Etsy's fees are spread over several lines, so it's hard to see what a sale really costs. And for many UK sellers there's VAT on top of every one of them. Here is each fee in plain words, then one sale worked through to the penny.
Etsy's fees, one by one
- Listing fee. US$0.20 for each listing. Etsy charges it in US dollars, so in pounds it moves with the exchange rate: about £0.15 today. You pay it again each time a listing renews after 4 months, and again for each extra item you sell from the same listing.
- Transaction fee. 6.5% of the item price and the postage you charge (and gift wrapping, if you offer it).
- Payment processing fee. For a UK shop, 4% + £0.20 on what the buyer pays: the item, the postage and any tax.
- Regulatory operating fee. 0.48% of the item and the postage, for UK sellers.
- VAT on all of the above. If you haven't given Etsy a UK VAT number, Etsy adds 20% VAT to every one of those fees, card processing included. It comes out of your Etsy payment account, with a VAT invoice each month, so it's easy to miss. Many small sellers aren't VAT registered, so many pay it.
- Offsite Ads. When a sale comes from one of Etsy's adverts on other websites, Etsy takes 15% of the order (at most US$100 an order), plus VAT. Shops that sell less than US$10,000 a year can opt out. Once a shop passes that, the fee drops to 12%, but the ads are compulsory.
Etsy also charges a one-time fee to open a shop in many countries, and 2.5% to convert your money if you list in a different currency from your bank account.
One sale, worked through
Say you sell a £20.00 item with £3.50 postage, to a buyer in the UK. The buyer pays £23.50. This is what Etsy takes:
On Etsy: £20.00 item + £3.50 postage
- Listing fee
- £0.15
- Transaction fee (6.5%)
- £1.53
- Payment processing (4% + £0.20)
- £1.14
- Regulatory operating fee (0.48%)
- £0.11