Why I STOPPED Selling Digital Products On Etsy...
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- čas přidán 20. 06. 2024
- Yes, Physical Products make MORE money than Digital Products & Printable Products...
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VIDEO CHAPTERS:
0:00 Why I Stopped Selling Digital Products
0:52 Physical Products Make More Money
2:39 Digital Products Make Less Money Per Sale
4:50 Physical Products Are Easier To Make
6:10 Physical Products Are Passive
8:11 Physical Products Earn Free Credit Card Rewards
9:25 Digital Products Are Easier To Steal
10:07 Digital Product Profit Opportunity
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Yes - the business that is right for THEM. Because I believe that time is the most valuable thing we have, and that we should spend it doing things that we love: and what I love may be different to what you love. Which is why on this channel I share:
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🙏 Just a quick New Zealand accent translation for those of you who are new here 🗣
Itsy = Etsy
Dimand = Demand
Disigns = Designs
What other words did I miss? 😉
Ka nui te aroha 🥰
Ha Ha.
Ivent = Event
🤣
😅
The secret with digital products is to make a small series of similar products. I find it is better to make each product about $5-$10 (low as possible) and this attracts the customer in, but once they start to place the order they can see other similar items in the series and also get a discount on a multiple order. I quite often find that they will order the whole series (say 6) in one go just because they will only need to go through the ordering process once. I also email them with a discount offer after their first purchase which often results in them coming back and buying the rest in the series if they didn't already purchase them.
That is a good strategy, and it's what I aim to do as well (albeit with physical products, haha)
I completely agree, I have two stores selling similar items, one digital and one physical. The physical sells nearly 5x the amount of the digital with a lot less uploads. Thanks Sarah, great video :)
Is that 5x revenue or gross profit?
@@davidpaxton6402 it's 5x as many items but much more profit as my digital items don't bring in as much profit per sale.
So are you closing your digital store? Why not just do both? Doesn't have to be either or.
This Woman is VERY RARE when it comes to actually helping ppl make money, Sarah puts in a lot of effort for us so let's like and share this video ☯️
No, I don't think Sarah is Very Rare. She appears more Well Done. Well done, Sarah!
Great. I was just watching your old videos and was excited about starting an Etsy store, you’ve just ruined that for me😂 thanks
I have modified my video title, to clarify I referring to digital products on Etsy. I have had many comments pointing out that in the media industry, such as music or videos, that digital products are better. I agree! This video was not referring to those industries, as this, is an ecommerce channel. Most other videos on digital products for ecommerce did not clarify in their titles that this is what they were referring to, and so I didn't either. I now realize that was a mistake, and have now clarified the topic of this video 🙏
hello mam I am from Bangladesh can you give me one etsy a account please
@@srkhanif-ee5db Dude no one can "give" you an account for Etsy, Amazon, or anywhere else. You have to apply for your own account. Stop posting this nonsense on all these videos!
Oh my Im so happy i found your channel! I dont know why, but you are mesmerizing to watch AND your videos are SOO much better and much more "watchable" than most other crap here on youtube as you seem to want to fill the videos with relevant stuff, and not just meaningless stuff to make the videos longer. Thankyou! You have got yourself a new subcriber 👌
You always break down the details and reasons so well. TFS
Protecting a digital product completely from being copied and/or shared once the client downloads it, is the biggest problem I've faced so far. So yeah I see your point.
lol. it's impossible to protect it. And legal litigation is only worth for big companies with big budgets against other big companies. Look at movie and games piracy, they do try DMCA requests, but it's a cat and rat kind of chase.
I know it hurts, they buy the products and them make those super repacks with thousands of cliparts.
But the buying customer that gets on your listing that is well researched with good seo/keywords/title, etc. will continue buying from you, they are not omniscient.
I've loved this channel for a long time, but I highly disagree. There's way more risk and cost in producing physical and also the common returns and more room for angry customers. I sell both, digital does way better for me. I think it can't be a blanket statement, but changes from person to person.
I do understand that unlike with digital products, you're more likely to get customer issues with physical products. But it's so easy to handle and a tiny minority of orders that to me, the massive profit difference outweighs it by far. Especially because more money = more money for staff, who can handle a lot of that for you.
I guess that caveat is that you need to be careful with what print providers you use. A lot of people use bad or inconsistent providers, which will be the cause of most of their issues. I am very careful, both in the products I sell AND what products I sell which is why I made this video here: czcams.com/video/JA1orXh5GNw/video.htmlsi=V5ioJa6LNGLFJtSG
I also don't think it is a blanket statement. It is why *I* stopped selling them, but I do think for some people, their needs will be different to mine - which is why I did add in 10:07 😉
My point would be, although many of what you have stated is correct, a tshirt with one simple flower print will not sell as well as a group of a set of curated prints. This is an artist speaking. Take away varying shipping costs - WHICH VARY GREATLY - and production costs which eat into your profits and add to that a now high percentage Etsy is taking , plus any ads you are paying for, you are left with barely 2 - 7 $ profit if you are lucky. As you must compete with prices selling the same damn thing! Selling a range of unique images that may take you a bit longer but are evergreen, you will bring home the same profit if not more without the hassle AND ACTUALLY PUT SOMETHING OF ARTISTIC VALUE BACK INTO THE WORLD. No printing issues, no size issues, etc. I am speaking from experience. Digital is better for artistic people and those with no talent what so ever. Aside from physical actually handmade products, the top selling products on Etsy are digital. BUT add a physical option to you listing. Boost an image by offering a print of it! Easy and appreciated.
Hi Haylee! What niche are you in for digital products if you don’t mind me asking? 🤍
If you watched the whole video, I think Sarah made the video just right, and covered all the bases. And I do agree with her. Most very successful businesses take higher risks for larger rewards, and will generally have employees handling such tasks to make the whole business automated and, therefore, pretty much passive.
