20+ Etsy Shop Ideas for Makers and Creatives (2024)

There are many ways to start a business, some of which are more intimidating than others. When thinking about launching your ecommerce business idea, you first need to determine where you want to both market and sell your products.

For many online business owners, building an Etsy shop is a great place to test your ideas and ultimately scale your online business.

Etsy first launched as a marketplace specifically tailored for makers, artists, and other creatives wanting to sell their wares. Now, brands of all kinds get their start on the marketplace, expand to other Etsy alternatives, and even eventually launch their own website.

This article lists some great Etsy shop ideas to help you get started with finding your Etsy niche, building your own Etsy business and giving you insight into how to sell on Etsy.

Stickers

Pros:

• Easy and affordable shipping make it one of the best Etsy shop ideas to start with
• Unlimited design options

Cons:

• Lots of competition
• Need to constantly come up with new designs or leads

Stickers are a fairly popular item to sell and buy on Etsy. The term “Etsy stickers” sees just over 5,000 monthly average searches, and a search for “stickers” on Etsy turns up more than 4 million results. That’s a heck of a lot of competition, but also a lot of opportunity. Because selling stickers is so versatile, its an Etsy niche idea that allows you to enter any vertical market. You can also create sticker designs yourself or hire a designer to bring your creative ideas to life for you, so no skills necessary.

Enamel pins

Pros:

• Many types of pins and unlimited design options
• Less competition than some other items, especially if you’re selling vintage items

Cons:

• Be wary of low-quality pin suppliers
• Requires constant creativity for new designs to continue generating new Etsy customers

Much like stickers, making enamel pins is a flexible Etsy shop idea, and a search on the marketplace only turns up around 30,000 results—so there’s lots of room here. You can make many different kinds of enamel pins, including textured soft enamel, durable hard enamel, 3D mold, epoxy, and die stuck. You can make your enamel pin designs with an editing program like Photoshop or hire a designer to help you.

Pinlord sells enamel pins on Etsy and Shopify, under the Etsy shop name Enamelpinsforever. The pop-culture-inspired pins have illustrated designs with slogans beneath. They share a distinct design style, though each gives nod to a different theme or joke.

Art

Pros:

• Super flexible with lots of product options and a great place to start for artistic types looking to start their own Etsy store
• Allows Etsy shop owners use their creativity

Cons:

• Lots of competition
• Can be challenging to mix passion with business

Etsy is an ideal marketplace for selling art because it’s specifically geared toward makers and creators. Therefore, Etsy shoppers have come to expect art and other creative products when they visit the marketplace. “Etsy art” itself gets more than 50,000 monthly searches, and “Etsy wall art” is queried as much as 10,000 times each month, according to keyword research tool Ahrefs.

There are lots of ways to sell your art online, both on Etsy and your own website. You can offer your art as digital downloads—think things like phone wallpapers or desktop background images—so you don’t have to worry about shipping and fulfillment. You can also sell physical items featuring your art. Some artists go the print-on-demand route and offer a multitude of products, including t-shirts, mugs, and phone cases. Others create one-of-a-kind items that can’t be replicated or reprinted.

More resources to help you sell your art online and on Etsy:

Candles

Pros:

• You can learn how to make candles yourself or outsource them from a supplier
• Versatile in ingredients, scents, niche, use cases, target audience, etc.

Cons:

• Lots of competition
• Can be expensive to ship large, heavy candles and ensure they don’t suffer damage or melt.

The candle market is expected to reach $545.2 million by 2025, and “Etsy candles” gets more than 3,000 average monthly searches. Plus, candles are useful in a variety of environments even outside the home—think about restaurants, spas, and other places of business with a nice ambience.

Get more inspiration for your candle business:

Woodworking projects

Pros:

• Can be as simple or as complicated as you like
• Opportunity to upcycle old wood

Cons:

• May have a bigger learning curve in terms of mastering the craft
• May require money for upfront investment in equipment and supplies

Woodworking projects are excellent items to sell on Etsy because they fit in line with the crafting and makers theme. Infinite Abyss makes a variety of woodworking projects to sell online, including serving trays, wall shelves, and other home goods. To supplement Shopify sales, it also has an Etsy store where customers can browse the same items.

