Thank you Jane for the mention :) We are small in Etsy terms of reach but we have 160K combined following on social media. We take commission but all of that and more goes on paid advertising. We have just had our first seller make 2500 sales in just under 2 years so it's definitely possible to really make it work on our platform.
My pleasure! Those sales are FAB! 🤩 I love what you’re doing over there and seeing how you respond with your sellers is such a breath of fresh air after everything I’ve heard about Etsy 😕 Hope you clean up in the mass exodus ☺️
@@hedgecomber Thank you! I started off selling on Etsy and genuinely I am sad at what they have become! Sadly their juggernaut status makes it hard for anyone else, apart from Amazon to compete!
Would dearly love to hear how you have set this up. Would LOVE to do something like this in Australia, where Sellers do not have to fear things like Etsy/ebay etc... getting too greedy down the track.
@@aussiegal22 I already had an audience which was lucky but I took our a rather large loan and got it built! It was a leap of faith but I am so glad I did!
When I opened my etsy shop in 2018, it was all handmade, hand crafted and it was a good thing. Then came the cheap resale stuff , like car-boot sale stuff, that would sneak in. The fees were sneaking upwards and in came forced ad fees, which if clicked would haunt a seller for 6 months. Then etsy chose to favor certain groups over others for their promotions even though we are all makers. The fees grew higher and higher. Buyers, fueled by social media online unboxing videos, pushed the boutique wrappings and packings as part of the experience - which adds extra cost on the side of the sellers - as buyers still wanted low cost for high experience. ( Attention buyers, that colorful packing material, cloth bags, stickers, confetti, personalized thank you cards, ribbons, etc that your stuff is wrapped, not to mention the safe packing padding, shipping boxes, tape and labels, all cost the buyer money, and increase the price of the item you are buying, or SHOULD.) The algorithm pushed shops with pure-blood 5 star reviews. Any review less than that from any buyer would knock you off the promoted or high ranking page, even if the buyer was complaining, not about your product, but about the shipping or customs agency. Again the fees climbed. Even more people found they could repackage mass produced items and sell them as handmade or handcrafted. (I personally know someone that is still doing this and making a great deal of money and it infuriates me, but etsy allows it.) I left in Spring of 2021, after two months of the fees outstripping any profit what-so-ever, which was tiny to begin with. I'm glad I wasn't around for the current fee with-holding disaster, but good grief. It has come to the point where makers aren't even making enough for their item and aren't able to pay themselves for their time, skill and effort - which was the whole point of etsy to start with.
It's owned by Amazon, still good to buy supply in a small batch. Unfortunately now it has become an easy eshop outlet for brick and mortar businesses. Vintage was good too, now not anymore. It was a gem
It breaks my heart too. I love my customers (many of whom are women with cancer or other hardships causing hair loss, I make wigs) I am very honest seller with history over 5 years of selling and star seller badges. I was suspended without reason while cheap China products keep selling, toxic and low quality and sometimes outright thieves (they have stollen my pictures in the past, guess who go penalized), I don`t understand how honest sellers get taken down while cheap resellers stay. Don`t buy on Etsy pls.
So Etsy demands that I respond immediately to my customers BUT Etsy doesn’t feel they need to respond to their sellers! Not! I’ve been considering setting up a shop, but not going to now.
Buying off etsy is just as bad actually I was threatened my confidentiality in the "spiritual" community of etsy by a seller and etsy did nothing about it but banned me for apparently harassment bc I asked the seller for a refund bc of how she threatened me!! So I got permanently banned from buying
How refreshing to see a TH-camr just being a normal person, down to earth, authentic, learning, messing up, for better and for worse. I am not even done watching, just had to say this.
Etsy sucks. I launched a shop and, sold one item. It was a SCOBY for $8 US. SCOBY is the rubbery thing used to make kombucha. The buyer was from Canada. I was SO EXCITED to make a sale. Etsy took their commission from the entire total INCLUDING THE SHIPPING! Basically, they took it all and, my enthusiasm along with it. I made $0.08 on the sale. I closed my shop as well. Thank you for looking after the bunny.
I'm sure there are people padding their shipping prices to make money back, but for Etsy to make money from the shipping charges is outrageous. Profits over people.
