or special characters, no profanity, not already in use, and not infringing on anyone's trademark. Pick a name you can grow into, one that is easy to spell and hints at what you sell.

Step 3: Set up payments, billing and verification

Connect the bank account that will receive your sales (US sellers verify it through Plaid) and add a debit or credit card to pay your Etsy bill. Etsy then asks for a photo of your government ID and a clear selfie to verify your identity, and you turn on two-factor authentication. If a one-time shop set-up fee applies to you, Etsy shows it during shop creation.

Step 4: Create listings buyers can find

Each listing needs sharp, well-lit photos, a title that says plainly what the item is, every tag filled with phrases real shoppers type, and every attribute that applies, such as color, material, size and occasion. Write a description that answers questions before buyers ask them: dimensions, materials, processing time and care. Set up a shipping profile with a processing time you can meet.

Step 5: Price for the fees

Add up your materials or production cost, packaging, shipping, your time and Etsy's fees, then set a price that leaves the margin you want. The next section shows what the fees come to. Underpricing is the most common beginner mistake, and it's hard to fix after your first buyers set expectations.

Step 6: Open, promote and read your stats

Open the shop, set up your storefront, and share new listings where your buyers already are, such as Pinterest or Instagram. Consider Etsy Ads only once you know which listings convert. Check your shop stats weekly and make more of what sells.

Etsy fees in 2026

These are the fees on Etsy's fees and payments policy and Etsy Payments policy, for a seller with a US bank account:

• Listing fee: $0.20 per item listed. A listing lasts four months, and auto-renewal charges the fee again.
• Transaction fee: 6.5% of the price you display plus the amount you charge for shipping and gift wrapping.
• Payment processing: 3% + $0.25, assessed on the gross order amount including shipping and tax.
• Offsite Ads: 15% on sales that come from Etsy's ads on other sites, reduced to 12% once your shop has made $10,000 or more over the prior 365 days. Etsy says the program is optional for most sellers and may be required based on sales volume.
• Currency conversion: 2.5% of the sale amount if you list in a currency different from your payment account's.
• Shop set-up fee: a one-time, non-refundable fee some new shops pay, shown during shop creation.
• Etsy Plus: an optional subscription at $10 a month.

Some countries also carry a regulatory operating fee, a fixed percentage of the item and shipping price that varies by country.

How much Etsy takes from a $100 sale

Take a $100 item with free shipping and no sales tax, sold to a buyer who found it on Etsy (not through an Offsite Ad):

• Transaction fee, 6.5% of $100: $6.50
• Payment processing, 3% of $100 plus $0.25: $3.25
• Listing fee for the item that sold: $0.20
• Etsy's total: $9.95, leaving $90.05 before your materials, packaging and time

If you charge shipping, both the transaction fee and processing apply to it too, and processing also applies to any sales tax on the order. If the sale came from an Offsite Ad, add 15% of that order at the standard rate.

Is selling on Etsy worth it?

It is worth it if making or curating is something you enjoy and your product has room for the fees. Every sale is tied to your time: you make or design the item, photograph it, list it, answer messages and ship it. When you stop, sales stop. Many sellers are happy with that trade because the craft is the point.

It is less of a fit if your goal is simply to sell products online and you have no interest in making them. Etsy's rules rule out reselling ready-made goods, and a handmade shop scales only as fast as you can produce. Results vary with your niche, pricing and hours, and no one can honestly promise a monthly figure. For a wider look at the options, see our guides to making money selling stuff and selling things online, or our roundup of side hustles to start.

If you'd rather resell than make: an eBay store

An eBay store works differently. You list products, and when one sells, you buy it from a supplier and have it delivered to your buyer. You don't make anything or hold stock. The work shifts to choosing products that sell, pricing them after fees and keeping listings in line with the supplier's price and stock.

eBay's own selling fees differ from Etsy's. In most categories, eBay charges a 13.6% final value fee on the total amount of the sale up to $7,500 per item, plus $0.30 per order for orders of $10 or less and $0.40 for orders over $10. You get up to 250 zero insertion fee listings a month, then $0.35 per listing. Our breakdown of eBay selling fees covers the exceptions.

