How To Create Multiple Etsy Shops — 2020 Step-by-step Instruction

By LitExtension

9 min readDec 5, 2020

Introduction

Etsy has been a popular marketplace that emphasizes people, communities, and creativity since its introduction in 2005. It allows you to search for and buy vintage products and unique arts and crafts that are difficult to find anywhere else. Like Amazon and eBay, you will register an account to create spaces for displaying your products on Etsy.

For small businesses, Etsy is a worth-considering option. The marketplace allows you to easily maintain and set up your store. Accordingly, you will be able to focus mostly on developing your products, customer relationships, and promotions.

There goes a saying “never put all your eggs in one basket”, most merchants are selling more than one type of product. However, selling a bunch of different types of products in one shop might not be the best idea as buyers might get confused with all the items in various niches.

Understanding this, merchants can now open and manage multiple Etsy shops at the same time. Sounds exciting, right?

In this article, we will dive deeper into the benefits of opening multiple Etsy shops and some important things you need to keep in mind before launching your second store. Also, we will be guiding you on how to create and manage your business if you run multiple stores.

How Having Multiple Etsy Shops Will Solve Your Problems

If you are running into any of these situations, opening multiple Etsy shops is the key to boosting your performance:

You are selling different types of products. Like I have mentioned above, if you sell products which are in completely different niches, you will turn people off and they won’t want to stick around as your shop is a mess. For example, someone who is looking for festive clothing might not be interested in wood furniture.
You are selling products that have distinct terms of use. For instance, all the goodies in shop A are for personal use only and those in the B shop can be used for commercial purposes. By keeping them separately in 2 shops, you can avoid confusion among shoppers in case they haven’t read the terms and conditions properly.
You have digital and physical products. As most customers don’t read the listing description, they might mix up between physical and digital products and accordingly purchase the wrong one. Selling them in two separate stores means that you can avoid a dozen questions from customers asking why they haven’t received their item in the mail when they purchased a digital product. Therefore, in this case, I highly recommend you to separate them into two different Etsy stores.

Besides the advantages you can gain from creating multiple Etsy shops, there are a few cons of opening multiple Etsy shops.

The first point is loss of focus. Once you open your second Etsy store, you will have double the work — you create a lot more administration and behind-the-scenes work that people won’t see and you won’t get paid for. You now have to promote 2 shops, foster repeated business for 2 shops, pay 2 Etsy bills, etc. As a consequence, you are not as focused as when you have only one shop to take care of.
The second point is that running more than one store takes a lot of time and effort. Let alone the time you have to spend on opening and setting up a new store, maintaining your store contains a bunch of other time-consuming tasks such as: maintaining 2 inventory systems, running multiple campaigns, managing taxes for 2 stores, etc.
The last one is competitiveness. With so many sellers on Etsy nowadays, the competition level is getting higher day by day. In other words, the chances that your shop gets a lot of traffic is decreasing, how can you assure that all of your Etsy shops have a good number of visitors per day?

Important Things To Consider Before Creating Multiple Etsy Shops

According to Etsy’s seller policy, you need to keep several things in mind before opting for another brand new shop.

To open a new Etsy store, you need to register with a different email address than before. Remember not to use the same email as your first store.
To manage your multiple Etsy shops, you need to log in from different web-browsers. For example, you can’t log in to both stores from Google Chrome, you have to log in to the second store through Safari or Firefox.
Etsy doesn’t allow for duplicate shops. According to Etsy Seller policy: “If Etsy determines that your shop is a duplicate, we may remove it from the marketplace.”
You can’t sell the same product listings in separate shops. Etsy Seller policy prohibits any items to be listed in multiple shops.
Remember to put the titles of both shops in your Etsy public profile.
To keep away from duplication, You need to mention the name of your other shops in your account profile. For instance, you can write “My other shop is …”

Now, let us shed light on all the steps you need to take in order to create multiple Etsy shops.

How To Create Multiple Etsy Shops

Before having a second store, you need to have an Etsy shop first.

Open an Etsy Shop

Before you create your shop, sign in or create an Etsy account.

To start opening your Etsy shop:

Step 1: Click “Sell on Etsy” from the drop-down menu in your avatar.

Step 2: Navigate “Open your Etsy shop”.

Step 3: Moving on, set up your shop preference by selecting your shop language, country, currency, and time commitment.