@@1Letter23Numbers. It seems like ETSY is steering people toward using the free shipping option. If my experience is how they roll all of the time then, it seems that a higher base price with free shipping and, no international orders is the only way to go. I think that a fair share could be had by the sellers and, ETSY would still be able to make a nice profit.
That sounds demoralizing and depressing! Usually the buyer pays for shipping, unless you've set things up differently... as someone with a shop, this doesn't sound familiar and I'm wondering what happened :/
I started selling on etsy a very long time ago, when commissions were 5 - 7 %. It was great. Wonderful audience, got paid quickly, you paid your bill once a month....and then..... they started swiping some money the minute you sold stuff, and then more at the end of the month, started shutting down more sellers, not paying attention to communications, and I closed my shop. Since hearing the awful things they have done to sellers since, I'm confident I made the right decision.
I just wanted to know what the problem with Etsy was, and instead there was 3 min of crafting then 15 min of ADHD distraction and waffle. Get to the point!
She said to fast forward the video to the 13.00 position if you didn't want to see the craft section. You obviously werent paying attention.@@marieflechas94
Etsy is not what it used to be. They allow all kinds of sellers who didn’t design their own products to sell on there and they take too high of a percentage of the sale now. Also, keep in mind that doing leatherwork is very demanding on your body.
This! It is over-run with Chinese store fronts. It was ruined in the same way as EBay was. I haven’t had my shop open for a very long time so I can’t speak from a seller’s perspective, and my most recent buying experience was fine. But they totally lost their way.
This is how these mega corporations do things, It started with ones like Walmart, home Depot, etc.... Then when tech became available to the general population now it's the "sellers market" they've monopolized. And they get away with it because they have an endless supply of wealth. They pay to be at the top of search engines, and they use their money to lobby politicians to keep their scam going strong through loophole after loophole. It's very easy to setup a shop on these sites, but now you're hostage to their guidelines and policies. It's very difficult to build up your own website business without them, because your webpage is lost somewhere at the bottom of black hole called search engines...
That's because Black Rock and Vanguard have huge shares in Esty. Anything they either own or have shares in is not good. They steal people's money and that's how they get rich.
Thank you for attempting to help the dear bunny. I'm glad you were able to give it fresh water & a cosy, comfortable safe space. Rest in peace, sweet rabbit. 🙏🌿💐🌿💚🤍💚🐇💚🤍💚🌿💐🌿🙏
Considering Etsy is getting closer to making 3 Billion dollars in revenue in 2023 and I have been hearing/reading that they are more concerned about the shareholders than they are their shop owners this seems like pure greed to me. Holding 75% of sellers funds for 45 day is disgusting. I suspect that it's not because of the flimsy excuse of "keeping the marketplace safe," but it has everything to do with the amount of interest $$ those "held" funds are making for them during those 45 days. I have been working toward opening a handmade jewelry shop on Etsy for quite some time but at this point I feel I need to find other options. I am new to your channel so I am happy the algorithm put you on my FYP. Thank you so much Jane for this video, you have save me from many a Etsy headache I am sure. Wishing you much success with your sites.
Same here. I've been struggling with where to open a shop. Etsy just seems so easy. But nope. Nope nope nope. This video was basically the last straw for me. I will learn from the wisdom of those before me! I'm too old to place the risk game of "I just have to try it myself".. nope.
Playing devil's advocate, holding funds is one way to guard against money laundering. Etsy has no way to know if a good was actually sent, or just a blank envelope. People could sell fake/non-existant products and sell them to people in their circle, who "buy" them just to wash money. There's a rise in a technique called "smurfing," which is when a lot of people transfer money in small amounts, usually below the threshold of IRS interest.
TH-cam randomly suggested this video to me 9 months after you made it but it showed up right when i have been trying to decide if etsy is the place to sell my art and this helps me decide. I live in the states and your video just confirmed all my concerns about selling on etsy. I am so grateful you showed up here when you did. New follower!!
Hey Jane, we had similar experiences with eBay. They held our money because they didn't recognise a partnership as a company! We took them to court, represented ourselves and won (against their fancy international lawyers). That felt good. We are setting up a shop inside our WordPress site. It's a bit complex & not without issues but hey no-one gets to mess us about!
