Is Etsy’s Share And Save Program Worth It?

What if I told you that there was a way to save 4% on the fees Etsy charges you and that Etsy was not only cool with it, but they’re itching to have to help you save a huge chunk of the fees that they normally charge you?

You might be tempted to lock me up as crazy, but hear me out for just one minute first.

You see, Etsy recently launched a new program that they are calling ” Share and Save” which is designed to do exactly that.

Let’s take a quick look at what this new Share and Save program is and figure out if this is as good as it sounds or if there’s a big catch-22 that we are missing.

What is the Etsy Share and Save Program?

The idea behind this program is that if you drive traffic to Etsy from any channel that you control (like a social media page, your website, or email blast), Etsy will give you a 4% of the order value. 

This isn’t just a small refund of the fees that Etsy would otherwise be charging you, it applies to the entire amount of money collected by Etsy on your behalf.

So, if between the cost of the product, shipping, customization, and any other order-related charges the order came to a $100 total, Etsy would be giving you a refund of $4.

 The way the program works is fairly simple.

Inside the back end of your Etsy shop, you can now find your “Share and Save” links which allow you to share either your entire shop, specific listings, links with promotional codes, links directly to specific reviews, or links to sections of your shop.

Once you share them, if anybody that comes from you sharing those links places an order within 30 days, Etsy will pay you an additional 4% of the order total into your payment account (over and above what you would have earned normally).

Benefits of the Program

The single biggest benefit to this program is the obvious 4% boost you get in any revenue you generate by driving traffic to Etsy.

The side benefit, and one I think most people will miss, is You need the same skills to drive converting traffic to Etsy’s platform as you do anywhere else on the internet.

This means that if you’re starting your e-commerce journey on Etsy, you can learn some of the early “trial and error” lessons that can be extremely frustrating for people driving traffic to their sites, without having to worry about your entire business depending on it.

The truth is, if you master driving email and social media traffic to Etsy, you’ll set yourself up to be in a much better position when you’re ready to build your site.

Additionally, it gives you a massive leg up on your competition within the Etsy ecosystem itself.

As we talked about previously, the thing he cares most about when it comes to ranking listings in the organic algorithm is traffic and sales.

If you can drive traffic and sales from outside of the platform, this gives Etsy more data to work within a shorter amount of time, giving you a better chance to rank within Etsy’s search results.

Concerns and Drawbacks

Now, just like most things in life the Share and Save program isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

The two biggest drawbacks to this program are the limitations on where you can share things and making sure that when you do share something, you’re sharing the correct thing.

Let’s start with the limitations on where you can drive traffic using the Share and Save program.

The way the program is designed is that if you share your link anywhere (outside of Etsy of course) You will get credit for the traffic and sales that result from that link.

Although some of the more tech-savvy readers of this article might be inclined to start running ads on places like Facebook and Google using these links, that would be a no-go.

To avoid any competition with the Etsy off-site ads program, the terms of the Share and Save program all but eliminate your ability to run ads containing these links.

The program does however allow you to share essentially unlimited places as long as you are doing so organically.

This means, that even though running ads with these links would be a violation of the programs of the term, email marketing, social media marketing, text message marketing, and all of the other organic marketing styles are still fair game. 

Potential Impact on Etsy Seo

You may have heard from one Etsy guru or another that driving traffic to Etsy from external sources can be extremely dangerous to your organic ranks inside of the Etsy ecosystem.

One other concern that I’ve seen about the Share and Save program is that this could encourage sellers to drive external traffic and sync their rankings on Etsy.

Although it’s theoretically possible that driving a huge amount of external traffic would have an impact on your rank, this should not be a huge concern for sellers.

The grain of truth in this myth comes from how the Etsy algorithm looks at conversion rate.

Essentially, it could be possible to drive enough random traffic to a listing that it could impact the conversion rate and therefore drive the rank of that listing down.

However, since you have complete control over where and how these links are published, you also have complete control over the kinds of traffic you would be driving.

If one of your listings started getting a ton of traffic and no sales, you could simply remove the offending link and solve the problem.

Additionally, since most of the places where you will be using these links, such as in email marketing, tend to convert higher than Etsy’s average conversion rate, the most likely impact traffic from these links will have is that they will increase rather than decrease your conversion rate.

Is It Worth It?

Yes, Etsy’s new Share and Save program is worth it for anyone selling on Etsy.

This program can best be looked at as a way of getting paid by Etsy for learning the skills you need to be successful in today’s e-commerce world.

The only real potential downsides are easily overcome by a little bit of common sense and you’ll earn 4% more all while giving Etsy more of the data they need to rank your products Even higher in the organic ranks.

If you want to learn more about what we’ve seen with the program so far, you might want to check out this video:

Who Stands to Benefit the Most?

Who will benefit from this program is a bit of a twofold answer. 

If you’re an existing seller on Etsy and you have done a little bit of basic marketing prep, like building your social media pages and setting up your email list, you can get an immediate leg up on your competition by starting to leverage this program and more aggressively drive traffic.

Secondly, if you’re a new seller, by doubling or tripling down on things like email marketing from day one and combining a little bit of marketing no hell with this new program, you should be able to get your products to rank faster because you won’t be fighting for the same small percentage of Etsy buyers for all of your sales.

If you can drive even a small number of sales from external sources, Etsy’s algorithm will start to notice you more quickly and reward you by moving you up in the search ranks.

Quick Recap

Etsy’s recently announced Share and Save program is a great way for anyone in the Etsy ecosystem to take home 4% more than they are right now.

Unlike a few other similar programs in Etsy’s ecosystem, such as their affiliate program, you can use Share and Save by default and don’t have to meet any special requirements.

The only “catch” is that you have to be the person who drove the sale. 

I like to look at this program as a way of getting paid to learn marketing skills, like how to use email marketing to drive more e-commerce sales.

If you’d like to learn more about how we use email marketing to drive sales on Etsy and gain the foundation that you’d like to have to get the most out of the Share and Save program, you may want to check out the Etsy email marketing playbook here.