I have an Etsy shop where I sell personalized 3d printed items for a niche community. Ive managed to make a good start and am hoping to move this into a full-time business. I have over a 1000 sales and hundreds of 5-star reviews.
I know my product would be very easy to replicate. After a year, I finally had it happen. I’m based in the US and the saving grace is they’re in the UK. Now, the larger market is in the US, but I sell plenty in the UK. He copied pretty much everything he could, down to slightly changing the description of the listing.
I’ve tried to differentiate a bit with my creativity, design and networking. I am trying to use this as motivation to innovate and drive, but I feel a creeping panic that I am trying to fight off.
Someone help me with a good pep talk and advice before I break down!
You must log in or register to comment.
Adapt or die. You didn’t create a product in a niche you created the ability to make products in niches, I hope.
SEO can really help by the way, and content marketing. You should be the authority on whatever this niche is. AI can definitely help
I make it a point to show up in person to events and shows. Generated a lot of sales from face to face interaction with customers and owners of other businesses who would buy my product.
Everything is a copy of something
Work on the branding and make the product an experience.
A porsche and a honda are both cars, right? But people pay more for the Porsche because of the experience.
I’m just saying even with an identical product, you can add better packaging, logo, and media coverage and people will pay more for the nicer wrapped package.
Visibility is king.Idea is good but the example is dumb. Base model Porsche is way better than base level Honda not because of the brand name, but because of the quality of the product (exactly opposite your point).
in hindsight the car analogy wasn’t the best. agree. but you get the concept of boutique branding.
Biggest compliment someone can give you is copy your work. Only shows that you’re doing something right and getting big enough that it’s worth stealing.
In terms of moving forward, people who copy will always be one step behind. So just keep innovating - producing more personalized 3d items that your community wants, maintaining excellent customer communication, keeping your quality of work intact.
Build your brand so that people know you’re the legit one, and the others are copycats.
One thing I’ve learned over time is that if you make something cool, it’s going to get copied sooner or later. Even if you get a patent, companies from China will copy it exactly and constantly change the name as you blow through money filing for takedowns or sending cease and desist letters. I got to Toy Fair every year as a part of my job and any time there’s a new and innovative product, you can be certain there will be 5+ companies with the same product at the next year’s show.
It’s a hard truth to swallow, but it’s tough to outrun copycats. They’ll use the same product design, same copy, and oftentimes, even your same images photoshopped with their product into it.
The bright side is that you had the ability to pull an idea out of the air and turn it into reality and sold thousands of them. Not many people have the ability to do that. If you did it once, you can do it again. And each time you do it, you’ll get better and better at the process.
So, get out there and do it again!
If he is selling on Etsy too and copied your designs closely you can report a copyright infringement via the Etsy reporting tool. In my experience to listings get taken down pretty quickly.
Use words like Original and Official or similar to tell potential customers that you’re the OG of this product and others are simply imitators. Talk about the high quality of your products and why they shouldn’t trust cheap knock offs. You can also offer some sort of guarantee because of how much you believe in your product. This is much better than offering discounts.
That stinks, but it happens. My small business has a nice little solar robotics project that we’ve been selling for years. Niche, but the ONLY decent option in that field that’s not insanely expensive. I knew that eventually we’d be copied in China… and we were. By like four different companies at once. Our $150 product now have competition that’s selling at the $50 price point. We can’t compete against that, the margins would be nothing. It sucks, but we knew it would happen eventually due to the high popuarity of our videos and guides so we’re not too broken up about it.
Chin up. Find new things to customize and sell. Figure out a good marketing strategy to show why you’re better than the competition. The fact that you have a lot of sales and a high rating will help you out. If you can be close to their price and offer cheaper shipping, since you’re in the US, you’ll manage to snag more sales. But just always keep in mind that you gotta always be innovating and creating new products. If you’re getting strong sales you’re going to be knocked off.
I believe the old saying “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” applies to your situation.
welcome to retail!!!
seems no one told you, but EVERY product will be copied, even with all the copyrights and laws in your favor to try to avoid it. that is why for example clothing companies have a whole department of “buyers” walking around the world looking for new products, materials etc and change the whole line of clothing each season.
is not to create “new trends” is to avoid others copying them!!
tips:
Do not make yours cheaper. add the word “original” to the title.
add upsells and cross sells and attachments. ( things that would go with your products)
UK is a tiny country. soon everyone there will be tired of it so keep doing a great job and you will endure.
everything you do will be copied, put your mind into new products all the time.
hi can i ask you a question, i never understood etsy,
do you store product in ur house and ship from ur house to customer?
or are u dropshipping
i saw some etsy tutorials but the youtube gurus never explain the backend work
7 things you need to do
- Distinguish your products from others in terms of pricing, marketing strategies and product quality.
- Create a memorable brand identity. Amazon is known for 2 day shipping. Work out your own Unique Sale Proposition (USP)
- Get patents, trademarks, and copyrights for your product and its features.
- Make it difficult to copy your products. Use proprietary technology or processes that are hard to replicate.
- Develop a loyal customer base by providing excellent customer service
- Build a social network of people who are interested in your products. The best way to do that is to build your brand around Facebook group and PInterest
- The power of content marketing cannot be overstated when it comes to making it big in business. Make your products visible on Google for those who are searching for customized products. You can achieve this through invaluable blog content. Make sure you are consistent in churning out your content