Can I sell my Etsy shop?

Etsy answers this question directly in its help centre. Its page begins, “No, you can’t transfer your Etsy account to someone else.” It also says that if you have sold the business you run on Etsy, you can’t transfer your account to the new owner. This page reports what Etsy’s help page and Terms of Use say. It takes no view on whether you should sell, and it does not say what a shop is worth.

What Etsy says about the account

Etsy’s help page says the new owner must open a new Etsy account and shop. It says the same to someone who has bought a business that happens to have an Etsy account: they must register a new account and open a new shop to keep selling. The page also warns that if Etsy believes an account transfer has occurred, the account may be suspended without notice. The same page describes a separate process for someone who wants to keep running an account after the original owner has passed away, which starts with a name-change request in Shop Manager and needs the account’s login credentials and an approved proof of passing. Etsy’s Terms of Use add that accounts are generally not transferable and that you are solely responsible for any activity on your account.

What a sale can still cover

The account is one thing and the business is another. Etsy itself says it recognizes that it is not uncommon for a small business owner to buy or sell a business. A sale agreement can still deal with the parts of the business that belong to you. Whether any of them is worth including is a question for you, the buyer and a lawyer. Etsy’s help page says each shop name can only be registered once and cannot be reused even after a shop closes, so the buyer’s new shop needs a different name. The sources read for this page do not say whether reviews or sales history can move.

• The brand: under section 48 of the Trademarks Act, a trademark, whether registered or unregistered, is transferable, either in connection with or separately from the goodwill of the business. Section 48(2) adds that nothing in subsection (1) prevents a trademark from being held not to be distinctive if, as a result of a transfer, rights to the use of confusing trademarks subsisted in two or more persons and those persons exercised them.
• Your own content: Etsy’s Terms of Use say it does not claim any ownership of Your Content, but that posting it grants Etsy and, as authorized by Etsy in its sole discretion, third parties a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual licence to use, display, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, store and prepare derivative works of it. Ask a lawyer how the agreement should describe it.
• The new shop: the buyer opens it under Etsy’s rules, and Etsy says all items must meet its Seller Policy.

Where this sits with other platforms

Other platforms set their own rules. Shopify describes its own ownership-transfer process, covered in selling a Shopify store, and eBay is covered in selling an eBay business. Check each platform’s current wording before you plan a sale, because help pages and terms can change. Write into the sale agreement who opens the new shop and what happens if Etsy takes action on the old account.