Launch Your Storefront

If all the design, packaging, sourcing, and identity work you’ve done so far were the makeup and wardrobe, launching your storefront is stepping up on stage. It’s how people find you, interact with your brand, and start buying. The smart move at first is to use a marketplace—for example, Etsy (especially for creative, craft, and lifestyle goods)—and once you’ve got traction, you can build your own custom e-commerce site on Shopify, BigCommerce, or similar platforms.

Why Start With a Marketplace First

• Lower upfront cost: Etsy has minimal setup fees (e.g. listing fees, transaction fees), whereas building and maintaining a standalone site (hosting, themes, plugins) can cost more early on. Etsy is cheaper for getting started.
• Built-in audience: Etsy already has users who come looking for handmade, craft, unique, or gift items. Less effort is needed to attract traffic than launching a brand-new store from scratch.
• Ease of operations: Payment processing, checkout, marketplace rules—all handled for you. You can start with fewer technical and operational hurdles.

Then, once you have a few sales, good reviews, and steady traffic, a custom storefront gives you more control: over branding, UX, margins, and perhaps when you want to scale or branch into wholesale

Tools & Tutorials

• How to open an Etsy Shop: Etsy’s Seller Handbook gives step-by-step: visit Etsy.com/sell, set your shop’s language, country, and currency, choose a name, etc. (Etsy Help⁠)
• How to Start an Etsy Shop: Walks through the steps, costs, tips for naming, branding, etc. (IONOS)
• Etsy vs Amazon Comparison: Helps decide which marketplace is best for your product category and growth goals. (Printful)