There’s no single best place to sell online. There’s only the best place for what you’re selling right now. The quickest way to see that is to look at three very different sellers and where each of them should start.
Maya makes candles
Maya pours scented soy candles in her kitchen and has never sold anything online. She has no social media following and a few hours a week to spare.
Her best start: Etsy. People go to Etsy specifically to find handmade and personalised things, so buyers are already searching for exactly what she makes. She pays a small fee to list each candle and Etsy takes a cut when one sells, but she doesn’t need to find customers herself. Her job is to take great photos, write listings packed with the words people search for, and post orders promptly.
What she gives up is control. Etsy decides how her shop looks, how search works and what the fees are, and those can change.
Tom clears out lofts
Tom picks up bargains at house clearances: old cameras, vintage toys, the odd power tool. Every item is different, and most are secondhand.
His best start: eBay. Its audience is huge and wide-ranging, and people go there hunting for used goods, collectibles, parts and bargains. One-off items suit it perfectly. Fees usually come as a share of each sale, with some free listings depending on where he lives and his account type.
Like Etsy, eBay sets the rules, and Tom has limited ways to build a brand or contact buyers outside the platform. For a reseller, that rarely matters much.
Priya is building a brand
Priya sells her own range of eco-friendly kitchen products and already has a few thousand followers on Instagram. She wants a recognisable brand and an email list of customers.
Her best start: Shopify. It gives her a proper website, fully under her control. She chooses the design, owns her customer list and can email buyers directly. In return, she pays a monthly subscription whether she sells anything or not, plus payment fees and often the cost of apps and themes.
The big difference is traffic. Shopify brings her no shoppers at all. Her existing audience is what makes it work.
The pattern behind the choices
Line the three up and a simple rule appears:
- No audience yet? Start on a marketplace, where buyers already gather.
- Handmade, personalised, vintage or digital? Etsy is usually the natural home.
- Secondhand, collectible or varied one-off items? eBay tends to fit best.
- Building a brand, with a way to bring your own visitors? Shopify gives you the most control.
Weighing up cost and effort
Marketplaces cost little to start but take a slice of every sale. Shopify costs money every month, but can work out cheaper per sale once orders are steady. Etsy and eBay can be up and running in an afternoon. A Shopify store takes longer to set up and then needs ongoing marketing.
Fees change and differ by country, so always check current prices on each platform before committing.
Most sellers end up using more than one
Maya might eventually open a Shopify store for repeat customers while keeping her Etsy shop for discovery. Tom might list his vintage clothing on a fashion app as well as eBay. Stock tools can keep quantities in sync so nothing sells twice.
But almost everyone does better starting on one platform, learning it well and expanding later.
Your next step
Ask yourself what you sell, whether you already have an audience and how much time you can give to marketing. Your answers will usually point clearly to one of the three. And whichever you choose, success comes down to the same things: good products, honest descriptions, clear photos and looking after your buyers.
About Shortcuts to Success
Practical, honest guides to earning extra money alongside your job. We cover freelancing, selling online, content income and local gigs, including the costs and risks most side hustle sites skip.