#+title: S01|L01 - Introduction
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* Notes
** types of stores
1. shopify
2. etsy

** how to use this
- setting up stores

** etsy
- you have to be part of the design process
- you can use POD
- combine it with shopify

** repeat customers
- etsy doesn't let you save customer info
- if you have their email address you can use it to get a resale

* Transcript

** Overview

- Topic :: Choosing between Shopify and Etsy stores

- Context :: Step 3 video series introduction

- Key Decision :: Etsy vs Shopify vs both

** Key Points

- Etsy requires involvement in design/manufacturing (no AliExpress dropshipping)

- Print-on-demand is allowed and encouraged on Etsy

- Shopify gives control over customer data (especially emails)

- Etsy promotes competitors on your listings

- Best strategy: use Etsy for traffic → funnel to Shopify

- Email collection is critical for profit (repeat customers)


* Transcript
#+begin_quote
00:00
Hey, everyone, and welcome back. So I just wanted to

00:02
create this quick little introduction video for the step 3

00:05
video series because in here, you're gonna find out how

00:08
to create multiple types of stores. The first set of

00:11
video tutorials will show how to set up and create

00:13
a store with Shopify. And then the second set of

00:16
video tutorials will show how to create and set up

00:18
a store with Etsy. For some of you, you're gonna

00:21
wanna set up both stores, in which case, that's great.

00:23
You can go ahead and you can watch the Shopify

00:25
video tutorial series, set up a store with that, and

00:28
then move on to the Etsy video tutorial series and

00:31
set up an Etsy store. For others of you though,

00:33
you've decided that you only wanna set up either a

00:35
Shopify store or an Etsy store, in which case, that's

00:38
absolutely fine. You can just go ahead and watch the

00:40
video tutorials for the type of store that you want

00:43
to build. There are some videos though that I think

00:46
will help everyone regardless of what type of store that

00:49
they would like to create. And so if that's you

00:51
and you're only gonna say build an Etsy store and

00:53
not a Shopify store or only a Shopify store or

00:55
not an Etsy store, I highly recommend that everybody check

00:58
out these video tutorials

01:00
regardless.

01:01
Now if you're not sure yet whether you just wanna

01:03
build a Shopify store or an Etsy store or both,

01:07
here are a few things to keep in mind. The

01:09
first is that Etsy's terms and conditions state that you

01:11
need to be a part of the design or manufacturing

01:13
process, which means that you cannot sell items dropship from

01:16
AliExpress.

01:17
And so if this is the only way that you're

01:19
gonna be selling products, I don't recommend starting an Etsy

01:21
store.

01:22
Etsy does, however, allow and encourage

01:25
people to sell print on demand products thanks to their

01:27
great integrations.

01:28
So if you're selling these products, you can list them

01:31
on here. The next thing to keep in mind is

01:33
that while some of you are only gonna set up

01:35
an Etsy store and that's fine, it's not something that

01:38
I recommend. I recommend that if you're gonna set up

01:41
an Etsy store that you also combine it with a

01:44
Shopify store. And that's because if you take a look

01:47
at this Etsy store here, you'll see that Etsy is

01:49
advertising products on it as upsells and cross sells, but

01:52
these are not products that the store is selling. They

01:55
are their competitors' products.

01:57
Etsy doesn't care who gets the sales, and so they'll

01:59
advertise competitors' products on top of your own listings. In

02:02
addition, when a customer buys an item from you on

02:04
Etsy, they're giving their email address to Etsy, not to

02:07
you. A huge amount of the money that I make

02:10
from print on demand is from repeat customers.

02:13
Repeat customers are how big profits are made. Because think

02:16
about it. Let's say that you paid for ads to

02:18
see the customer in the door to buy an item.

02:20
Well, that was money you had to spend to make

02:21
that sale, right? But once you have their email address,

02:24
you can just send an email newsletter to the customer

02:26
being like, Hey, we've had a new merch drop. Check

02:29
it out. That cost to send out that email was

02:31
negligible, and so most of the money that you're gonna

02:34
earn from the sale from that newsletter is profit. That's

02:37
why collecting emails is something I highly recommend doing, which

02:41
you unfortunately just can't do on Etsy. And so my

02:43
recommendation is that, yes, Etsy can be a great way

02:46
to get traffic since, well, they do get hundreds of

02:49
millions of visitors each month, but that having just an

02:51
Etsy store shouldn't be your main goal. Instead, you should

02:54
be seeing Etsy as a way to help you build

02:57
your own brand

02:58
off of the platform as well. So you can create

03:01
an Etsy store and take advantage of the free traffic

03:03
and get sales and build up brand authority

03:06
while also linking in your store profile to your external

03:10
store on your own domain with Shopify. Plus, you can

03:13
also name your stores the same name so that customers

03:16
can be funneled from Etsy

03:18
over onto your own store. Then you can use our

03:21
email apps in step 4 that we'll install to get

03:23
a customer to purchase directly from you with a discount

03:26
coupon code rather than from your Etsy store. And so

03:29
now you have that customer's email address which means that

03:32
you can send follow-up emails to them. Yay. And so

03:35
because of the fact that I recommend that everybody set

03:37
up a Shopify store, that is why I have included

03:39
the Shopify tutorial videos first. And then after that, I

03:43
have also included the Etsy tutorial videos for those of

03:46
you out there that want to combine them together.

03:48
But either way, it's up to you. So go ahead,

03:52
choose which set of videos that you would like to

03:53
start with and I will see you over there.
#+end_quote