Moving from Etsy to Shopify: An E-commerce Migration Story (2024)

In 2009, the Polder family decided to start farming. At the time, they were living on a half-acre in Melrose, Florida, but had no farming experience. They made the most of their small plot, raising rabbits and making jam to sell locally.

Today, the Polders live on a 115-acre farm where they run a handmade wooden home goods business. Old World Kitchen.

Most of the sales from this business Shopify storeBut it wasn’t always this way.

Old World Kitchen started offline before launching on Etsy, and while the Polders credit Etsy with helping establish the brand, it was the move to Shopify that really sparked growth. After migrating to the platform, conversions increased and Old World Kitchen was able to expand into resale items and email marketing.

Here, Business Manager Loran Polder talks about his family’s journey and the benefits of transitioning from a marketplace to an online store.

Discover the Old World Kitchen

Laurent’s father, Trevor, tried his hand at basket weaving, blacksmithing and leatherworking. WoodworkingThe family began selling his hand-carved wooden spoons at local farm stands and they were well-received. The success of the spoons encouraged the family to get into the agricultural business in earnest.

“We just tried,” Laurent recalls of the family’s early days. “We didn’t get rich off of it, but we were pursuing our dreams.”

The Polders packed up and moved to a larger farm in Tennessee, where they added dairy cows and beekeeping to their operations. True to their old-world approach, their original sales channels were also outdated. The Polders sold their honey and handcrafted goods in gift baskets, Sold door-to-door“These days, it’s rare to find someone delivering this kind of product to your doorstep,” Rolland said.

The Polders found amazing success with this method, but it was time-consuming and unsustainable. So their neighbor Etsy They didn’t have to go to the store; they didn’t even have computers at home back then. “I would go to the local library to check my email,” says Laurent.

“We didn’t know anything about marketing,” says Laurent. “We were naive and just assumed that if we launched a website, people would somehow find it.” But the main benefit of a marketplace is that there are customers out there who are ready to buy. And three days after launching, they made their first sale. “That was very encouraging for us,” says Laurent.

Build your brand your own way

it is, Popup For the Polders, this opportunity was an opportunity to invest in their brand image and begin to refine their overall message and vision for the company.

Effort is Build your brand This led to more success, but the family’s production capacity had peaked, so they asked themselves: “How can we scale up?”

The family considered investing. CNC Machine The idea is to create a new line of wooden spoons at a lower price point. But the move would go against the brand’s handmade ethos. The alternative? Raise prices. “I think a lot of artisans have this idea that they have to be poor struggling artists,” says Rolland, “as if there’s something wrong with finding a way to make their business profitable.”

Their customers are willing to pay a higher price for their products than they would from other producers selling comparable products at a fraction of the cost, because the family behind Old World Kitchen isn’t just selling spoons — they’re selling a way of life, a story, and an experience.

As the brand grew and its prices approached luxury brands, the Polders felt that Etsy was no longer meeting the needs of their growing business, and Laurent felt that Etsy’s typical shopper – young, budget-conscious – was no longer their customer. Target Audience.

The Polders began expanding their social channels to build a customer base outside of Etsy. During that time, they upgraded their camera and editing skills. Product Photos.

When they were ready to leave Etsy, they Alternative Markets Before you decide to build your store on Shopify, consider the different platforms.

New Old World Kitchen

Migrating from Etsy to a new Shopify store was a game changer. “We were amazed at how much our conversion rates increased,” says Loran.

The family had to learn to improvise their marketing, but their efforts have spurred visitor enthusiasm. “There are so many distractions on Etsy,” says Rolland. “It feels more like you’re strolling through a craft fair than driving to a brick-and-mortar store.”

Old World Kitchens are New Pricing Strategy And they continued to gain fans. Their pricing model allowed them to expand the business while staying true to their craft origins. Each year, as production capacity reached its limits, the family regrouped and determined how to continue growing while maintaining the integrity of the brand.

One of the strategies has been to partner with other brands. ResellersIt’s an avenue of growth that wouldn’t have been possible on Etsy: The store now sells complementary products, like cast iron cookware and tea towels.

When (and Why) to Move from Etsy to Shopify

Laurent credits Etsy with getting his family’s business off the ground, saying the platform was a good place to experiment with e-commerce and learn about the online world. customer serviceand deliver your product to your existing audience.

But they quickly outgrew that. The freedom and flexibility of running their business on Shopify, as opposed to Etsy’s marketplace structure, allowed the Polders to scale and automate Old World Kitchen’s commerce processes, allowing them to focus on what they do best: making things.

The right time to move from Etsy to Shopify and build your own ecommerce store depends on your goals, growth rate, and the features your business needs.

As a store owner, you might be ready to transfer your handmade business and open a new Shopify store if:

• Your brand is essential to what you create. If your Brand Story Or if visual design is important to you, these are harder to focus on on Etsy. Port your products to a platform like Shopify, where you can own your brand and customize the experience for your customers.
• We hope to scale up by transforming our handmade products into manufacturers. Although Etsy currently allows some mass-produced items, the majority of its customers are still people looking for handmade or vintage goods, and making this change could potentially expand Etsy’s customer base.
• Your target audience exists outside of the Etsy community. This may be the case if your brand decides to target a more high-end customer. Once you set up your online store, you can optimize for relevant search terms.
• I’m interested in expanding my brand beyond the products I make myself. Etsy prohibits reselling non-vintage items, and if you want to partner with other brands and curate products, your own Shopify store gives you more flexibility to do so.
• I want to have control over myself marketing and customer lists. When you run your business on platforms like Etsy or social channels, you often don’t own your audience or customer list. Owning your store on Shopify allows you to collect your customers’ emails and market your business in a unique way. Communicate directly with your loyal customers to ensure repeat business.
• Monthly sales have exceeded a certain number. Etsy’s pricing model relies on per-listing and per-transaction fees, which is ideal for new businesses but may not be cost-justifiable for larger stores. Once you pass a certain sales threshold, Shopify’s monthly plans and lower transaction fees may be more attractive.

Also, Etsy vs Shopify At the same time, the Polders have adopted a strategy that involves using their Etsy store as a secondary sales channel.

A business passed on to the next generation

Today, Laurent is in charge of everything that goes into running an online store, from social media to email marketing. Her sister is Shipping and Fulfillmentmost of the family make up the production team, with Trevor at the helm; matriarch Angela Polder heads up quality control: “If someone’s slacking, she’ll make sure to let you know,” says Rolland.

Old World Kitchen is a business designed to support future generations, including future spouses and children.

The Polder family’s own story is integral to their brand, and being able to tell that story on every page of their website is crucial to the success of their business and the preservation of their traditions.

Photo courtesy of Old World Kitchen