This Site Wants You to Quit Etsy

Latchet.com believes it can improve the selling experience for creatives, but are they right?

UPDATE: Since I wrote this post in 2025, Latchet.com has ceased operations, closing all shops and deleting their social media. They have said they are refocusing their energy into a new project around curation and recommendation, but not formal announcements have been made.

Creatives are always looking for greener pastures, because there has never been a perfect solution for selling your gear, giving you full access to your customers and fans, while having an internal network that works in your favor, but maybe the wait is over.

Earlier this week, I got served an ad from a company hoping to entice me by offering a one-stop solution to selling art and handmade goods.

BUT WAIT! This site is NOT like Etsy, not even a little.

In fact, it’s more like Substack, and that’s because two former executives (and fellow creatives) who left their unvested shares behind to start Latchet, the answer to the question, “How do I sell my seashell jewelry and still have the ability to email my fans and customers?”

Now, if you know how my brain works, you’ll know that I’m all over things like this. I immediately want to understand everything about the inner workings, either to jump on board at the ground floor, or stand at the entrance warning everyone before they go in.

Is Latchet the next best thing since OG Etsy mixed with all the best of Substack?

No, it’s not, but it’s way too early to say what they are doing is wrong or bad. I believe the company is barely into its beta phase and it is trying hard to not fall prey to feature creep.

At first glance, the site looks interesting and tells a great story, but the only way to find out if this new platform would solve all our problems is to crack it open and see how the guts work when you poke at them with a metal rod.

I should note that I have not spoken to anyone at Latchet and everything shared here is based on my experience of the platform.

Latchet Unlatched

Again, the main objective of Latchet is to allow people to communicate with their audience (you can import your list) while also having direct access to art and handmade goods directly for sale on the platform and within email updates.

They also have eschewed a traditional algorithm for exposure, and instead encourage (force?) people into following other makers they like and recommending those shops to their audience. This is not a bad plan, however, it is a bit blunt and clunky, which I’ll get into shortly.

Because they’re focusing on referrals, and the network is pretty small right now, this could be a good way to get in early with other sellers and become part of their recommendation circle-jerk.

The best part is being able to communicate directly with your audience through the platform, at scale, which is a feature Etsy has no interest in giving its sellers. They look at all the customers on the site as their own, and your sales on Etsy are a product of their customer base. Latchet wants you to talk to your people as often as once a week.

Here’s the thing about Latchet newsletters, though. They are no-fluff (560 characters or less), sparse, and require you to share recommendations within them, which I think is kinda weird when you’re trying to sell to your customers, not pitch them on buying from someone else.

This also carries over directly onto all shops on the platform, where halfway through the shop page sits a list of your recommendations, just begging customers to bounce from your page onto someone else’s. That’s weird, but maybe the Latcheteers have a good reason for it.

Something else about the Latchet updates is that if you decide to write one, you have no control over when it gets published. All Latchet newsletters go out at 6 AM on Thursdays, because scheduling autonomy is for suckers.

Now imagine you’ve subscribed to dozens of Latchet shops, because you’re trying to be the recommendation king of Latchet, and you wake up to your email inbox flooded every single Thursday morning.

That makes no sense to me!

In another odd twist, Latchet’s own newsletter is actually hosted…you guessed it, right here on Substack.

Again, kinda weird, but I’ve never built an online platform before, so what do I know.

But what really matters is whether Latchet is a real-deal option, or just another fly-by-night site looking to usurp the current king of the hill with a Patagonia vest and flexy-straw.

Re-Cap the Good

• A potential replacement for Etsy… maybe, in a few years… maybe

• A potential replacement for Etsy… maybe, in a few years… maybe

• You can import and export your customer list

• Offers a no-nonsense way to update fans and customers

• Allows you to see which customers have bought the most from you over time (can you say loyalty rewards?)

• Offers discounts for subscribers and referrals

• If they get more people on board eager to participate in the recommendation engine, this could really blow up for people

• Being an early adopter could potentially be beneficial

The Not-So Good

• The recommendation aspect feels a bit forced and performative

• The newsletters are too sparse and limited

• Having the updates scheduled for you is weird; I cannot figure out why this is even a thing other than making it automated so people don’t have to think about it too much

• Not a lot of people to interact with, especially if you’re trying to connect with others in your niche

• The quality mix is vast, ranging between good to not great, with very little stand-out awesome work so far

• Shipping and sales tax info is nonexistent, which means you’ll be responsible for it all

• There’s very little information about this platform online, what their financial backing looks like, and whether they can endure the storm of a declining economy in 2025

Final Thoughts

I’ve always been the type to jump into new platforms to see how they work, but should you do the same with Latchet?

The jury is still out.

It’s not an Etsy replacement yet, and it’s definitely not a replacement for any other email platform, Substack included. There are too many limitations right now, but I definitely see potential.

I believe that Latchet’s operating procedure at this stage is to put these tools out there for creatives and watch how those people interact with them. They want to see how users respond so they can build the next version with them in mind.

It appears that they are operating in good faith, but there’s not much info on how things are selling, what is selling, and where any sales are coming from.

Switching or at least opening a shop here will be a leap of faith. You can sit back and watch for a while, but there’s also the chance that we’re on the edge of something cool that just needs support while they cook behind the scenes.

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External Signals

• This old-school beat box by Futura is a chef’s kiss

• If you don’t know who Futura is, you better ask someone (which means me…you can ask me—click the link).

• I’m enjoying this extensive Neo-Soul playlist on Spotify

• In particular, this album by Pat Smith hit me hard.

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