Wondering which online sales platform is the best place to sell your Showit website templates and other digital products? This post is for you – Keep reading to find out which platforms earn me the most template sales and the exact number I made on each one selling my own Showit website templates in 2024.
Selling digital website templates can be a highly profitable venture for branding and web designers (I know this from experience – Choosing to pivot my business from client-based branding projects to generating passive income selling Showit website templates changed my entire life!) but choosing the right platform can be overwhelming and stressful because which platforms you choose to focus on play a crucial role in maximizing your business’ success.
The question I’m always asked the most is “Which platforms should I sell my website templates on?” so in this post I’ll be deep diving into the 4 platforms I use to sell my Showit templates: My website (Using Thrivecart and Woocommerce), Etsy, and Showit Marketplace, and breaking down their beginner-friendliness, cost efficiency, and visibility so you can make an informed decision based on the needs of your business!
Selling Templates on my Website (Using Thrivecart and Woocommerce)
Thrivecart and Woocommerce are the tools I use to sell website templates using my website and blog. As you can see, my website is by far my most profitable sales channel. As a checkout system, Thrivecart allows me full control over pricing, branding, and customer interactions and the biggest advantage is that I keep nearly all of my earnings without marketplace fees. Additionally, Thrivecart supports upsells, bundles, and automation which increases my average order value.
My total website sales in 2024:
$129,449 = Thrivecart
$6,494.25 = Woocommerce
Total: $135,493.25
My rating for beginners:
- Beginner-Friendly: ⭐⭐☆☆☆ – Setting up a website and integrating Thrivecart requires technical know-how and upfront investment, but is simple after the initial setup.
- Cost Efficiency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – No ongoing fees beyond the initial Thrivecart purchase, meaning higher profit margins.
- Visibility: ⭐☆☆☆☆ – Since I rely on my own marketing and SEO, driving traffic is a major challenge compared to marketplaces.
Pros for Beginners:
- Full control over pricing and branding, so I can package my products in an intentional way that makes my templates tailored towards my specific niche to generate targeted sales.
- No commission fees, meaning higher profits overall.
- Selling through your website helps visitors to understand your brand more, which helps your overall business image and community to be stronger.
Cons for Beginners:
- Requires marketing knowledge to drive traffic – The amount of sales you make is almost entirely dependent on your knowledge of marketing, how to rank highly in searches, email lists and more so isn’t always effective for entrepreneurs who are just starting out.
- The initial setup can be complex – You need to integrate Thrivecart and Woocommerce which can be a learning curve
- There’s no built-in audience like there is with a marketplace, so sales take longer to establish.
Selling Website Templates using Etsy
Etsy is perhaps the most well-known marketplace for selling digital products, and is therefore the go-to for most customers searching for a specific product with built-in traffic and a customer base actively looking to buy. My templates perform well here due to Etsy’s keyword-based search engine and niche-friendly audience. However, Etsy’s transaction fees and competition are drawbacks that make it potentially less profitable than other platforms.
My total Etsy sales in 2024: $71,023.10
My rating for beginners:
- Beginner-Friendly: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ – Easy to set up and list products, but SEO and marketing knowledge help significantly with increasing the visibility of listings.
- Cost Efficiency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ – Etsy takes listing fees, transaction fees, and processing fees, which cut into profits.
- Visibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ – Etsy has high organic traffic, but ranking high in search results requires strong keywords and reviews. There are a LOT of products on Etsy, so if your products aren’t ranking on the first 10 pages they can easily get lost. But if any of them make the front page, your product’s visibility can reach unheard-of numbers (If you need a guide to How I get my products on the first page of Etsy searches, check out this post with my entire Etsy strategy!).
Pros for Beginners:
- Etsy’s simple listing process and existing audience are stress-free even for complete beginners.
- Etsy offers great buyer protection, which generates trust without the need for hundreds of reviews and previous sales.
- It’s easier to get initial sales due to pre-exisiting platform traffic and the fact that audiences are going there with the intention to make purchases.
Cons for Beginners:
- It’s a highly competitive marketplace that requires a good knowledge of SEO and a strong understanding of your target audience.
- Etsy’s fees are relatively high and reduce profit margins.
- You have less control over branding and are limited to the confines of a standardized listing format – It’s much easier to persuade a visitor into a sale using branding and funnels that resonate with their needs, and this is only achievable through a strong website where you have complete control.