Plenty of sellers keep both: a shop for what they make and an eBay store for sourced products. To pick products for the eBay side, our guide on what to sell on eBay walks through the research, and our reseller's guide to making money on eBay covers the full model. Our guide to making money with Amazon shows how Amazon works as a supplier for an eBay store.

How to run the eBay side with Ecomli

Ecomli is our product, so read this section as the maker describing its own tool. It is a non-API browser extension for eBay dropshippers that works through the eBay seller account already signed in to your desktop Chrome browser, so there is no API connection to authorize. Amazon and AliExpress are the suppliers, and eBay is where you sell.

1. Find products with a sales record. Product Hunting researches an eBay seller's sold history or current listings and matches the items to Amazon or AliExpress suppliers. A match is a lead to check, not proof of profit.
2. List them. Create Listings reads the supplier product, prices it with your markup, writes optional AI titles and descriptions from the supplier facts, applies your description template and fills eBay's listing form in your seller session, up to 10 listings at a time.
3. Check before publishing. Safety Shield screens products, AI copy and the eBay draft for flagged brands and restricted items. It is a checkpoint, and you still own what you list.
4. Keep price and stock in line. Stock Monitoring checks supplier stock and prices for your Ecomli listings and updates the eBay price and quantity, or ends out-of-stock items, by your rules.
5. Order from the supplier. Starter uses manual ordering. On Pro, Basic Auto Ordering lets you click Auto Order and Ecomli places the supplier order in your own browser. On Scale, once you turn it on, Advanced Auto Ordering runs on Ecomli's servers and places the supplier order for new eBay orders without a click, as long as each order is within your buying limits (a maximum purchase price and a maximum loss).

The store still needs check-ins for buyer questions, returns and orders outside your buying limits. The automation overview on our homepage shows how the pieces connect, and you can compare Starter, Pro and Scale before you commit.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Etsy take from a $100 sale?

About $9.95 for a US seller when the $100 includes free shipping and no tax: a 6.5% transaction fee ($6.50), payment processing of 3% + $0.25 ($3.25) and the $0.20 listing fee. Shipping you charge and sales tax raise the processing fee, and a sale from an Offsite Ad adds 15% at the standard rate.

How do beginners sell on Etsy?

Go to Etsy.com/sell, set your language, country and currency, pick a shop name of 4 to 20 characters, connect a bank account and a card, verify your identity, turn on two-factor authentication and add your first listings. Start with a focused product you can make or design consistently, and price it for the fees before you list.

Is selling things on Etsy worth it?

It can be, if you enjoy making or curating and your prices leave room for the fees. Etsy is hands-on, so sales track the hours you put in. If you want to resell finished products instead, Etsy's rules don't allow it, and an eBay store is the route to look at.

What is the $29 fee on Etsy?

Etsy's fees policy doesn't list a $29 fee. The fees it does describe include a one-time, non-refundable shop set-up fee that some new shops pay, shown during shop creation, and the optional Etsy Plus subscription at $10 a month. For any charge you don't recognize, check the line items in your Payment account.

Can I resell or dropship products on Etsy?

Not ready-made products. Etsy's Creativity Standards don't allow reselling commercially available items without creative transformation. Your own designs made by a disclosed production partner, such as print-on-demand, are allowed. To resell finished products, an eBay store is the route to look at.

Do I need a business license to sell on Etsy?

Etsy's shop setup doesn't ask for one, but tax and registration rules depend on where you live and how much you sell. Check your local requirements, and talk to an accountant once sales become regular.

How much does it cost to start selling on Etsy?

Opening a shop costs the $0.20 listing fee for each item you publish, plus a one-time set-up fee if Etsy requires one for your shop. After that you pay fees only when items sell, unless you choose extras such as Etsy Ads or Etsy Plus. Made-to-order and digital products let you start without stock.

Sources

• Etsy fees and payments policy
• Etsy Payments policy
• Etsy Creativity Standards
• Etsy help: how to open an Etsy shop
• Etsy: sell on Etsy
• eBay help: selling fees

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