@sallyhudsondesign the top selling products on Etsy are not digital products. They are physical products. There are some top selling digital products and I am very happy for those stores. But physical products still sell the best on Etsy and are by far.
I also did the profit calculations for you in this video. People are leaving comments saying "but what about production costs" - I have literally shown in this video that due to the much higher perceived value of physical products, your profit margins are higher than even the top selling digital products. I show this at 4:17 - in terms of adding in Etsy ad fees, if you're running ads, that applies to both physical and digital products, but because with physical products you have higher profit margins, it is even easier to make a profit, so I'm unsure why ad fees are relevant here.
My top selling products only feature 1 picture, not multiple pictures. You stated "people do not buy a t-shirt with just a picture" yet they do? That is the majority of t-shirts on Etsy that are selling, not just me? I even showed an example in this video, so I'm not sure how else to counter that, other than literally showing that yes, they do.
Shipping costs - I also am unsure why this is mentioned. Most t-shirts, including the top seller I showed, have it as a separate cost. Customers pay it anyway. Shipping costs do vary, and I have customers all around the world and they all pay their shipping. It is a separate charge negated by the customer who pays it, so I don't include it in profit calculations since it's impossible to as it varies, and also, is practically irrelevant.
But in terms of offering something unique, I absolutely agree with you. That is the key I believe to success on Etsy, whether it is digital products or physical products! I made a video a couple of months ago discussing why it is so important to do that: czcams.com/video/Phucc1uMllw/video.htmlsi=gOn691YYeMiV1V25
I appreciate your perspective on the value of physical products over digital ones. It's an interesting point about physical products being just as passive if done right, something I hadn't considered before.
Good to hear your opinion on preferring physical products over digital products whilst selling digital products teaching selling physical products - definitely the best of both worlds 😜
LOL. To be fair, this is about selling products in an ecommerce store. If it were to be an educational business, then yes, I would argue digital products are superior!
I’ve been working on starting up both a digital product Etsy shop and a physical product shop, and I can absolutely confirm your point about digital products taking wayyyy more time to create, with the different sizes and “bundles” you feel like you have to do to be competitive. So far I have only made money with my digital products store, but hopefully I’ll start getting some traction with the physical products soon. Thank you for sharing all of your hard earned knowledge with us to help us succeed!
I'm surprised she didn't notice that digital products aren't that passive actually. When you sell digital items, you can't avoid customers who have problems downloading the digital product and asking for help. That's time consuming and quite stressful
As a small shop starting out, I have to pay up front for those POD orders to go out and when you start with zero dollars, this is difficult to do!
I strongly suggest looking into credit cards! Even the most basic credit cards work great. There are some people whose credit scores will stop this and I understand, they may prefer digital products even if they make less money.
Yep that is really the reason. I just commented same.
That's what stopped me from POD. I didn't know I would pay for the item first. I thought I would just receive the profit like KDP or digital products. But nope you pay for that sweatshirt first. It seemed I wasn't going money but loosing money.
@@TulipWife Would a shopify store solve this problem? The customer pays first and you use their money to pay for thier item. You can also leave the profit there to grow to support additional purchases. Once your capital grows from sales you can automate the whole process.
But Sarah, I’m obsessed with digital products
You had to upload this video as I am prepping my first batch of Etsy downloadables, lol...👀Very good info- Thank you!
Haha thank you! And there is no harm in selling them anyway now that you've made them, but in the future, if you have time to invest into creating products, I would argue that using future time to create more digital products would have a big opportunity cost, compared to using it to create physical products.
Your welcome! And I agree! As a creative professional I'm use to grinding out designs and it's definitely a lot of work and time. After learning (last week) how to properly handle SEO and keyword ranking for my etsy shop listings was a huge eye opener, lol...starting to see better traffic now. I started out with designing for physical products first and now starting to build out into downloadable ai art and other digital prints- some of those digital prints will end up on physical products as well.@@WholesaleTed
As an admirer of your success and knowledge your point is well taken. There are digital products that sell for $1000 and more and some have recurring membership fees. Harder to sell of course but not impossible.
Thank you! That is true, although that also applies to physical products too. This is for ecommerce stores, rather than an educational business. For educational businesses, then absolutely people can and do sell $1,000+ digital courses, but they also wouldn't sell them in an ecommerce store or on Etsy, if that makes sense 🙏
I completely agree with you and thank you for confirming this! 👌🏼
Thank you for all the great info! And your hilarious!
Thank you for opening my eyes to see different perspective. I do sell digital download svg, png ect. It used to be profitable 2 years ago but now it seems like everyone lower their price. Specially sublimation tumbler, some top etsy seller sell $1 and you get 5 free designs. Plus AI designs is everywhere. The amount of theft re selling digital download increased. They the one who file false take down to the original seller. So sad. Now after watching your video, it got me thinking maybe I should try POD use my own design. Test it out and hopefully it will work. The only thing that I worry about POD is the price. Tshirt plus shipping the price is hight and make me think who is going to buy while Wallmart, target sell cheaper. Will you make video about POD strategy to be successful compete with walmart, target or Temu. Thank you so much!