Wow, that is fricking awesome!!! Respect to you both, that took some balls. I didn’t add the shop to my wordpress site because of the chance of slowing it down, I figured a separate e-commerce site was the best option for me, especially as my wordpress site pays the bills so I need it to be fast and responsive. Is your shop live yet, I’d love to see it!
@@hedgecomber Thanks mate. It was a lot of work with eBay but I got super stubborn about it & just went NO. This is England. You don't get to keep our money. The judge was actually super supportive. The shop isn't ready yet we are making it quite scalable with some of our wonderful partner firms supporting us. Exciting & hard work both!
That makes no sense you do not have to be a registered company to sell on ebay I’ve been selling for years as an individual and they have never held my money once. I think there’s more to the story here.
@@mr.t8496 I could. It's really straightforward in reality. eBay simply didn't understand UK commercial structures for commercial (rather than private) accounts. They suddenly decided that they wanted various details on commercial accounts that didn't exist for us. For example they wanted a company number Fine for a plc or ltd company. Doesn't exist for sole traders or partnerships. Trouble was they started requiring these details to pay the balance that they already owed and wouldn't fix the errors in their system.
eBay isn't the only online business that doesn't recognize sole proprietorships and general partnerships and legitimate businesses, even though these types are the oldest known form.
I jumped ship about 4 or so years ago now and set up my own shop on my website. For me, it was the best thing I ever did, but I had grown a fairly large following during the 12 years I was selling on Etsy, which helped. I could see back then that the Etsy I once knew was no more. I hate what they've become. It's very sad.
You do beautiful work! I wish you the best.... Etsy is HEARTLESS! They do NOT care about their customers...something is terribly wrong with their business ethics. In short, they are HARMING not helping! You did the right thing! Have NOTHING to do with them.
Etsy is owned by Vanguard and Blackrock....Who also control over 80% of all U.S. Companies (Not sure about other countries). Just imagine what will happen if they decide to start doing this across the board!!!
Born and raised by Atheist Marxists and I've been hearing that same garbage misinformation here on TH-cam spouted by financially illiterate Leftists for YEARS!!!. Unfortunately that whole time I wasn't investing in the Stock Market mainly through an IRA or Roth. The reason why Vanguard and Blackrock own all these assets is because WE the AMERICANS are invested in out Retirement Accounts through Vanguard or Blackrock Index Funds. Hope you don't end up like me and SO FAR BEHIND!!! Start a Roth account if you're in a Lower Tax Bracket. If you earn under $53k/year you can also contribute substantially to a "Taxable Investment Account" and all Long-term Capital gains and Qualified dividends will be Taxed at 0%... Tax FREE!!! Plus you can contribute up to $6500 after-tax dollars to your Roth that will also be Tax Free in Retirement... Plus you can withdraw contributions at any time because they're after Tax. If you're in a higher Tax Bracket... which I doubt... you can contribute to a Traditional IRA and reduce your current Tax burden and defer them until retirement when you're in a Lower Tax Bracket. Either way, chances are you're going to either invest directly through Vanguard or purchase shares in a Vanguard ETF like VOO. Blackrock also offers many Index funds and Money Market Funds... That's the only reason why they hold so many assets. It's on the behalf of all the Americans investing their hard earned money for retirement and investment purposes THROUGH Blackrock Index Funds and Directly through Vanguard. Don't stay financially illiterate. Educate yourself and invest in your retirement!!! Social Security won't be enough unless you want to live just above the Poverty line. If you contributed $17/day with compounding that would be $217,000 in 35 years which could easily grow by appreciation to $1M!!! Start NOW!!! Keep it simple. Buy VOO and other low cost broad market Index funds. 🙏🏼
BTW and FYI... if you own shares in any of these funds or Stocks, YOU get to Vote on who and what they do with the board of directors. You don't have to but you can.
depends on who holds the majority of the shares. i suggest you look into blackrock, and vanguard. they have their hands in everything and need to be broken up for trust issues.@@Simonjose7258
As a business owner myself, I dealt with this years ago and vowed never to have Etsy as my sole business source. Always always always have multiple sites!
Great idea, I decided the same thing. I'm a successful top rated freelancer on Upwork, BUT! When I travel and have bad location (third countries) I have 0 clients. So it's just a disaster, I'm working over other channels. It's a main purpose for me.
