8th October 2020 | GuidesHow To Choose The Right Mac For Your Etsy Store BusinessEtsy is an easy to use, cost-effective way to get your hand-made gifts out into the world. With craft shows being some of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, if you don’t have your own website, then Etsy is the best way to sell your handmade products online. Perhaps you’re already an Etsy expert but your old PC or Mac is slowing you down. Or you’re just beginning your journey to success and you need some help understanding which device is going to be best for you. We’ve got you covered.As a web-based platform, to run Etsy, you don’t necessarily require anything crazy in terms of specs to be able to operate a successful store, however, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a computer capable of giving your Etsy store a handy boost. Etsy has become pretty competitive over the years and many product categories are over saturated so you need to make sure that your listings stand out. A great way to do this is by using high quality, vibrant product imagery and branding. With limited control over your brand’s touchpoints, Etsy shoppers can only really get to know your brand through your shop’s name, images and your content. It is therefore highly likely that you’re going to need a device that can handle Photoshop and other photo manipulation applications. Below is a shortlist of some of the best devices Apple currently has to offer to help you get started with an Etsy store business. MacBook ProIf you’re looking to run your business while on the move, the MacBook Pro is the best option for you to get up and running on Etsy, or any online-based business for that matter. Whether you’re working at a desk or on the move, the MacBook Pro offers a great combination of performance and portability. The £1,299 base model MacBook Pro has all the internal specs that you could need for your Etsy business. A quad-core Intel processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 256GB SSD will allow you to add listings, edit listings and update your shop with ease. The MacBook Pro is also powerful enough for you to edit your photos and images without any issues for years to come, helping your business stand out from the crowd.While the MacBook Pro does have a couple of standard upgrade options, we would argue that they’re probably not necessary for getting set up on Etsy. The base model 13-inch Pro, that now ships with a 256GB SSD, is going to be much better value for money than forking out £1,799 for the upgraded version. It is unlikely that you will need all these additional features and the money you’re saving could be spent elsewhere in your business. It also goes without saying that the 16-inch MacBook Pro is also going to be overkill for starting an Etsy business. There is no doubt that the 16-inch version is a total powerhouse, but again, spending £2,399 on a new MacBook is probably not going to be worth it, as all that power is likely to be wasted.It is worth pointing out that the base 13-inch MacBook Pro only has two Thunderbolt 3 ports and if you’re going to be taking your product photos with a DSLR or similar, you’re going to need an adapter. While older MacBook models did come with an SD card reader, the 2016 MacBook Pro and onwards does not. Fortunately, you can now pick up an adapter or hub on Amazon, for fairly cheap. Such as this 3-in1 SD card reader, which allows you to transfer your image files across to your brand new MacBook.Now you may have noticed that we have left out the lighter, more portable, MacBook Air in this list. That is for good reason. Don’t get us wrong, the MacBook Air is a great, budget option and has many useful features, however, it does fall slightly short in terms of performance. When it comes to portability, battery life and price, the MacBook Air is hard to beat. The slightly lacklustre dual-core, 1.1GHz processor is where the Air falls short. When running multiple applications at once, the Air is going to struggle. As we have already established, photos and images are paramount to the success of your Etsy store. You may find yourself using applications such as Photoshop, Lightroom and Illustrator fairly frequently. While the Air can run these applications, you may find performance is far from ideal, especially when working on multiple projects at once. We, therefore, feel that it is worth upgrading to the MacBook Pro for the added performance benefits and to extend your investments’ longevity. For a full breakdown of the 2020 MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air, check out our comparison blog here. Mac MiniIn terms of price per performance, the Mac Mini is going to be hard to beat, therefore, If you’re looking to set up your business while keeping costs to a minimum, the Mac Mini is going to be your best bet. While the machine itself is a rather portable size, the Mac Mini will be better suited to those with a more permanent workspace due to the fact that a monitor, keyboard and mouse are required to use the device.After receiving a minor update in March of this year, the base-model now comes kitted with an Intel quad-core i3 processor, 8GBs of DDR4 RAM and a 256GB SSD, all for only £799. While you do have to factor in the cost of your peripherals, these specs are certainly hard to beat and will be more than enough for you to run a successful Etsy business. The quad-core processor and 8GB of RAM will allow you to run multiple applications simultaneously without any problems. Following the update in March, Apple has extended the list of RAM upgrades for the Mac Mini to 64GB. While this is certainly not necessary, it could be worth upgrading to 16GB of RAM (depending on your budget) in order to make your machine more efficient. iMacThe least portable and most permanent Mac on our list, the 4K iMac has all the performance requirements that you could possibly need when setting up your Etsy store. While the 4K iMac is not the cheapest in the current iMac range offered by Apple, we feel that the 4K iMac is well worth the extra £200 over the standard, 1080p iMac. Not only are you getting a much sharper display, but the 7th generation Intel dual-core processor found inside the base model iMac is pretty outdated by today’s standards. While both models feature 8GB of RAM, the 4K iMac’s memory is a lot faster, not to mention the dedicated graphics card with an extra 2GB of video memory. Under more intensive tasks, the 4K iMac will outperform the standard model by quite some distance, allowing you to have multiple applications running at the same time without any performance drop off.The standard 4K iMac is going to be perfectly capable of performing all the tasks required to help you run a successful Etsy business. Apple does a good job of allowing you to upgrade multiple components in your machine. As photo editing will be a big part of your business, you may be tempted to upgrade the graphics card. If you are to make any upgrades, similar to the Mac Mini, we would recommend upgrading the RAM. This will not only improve performance when editing photos but also speed up the exporting process.iCloudWhen starting your Etsy business, chances are you’re probably going to need somewhere to store all your product images and brand materials. All of the devices that we have already discussed will have plenty of built-in storage for your images and documents, however, storing them in the Cloud will allow you to access them from any of your devices while saving space on your SSD (or hard drive). With an iCloud storage plan, you can have all of your folders synced across your devices, meaning that pictures taken on your iPhone will automatically sync with your Mac, ready for you to upload to your store. No need for fancy cameras!You will have to pay for an iCloud storage plan though. Although you do get your first 5GB free, this won’t last long so it is probably worth the little investment. Here is the price breakdown:50GB – £0.79 a month 200GB – £2.49 a month 2TB – £6.99 a monthRefurbishedYou don’t have to necessarily spend that much to get your Etsy store up and running. Shopping our refurbished range of MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Minis is a great way to save some money on a nearly-new mac. All of our refurbished Macs are comprehensively tested and come with a standard 1 year warranty for your peace of mind.