I LIKE YOUR ENTHUSIASM SARAH,AND TGERE IS A VIDEO WHEN THE INTERVIEWER ASK JEFF BEZOS ABOUT TGE DIFFERENCE BEETWEEN TANGIBLE BOOKS AND DIGITAL ONES,AND HE SAID THAT WITH TANGIBLE BOOKS(REAL BOOKS),YOU CAN FEEL AND SMELL THE BOOK AND THAT GGIVES YOU AN UNIQUE SENSE OF HAVING IT,I AGREE,BUT DIGITAL BOOKS ARE GREAT AS WELL;IN MY POINT OF VIEW WITH TANGIBLE BOOKS YOU DON'T NEED TO GENERATE ENERGY TO HAVE IT ALWAYS,AND WITH DIGITAL BOOKS YOU CAN STORE A LOT OF THEM IN A LITTLE MEMORY CARD OR HARD DISC,ETC;WELL I THINK "EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE AND NOTHING IS ABSOLUTE"!!👍👍👍👍
Love yoouu!!❤...your amazing...so down to earth accent and all 😅...very informative
0:31 - "Beater" ROTFL! Love the accent.
I am watching your videos for several years now, and most where really helpful to me, yet I can't deny, this one, feels more like a promo video for Shopify and print on demand, instead of a video about the difference of digital and psychical products. And because I dont have this feeling very often on your channel, this means you are doing a good job.
I do appreciate your feedback, and, am glad you don't feel this way about my usual videos. It does make me sad, I will be honest, that you felt this video was an ad. I spoke brutally and honestly from the heart, because I felt that there were other videos on digital products, that just did not discuss the reality of how much money was being left on the table, because they were hopping on a trend. Rather than hop on a trend that could make me go viral, I went against it to share truths which I have not seen be talked about - which is then, ironically, seen to be an ad. That is why it makes me sad to read this, but I also understand and appreciate the honest feedback 🙏
Yep i got into digital b/c OF THE HYPE. And not yet seeing much money at all esp with costs of Midjourney and other tools. So I appreciated it. Honestly SARAH YOU ARE RIGHT. It's the cc issue that keeps me from POD.@@WholesaleTed
I do both and they have their pros and cons but far and away the most profitable thing for me is customized physical products that I buy and customize myself. Of course, the big down side is having to stock the products and ship them - big pain, but the monster profit keeps me going. :)
Hello from the past Sara❤ Thanks for video ❤ Hope you are good ❤
Thank you! I hope you're doing well back in the past 👋 the future here is currently rain, so I recommend bringing an umbrella tomorrow
Physical products are more likely to have print and sipping errors and cost more to fix. Also The number of scammers claiming physical orders didn't arrive so they get to keep the item and get a full refund is growing. So honestly as a seller you should still both.
Your Printify t-shirt cost doesn't include shipping so either you're ranking lower on Etsy because you don't offer free shipping or your profit margin decreases significantly when you add the shipping in. People can present numbers and charts to support the exact opposite argument so I think we all just need to go with what works for us as individuals. For me it's reselling physical goods, print on demand and digital. Thanks for what you do!
Thank you! And just a note, I never include shipping in my profit calculations because it changes depending on the customer location and the customer pays it as a separate charge, and so they negate it, making it irrelevant. That is not done to change or twist the argument to my perspective, I want to clarify, it is done because the shipping is not relevant 🙏
I think that sure, you'll have better rankings on Etsy if you offer free shipping, but very few people do - myself included, I don't do free shipping, and this t-shirt also doesn't offer free shipping either and sells/ranks great. I'm sure that digital poster set would also sell better if it was $1 instead of $4.50 - which would increase it's rankings, but just because you can rank higher, doesn't mean you need to, or should. If that makes sense. So I don't think it changes the points I made.
But I do agree, it's about what works for you. This video is about why *I* stopped selling them, but as I said at 10:07 - everyone is different and I do understand that 🙏
@@WholesaleTed Really? I go with the "Always offer free shipping" boat but maybe it's time to experiment. I was also thinking of trying more like posters and sticker sets.
Thank you for mentioning this. That certainly should have been included in every video. I assumed it was so I kind of feel slighted. Shipping costs vary per order, but is still a lot of money taken.
I love all your videos, thanks for sharing. I am currently selling SVG cut files on Etsy as I am trying to obtain an income passively due to not being able to work a 9-5 because of a health problem. I do get sales but they aren't a lot and I was going to open a couple more Etsy shops selling digital products that I create because my head is so full of ideas 😂. I do like the idea of print on demand but I wonder about dealing with returns or customers not being happy with their purchases for whatever reason. What would your advice be for me?
Hey Sarah, love your channel and it's been really helpful over the years. I think some people might be put off trying digital products after watching this but I really think everyone should try both to see what works best for them - half the fun of being an ecommerce entrepreneur after all is testing and learning ;) But I agree to some extent that selling Etsy digital print products (having done so myself) can be a bit of a race to the bottom unless you are crafting something unique or highly original. For that you need to be super talented with design or work with someone who is.
Also I see some great opportunities in selling digital / creative services and particularly packaged services with different tiers as opposed to selling actual downloadable products where the customer has to do something at the other end of the transaction (ie. print it !) to obtain the utility from their purchase, for many this is too much hassle. 70-80% gross margins are not to be sneezed at ;) But whatever you decide to do the most important aspect IMHO is to understand the market your in, understand your customer segment and the prices they are willing to pay and be strategic with your business plan.
Thank you, and I appreciate your honest feedback. I do think it's interesting that this video upset a lot of people, I genuinely didn't expect that.
The thing I find interesting, is that people have made plenty of videos discussing why they prefer digital products to physical products - and I then make a video, explaining the opposite, and a lot of people have been personally offended by it!
In terms of 70-80% margins, it honestly is irrelevant to me, personally. It's all about how much money per-sale it makes. If I sell a $4.50 product, with an 80% margin, that sounds great - but I'd much rather sell the $16 t-shirt and earn more money per sale (nearly $5) 🙏 especially since the t-shirt took a lot less time to design and make.