More resources to help sell your woodworking projects on Etsy:

Jewelry

Pros:

• Small and easy to ship
• Popular item for Etsy shoppers

Cons:

• Requires investment in materials
• Crowded niche with lots of competition

Jewelry is a massively popular item to buy and sell on Etsy. “Etsy jewelry” has an average 8,000 monthly searches. Starting a jewelry business is an excellent way to start selling on Etsy.

Georgia-based handmade jewelry brand Virginia Wynne Designs sells its sterling silver designs on Etsy and its Shopify store. The brand has the same main image on both sites for a consistent brand experience.

Clothing

Pros:

• You can make the clothing yourself or purchase it from a supplier
• Flexibility in price point, niche, and more

Cons:

• May have to handle returns more frequently than with other products
• Has a higher learning curve to learn to make clothes yourself

Clothing is another popular item to sell on Etsy, with “Etsy clothing” being searched about 3,000 times each month. Just like with jewelry, you can take inspiration from drilling down in the search data.

• Etsy t-shirts: 4,000
• Etsy lingerie: 4,900
• Etsy wedding dress: 4,000

“Etsy fabric” also has nearly 3,000 average monthly queries—you could use Etsy as a sales channel to sell your surplus or custom-made fabrics.

Check out these resources to get started selling clothes on Etsy:

Handmade pottery and clay goods

Pros:

• Flex your creative muscles
• Opportunity to make completely unique items

Cons:

• Requires a specific skill set and equipment
• May be expensive or difficult to ship without damaging

If you can make pottery, clay, ceramic, or similar goods, this skill is perfectly suited for Etsy business ideas. Lorena Haldeman launched her Etsy store brand HaldeCraft on Etsy to sell her handmade clay goods. She later opened a complementary Shopify store where she could organize her products in a user-friendly way via categories and subcategories, making it easier for her and her customers. You can make any variety of goods.

Curated boxes

Pros:

Cons:

• Have to constantly source products
• Can be difficult to package

Curated boxes emerged on the scene with brands like Birchbox and they’ve remained popular since. These products are a way of bundling items from the same or different vendors in a themed “box” or product bundle.

For consumers, it’s a great way to learn about new brands and products—and it’s also a great gift option. In our consumer trends research, we found that buyers were more likely to shop from businesses that offered convenience. Curated boxes are convenient for gift givers on Etsy and elsewhere. You can build boxes around any theme your target market may be interested in—maybe it’s locally sourced products from your area, vegan food items, or yoga accessories. The possibilities are endless.

Check out these resources for building your curated box business:

Customized goods

Pros:

• Shoppers love personalized items
• Flexible for almost any niche or product

Cons:

• May mean a long fulfillment window
• Can be difficult to weather periods of high demand

Personalized items feel extra special because they’re one of a kind and customizable to the customer’s preferences. Etsy is an excellent place to sell personalized goods—there’s even a category called “personalized gift ideas.”

Personalized doesn’t necessarily mean monogrammed towels or name plate necklaces. Look at Conquest Maps, for example. The brand sells customizable push pin travel maps on its successful Etsy shop and Shopify store. The Shopify store allows for greater flexibility, and the brand has created a “build your own” digital experience where shoppers can customize their map’s region, style, format, size, and more.

Crafts supplies and kits

Pros

• Built-in target audience with Etsy
• Can use skills and supplies you already have

Cons:

• Difficult to ensure consistent quality
• May need to include extra things like instructions

Any crafts you already make at home could also be money makers on Etsy. Likewise, crafting supplies are also great items to sell on Etsy—it’s a marketplace for makers who want to both buy and sell on the platform. Plus, Craft Supplies has a dedicated category on Etsy.

