What Do I Need to Start an Etsy Shop (2026): Three Things for About $75

The first real purchase for an Etsy shop is not a camera or a logo. It is a shipping scale, because the marketplace charges by weight and a listing that guesses high adds a dollar or two of shipping to every order. Get the scale right, keep orders from taking over the kitchen counter, and you can open a real shop this week for about $75. Almost everything else the internet tells you to buy can wait until sales pay for it.

The three things below are what the first ten orders actually use. None of them is glamorous, and that is the point: the shop runs on weighed listings, packed boxes, and labels that print.

The three things

1. A 440 lb shipping scale ($35.69): Amazon Basics Digital Postal Scale, 440 lb Capacity This is the one piece of gear every Etsy guide agrees on. A postal scale lets you put the real weight in each listing so the shipping label price matches what the listing promised, which is the difference between profit and quietly eating costs. The Amazon Basics handles up to 440 pounds with a tare function, so the box weight comes off automatically. The tare button alone pays for this by the second order, and at 4.4 stars across more than 15,000 ratings it is the listing other shops copy.
2. A 0.1 g kitchen scale ($19.99): Etekcity Food Kitchen Scale, 0.1g with Bowl (11 lb) Jewelry, vinyl stickers, resin charms, and other small-but-heavy items need gram precision for international listings, and a platform scale rounds them to the ounce. The Etekcity weighs to a tenth of a gram, which keeps a 3-ounce international listing from getting bounced at the counter. If your shop sells nothing under 8 ounces, this is the one item to skip.
3. A packing tray ($15.53): Amazon Basics Wooden Serving Tray with Built-in Handles, Acacia Wood, 17 x 12 in. The unglamorous trick full-time sellers use: keep mailers, tissue, stickers, and string in one tray, so packing an order is grabbing the tray, not clearing the counter. When your shop lives on the kitchen table, the tray is the boundary between dinner and inventory. This acacia one is stiff, wipeable, and its handles make it a one-hand carry.

The two cheap things every shop still needs

6x9 poly mailers, 100-count, about $7. A budget buy where any brand works at under 8 cents each. Apparel and soft goods ship flat and cheap, and 100 of them cost less than one bubble mailer multipack at an office store. Buy your first batch in this size, then add sizes only when a listing demands it.

Heavy-duty packing tape with a dispenser, $13.99. The known-good pick is the Scotch Heavy Duty Shipping Tape with dispenser, ASIN B00006XY3C, $13.99 and 4.7 stars, the version every moving-day recommendation ends at. The dispenser is the actual product. Loose tape rolls find their own sticky way into packing trays and fur.

Together they add about $21 to the total when you want them, which is why they stay out of the headline number. Both are one-click buys once the first sale lands.

What to skip

Skip the label printer at first. Etsy prints paid labels on any printer, and the post office accepts a paper label taped flat. Skip the lightbox: a window, white foam board, and your phone outperform a $50 folding studio. Skip custom packaging and branded stickers until reviews exist, because buyers remember shipping speed before they remember ribbon. And skip the bulk rolls of bubble wrap; most orders this early ship padded with what your own deliveries brought you.

The total

$35.69 + $19.99 + $15.53 = $71.21, about $75 once you round up for tax and the odd stamp. Add the mailers and tape from the section above and you are at about $96 with a full packing drawer. Tighter start: your kitchen scale, a shoebox of mailers, and any tape gets a shop open for about $60. The scale is the first purchase either way, because every other cost scales with how honest your listing weights are.

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