I think it’s great that there is the choice to do either or, or even both 😊 Although i’m shooting for $40 sales and anything less than $10 should be purely to get early sales velocity and boost that Etsy quality score with lots of customer orders 🙏
Thank you for this video
You have made some good points Sarah. But I think that a mixture of both physical and digital products is best. A free digital product can be used as a sales funnel. And a digital product can be used as an up sale for a more profitable physical product.
For example, a digital shopping list and meal planner or food diary can lead to the purchase of a digital or physical cookbook. It can also complement the offer for a personalized apron, customized cutting board, personalized kitchen plaque, trivet, mug and other tangible items.
The ultimate digital product is a workshop, class, or course.
Having both digital and physical products available for customers gives the sellers more flexibility. If there’s a problem with the manufacturer of your physical product it can greatly delay your sales. On the other hand, if the power or internet grid goes down, there goes your sales of digital products. Therefore, I believe that it’s not a good idea to put all of your creative eggs into one type of basket.
Sara, how about a video on a typical workday for you? (Or at least what your workday looked like when you were starting out; I know most people work less after they get their store established.) Do you do designing, mockups, uploads, etc. in batches, like one step of the process per day or even per week? How many hours were you grinding it out?
I know I need to be spending more time working on my business while I have some time away from work, but I haven't found a rhythm for my workday yet.
That's a great question, and for me, most of my ecommerce business isn't something I'm that involved in, I mostly have it running on autopilot at this point with a combination of apps + staff. And a big part of that is because POD products aren't as complex to design, and so I don't have to be as designed in the design/research phase to scale it. And because I focus on free traffic, that mostly happens hands-off with algorithms. If you're at the point of making money, rather than focusing on a rhythm, if I were in your shoes, I would instead be focusing on trying to get as much of it automated as possible!
Yeah, but.. how? What apps, how to find good stuff that you can rely on?
I really like the idea with the workday video.
Let me tell you I had printify account for three months and I am taking about premium..I sold only two mugs and one T-shirt..and I had so many designs from various niche..but my digital products are slowly bringing me revenue.
YOU'RE AMAZING!!!!!
Sarah, I'm really struggling with ETSY, I have over 100 views on my shop (divvied between the physical and digital products) but no sales. . . . and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. . . .
Dear Sarah,
I hope you are doing well. I don’t mean to go off topic, but I have a question please. I have stopped selling digital products for now and trying to get into affiliate marketing on Pinterest. Do you have advice on how to make it successful? If you have a moment, any response would be much appreciated. Thank you! 😊
Okay so I have a question, on the off chance you will see this:
Say that I set up my etsy store and use Printify's free account to begin with.
when the order goes through to printify do they automatically take their charges out of the customers payment, and simply leave me the remainder of it? Or am I up front paying for all of this and therefore have to have a base amount of money ready to go to kickstart this?
I guess I'm just looking for a "breakdown for dummies" moment. If I have literally $0 to start this, will this all come out of what is being paid through etsy, and I will just get the difference?
Brilliant thanks
I don't sell 45 sizes it's ridiculous! And overwhelms the consumer- I think the market made a mistake with going that way...some of those sizes are never really used. YOu are right BUT for those who can't front the money for POD, can't access credit cards we are STUCK!
Wow was this video timely. I finally decided to bite the bullet and create my first Amazon KDP puzzle book. All told it will take me a solid week to create it as each of the 101 puzzles is unique. I'll make between $3-4 per sale. Doing the math makes me think it was a giant waste of time. Thanks for the kick in the a$$. Going back to physical products ... next week.
9:15 its like I'm watching a high budget Hollywood film which won a bunch of Emmies and Grammies. :o ❤️🔥 Especially at 9:21
Hello! Thanks Sarah! this material is really good , im from CHILE, and I can´t create my oun selling account on etsy, why is that? Do u recomend us another platform to sell our tshirts on demand?
what happens if the client returns the product printed from printfy
With newer software, images can be scanned & vectorized off of physical products right from the website. Nothing is protected from theft maybe other than copyrighting and trademarking the image. Most people don't want to pay the expense for that level of protection.
Would like to have print on demand for Coloring Books. Who would you use? No print on demand will allow you to have a domain link on each page which is the only thing I am interested in… Sara do you have any suggestions?
For that, I think you will have to sell them digitally. It's true that some products have to be sold digitally, but I would just choose to not sell them personally, and instead choose a different type of product to sell, but for me, that is because I am interested in profits/scalability/easiness to make them. If there are other reasons that draw someone to create a digital product, such as having a passion for it, I absolutely understand!
It depends on what digital products you't selling I think, you make online banners etc for like etsy, fb, twitter, discord, twitch, etc, they need to be digital, I'm going to be selling custom designs not sure how much I'd price them but it does take time, and you can have a hidden trademark which only the designer would know about... so therefore it wouldn't be so easy for scammers to get away with reselling your design
1) Yes, that is the sort of product that can only be sold digitally. Therefore, I wouldn't bother making them myself, for the reasons I outlined there, I would choose to sell a different physical product instead of selling twitch banners - but that is my choice, for many people reasons other than profits drive them: they might be passionate about it and want to make & sell them anyway, and I understand, in which case, they can only be sold viably as digital products, which is why I agree at 10:07 that my arguments won't apply to everyone.
2) My argument is that it is easier to copy & steal a digital product, than a physical one. You don't need a watermark to prove that someone copied your design, so including it as a hidden one won't help identify stolen products - just seeing your banners reuploaded, watermark or not, is enough! And I absolutely think it is much easier to just reupload banner images, than it is to take my t-shirt design and to redraw it from scratch. That was my point, if that makes sense, not that my t-shirt can't be stolen, but that the barrier to doing so is higher.
I love this channel.
