Indian Etsy sellers — is Etsy still worth starting in 2026?
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I'm based in India and I'm seriously considering starting an Etsy shop selling physical products internationally (POD apparel).
Before I invest money into inventory samples, GST, shipping setup, designs, etc., I wanted to hear from Indian sellers who are actually doing this right now.
I've been researching Reddit for a while and I've noticed two things that make me a little nervous:
- Trust/reputation of Indian sellers
I've come across discussions about scams from some Indian Etsy shops, and I'm wondering whether this has affected legitimate Indian sellers in terms of buyer trust or conversion rates.
For those of you currently selling from India:
- Do you feel buyers are hesitant when they see that the shop is based in India?
- Have you ever had a buyer question whether your shop is legitimate because you're an Indian seller?
- Do you think having a strong shop history/reviews makes this concern basically disappear?
- Have you noticed any meaningful difference in conversion rates compared with sellers based in the US/Europe?
- Payoneer
The other thing I'm worried about is Payoneer.
I've seen quite a few posts about accounts being restricted/frozen during verification, sometimes apparently because of automated checks or issues that sellers didn't expect.
For Indian Etsy sellers who use Payoneer:
- How has your experience actually been?
- Have you ever had your Payoneer account restricted, frozen, or reviewed?
- If it happened, were you eventually able to resolve it?
- How long did withdrawals/payouts take in normal circumstances?
- Do you keep a separate bank account specifically for Etsy/Payoneer?
- Is there anything you would recommend doing during setup to minimize the chances of verification problems?
- The bigger question
If you were starting from zero in India today, would you still choose Etsy?
Or would you go directly to Shopify/another marketplace and build your own traffic?
I'm not looking for "Etsy is great" or "Etsy sucks" answers. I'd genuinely appreciate hearing from people who have been selling from India for at least a few months, especially physical-product/POD sellers.
I'd rather know the ugly parts before putting serious time and money into it.
Thanks!
I will attach my products in the images . Basically I'm trying to sell tshirts I know you will say it's saturated and all . But If I'm able to try fighting in price why not ?