For a beginner in Türkiye, especially one selling print-on-demand products, Etsy is usually the easier start: buyers are already searching on Etsy, and Etsy Payments is available to sellers located in Türkiye. An own-store platform such as Shopify gives you full control of your brand, but it expects you to bring every visitor yourself, and for a beginner that is the hardest part.
This is for sellers planning a first sale abroad on a limited budget. Besides cost, compare who brings the buyers and how much work the set-up takes.
The basic difference: a marketplace or your own store
Etsy is a marketplace. Buyers come to Etsy, search, and Etsy orders the results "by how relevant the items are to what you search for" (Etsy Help: search). You make a good listing, and the platform brings the shoppers.
Shopify and similar platforms give you the tools to build your own website. The store is entirely yours, from the domain to the customer list, but nobody arrives by default: you bring visitors through ads, social media, Google search or an email list.
The rules differ too. On Etsy, print on demand with production partners is allowed as long as the items are your original design, while drop shipping is not allowed (Etsy Help: print on demand and drop shipping).
Cost: what you pay on Etsy
Etsy charges per listing and per sale rather than a monthly subscription for a standard shop. The main charges are:
Shop set-up fee: one-time and non-refundable, with a cost that varies by location (Etsy fee table).
Listing fee: $0.20 per listing, paid whether or not it sells, and a listing expires after 4 months (Etsy fee table).
Transaction fee: 6.5% of the order total, including shipping (Etsy fee table).
Payment processing fee: 6.5% + 14 TRY for a bank account in Türkiye (Etsy Help: payment processing fees).
Regulatory operating fee: 1.67% for sellers located in Türkiye (Etsy Help: regulatory operating fee).
Currency conversion fee: 2.5% when you list in a currency other than the currency of your payment bank account (Etsy fee table).
Offsite Ads: 15% on a sale from an Etsy ad on another site if you made less than $10,000 on Etsy in the past 365 days, 12% if you made at least $10,000 (Etsy fee table). Shops that have never reached $10,000 in a 365-day period can opt out (Etsy Help: Offsite Ads).
An own store means a monthly subscription, theme and app costs, payment provider fees and, above all, an advertising budget. Check current prices on the platform's own pricing page, since they change often. For tax or company questions, speak to a qualified accountant. Our guide to Etsy fees and currency conversion for sellers in Türkiye works through the Etsy side.
Traffic: who brings the buyers
A new Etsy listing may take up to 48 hours to appear in Etsy search results and categories (Etsy Help: creating a listing), and from then on buyers find it through Etsy's own search. For more visibility, Etsy Ads start from a minimum daily budget of $1, but there is a 15-day waiting period after opening your shop before you can begin a campaign (Etsy Help: Etsy Ads).
Etsy also rewards traffic you bring yourself. Sellers enrolled in Share & Save get an instant refund of 4% of the eligible order total on sales that come through their own shared links, and Etsy's page lists 6.5% back from October 20 to January 4 (Etsy Help: Share & Save).
On your own store, traffic on day one is zero: ranking on Google takes time, and ads cost money on every click.
Effort: set-up and language
To open an Etsy shop you need an Etsy account, identity verification with a photo of a valid government ID and a clear selfie, a bank account in the same name as the ID, and two-factor authentication. You also add your first listing before the shop opens (Etsy Help: opening a shop). Our step-by-step guide to opening an Etsy shop from Türkiye covers each step.
Turkish is not one of Etsy's site languages (Etsy Help: languages), and you cannot change your shop language later (Etsy Help: opening a shop). For selling to buyers abroad, choosing English as the shop language is usually the sensible route. Listings are machine-translated into other languages automatically (Etsy Help: translations).
On your own store, the theme, pages, payment and shipping settings and policy texts are all your job.
Points specific to sellers in Türkiye
Türkiye is on the list of countries eligible for Etsy Payments. PayPal does not operate in Türkiye, so sellers located there cannot accept PayPal (Etsy Help: Etsy Payments).
Deposits from your Etsy Payment account to your bank can be daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly, and the daily deposit minimum for Turkish lira accounts is TRY 600.00 (Etsy Help: deposit schedule). More in our guide to getting paid on Etsy from Türkiye.
For orders going to the US, sellers outside the US have had to account for all their costs, including duties and import fees, since July 9, 2026, and orders shipped without duties prepaid no longer qualify for Etsy Purchase Protection (Etsy Help: updates).
Which one to start with
Without an audience, Etsy is the shorter road to a first sale: the buyers are there, payments work from Türkiye, and there is no required monthly subscription. Once you know what sells and have traffic sources of your own, you can add your own store as a second channel.
If you already have a strong social media following or an email list, an own store can make sense from the start, because you can bring the traffic yourself. You can also run both, but do not send Etsy buyers to your own site to pay: Etsy scans messages for attempts to move buyers off Etsy to complete a transaction (Etsy Help: messages).
The two routes compare like this:
| Topic | Etsy | Your own store (Shopify and similar) |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer traffic | Buyers searching on Etsy | You bring every visitor |
| Starting cost | One-time set-up fee, $0.20 per listing | Monthly subscription, theme and apps |
| Fees per sale | 6.5% transaction, 6.5% + 14 TRY processing, 1.67% regulatory fee | Your payment provider's fees |
| Getting paid | Etsy Payments is available in Türkiye | You set up a provider, check it works in Türkiye |
| Rules | Etsy's policies, listings can be removed | The platform's terms of service |
| Brand control | Limited: logo, banner, shop texts | Full |
| Set-up effort | Low | High |
Where Alomations fits
Alomations is a print-on-demand workbench built for Etsy. You connect your Etsy shop through the official Etsy API: you sign in on Etsy's own screen, it takes under two minutes, and you can revoke access from Etsy at any time (connecting your Etsy shop to Alomations). Alomations uses Etsy's official API but is not affiliated with or endorsed by Etsy.
Once connected, one run turns a design into a finished listing with mockups, a title, 13 tags and a description. Orders can be fulfilled through production partners, and production for US orders is in the US. The product and support are in English and Turkish, with free video tutorials in both languages in the Classroom. The Free plan is $0 and gives 40 credits a month once your shop is connected, with no card needed. Our guide to starting print on demand on Etsy from Türkiye covers the first steps.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Etsy in Turkish?
Turkish is not one of Etsy's site languages. Since you cannot change the shop language later, starting with an English shop and English listings is the easiest way to reach buyers abroad.
How much will I spend on Etsy in the first month?
A one-time set-up fee and $0.20 for each listing you publish. Fees per sale are charged only when something sells. Etsy Ads are optional, and if you use them, the minimum daily budget is $1.
How do I find the first visitors for my own store?
Through ads, social media, content and Google search, all of which take time or budget.
You can try preparing your first Etsy listings with the Alomations free plan.