Thank you for sharing this video. I agree with you that physical products can have more earning potential. I'm currently switching back over to POD because my digital products aren't selling. I don't want to give up on ecommerce though. I see a lot of potential with POD.
I think the main appeal of digital products is how passive they are. On Etsy, they can't be returned, so that eliminates one potential pain point. Users can also download them without any interaction with you, which eliminates another pain point for more socially anxious individuals like myself lol.
The things you mention makes digital products desirable but she is right about the profits. Most of them sell between $ 1 to $ 5 which means you need high volume of sales. Also digital products can be copied and stolen easily. Both have pros and cons but my experience selling physical products done better. The logistics is a pain but profits are overall better.
@@longbeach225 I've decided to open a second store for POD. Both product types have earning potential. I'll take it where I can get it.
Love it when you go against the grain. More of these videos please ❤
I notice that you sell in the USA. Would your method work in the UK or do you suggest that we sell in the USA too? TTA
I agree with You. I have actually 2 funcional etsy shops. On physical shop I'm able to gain 1000$ / month selling 40 items monthly having 20 products. Digital product shop has 306 items and sells 15 items/month for maybe 10 $ overall income 😳 unless you invent something revolutionary You'll finish selling dozens of items with 0,1$ profit
About the thing with the tax code for Brazil. That's exactly the stuff why a lot of people backwards from physical shipping. Yes, if you do that 5 Minute task for an over $500 order, fair enough. Bud, would you be willing to do that if you get a lot of orders that only buy 1 of your products? Not so passive any more, right?
And what if someone don't get their package? If the product does not meet their expectations? If it's broken? Stuff that happens all the time. Who gives the support? You or the PoD Manufacturer?
I don't say digital products are the only way to go, but I can really relate why people are very reluctant to do it.
If anything arrives damaged or broken, the POD supplier replaces it free of charge. The customer gets to keep the item for free too, which they usually love. You just click the report an order button and report the order was faulty - they replace it straight away. Less than 1% of orders have this issue. I do think people, overestimate how often this occurs. A good POD supplier ships items reliably and in great quality. My items consistently get 5/5 stars!
I terms of meeting expectations - again my customers give me 5/5 stars, so they are very happy. But digital products do have this too. And in that situation, it's even more awkward, because a customer requesting a refund of a digital product is very challenging to answer to. Customers expect that if you did offer returns of change of mind (which most sellers don't, as it's made to order) they would have to return it. Digital product sellers have to deal with negotiating an unhappy customer, who wants a refund, can't now can't return the product, and just gets to keep it essentially for free.
I do think it's also good to not forget the extra hours it takes to create digital products. Yes, for 1-2% of orders, you'll need to spend 5 minutes doing something like adding in a tax code. But it's offset by the hours you saved, by not creating a digital product which takes a lot more time to make.
The low perceived value of digital products means a lot more work goes in upfront, just to create a product with a perceived value to earn you $3-4 profit per sale. At 4:57 I point out this discrepancy. You earn more from a sale of a t-shirt featuring just 1 picture, versus a bundle of 9 pictures, or arguably 45 images.
You also have to design more digital products than physical products, because you don't have the luxury of getting multi-orders with a digital product. So the only way to bump up the AOV is to try and get people to order multiple digital product downloads, rather than just get them to buy 2+ of a t-shirt.
So you lose a lot of upfront time by:
1) Having to spend more time designing the product (9x+ the time here, in fact)
2) Having to also make more of these very time-consuming products
It's easy to get caught up on the 5 minutes you spend for a fraction of the orders with POD products, and to not think about the time you already lost. It more than makes up the difference!
can you maybe do a follow up of this topic and speak about your experiences about returns / customer satisfaction? I guess in the context of your company this is handled by employees, but it would be interesting to know figures, to roughly know what to expect when tipping the toe as a small entrepreneur in the physical goods environment
I have made multiple videos on customer satisfaction already. I haven't made a video on returns, because it's not a big enough topic to make a whole video on, but I can tell you directly my experiences :)
Here are my videos on customer satisfaction, including one I made very recently:
czcams.com/video/JA1orXh5GNw/video.htmlsi=iW7fJSIzXQS54rd7
czcams.com/video/plfGZlwFqds/video.htmlsi=e6JpynoFwSc_BtE5
czcams.com/video/lG4_iu0SUiA/video.htmlsi=xwrngPpih9z89JOw
czcams.com/video/Y7jRSsr7qbQ/video.htmlsi=TS1cLkgek2bo2iAh
In terms of returns, my return rate is very low, it hovers around 2-3% but also, that is only because I offer returns. If I didn't offer returns, it would be practically at 0%. I offer returns for change of mind, but I'm unusual. Most made-to-order businesses do not. Which is why most POD Etsy stores do not offer returns for change-of-mind, since POD products are made-to-order. So in practice, it is around 2-3% but it could be basically at 0-1%.
In terms of returns for a faulty product, that almost never happens. I pick great print providers so it's not an issue, my customers rate my products 5/5 consistently. They're very happy with them and so they don't have to return them for a fault.
That isn't to say it hasn't happened: it has. That's why the return rate would be somewhere between 0-1%. However, the print providers will just send the customer another item, for free, so it doesn't matter, customers are usually happy because they get to keep the faulty product for free.
People who claim that POD businesses have headaches usually, in my experience, pick bad suppliers & bad products. If you pick bad suppliers, yes, you will have unhappy customers. If you pick problematic products, yes, you will have unhappy customers. If you pick good suppliers, and good products, then it is 99% of the time hands-off, and is just as passive as selling a digital product 🙏
thanks a lot for the detailed answer sarah! really appreciated!
