Moving from Etsy to Shopify: what actually changes

The fee figures below are for US sellers at the time of writing (mid 2026). Both Etsy and Shopify change their prices now and then, so check the current numbers for your country.

What you pay now on Etsy

Etsy charges in small pieces, which is why the total is easy to underestimate:

• A listing fee of $0.20 per item, renewed every four months or when it sells.
• A transaction fee of 6.5% of the sale, including what the customer pays for shipping.
• A payment processing fee, which is 3% plus $0.25 per order in the US.
• An Offsite Ads fee of 12% to 15% on sales that come from Etsy's ads on other websites. Sellers over $10,000 a year can't opt out of these.

For a typical sale without an offsite ad, that's roughly 10% to 13% of the order. When an offsite ad is involved, it can be well over 20%.

What you'd pay on Shopify

Shopify flips the model. You pay a monthly plan whether you sell or not ($39 a month on Basic, or $29 if you pay yearly, in the US) and a card fee on each sale (2.9% plus 30 cents with Shopify Payments on Basic). There's no listing fee and no cut of the sale on top.

So the maths depends on volume. If you sell a handful of items a month, Etsy's per-sale fees may cost less than a monthly plan. Once you're selling steadily, the percentage you save on each order usually covers the plan and then some. We lay out the full Shopify bill in how much a Shopify store really costs.

A side-by-side example

Take a US seller with 40 sales a month at $35 each (shipping included), so $1,400 a month, and no offsite ad sales.

• On Etsy: listing renewals of about $8, a 6.5% transaction fee of $91, and payment processing of $42 plus $10. Around $151 a month.
• On Shopify Basic, paid monthly: the $39 plan, plus 2.9% card fees of about $41 and 30 cents an order, $12. Around $92 a month.

So in this example, Shopify saves about $60 a month, and more if some of those Etsy sales came through offsite ads. But that only holds if the 40 sales still happen. If half of them came from shoppers browsing Etsy, and you haven't replaced those shoppers, you'd be worse off. That's the whole decision in one sum.

What gets better

• Your customers are yours. You get their email addresses (with permission) and can tell them about new products without paying for ads.
• Your brand comes first. No other sellers' products appear next to yours, and nobody is one click away from a cheaper copy.
• You set the rules: your own returns policy, bundles, subscriptions, wholesale pages, whatever suits you.
• You can build a proper about page, a blog and a story, which helps people trust you and helps you show up on Google.
• No surprise policy changes that suddenly cut your visibility.

What gets harder

This is the part people skip. On Etsy, shoppers come to the marketplace and some find you. On your own shop, nobody arrives unless you bring them. That's the real cost of leaving, and it's why some sellers move, see sales dip, and panic.

Plan where your visitors will come from before you switch. It could be your Instagram or TikTok following, an email list, markets and fairs, local press, Google searches for what you make, or paid ads. Most successful shops use two or three of these, not all of them.

The first ninety days

Here's how we'd plan the move, roughly week by week.

1. 1Weeks 1 to 2: set up the Shopify store. Export your Etsy listings, then tidy up the titles, descriptions and photos as you bring them across. It's a good chance to fix old listings.
2. 2Week 3: soft launch. Tell your existing customers and followers first. Offer a small thank-you, like free shipping on their first order from the new shop.
3. 3Weeks 4 to 8: build the habits that bring visitors. Post regularly, send an email when you add products, and add your web address everywhere: packaging, social profiles, market stall signs.
4. 4Weeks 8 to 12: look at the numbers. Where are visitors coming from? Which products sell best on the new shop? Decide whether to keep Etsy running alongside.

Moving your listings across

Etsy lets you download your listings as a spreadsheet, and there are tools that bring them into Shopify. They save time, but they don't make decisions for you. You'll still want to group products into collections, check that variations (sizes, colours) came through properly, and rewrite descriptions that were written for Etsy's search rather than for people. Reviews usually don't transfer automatically, so screenshot a few good ones to use as proof on your new shop, with the customer's permission.

Don't forget the small print

• Write your own shipping, returns and privacy policies. Etsy's no longer cover you.
• Set up taxes for the places you sell to. Shopify has settings for this, but you need to switch them on.
• Order a few test purchases from friends before announcing the shop, to check emails, shipping rates and discount codes.
• Update the links in your social bios, email signature and packaging on launch day.

A ready-made theme is usually enough to start

When you first move, you don't need a custom design. A well-chosen ready-made theme set up in your colours, with good photos, looks professional and gets you selling quickly. You can go custom later, once you know what your customers respond to. We explain the difference in Shopify template vs custom theme.

Is it time?

It's probably time if you're selling steadily, a good share of your customers already come to you through your own social media or word of mouth, and the fees have started to sting. It's probably too early if nearly all your sales come from people browsing Etsy and you have no other way of reaching customers yet.

If you're ready, our Shopify store setup includes moving your products across and a how-to call on launch day, so you can run the shop yourself from the start.