I can’t imagine the horror of waking up and someone has closed by business and is ignoring me, taking my money and keeping the rest in their ‘bank’ . I would never go on there at all, I spend time on creative marketing for independent small businesses and driving everything towards my own site. I own the Wordpress template, my domain, I pay my own hosting, it’s not even expensive now. I have 24/7 customer service available to me if I need it. No hosting company closes a site (unless it was posting illegal criminal activities) and I find it all works smoothly. I’m no techy wizard, I find it fairly easy to use Wordpress stuff. I’d never trust any of these arty platforms when they can close me down for no reason and then ignore my begging! Awful, they should be taken to court for this nonsense.
I had an Etsy shop for 10 years and watched it fall apart. It started primarily when they became a publicly traded company, there was a hostile takeover by some finance bro who, if I remember correctly, had been fired from his last job. He aimed to make the company more like Amazon or alibaba, despite it doing a billion in sales. And in that way he succeeded, but he wrecked everything else about it. Now real artists get buried by the Alibaba resellers, and unless they bring their own audience they will struggle to be discoverable. It used to be such a lovely community - it still bums me out to think about 😢
I've been on Etsy since 2010 when it was the good times; now, after that Silverman guy and the shareholders, it's just not worth it anymore. ...not to mention that people steal ideas then those ideas become saturated. And as long as Etsy makes money off the thieving seller, no one says a peep. Currently, I'm whittling down my little product. I will keep my shop but cease selling there.
@@ReneesatItAgain I also had problems with copycats. What does Esty do? They PROMOTE the copycats by making them "best sellers" and "Etsy's Choice." They are so evil. I have had a store since 2013. Etsy was always bad with their inconsiderate constant "tests" but they are over-the-top bad now. Every day they do something else STUPID, and it totally kills inspiration for the real crafters. I had plans, but with all the stupid things they keep doing, I'm hanging it up. There is no way search even works on their site.......all kinds of irrelevant junk comes up now. People cannot search and find my products. I literally hate Etsy at this point. I am looking forward to the karma coming their way. Their stocks have already taken a deep dive.....down, down, down. GOOD.
It’s really sad that one can find more truth from those that experienced selling through a platform versus the one who did the video trying to push the platform.
Hi Jane. I currently have a shop on Etsy. I started it April of 2022 and after two small sales they put a reserve on my account for around 2 months. I had quit my part time job in the hospitality industry to work from home. This really hurt me financially. I have recently noticed a huge decrease in traffic as well as sales. I have had one sale since July. I am currently seeking other platforms to sell on and have recently rented a space at my local antique mall and it has proven to be more profitable in a shorter period of time that Etsy has been in the last several months.
Great news & you get to see real live human beings instead of dealing with AI bots meant to destroy Humanity. Where are you located? I'm curious how much the rent is these days.
Thank you for this! I came to read it because I have been thinking about starting an Etsy shop next year. This is shocking. In the US, I think some of these people would have justification for legal action. I need to look around and see if they are even doing that over here. Although, like you, as a person with a firm level of personal integrity, the whole thing leaves me with very bad feelings all around. I'm on Poshmark and buyers have three days after a "delivered" tracking notification to request a refund before the money is released. That is reasonable. Holding everyone's money for 45 days is outrageous! But Etsy stands to make millions in interest of of their "escrow fund," and I wonder if that's not the actual motive for doing it.
I’ve started back in … drum roll… 2007! I have one shop but expanded to a charitable shop as well, while my mom was faced with cancer. 2017 I opened that shop and in 2020 they closed it. We - customers were able to donate quite an amount to St Jude Hospital. I have to say, after losing my dad in 2016, having hospital visits myself in 2017, my mom passing in 2018 then loosing my job in 2019 - having them close my shop down was the straw that broke my back. Then when learned that people were reselling from Aliexpress here in America- it feels like 2000 all over again where people want that Walmart price. We all need several platforms to sell and no longer depend on this changing monoliths. 😢
So, so sorry to hear about such sad times you had losing your parents - and having your shop closed down was despicable. I wish for better times for you. From London U K.
@nancypedrick5596 First off, I am so sorry for your loss of your parents. I lost mine from long term illnesses and cancer, and can relate. May you and your endeavors be blessed with success.
I'm sorry about your parents, but please please wake up to how evil the mafia allopathic industry is. If they took toxic drugs of any kind, that is what makes people sick & often kills them. Be well & sorry you were attacked by the evils' etsy site.