I am little confused here, do I need to print the design to the shirt myself and deliver it by myself or I just need to make design and etsy will print and deliver that for me? I am a complete beginner and would appreciate some details!! Thank you
I have still to enter the world of online selling. I'm really interested in your advice and the resources you mention. I did wonder whether you'd had experience of Gelato and Kittl? I'm based in Scotland. Thanks.
Hi@@absolutefreedom8035 have you tried using it yourself and, if so, do you have any advice?
Being from Canada and selling mostly digital products mostly to US customers. I would like to sell physical items, but I still don't know how to deal with returns as the items have to go through US and Canada customs making the process complicated and time consuming.
I just watched your 99 Etsy Digital Product Ideas video. I was very excited! Now I'm being told that it's a bad idea. Why the change of heart? :(
"Feel free to tear me apart in the comments." LOL. Sorry people are so mean sometimes. At least you're able to keep your sense of humor about it. I think you're terrific!
How do you handle returns and exchanges? This seems to be a huge part of online shopping nowadays.
It's interesting because in my experience, POD physical product stores take less time to create/run than digital product stores, even accounting for returns/refunds. Returns are almost a non-issue for Etsy POD stores, because items are made-to-order. It is standard on Etsy to not offer refunds for made-to-order items, which is why most Etsy POD stores do not allow it.
However, you are required to do returns/refunds for faulty products. With a well-review print shop, these make up less than 1% of orders. It takes 5-10 minutes to handle it. Each POD app has a button to report a faulty product. The print shop will then send the customer a new product, free-of-charge, and the customer gets to keep the faulty item for free, which they are usually very happy with, as the faults tend to be minimal. From the customers perspective, they got an extra item for free and love it.
When you consider then that refunds generally take about 5-10 minutes to handle, and make up less than 1% of orders, most stores will overall spend less time on a POD store than a Digital Product store, due to the enormous amount of upfront time that digital products take to create 4:52 plus the fact that to equal the profit of a POD store, a digital product store will usually have to create a much larger range of products in an attempt to encourage multi-item orders as they aren't ordered in multiples as I discuss in 0:52 - the upfront time investment is huge.
Agree. I sometimes use them as lead magnets tho.
That sounds like a great idea!
Meh I feel it is an equal argument. I do both so I'm good. Thank you for the tips though.
I generally agree with this point except that selling physical products require money up front. If I sell 10 t-shirts I have to pay for those first, then get paid in a few weeks. That is my goal, but I may start with digital first to generate some cash. I also don't want to use sites like Etsy for physical products because I plan on this being a long term business so I'd rather build my own site to skip all the BS from using platforms. It will take a lot longer for that. So if I can sell digital products first to generate some cash while I work on my physical site at the same time that will work. Great video! :)
Print on demand takes away the need to order a batch and ship them yourself. You just need to price enough to make a decent profit margin.
I love watching this gal. She’s cute , she’s smart and I love the way she talks.
Hey Sarah, is your print on demand course updated for the 2024 market?
I think you are spot on - the largest weight I think in POD and say Etsy vs Digital - is about that amex card you mentioned that cover costs while waiting on revenue. - can you do what you do with physical products with zero credit card or say 5.00 in the bank. - Joyfully Printify I think is attempting to assist in that arena with the pop up store. - that way you truthfully don't have up front costs and encounter no surprise you sold 50 shirts and have no money in the bank type moments. - just my thoughts on it and if you can attach your printify to say etsy or shopify + actually sell items and not have to have a single dime - then please let me know, perhaps I have misunderstood how it works. That is one video i have yet to see - you were the closest to anyone i have watched yet that mentioned having to have a credit card indicating you had to pay for something while waiting for profit. Thank you for your videos I find them extremely helpful and you do a wonderful job.
Thank you! Yes, you are correct about the pop up shop. But, you don't need a credit card to get started with POD. Most stores ramp up slowly, especially on platforms like Etsy. It takes time for their algorithms to learn who your target customer is. Having $100 or so set aside on a debit card is absolutely fine. Etsy can do weekly payments, and Shopify pays out every few days (it depends on where you live, it varies slightly from location to location). With a small amount set aside, you can absolutely get started. But yes a credit card massively helps and is amazing value! I have discussed it in some of my other videos on this channel, I hope they can help you 🙏
Please give your thoughts on POD shops on reserve.
Does Etsy do that for shops selling digital as well? While we may make more on physical products, when Etsy holds $$$$$, how does this work?
It's a good question. It doesn't actually impact most POD stores, because of the way the reserve works. The reserve is that Etsy holds 30% of your money, and will release it once an item is shipped. Items are usually shipped by most POD stores within 3 days. So really, the reserve ends up being irrelevant, especially if you are already on weekly payouts anyway.
Well, you nailed it again. BUT. For people like me who can't open an Etsy shop this doesn't really mean much because at the end of the day, all we want is a platform where we don't have to do much to drive traffic to. It's taking me a long time to make digital products (before opening a store) and I agree, physical is best because with digital one has to offer a lot of designs and make lots of changes to each design. But with the exchange rate of our country's currency to the dollar, any sale of a digital product is worth a lot. If one can make a sale. Because it's so easy in my country to make physical products POD or not. Just thankful my home country has Etsy pay.
Decision is EASY...
Physical products: More labor, More risk, More constraints, More laws, More returns, More warranty claims, More cost of transportation, purchasing, production. Personnel and packaging, More damage to the environment.
Digital products: Create once, sell, done. Maybe an update for software, but e.g. PDF is just forever.
Haha, on the flipside, I also think the decision is easy:
Digital products: low profit, low upsell opportunities, low perceived value, low scaling ceiling
Physical products: basically as passive as digital products when done right, since your print on demand provider does everything for you.
