Etsy vs commercetools

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Our analysts compared Etsy vs commercetools based on data from our 400+ point analysis of eCommerce Platforms, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Etsy Software Tool

Product Basics

Etsy is an online global marketplace for artists, craftspeople and vintage vendors to sell unique pieces. It’s majorly focused on handcrafted and vintage pieces with categories like jewelry, clothing, bags, home decor, furniture, arts and more. Sellers can create stores online and use additional paid services like payments, ads, tracking and insurance for shipping, and currency conversions.
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commercetools is an omnichannel commerce platform designed for mid and large-sized businesses to sell products globally and personalize customer experiences (CX). It follows the MACH principle (Microservice-based, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless), allowing businesses to design decoupled frontends connected to the backend via flexible APIs.

Core components include a headless API, multi-branding, catalog management, shopping cart and distributed order management. It supports both B2B and B2C environments and offers machine learning to deliver personalized CX. The vendor also provides developer services to integrate with third-party apps.
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$40,000 Annually, Quote-Based
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Global Reach: Etsy connects sellers with a worldwide audience, expanding market opportunities beyond local boundaries.
  • Low Startup Costs: With minimal listing fees and no need for a physical storefront, Etsy offers an affordable entry point for new businesses.
  • Community Support: Sellers benefit from a robust community of peers and buyers, fostering collaboration and shared learning.
  • Customizable Shops: Etsy allows sellers to personalize their storefronts, helping to build a unique brand identity.
  • Integrated Marketing Tools: Built-in SEO, social media integration, and promotional tools help sellers increase visibility and drive traffic to their shops.
  • Secure Transactions: Etsy provides a secure platform for financial transactions, ensuring both buyer and seller protection.
  • Analytics and Insights: Detailed analytics help sellers understand customer behavior and optimize their product offerings.
  • Mobile Accessibility: The Etsy app allows sellers to manage their shops on-the-go, ensuring they can respond to customer inquiries and orders promptly.
  • Handmade and Vintage Focus: Etsy's emphasis on unique, handmade, and vintage items attracts a niche market of dedicated buyers.
  • Customer Trust: Etsy's established reputation and buyer protection policies build trust, encouraging more purchases.
  • Scalability: Etsy supports businesses of all sizes, from hobbyists to full-time entrepreneurs, allowing for growth and expansion.
  • Environmental Impact: By promoting handmade and vintage items, Etsy supports sustainable shopping practices and reduces waste.
  • Educational Resources: Etsy offers a wealth of resources, including tutorials and forums, to help sellers improve their business skills.
  • Payment Flexibility: Multiple payment options, including credit cards, PayPal, and Etsy gift cards, make transactions convenient for buyers.
  • Customer Engagement: Direct messaging and review systems facilitate communication and build relationships between sellers and buyers.
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  • Tailor To Fit Needs: Build a single, robust platform tailored to suit business needs by bringing together loosely coupled, independently deployable microservices and apps. 
  • Lower Costs via Economies of Scale: Distribute platform updates and maintenance costs to every user through the multi-tenant architecture. 
  • Maintain Flexibility: Independently customize and scale specific modules using the microservice-based, modular infrastructure. 
  • Maximize Uptime: Ensure global coverage, minimum latency and optimized performance with a multi-cloud setup that includes GCP, AWS and Microsoft Azure. Offers CDNs and server locations across America, Europe and APAC. 
  • Deliver Branded Experiences: Curate differentiated customer experiences across multiple channels. Supports storefront designing for personal websites, social networks, AR/VR devices, IoT, mobile devices and more. 
  • Enhance Customer Experiences: Offer personalized recommendations, multiple payments and fulfillment options, shipment tracking information, and quick return and refund processes. Integrate with external chatbots and concierge services. 
  • Centralize Management: Unify multiple brands in one flagship online store, integrate sales channels into a single omnichannel strategy and manage every aspect from a centralized dashboard. 
  • Ensure a Secure Environment: Facilitate communications via HTTPS and secure them by TLS 1.2. Encrypt storage layer using WPA2 with AES-256-bit key. 
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  • Online Store: Create stores using customizable templates and promote products using featured listings. 
  • Analytics: Provides detailed statistics to track orders and revenue, identify products with the most page views and understand performance trends. 