I had been with etsy for about 10 years mostly as a buyer but had sold a few items. Decided to join the bandwagon with print on demand. Had a custom order from a FB friend. Sold her a few t shirts which she received and I was promptly suspended permanently. After 3 appeal attempts they told me there were fraudulent sign in attempts. I answered their questions with no response. They still have my money and won't respond. I am so done with them. I won't recommend them to anyone and can't buy there anymore.
@@HelmetVanga I appealed twice and they said it was because someone tried several times to sign into my account with fraudulent info. Apparently that gets you shut down permanently. They stopped responding after that. So disappointing. I am reseller on many platforms but can't even buy on etsy now.
So sorry to hear this happened to you! I already have a website based on the Square platform, but was considering opening an Etsy shop to relaunch my business after a rough beginning last year. However, after hearing all the recent horror stories, I've completely reconsidered. Sounds like learning how to be interesting on TH-cam (another problematic platform) might be the better solution. Between TH-cam, Instagram, and Facebook (shudder), I hope to start building a community of interest. Honestly, I wish the creators facing issues with all of these huge, faceless services could band together and start a class-action/international lawsuit. I hate that as an American, that's where my mind goes, but realistically, this money grab sounds like embezzlement, and is something any lawyer worth his salt would be able to take on and win.
Thanks so much for this. Crafter's need to pull together and start a shop where we are team players and support one another. I hate the way these big organisations treat small business. It's disgusting. I used to have a website shop, but I got hacked by very bad people. So I have not traded for 13 years. But I want a shop again on my website and maybe work with other crafter's to advertise their products in turn for them advertising my daughter's and mine. Thanks so much for this. It makes your blood boil. Well done for making a stand and for saying no to supporting a Company that simply could not care less about others.
I was following what was happening with the Indie Sellers Guild over on their website and I learned about the launch of the Artisans Cooperative, which is exactly what you are talking about in the first part of you comment! As someone who thought about opening en Etsy shop but ultimately decided against, I find the concept very appealing!
I fully agree that there needs to be a better platform that is much less about greed, lies*, and cares about the sellers. I have been very annoyed about a few things over the past few years. This one gets me too - *So Etsy claims to save you a certain amount in shipping fees when you buy your shipping label through them, but they leave out in that statement the face that they also charge you 10% of the shipping fee that a customer pays. That can be enough to wipe out most of that "big" discount and cause you to pay some of the shipping. Not great when selling "small dollar items. Shipping is so high, and with etsy fees, almost not even worth it anymore.
hosting security is a lot better now that it used to be... hope you give opening your own shop a try. Just be sure to purchase hosting that provides a SSI (secure socket layer) certificate. The shared certificates are safe and cheap! I pay $119 per year for hosting and then add pay pal buttons to my products for free. I think Pay pal takes about 2.4 percent. What a deal!
Thank you for your honesty and posting this vid. I have been hesitating for a long while, about starting an Etsy store. But I am so sick of these platforms that start out free, introducing fees, then getting dame GREEDY GREEDY GREEDY and going to shit, leaving millions of small business like your in a huge hole! It's about time a platform started where they were simply happy with earning enough, to pay their bills and eat!
Jane, I have never heard anything bad about Etsy. I have purchased on Etsy for many years, with no problems. I listened to your rant and read the BBC article and will rethink my view of Etsy. Thank you for sharing!
When I saw your black cat I thought... wow, we're kindred spirits and when you picked up the hurt baby bunny, I thought, Wow, I have a twin in Cornwall! Who would have thought? I'm so sorry the bunny didn't make it... but just think: his last moments of life were in a comfortable place made by someone who cared. Most wild animals will never experience that. You did good. 😉
Hi! My new Etsy shop was open only four days and they suspended my shop permanently, I was slowly filling my store and couldn’t access my account. After reaching out to me they told me they couldn’t tell me why they were closing it and they wouldn’t reconsider! What? How is that any way to rune a business? I decided to move to a Shopify store instead. Very disappointed in Etsy’s ethics.
Cornwall is on my list of places to visit in the UK. I have visions of dramatic cliffs, crashing waves, sea/smuggler caves, twisty narrow streets, old pubs and lovely people.