For that 18-item order, I did nothing. The customer bought it, a few days later, their items were in the mail, and I did nothing but collect a much bigger payout!
In terms of damage to the environment, by having a POD supplier make the products, they are made more energy efficient than they would be if the customer made them themselves, which would have happened either way. You do have shipping, but my guess is, the customer would have used shipping to purchase the base items themselves in the first place.
@@WholesaleTed nope, never. If you have the "right" digital product, you beat the physical every time at ZERO costs ;) I know digital products 1pc costs 5'000.- or more. think big. And YES, if you are NIKE, or any other big brand of cource the digital product has no chance, but for a single man or woman digital is always cheaper and more easy to start. physical is way to complex.
edit: think about courses, podcasts, music, videos, etc. etc... once produced, selled for ever.
I guess I should clarify, this is an ecommerce channel 😜 that's why the thumbnail had an Etsy logo on it. This isn't about digital products for an educational business, it's about digital vs physical products for ecommerce stores, like Etsy stores, rather than an educational course being created by a content creator 🙏
What about just selling books? Would you consider that a digital product or a physical product?
Do you know if there's a company like printify that does wallpapers from your designs?
Interesting, I don't know of print on demand wallpaper but I wouldn't be surprised if it exists
Contrado do POD wallpaper. Their products are a bit pricey but very high quality.
Thank you for the speedy response...
If I have a physical product I want to sell, is Etsy still good for that or where could I sell It?
May i ask ,How you handle a return from customer If you are not in Us?
I want to buy your training, but I am Turkish and I do not know English. Are there Turkish subtitles?
Problem is you didn’t include delivery costs in the T-shirt example. Monster digital charge 4.75 to deliver a T-shirt which totally wipes out the profit leaving nothing. I don’t understand why people sell things so low on Etsy, most of these sellers can’t be making much selling like that.
Makes sense. The exception would be digital products that don't work in any other format. Like scripted photoshop brushes, or games.
Could it also be argued that selling physical products online can make you more money than using ai to generate videos for a faceless youtube channel?
Haha well, they're entirely different business models... I think they both have very high earning potential, although I'd argue that faceless ai youtube channels are much more at risk of getting algorithmically selected against in the future by platforms like CZcams, which makes them a much riskier business to start.
Do you still recommend Shopify or Etsy better?
My biggest hesitation on selling digital products on Etsy is the rampant art theft going on. So I’m thinking I may rather keep my artwork to myself and sell physical items displaying my artwork instead.
T-shirt designs are constantly being stolen. Every time I get a best seller people steal it. How do people stop this?
My point wasn't that physical product designs can't be stolen, but that the barrier to do so is greater, it is more likely to have a digital product stolen than a physical product. That said, it happens to both, and it's easy to fix. When you spot it, send a takedown copyright notice via the website it is, up on, and it will get removed 🙏
@@WholesaleTed they just counter and in 10 days they can re-list them.
what happens after 10 days if you do new copywright claim? i was wndering same, first issue returns which can be solved by having no return policy and second issue is if big tshirt sellers with lots of reviews just steal your designs then how can you ever compete when you start with zero reviews. as soon as a design of yours gets popular then the big boys have all the tracking tools so nothing stopping them swiping your design and getting all the sales, by the time you dispute it etsy wont care about you, they will side with the bigger shop who has millions of reviews
Hi,it is possible to make full income from etsy pod shirts or digital products on etsy?
Wow, I just left a lengthy comment agreeing with your points and explaining how I am in the process of closing down my own Etsy store and CZcams DELETED my comment saying it was against community guidelines!! NOT even any swearing or anything! Sorry, but I’m not typing all that again.
Fair enough, I'm sorry about that, it is very easy to trigger the guidelines. It's gotten much worse with comment scammers, they have made the threshold for comments getting deleted so much lower. My guess is you probably used normal words that they use.
@@WholesaleTed Hhm, interesting. First time that’s happened to me. But now that you mention it I have seen less spammy comments. Took them long enough.
Love the accent!
With physical products though you have to have money up front. People say they sell 30k a month in Q4 ornaments, but who has 30k dollars to get those ornaments into production? You have one item go viral, your screwed! 😢
I have not seen many Etsy stores have to close due to cash flow, because Etsy offers daily payouts. If you combine that, with even a small credit card, you can easily sustain $30k sales a month, especially because your production costs are not $30k. And then, you not only get to make $10,000+ a month in profit, but you also get to fly business class around the world practically for free 8:36 surely rather than be scared about that, you'd be excited!
@@WholesaleTed so that’s the piece I was missing! You’re right, you can do daily payouts and I always forget that because I just have mine weekly. Thanks!!
I agree with you. I was looking into making some digital products because I needed some cash NOW, not later. The pay mechanism was REALLY attractive... BUT... I had the same questions about uploading high quality images that can be downloaded. What's to stop them from stealing it and putting it on t-shirt and reposting it and knocking down your listing by flooding in a whole bunch of copies. So I backed off. I still think its better to attach your images to some kind of object as that is what the customer is going to do anyway. In physical retail stores its really hard to sell something that isn't tangible in their hands like an extended warranty on a TV or stereo.
I'm curious if there is a way to get "reward points" through selling through different vendors like your credit card though. For instance, you purchase products that are used to be sold to customers. The sales pay off the card and generate points and then those points can be cashed in for other things like gift cards, airline tickets, or other bonuses. I do this with my banking cards all the time. I wonder if certain vendors offer reward points for using them or if we could offer reward points to customers. i.e. every 20 t-shirts/mugs/stickers, etc gets you points that you could cash in for a custom graphic at a discounted price or even for free if you save enough up. Maybe it could be offered through the vendor like Printify. Curious if you have tried this or if it even exists or you have and it was a disaster or a success.