  • SEO Tools: Customers can find listings with the proper headings and descriptions. Helps recognize the keywords that get more traffic to the store. 
  • Logistics: Auto calculates shipping costs based on weight, dimension, shipping method and delivery speed. Prints shipping labels and directly sends tracking details to customers. 
  • Mobile App: Manage orders, update items, check shop analytics, create listings and talk to customers from anywhere. 
  • Promotional Tools: Promote items and listings in internal search and on social media. 
  • Payment Management: Collect and manage payments through PayPal or credit card, based on customers’ convenience. Also manages currency conversions, making it globally accessible. 
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  • Headless Commerce: Use GraphQl and pluggable APIs to connect and personalize sales, marketing and fulfillment experiences across every channel. Customize API behavior according to business needs through API patenting. 
  • Catalog and Product Information Management (PIM): 
    • Product Attributes: Supports flexible data types, multiple attributes and languages, and quick imports through existing configurations. 
    • Cataloging: Add categories and custom fields to design unique catalogs. Create links between catalogs and manage multiple variants. 
    • Targeted Data: Compartmentalize products by country, language, channel and store. 
    • Product Relationship: Define complex relationships and map how different data sets interact with each other. 
    • Multimedia Library: Store, organize and distribute images, audios and videos across channels. Include granular content for specific product types and attributes. 
    • Filtering: Offers a search bar, multiple filters and sorting options for easy navigation. 
    • Pricing: Set up tiered pricing based on currency, country, channels and more. Supports unlimited, custom currencies and high precision pricing. 
  • Shopping Cart: Create a seamless checkout experience and add multiple touchpoints for additional revenue. 
    • Rulesets: Get an overview of incoming orders and define how they interact with backend order management. 
    • Tax Handling: Automate tax calculation based on customers’ location. 
    • Subscriptions: Set up subscription-based purchases. 
    • Discounting: Define conditions and manage complex discount structures based on sales channels, customers, discount codes and more. 
    • Wishlist: Customers can create wishlists, save shopping carts and continue later. 
    • Cart Data: Track abandoned carts and develop marketing campaigns to revive lost sales. 
  • Order Management: 
    • Order Tracking: Get a centralized view of every product, order and fulfillment center. Track and manage business-specific metrics with a few clicks. 
    • Customer Data: Store information like order history, behavior patterns and engagement history and create detailed customer profiles. Provide data visibility to relevant teams. 
    • Channel Management: Aggregate inventory, pricing and product data across every store, POS and online channel. 
    • Shipping: Connect to shipping carriers and offer flexible options like BOPIS, curbside pickups, dropshipping and more. 
    • Order Routing: Design smart workflows for routing orders to convenient fulfillment points. 
  • Machine Learning: Automate daily tasks, enhance data quality and improve customer experience. 
    • Product Categorization: Specify rules to automatically assign products to appropriate categories based on attributes. 
    • Product Suggestions: Offer personalized recommendations according to individual customer profiles. 
    • Smart Search: Customers can use multiple filters, custom fields and image searches. Analyze search patterns and field value distributions to model database indexes. 
    • Data Enrichment: Detect duplicate entries and missing information, and receive smart suggestions for resolving issues. 
    • Add-Ons: Connect with third-party software for cross-selling and up-selling based on customer profiles. 
  • B2B Commerce: Provide a B2C buying experience by combining microservices. Personalize experiences, maintain online and offline brand identity, and automate product data processing. 
  • D2C Commerce: Create a flagship online store and add direct links to the website on multiple social networks. 
  • Developer Tools: Provides SDKs, structured documentation, APIs and other unique tools for in-depth platform customization. 
  • Integrations: Access the marketplace to add features like frontend designs, payment processors, accounting software, CRM and more. 
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Product Ranking

#2

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eCommerce Platforms

#80

among all
eCommerce Platforms

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Catalog And Product Management Checkout Inventory Management Marketing And Search Engine Optimization Order Management Payments Platform Capability Reporting And Analytics Sales Channel Shipping Storefront 79 97 57 81 84 51 100 40 72 91 70 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

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Excellent User Sentiment 2 reviews
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100%
of users recommend this product

commercetools has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 100% when considering 2 user reviews from 1 recognized software review sites.