Crafting kits work similarly to curated boxes, except they’re less about product discovery and more about convenience for the buyer—offering a one-stop shop for everything they need to accomplish a specific craft or project.

Get inspired for selling your crafts on Etsy:

Baby products

Pros:

• Consumer demand for baby products
• High potential for repeat customers

Cons:

• Sizing may be tricky for apparel
• Need to pay extra attention to safety precautions and regulations when dealing with children and babies

“Etsy baby” is a popular search term, with almost 2,000 monthly queries. You can sell a variety of baby products—clothing is a great option because Etsy has a category dedicated to Kids’ & Baby clothing. Toys & Entertainment is another category worth targeting with baby products.

More resources to help sell baby products online:

Skin care products

Pros:

• Great consumer demand
• Can be small and easy to ship

Cons:

• Products and ingredients expire more quickly than other Etsy shop ideas
• May require extra step(s) with the FDA, etc., to sell legally

Health and beauty is a thriving industry to get into, and most business owners are happy to operate in the space.

Get more inspiration for your skin care products:

Pet accessories

Pros:

• You get to help make pets happy and healthy
• Growing industry with sustainable consumer demand

Cons:

• Lots of competition
• May be safety and healthy liability risks, especially for edible items and chew toys

One timeless Etsy shop idea is to sell pet products and accessories. Etsy highlights items for pets on its homepage, and more than 2,000 searches for “Etsy dog collars” happen every month. Plus, the global pet industry market size is set to hit 386.88 billion by 2030. When it comes to starting a pet business and selling items on Etsy, you can make and sell a variety of things, including treats, collars, clothing, feeders, toys, beds, and more.

Plants

Pros:

• Beautiful to photograph
• Plants (house plants in particular) are in high demand

Cons:

• Difficult to ship without damage
• May be limited in who you can sell to due to restrictions against shipping plants internationally

Selling plants online is a viable business idea, and Etsy is a perfect place to put your plants up for sale. “Etsy plants” is a popular search phrase, with over 2,000 queries each month. 

Many people buy plants for themselves and as gifts for others, including succulents and other easy-to-grow indoor plants. If you don’t have a green thumb, faux plants could be a route to explore as well. The phrase “Etsy wreaths” generates around 1,600 average monthly searches and could be a perfect item to make with fake plants.

Print on demand

Pros:

• Completely outsourced fulfillment
• No upfront investment in inventory

Cons:

• Little to no control over quality assurance and fulfillment
• Smaller profit margin compared to other Etsy shop ideas which can be a challenge when trying to grow your own business.

A print-on-demand business sells items that have printed designs on them. Typically, merchants work with an external printing company—the merchants receive customer orders and pass them along to the printer for printing and shipping. Print-on-demand works well on Etsy because it’s a flexible product idea that can span across virtually every niche. Popular print-on-demand products include t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and books.

More resources for your print-on-demand business:

Furniture and home goods

Pros:

• Flexible business opportunity, with many Etsy buyers
• Many possibilities for sourcing products—DIY, secondhand, outsourced supplier, etc.

Cons:

• Larger items may be expensive to ship
• Lots of competition, especially for home goods

Selling furniture online is a great ecommerce business idea—and it also works well as an Etsy shop idea. Lots of shoppers are interested in furniture on the marketplace. “Etsy furniture” gets over 3,000 monthly searches. However, furniture can be bulky, difficult to produce, and nearly impossible to ship. People also head to the site to search for home goods—consider the over 2,000 monthly searches for “Etsy home decor” and the 4,400 monthly searches for the seasonal phrase “Etsy Christmas ornaments.” So home décor and other items for the house also make an excellent Etsy shop idea, either instead of or complementary to your furniture items.

Get inspired to sell furniture and home goods online:

Sex toys

Pros:

• Allows you to be really creative
• Lots of room for new brands

Cons:

• Requires adherence to specific safety guidelines and regulations
• Difficult to scale on Etsy

You might not immediately think of sex toys when you think of Etsy, but it’s actually an excellent marketplace to sell these types of products. Selling sex toys online has a number of benefits, and Etsy is a great place to take advantage of some of them. The industry is growing, projected to be valued at $36.1 billion by 2027—yet a search for “sex toys” on Etsy yields a small 55,000 results, so there’s lots of opportunity there. 

