What to make that sells on Etsy in acrylic

I’m starting an Etsy and I wanted to know What things were possible to make that are acrylic. I’ve been making panels for boats, but it’s not very consistent. It’s hard for me to know What I can make and can’t make. Any tips or app I need that can help me out. Or if possibly, I should also do something that’s made from acrylic and wood. I’ve been thinking doing Etsy for a while

Not to discourage you but etsy is a very competitive market place. If you search for a key ring your project might come up but at the bottom of the page there are other makers making key rings.

If you think etsy is where you want to be then search for acrylic items and see what is popular. Guessing what will be a hit is hard to do. The fortune 500 companies have armies of research analysts to determine the market for their products. So as an individual it is a WAG (Wild A** Guess) and maybe you guess right and maybe wrong.

Maybe a better way would be to start on Facebook Marketplace and sell locally things that you can quickly customize and meet the people and get feedback immediately about what the want and need. I am not a fan of Facebook but starting out local will maybe help you get your feet wet and see what people in your area want.

There are hundreds of videos on youtube about what to make and what to sell. My only reservation about the youtube advise would if they were so successful why do they have the time to post on youtube and add to their competition. Some of the YT videos are made to get clicks and therefore ad revenue and the content can be skewed to get clicks and not really educate you.

So you have asked a hard question. What to make and where to sell. That question is as old as when people first started selling things.

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Trying to do well on etsy can be tough these days, just so much competition. Ive been on etsy for ages and have noticed a huge decrease in sales in the past couple of years.
You have so many people selling the same sort of things, often at a price that wouldn’t even cover cost of materials. Best thing to do is decide what you like to make, see whats already available then offer a more specialized version if you can. Anything you can do to help differentiate yourself helps.

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Well, we’re approximately 4 months away from the big CHRISTMAS season - hint, hint! :grinning:
Maybe some snowflakes from acrylic and wood both might start you off.

Keep in mind that with acrylic (and flat wood shapes), you will be competing against sellers who have lasers. They can cut faster, and therefore sell cheaper. IMO, you need to find and focus on niches where a CNC stands out vs a laser.

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Good advice. My Glowforge Pro can whip out acrylic rather fast, but struggles with anything thicker than 1/4” for cutting. So beautiful thick pieces or anything not combustible, like aluminum, might provide a CNC edge. Also, while some lasers can “carve” in interesting ways, CNC carving can still give a nicer finish sometimes.

Etsy has a rather developed market of copycats (fast followers) that will undercut on price. Amazon apparently has this issue as well. You might try building your own commerce site with Squarespace or Wix and build your own captive market starting with local friends and use FB, Insta, etc to bring people to your own site.

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