Set up Etsy shop preferences — Set up your Etsy shop preferences

Shop language: This is the default language that you use for your store. Bear in mind that you won’t be able to change it later, but you can add translations of other languages to it after launching your store based on your customers.
Shop country: Be sure to select the correct country for your shop.
Shop currency: Choose the currency you will use to price your listings. Currency conversion fees may apply if your bank’s currency is different from your shop’s currency.
Time commitment: Select whether selling your products is your full-time job or a part-time job. This question is for informational purposes only and will not affect the setup of your shop.

Step 4: Next, choose your shop’s name. As the name determines how customers remember your store, we highly recommend you pick a name that reflects your style and your featured products. The name of your shop must meet the following requirements:

4–20 characters in length
No spaces or special characters
No profanity
Not already in use by an existing Etsy member
Does not infringe on another’s trademark

Step 5: Fill up your shop by adding all of your product listings.

Step 6: After that, you need to choose how you get paid. If you’re in an eligible country, you’ll use Etsy Payments. Etsy Payments gives buyers many options to pay for their order and consolidates all payments in your Etsy Payments account. If you’re in a country that is not eligible for Etsy Payments, you’re welcome to use your own PayPal account to accept payments.

Step 7: You are almost done, now you have to set up your billing. Depending on which country you’re in, you may need to enter a credit or debit card to open your shop. The card should be a:

Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Discover
Carte Bleue (France)

You may see an authorization charge to verify the card you entered on file. As soon as the card has been verified, the charge will be dropped from your statement.

You can also add a prepaid card to your account if you already have a credit or debit card. A non-reloadable prepaid card can’t be your only or primary payment card, but you can always pay your bill manually with a non-reloadable prepaid card.

When you finish all the sections, click “Open Your Shop”. Feel free to make any changes to your shop after the launch.

Now that you already have your first store, let’s dive right into how to create multiple Etsy shops!

How to create a Second Etsy Shop?

To open a second shop on Etsy, you’ll need to register a new account with another email address.

On Etsy.com, click “Your Account” from the Etsy homepage or navigate your shop name from Shop Manager.
Sign out.
Sign in.
Register.
Enter an email address not associated with your first Etsy shop, enter your name, and create a password. Tick on “Register”.
Click “Sell on Etsy”.
Navigate “Open your Etsy shop”.
Follow the steps to open your shop.

When setting up your shops, review and follow their guidelines for accurately representing your shops and items on Etsy.

Managing Multiple Etsy Shops

Opening multiple Etsy shops is just as easy as it sounds but effectively managing those shops is a tough task. Several issues may arise in the process of running more than one store.

Multiple shops management: Running multiple shops at different locations and different products is a cumbersome task. A considerable amount of your time will go into switching between stores and updating it instead of focusing on boosting sales.
Manual Uploads: Multiple accounts need multiple product uploads. You may have to list down bulk product details and descriptions one by one on every account.
Human Errors: When you are maintaining several by yourself, there come the chances of errors. Any error might turn into a bit bizarre to your store if not handled and appropriately corrected.
Unautomated System: While handling multiple accounts, there occurs mismanagement in the inventory, the orders, the shipment, and etc. In the absence of proper automation, you are going to suffer from this.

Here are some solutions to this:

Log in to each store in a different browser. Like I have mentioned before, you can use Google Chrome to manage one store and Safari or other internet browsers to manage the others.
Use the “Sell on Etsy” app. You can download this app to your Iphone or Ipad. From here, you can manage your orders, receive messages and notifications from multiple shops at the same time.

Final words

In short, opening multiple Etsy stores has both pros and cons as we have mentioned above. If you are considering opening your second Etsy store, we highly recommend you carefully evaluate the disadvantages before deciding.

Or you can switch over to a more secure option — using WooCommerce multisite. We have already written a detailed guide on how to set it up in the attached article. Check it out!

Before using WooCommerce multisite, you need to migrate your data from Etsy to WooCommerce first. Let LitExtension be your partner this time.

LitExtension AIO migration service is undoubtedly the most trusted, time-saving, budget and comprehensive solution for you — a busy e-store owner who always aspires to administer your eCommerce website with professional assistance. Save more time, more money, more energy with AIO migration, and keep up your good work on the new platform.

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