How to spot true handmade on Etsy

There’s been quite a bit of chatter for awhile now among the Etsy community debating the definition of ‘handmade’, and alongside that, grumblings about Etsy allowing products to be sold on the platform that are not truly handmade, both breaking terms of service and tarnishing the ‘spirit’ of Etsy. In recent months, this chatter has started to spill into the general zeitgeist. I think the catalyst was actually all the way back in 2020, as more and more people began side hustles and small businesses, but it has taken some time to bubble up and out of strictly the Etsy community. You may have seen articles in major publications discussing this, and as a surprise to no one, I have a lot to say on the topic. I made this cute little post for Instagram a few weeks ago, and I thought I’d expand on these points here.

Etsy was founded as a marketplace for handmade and vintage goods and craft supplies. I’ll go more in-depth on what that means, why it matters, and the benefits of a platform dedicated to these products in another post. For this specific post, the important thing to know is that between that influx of mass-produced products, and the tools and technology available to small businesses, handmade included, it has become harder to distinguish handmade from mass-produced.

That said, there are still SO many great, amazing handmade products on Etsy, sold by equally great and amazing shop owners who take pride in making their goods! They’re just getting buried and harder to spot!

In this post, I will focus on how to spot the products that are actually handmade on Etsy.

1. They will tell you. Especially given the recent infiltration of mass-produced goods, owners of true handmade shops will shout it from the rooftops! You’ll see it mentioned in their shop announcement, About section, and in each listing. They might even have photos or videos of their process. Shop owners want to find the customers that want handmade products, so they will do everything they can to advertise their Etsy shop as such.

2. They have listing photos of the actual product, not just mockups. While handmade products can still be mocked up – and mockups are a great way to show a design on different surfaces – a good tell that something is not handmade is that there are absolutely no photos of an actual physical product in real life. Often in this case, a shop owner is buying graphics or using AI-generated images and simply using a print-on-demand manufacturer to produce the products and ship them directly to customers. If a shop owner literally has a hand in making the product – whether they’re designing the graphics themselves, or producing (screen-printing, embroidering, etc.) a finished item – then they’ll have physical products to photograph.

3. You don’t see the same product – or photos – in 10 other Etsy shops … or on Amazon … or on Temu. This can be tricky for two reasons: first, someone may have copied something that was handmade or designed by a legitimate maker, and the copycat is selling that product. Second, it’s perfectly okay to purchase things like charms, beads, or other supplies in bulk in order to make a finished product. But if you do a little digging, you’ll be able to suss out whether an Etsy seller truly made, designed, or created the product, or if they’re reselling a mass-produced finished object.

4. A consistent online presence, that a real person is clearly behind. Most Etsy shop owners have social media accounts for their shop, and they often use them for glimpses behind the scenes. In that case, you’ll probably spot them making products in a post, an IG story, or a TikTok video. Whether they’re adding pottery to a kiln, drawing on an iPad, or stringing beads, they want to give us that ‘proof’ that they’re actually making what they’re selling. Even if they don’t choose to show their face on social, look for those clues that a real person is behind the camera.

5. They list production partners and are transparent about what elements are handmade, and what is outsourced. Like I allude to above, some parts of a handmade product may not be handmade. You can’t expect everyone to cut down their own trees, or blow their own glass for beads, or weave their own garments. But a legitimate handmade seller will list their production partners on Etsy and/or highlight what parts of the process they do have their hand in. For example, I illustrate all of my original artwork, but I don’t have the setup to manufacture stickers, so I outsource production. Someone else might buy cutting boards to engrave with their laser machine.

6. Pricing that isn’t too good to be true. As they say, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” A true artisan prices their goods fairly, taking into account the time spent honing their craft, in addition to the cost of materials. If something is surprisingly cheap, then it was most likely sourced in bulk just to resell. If you want deals, go to the dollar store or Amazon. If you want handmade, unique, high quality, and thoughtful, then Etsy is the place for you.

As you might have realized, the term “handmade” can be pretty broad – again, more on that in another post – but I hope this provides some clarity into what to look for when you’re browsing Etsy and want to make sure you’re buying from a legitimate seller, who literally had their hand in creating a finished product .