Your thinking is good thinking but it's unfortunately almost impossible to do efficiently on Etsy, there is no good way to automate it. But if you sell yourself & open your own store for your brand via Shopify, you can then effectively offer that with a customer loyalty program app 🌞
You could easily make various listings for your images and include different licensing for them and how they are allowed to be used.
Depending on permitted usage, the pricing should be different.
This would not prevent anyone from stealing the image in some way, like with a physical copy. At least you would have legal recourse if it happens.
The biggest issue is how to get traffic to your shop, ads on etsy does not work
I have a video about getting traffic to an Etsy store, when you're new: czcams.com/video/Phucc1uMllw/video.htmlsi=7IsMX2guK412MrCf
At the most basic level, all you have to do is create some type of media offering that also contains ads for your store. The more related, the better the sales will be. For instance, selling 3d printed miniatures for a custom tabletop campaign. Then, running your own campaigns on stream or making CZcams videos about the lore or inviting people to play as a community. You could do the same with cards. Or even T-shirts. With a clothing review channel or modelling Instagram.
When your print-on-demand provider run's out of stock what do u do. Please make video.
My products do not run out of stock because I choose products where that isn't an issue. I made a video about that recently: czcams.com/video/JA1orXh5GNw/video.htmlsi=sCd4SaAYgWmiT46C 🌞🌞🌞
What is the best way selling etsy .
1 physical and
2 Digital product
This is excatly my experience , new fake accounts 2 times sale my design with my own font and thumbnail even is obvious same thumbnail i have the best seller they didnt do anything i called them report them for different time periods for both person stealing my designs and selling for 1.90 usd , in the process just im discucted by etsy and told them you have buyer protection you should have seller protection they dont care REALLY about sellers
the problem with selling physical items is that you need to pay for subscription to Printify another cost plus the cost of making the product. With digital there is none of that.
can this model be applied to EU?
I agree, in fact after listening to your analysis, it seems intuitive that physical products would be perceived by customers as more valuable than digital.
Sarah, so you pay the production costs with your New Zealand credit card in New Zealand dollars and then you receive the money back in US dollars? I live in Brazil and if I were to do that here the spread in currency exchange plus the tax would eat all the profit! (Yes, in Brasil there is a 6% goverment tax to currency exchange... and I would have to pay that twice... from brazilian real to US dollars and then back from US dollars to brazilian real...) I have been thinking about opening a Shopify store or Etsy store but I don't know what to do about this currency exchage expense issue...
Ugh, transaction fees. I don't talk about them since most of my viewers are US based or have access to credit cards with no foreign transaction fees, which we don't have in New Zealand. Yes, they do eat into your profits. They are relatively small though, not large enough to make the physical products less profitable than digital products, but yes, if you don't have a card that can waive them, you have to pay them. I wouldn't say you pay them twice - you just pay them once, whenever money is exchanged. But, along the way, you often do end up exchanging money multiple times. For me, it's receiving the money, and also in paying for the product production since I purchase it from a USA-based app. If you don't want credit card reward points, you can use PayPal to pay for production costs, and use that to lower your transaction fees. You'll also have foreign transaction fees on Etsy deposits too, if you sell digital products.
Hello! I'm in Australia so pretty much in the same boat as you in NZ, and I do have a credit card with no foreign exchange or transaction fees (I usually only use it when I travel overseas), soooo...since our dollars SUCK against the USD right now, we're paying more money upfront for Printify, BUT do we get paid in USD? So we end up getting quite a bit more back? Or am I totally clueless? 😂
Yes, you're right: you get charged foreign transaction fees, but you also earn in USD too, so I can't really complain. I love it when the NZD is weak against the USD. It means I earn more money effectively for "free" - without having to do anything different, LOL.
@@WholesaleTed LOL! It's the only good thing about the dollars here being so bad! I want to go to the US on holiday but it's sooo expensive due to the exchange rate. So I'll just do this instead and take advantage of it! 🤪😂 Thank you for responding!
Sarah, you are awesome! Thank you so much for taking some of your precious time to answer my comment. Please keep the videos coming! Love your content!@@WholesaleTed
Etsy adds a reserve on your account as a new seller and if you don't have access to a credit card, then digital products are a good place to start.
I’m trying to work out how I can fulfil orders from multiple fulfilment companies in the one bundle fir my customers without them getting charged multiple shipping costs. I understand I can embed the shipping in my retail price but hue do I stop them getting charged at checkout? I have my own website ... not Etsy. I can’t get anyone to answer this question for me... can you please help??
You can't do that one I'm afraid, if you want to automate it, you'll need to just sell one item at a time. You can however create your own manual order each time a customer buys - it takes about 2 minutes to manually order them if you have them saved as a draft order!
OK....what about putting it through order desk?@@WholesaleTed
Nope I'm the opposite. People need to be aware that you have to have the money up front for POD! I couldn't afford it.
But digital products have no packing, not any costs making them then something like a canva account.
Hm, are you seriously saying the print on demand store dont fix the "tax-code" stuff for you? Thats really crazy. I would NEVER fix those things for a print on demand service, OF COURSE its THEIR JOB, and NOT yours. Wow.. Now, can you please make a video about print on demand stores where the seller does not need to do that kind of idiotic stuff (stuff that should be automated or handled by the print on demand service)? Thanks! Love your channel! 😊
Well, with physical products you have to deal with sales taxes...
What are your thoughts on selling digital “services”, like marketing, coaching, education etc?
They can be very profitable, but they are not the topic of this video. In some industries, digital products can be the most profitable, but in some industries, such as the Etsy marketplace, physical products are more profitable.
❤ Thank You 🙏