Thank you, Jane! Much appreciate you taking the time to create this very useful video. I am trying to create my online shop, Etsy was my first option, but after this review, I will find another way to sell my goods
We were just contemplating opening an ETSY store.. but, I think we'll take the hard-earned advice of others and stay far, _far_ away from there. Thank you for sharing this vlog with us! :) Shannon A
What I would do is launch your own website and do the work to get your name out there. It takes time and money but better spending it on yourself than giving it to a corporation so their CEOs can buy a sixth vacation home.
I’ve been hearing about the “new” Etsy recently. I even listened to or read an article or interview with the new CEO who apologized, sort of, for the mistakes he has made with the direction his company has been on. He seemed surprised that the profit vs customer and vendor centered business model had caused such a debacle. I will not shop again on Etsy until it’s direction is changed. I have also subscribed to your channel. I’m so glad to have found you.
Thank you for this video. We're starting up a craft group in our village and some people may want to start selling. We'll avoid Etsy like the plague and use another outlet. Fun times ahead for all of us.
Wow! Etsy is really not nice. reminds me of all the Social media accounts that got closed because they had an opinion. I will definitely look elsewhere for products. Done with all the harm Etsy has caused good people. Miss the little mom and pop stores of the world.
Thank you for talking about this. I had no idea things like this were happening on Etsy. I was hppy to buy from there thinking I'm supporting the crafters, people's small businesses. I had noticed there was a suspicious amount of made in China things, aware that I must look carefully at what I'm buying, but I had no idea the website would be doing shady things like holding money from the sellers. Disappointing.
I think if you shop the site, just be aware of what the individual is selling, making sure they are actually making the items. I’ve got a few friends who sell some of their wares and I try to support them. But setting a shop up there for myself? Nope.
Good decision to leave Etsy. I used to love Etsy I had my Etsy shop for well over 10 years and it got worse and worse and worse. Finally after they gave me an ultimatum on taking payments I just refused to jump through another Etsy hoop. When I did not comply to yet another rule change they shut down my shop. I am so disappointed with what Etsy has become. I still do shop there as I want to continue to support artists but is is not the first place I shop when looking for hand crafted items.
Thank you for this information. It’s sad, as in my opinion, small businesses are working so hard to deliver cute, special items for creators. Small business is our bread and butter. Shame on Etsy
I've been peak frustrated with them as well. I started up a shop in late June and I guess because I didn't have 30-50 people off Instagram or Facebook champing at the bit to buy my stuff in the first couple of weeks, they just decided that my store was going to be part of their planned 80% or whatever it is they have to just be failing businesses. Months of no sales except my Aunt back in August and she signed off on the message "Aunt ..." so of course now they know that wasn't an organic sale. I get 0-3 hits a day on the stats. That's it. And what really super ticks me off is I was doing some email maintenance and saw I had a folder I'd set up over a decade ago with emails from when I set up an Etsy shop in March 2008. And you want to know what I saw in those? Shop set up on March x, first and second sale THREE DAYS AFTER!!!!!!!!!! And another a few after that and a repeat customer a month and a half later. So clearly it was a much more egalitarian selling platform back then. Algorithms have completely screwed people like me over.
@@karenl8837I'm not a seller, only a buyer and yes it's the algorithm. It's like fossicking for gold to find good handmade items, I scroll through pages and pages of the same photos from China to find something genuinely unique.
Years ago, we had two local men who built a huge regional banking empire. They launched their first bank by withholding payments made to their agency for insurance premiums. Yes, they grew from a local insurance agency into a multi-billion US dollar banking empire by simply holding onto insurance premiums for up to 6 months. If a customer had an incident, then their insurance agency would catch up the premiums. It sounds like Etsy is growing its business following a successful model long used by unscrupulous businessmen.
They are taking advantage of two things: The separation of human interaction - you are dealing to a large extent with a computer. So you have no one to get angry at or communicate with. Distance. The product you purchase (if not a service) probably comes from a long way off, in many cases another country. If there is a problem and you never receive the item, or it is different (lower standard) to what you ordered you are unlikely to spend a lot of time trying to sort it out and are more likely just going to take the hit. So they get your money without having to do much.
