Feature
Sell on your own site and keep Etsy for discovery
Etsy is good at bringing strangers to your shop. It is less good at repeat customers, wholesale, margin, and a brand you own. The makers who grow past hobby scale usually run both channels deliberately — with one inventory truth in the middle.
Two jobs, two channels
Marketplaces and owned storefronts solve different problems. Etsy (and similar platforms) optimises for search discovery, buyer trust on a first purchase, and checkout friction close to zero for small orders. Your own site optimises for margin, repeat buyers, email list ownership, wholesale terms, and a visual identity that is not templated.
Art.industries is neither. It is the system of record behind your studio: every piece, every buyer, every invoice, and (on Advanced) the public site and storefront that read from the same catalogue. Etsy stays a sales channel you manage in Etsy until you choose otherwise.
The fragmentation problem
Most makers start with Etsy plus a spreadsheet. It holds until the same SKU sells twice — once on Etsy overnight and once at a weekend fair — or until a wholesale buyer asks for net-30 terms and the maker realises PayPal links do not cut it.
Adding Shopify or Squarespace without fixing inventory creates a second product list that diverges within weeks. The fix is not "pick one channel." It is one catalogue that feeds direct checkout, fair prep, and wholesale invoices, while marketplace listings are updated from that truth (manually today; sync when integrations ship).
A practical split most studios use
There is no single right answer — but the makers who grow without chaos usually assign channels by job, not by accident.
- Etsy: entry-priced pieces, gift buyers, search traffic, new customer acquisition.
- Your domain: signature work, editions, higher-margin pieces, and anything you want to own the customer relationship for.
- Email + CRM: repeat buyers from either channel — imported or entered once, linked to purchases.
- Wholesale / stockists: invoices and consignment terms, not marketplace checkout.
- Fairs: location status and a pre-show checklist export; mark sold at booth before updating Etsy listings.
How Art.industries fits the loop
On Core (free, no card required), catalogue pieces with photos, price, materials, and availability; track contacts; send Stripe payment links for custom orders; use private viewing rooms to preview a wholesale line to a stockist.
On Advanced, publish Website Studio on your domain and turn on the public storefront for pieces you want to sell direct. Campaigns go to segments built from your CRM — "everyone who bought from the Spring collection" — not a CSV export.
Rename nav labels in Settings so the app says Pieces or Products instead of Artworks. The data model is the same as for artists and galleries; the vocabulary adapts to your studio.
What we are not building (yet)
We deliberately removed global marketplace syndication for the fine-art trade (Artsy-style listing push). Etsy for makers is a different question: inventory and order sync that prevents double-selling is operational, not "become a marketplace."
Today, Etsy listings are managed in Etsy. Sales on your Art.industries storefront decrement inventory automatically; Etsy sales are marked sold in your workspace when you record them (or when a future Etsy integration lands). If automated sync matters to your workflow, tell us — it shapes priority.
When to lean harder on your own site
Signals that direct sales should carry more weight: repeat customers asking for pieces not on Etsy, marketplace fees eating margin on work that already has demand, stockists requesting linesheets and net terms, or a fair booth where buyers expect your URL on the card.
You do not have to leave Etsy to make that shift. Start by listing your hero pieces on your domain, emailing past buyers a link, and keeping Etsy for the long-tail SKUs that benefit from marketplace SEO.
FAQ
- Do I have to close my Etsy shop to use Art.industries?
- No. Most makers keep Etsy running for discovery while Art.industries holds studio inventory, direct sales, and customer history. See Software for makers.
- Will you integrate with Etsy?
- Not shipped today. The likely first step is order/inventory sync (a sale on Etsy updates stock here), not replacing Etsy's listing editor. Marketplace discovery stays on Etsy; your studio graph stays here.
- How do I avoid selling the same piece twice?
- Treat Art.industries as the canonical availability count. When something sells on Etsy, mark it sold here and update the Etsy listing. Direct storefront sales update automatically. Fair and wholesale sales use the same record.
- Is Art.industries cheaper than Etsy fees?
- Different economics. Etsy charges per transaction on marketplace sales; Art.industries is subscription-based (Core free, Advanced $30/month) with Stripe processing on direct sales. Makers who shift repeat revenue to their own site often save on fees; makers who rely on Etsy SEO may keep both.
- Can I import my Etsy listing export?
- CSV import maps columns into piece records with a validation preview. Exact Etsy export column mapping depends on their current CSV shape; start with title, price, quantity, description, and SKU fields.
Start with your next ten pieces
Free Core is enough to prove the loop: catalogue real work, connect Stripe, send one payment link. Add your domain and storefront on Advanced when direct sales are ready to grow.