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5.0 (2)

Awards

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commercetools stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Niche Marketplace: Etsy is known for its focus on unique and handmade goods, attracting buyers looking for distinctive items.
Creative Variety: The platform boasts a vast selection of products, offering a diverse range of options for shoppers seeking one-of-a-kind pieces.
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Composable Architecture: Users appreciate the flexibility to pick and choose the specific commercetools features they need, without being locked into a rigid, pre-configured suite of tools.
API-First Approach: The robust API allows for seamless integration with existing systems and enables businesses to build custom storefronts and experiences.
Cloud-Native Platform: Users highlight the benefits of scalability and reliability, allowing them to handle traffic spikes and adapt to changing business needs.
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Customer Service Issues: Etsy has received complaints regarding its customer service, potentially leading to unresolved issues for businesses.
Shipping Challenges: Shipping delays are a recurring concern on Etsy, potentially impacting customer satisfaction and business operations. Businesses may need to meticulously manage shipping profiles and expectations.
Price-Focused Competition: Etsy's platform can lead to intense price competition, potentially impacting businesses focused on product quality and unique offerings.
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Complex Setup: Some users have reported that getting started with commercetools can be a bit daunting due to its extensive features and API-first approach. This can lead to a steeper learning curve for those new to headless commerce platforms.
Technical Expertise Required: Commercetools is highly customizable, but this comes at the cost of requiring more technical expertise to implement and manage. Businesses without in-house development resources might find it challenging to leverage the platform's full potential.
Limited Out-of-the-Box Functionality: As a headless solution, commercetools focuses on providing backend infrastructure, leaving frontend development and integrations to the user. This means additional effort is needed to build a complete eCommerce experience, unlike some more traditional platforms that offer pre-built storefronts and features.
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Is Etsy really as easy as everyone says it is to buy and sell unique items? Etsy is an eCommerce platform known for its distinctive, handcrafted goods from independent sellers. Users rave about the platform's user-friendly design, which makes it simple to navigate and discover those one-of-a-kind treasures. Etsy's strength lies in fostering a community of passionate creators and buyers seeking unique, personalized items. This dedication to small businesses and artisans distinguishes Etsy from mass-produced goods found on platforms like Amazon. For instance, a buyer looking for a handmade ceramic mug with a specific design is more likely to find it on Etsy than on a more generalized platform. However, Etsy's dependence on individual sellers can lead to inconsistencies. Shipping delays, variable product quality, and customer service challenges arise from dealing with numerous independent entities. While Etsy has policies in place, enforcing them across a vast network poses a challenge. Potential buyers should prioritize individual seller ratings and reviews to ensure a smooth experience. Ultimately, Etsy is best suited for shoppers seeking unique, handcrafted items and willing to embrace the nuances of buying directly from independent creators.

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Recent user reviews suggest that commercetools is a powerful platform for businesses looking for a flexible and scalable solution. Users praise its API-first approach and microservice-based architecture, which allows for easy customization and integration with other systems. This makes it a good choice for businesses with complex needs or those looking to build a truly unique customer experience. For example, a business could use commercetools to create a personalized shopping experience for each customer, or to integrate their online store with their in-store point-of-sale system. However, users also note that commercetools can be complex to set up and manage, requiring significant technical expertise. Its flexibility can be a double-edged sword, as it can lead to a steeper learning curve. Some users also point out that the platform has a limited number of out-of-the-box integrations, meaning businesses may need to develop custom integrations for some of their existing systems. Despite these drawbacks, many users find that the benefits of commercetools outweigh the challenges, particularly for businesses that need a highly customizable and scalable solution. Overall, commercetools is best suited for larger businesses with the technical resources to take advantage of its powerful features. Smaller businesses or those with limited technical expertise may find other platforms easier to use.

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