Selling Templates using Showit Marketplace
Showit Market is a curated platform for Showit-specific templates, giving it a highly targeted audience. Since it’s directly linked to Showit users, customers here are more likely to convert and it’s the simplest platform to sell Showit Templates on if you don’t have a strong audience or knowledge of SEO yet. However, every template has to be submitted and approved (and they’re notoriously strict!) so you might not be able to list all of your templates here right away. Like Etsy, Showit also takes a commission on each sale so your profits are also reduced compared with selling directly from your website.
My total Showit Marketplace sales in 2024: $20,398
My rating for beginners:
- Beginner-Friendly: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ – You need to have beautiful, polished designs in order to get your product submissions approved for listing, however once approved all the hard work is handled by Showit and it’s off your plate. (If you’re struggling with template designs that are the professional standard needed for approval, you NEED to check out my NEW Showit Canvas Pro Collection for Designers – A bundle of 222+ fully licensed Showit Website Canvases that you can use to instantly elvate your designs and create and sell your own stunning designer-approved templates!)
- Cost Efficiency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ – Showit Marketplace generates easy earnings, but commissions and limited pricing control impact profits.
- Visibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ – Its built-in audience generates smaller traffic than broader marketplaces like Etsy, but they’re all searching for Showit templates so it is much more targeted.
Pros for Beginners:
- Targeted audience specifically looking for Showit templates.
- Higher likelihood of conversion from interested buyers.
- Marketplace reputation helps build credibility and solidify your design business as being the best of the best.
Cons for Beginners:
- The approval process can be lengthy and selective, and require a very high design standard.
- There’s less flexibility in pricing and branding which gives you less control than selling on your own website.
Selling Templates using Creative Market
Creative Market is a huge online marketplace for all kinds of digital assets, including Showit website templates. While it’s te go-to for many digital entrepreneurs and creative professionals, it has a comparatively much smaller audience than Etsy and sales volume tends to be lower (which you can see reflected in my yearly Creative Market income!). The listing are easy to set up, but much like Etsy they need to be SEO-strong to rank highly and get your products seen (but the algorithm works in the same way, so my tips for how to boost your Etsy listings work for Creative Market, too!). I find that Creative Market is the least effective platform for selling my templates, which is why I choose to focus on my website and Etsy.
My total Creative Market sales in 2024: $19,900.22
My rating for beginners:
- Beginner-Friendly: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ – It’s simple to get started, but optimizing listings requires effort and knowledge.
- Cost Efficiency: ⭐⭐☆☆☆ – The marketplace fees take a noticeable cut, making profit margins thinner, and the sales volume is much lower.
- Visibility: ⭐⭐☆☆☆ – Has a relatively broad audience since it caters for all types of digital assets, but it is still limited and has lower traffic compared to other marketplaces.
Pros for Beginners:
- It’s easy to get started with minimal setup – If you can create a great listing on Etsy, you have all the knowledge you need to make high-ranking listings on Creative Market.
- The market isn’t as saturated as other platforms, and there’s much less competition compared to Etsy.
Cons for Beginners:
- Lower sales volume compared to larger marketplaces, which can impact your mindset negatively if it doesn’t feel “worth it”.
- Its commission fees reduce overall profit.
My Final Thoughts: Which Platforms should you Utilize to Sell Website Templates that make a Profit?
The truth is this: Each platform has strengths and weaknesses depending on your business goals, the quality of the products you sell, and how much time you’re able to dedicate to perfecting your presense on each platform. Your goals for scaling your business should influence your choice, depending on what stage of your business journey you’re in.
If you want maximum control and profit, prioritizing your website is the best choice for making HUGE income without compromise (nothing beats the feeling of commission-free sales and building a community in the process!) but without knowledge-based independent marketing, a strong, professional brand presence and a highly-converting website funnel your effort can be wasted. Etsy offers great traffic and ease of use but at a cost of both income and time to master it, and Showit Marketplace and Creative Marketplace offer simplicity but less traffic and sales overall. Finding the right balance between profitability and ease of use is key to scaling your website template business successfully!
My honest, hand-on-heart advice: If you have the goal of scaling your business and time to dedicate, using that time to build a high-converting website is much more valuable than learning all the SEO skills needed to try and break into an oversaturated market (which is only expanding each day!). Selling templates through your website means you have full control over the sales you make and the image you’re presenting, and free marketing tools such as Pinterest make advertising accessible. This is the pivot that shaped my business, and you can see from my 2024 income the MASSIVE difference it made.
If 2025 is the year you want to finally scale your template design business to build an empire out of passive income but don’t know where to start, you can find my FREE course here for designer-targeted guidance that will enable you to elevate your presence, strengthen your products and build a six-figure web design business.
Comments +