Strange Bedfellas got its start on Etsy, selling 3D-printed originally designed sex toys. Since launching, the brand has expanded to its own Shopify store, where it can own the customer relationship more directly. The Etsy shop earned more than 7,000 sales before closing so the brand could focus on growing through its owned channels instead of third-party marketplaces.

Phone cases

Pros:

• Small, lightweight products are easy and affordable to ship
• Can be as creative as you like

Cons:

• Requires constant updates for compatibility with new phones
• High potential for customer dissatisfaction if quality is not good

Phone cases make great products to sell on Etsy, and there’s still relatively low competition (at least compared to other Etsy products). A search for phone cases on the marketplace turns up over 700,000 results.

Depending on your skill set and business goals, you can make phone cases yourself or outsource to a print-on-demand company. Floral Neverland sells phone cases on both its Shopify site and Etsy store. Founder Olivia Wang launched what was originally a school project on Etsy—and it later evolved into a full-on ecommerce business.

Digital products

Pros:

• No shipping or fulfillment costs
• Immediate fulfillment

Cons:

• Requires constant updating and maintenance
• More risk to cyberattacks

Digital products are another easy idea for an Etsy shop you can pursue in pretty much any niche, and are currently all the rage. “Etsy wallpaper” gets more than 3,000 monthly average searches—you can create wallpapers for phone or computer backgrounds and screensavers. Another popular search with more than 5,000 monthly queries is “Etsy wedding invitations,” and you can also do invitations for any other type of event.

Shopify merchant Pixie Faire sells digital downloads of patterns for sewing doll clothes for popular brands like American Girl and Barbie. It supplements its web sales with an Etsy shop where customers can also purchase the brand’s instantly downloadable templates and patterns. Because the margins are quite high for digital goods, it’s one of the best Etsy shop ideas if you’re looking to get started.

Vintage and secondhand goods

Pros:

• Minimal creativity or skills required
• Good for the environment

Cons:

• Requires space for holding inventory
• Must have access to locations where you can source quality used goods

A heightened interest in the environment and conservation has driven demand for secondhand goods. More than 20,000 stores have a combined annual revenue of about $15 billion selling used goods in the US alone. Many kinds of secondhand or vintage goods make great sellers on Etsy, including:

• Vintage clothing and accessories: arguably the most popular category for secondhand goods
• Home goods: look for durable, small, and/or lightweight items for easy shipping
• Furniture: note that large and heavy items may be expensive to ship
• Children’s toys: be extra sensitive to any safety requirements

When choosing which vintage or secondhand items to sell on Etsy, think about what you have access to and what will be easy to ship.

Moving forward with your Etsy shop ideas

Selling on Etsy is a great way to start your business or supplement your existing business with an additional sales channel. Plus, it’s simple to connect your Etsy shop to your Shopify store so you can sync inventory and sales data in real time—and sell on both Etsy and Shopify together. Remember, Etsy is an excellent marketplace to sell your products and attract new customers—but it’s a single sales channel, not your entire business strategy.

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Etsy shop ideas FAQ

What are some good Etsy shop ideas?

Some of the most successful Etsy shops today focus on a single niche that is in popular demand. Currently, that includes jewelry, digital downloads, party supplies, baking supplies, and other customized items.

What’s the best thing to sell on Etsy?

As with other marketplaces, the “best thing” to sell changes constantly. In general, you want to sell items that are relatively easy to make, are in demand, and provide healthy profit margins.

What’s the easiest thing to sell on Etsy?

As with looking for the best item to sell on Etsy, the easiest items to sell change frequently. Products that are in high demand and are affordable to large groups of people will traditionally sell well compared to products that are expensive and not currently in demand.