Goodness me xx thank you so much x I came across your podcast this morning and the title struck me as I’m thinking of opening an Etsy shop… not now! Really enjoyed your chat and will probably spend the rest of the listening to your others while I work… I’m a weaver xx
Thank you so much for this video. I have had enough of Etsy. Both shop are closed. The fees are ridiculous. I worked really hard for years to build a business that would support me and my family. It was way to much effort for so little money. I am currently working an alternative path. No more Etsy anything. I am done.
I admire your commitment to integrity. I have an Etsy shop that isn't doing anything much. Was debating strongly whether to make a big push for fall but after hearing all these horror stories I wonder if I could absorb being closed down and having my money withheld. Those are bully tactics that will force smaller shops to take business elsewhere. If this is what Etsy has grown into and what they want they should start being transparent & quit calling themselves a marketplace for makers.
Thanks so much for sharing. I closed my shop down too before that whole nightmare of Etsy just randomly closing people's shops. I had had enough and went off to find other options to sell my items. I am counting my lucky stars that I did that and like you, I won't be going back to Etsy either from what I have seen from others and the nightmare stories I have heard too. All the best to you!
To be honest all the sites have issues and any of them can shut us down at anytime. Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, Mercari, Poshmark etc. There are horror stories from all the websites. I've been on Etsy for several years no issues. Hope your journey works out for your website.
@thecatid hi I know all sites have issues in general whether dishonest buyers, technical issues with tracking, etc, but do all sites has the issue of shutting down an account w/o reason and holding funds? That’s the problem here not just issues in general. I’m not trying to be contentious I know “texting” doesn’t display tone, so with all sincerity I too was recently considering Etsy but I’m not sure anymore and it saddens me to know when I buy from there that my money could be withheld from the seller who deserves it. Doesn’t seem like a morally ethical company. And I don’t want people experiences and loss of income to be minimized as just any other issue. If Etsy is really shady I want to know and pray it gets exposed. I’m thankful you’ve not been touched by their greed or “closed accounts” but do we continue to support evil companies when they destroy others lives? I know I’m getting deep but this just reflects the world we now live in where even a person’s word is WAY no longer what it used to be. I’m happy for you but so heartbroken for the many others.
Very true. My husband use to sell on amazon, we were doing well. Then amazon gave our 5 star reviews to a similar item from a diff seller. We couldn't get them back, so we closed our acc and we lost that extra revenue we use to make a moth. Luckily we have 2 main Shopify websites that do well. I can't even imagine that happening and it being our only source of income, like a lot of other people. I guess it happens w/ all eCommerce websites unfortunately. When its not one thing, its another.
I remember trying out Etsy some time ago to sell some crochet crafts. At that time, everything was simple-ish and easy to navigate. No sales but tried to stick it out until some issues surfaced. First was the immediate canceling of orders which neither buyer nor seller had control over. After this came the payment holds, a new payment processor, the removal of the tax calculator and the fee increase. The only positive was that my favorite shops had sites outside of Etsy. Glad you found an alternative for selling your crafts, they look really amazing.
Thanks for the etsy heads-up. I was looking into starting a shop, and this information helps. I looked at your list of alternatives and wanted to give a bit of info i discovered by accident about shopify. I made 2 purchases from a seller that uses shopify, and when the orders shipped, i received a notification stating i could track all my orders through the shop app. I thought, while I dont like having to download a lot of apps, I might as well give it a try. After I downloaded the app and started setting it up, google alerted me that the app wanted permission to access my email messages...😮. Ohhh no no no thats not happening, as i have customer information in some of my messages, and Im not letting that info out for any reason. I texted back the notification telling them they are crazy to ask for this and that i would be letting the seller know what shopify was upto. I did just that and contacted the company to let them know shopify is asking for access to peoples email messages, which is a ridiculous request. Im glad I have my google Security set up so high that it warned me what they were trying to do.
Many other Apps also request permission to access, the camera, microphone, emails, contacts and much more. And it's always in the -small- tiny print which goes on forever, so most people can't be bothered to read it all, and just click OK.
You're a kind person, and a thoughtful human being. Even though I'm just seeing this, 10 months after you posted , I cried too when I saw the dead bunny. I believe that people like yourself hold up your particular corner of the universe. You have gravity. Your kindness and honesty affect more than you know. Needless to say, the Etsy shop I was contemplating is no longer an option. Your experience and opinion is so appreciated.
You just earned a new sub. I've been going back and forth starting on etsy with leaning more against it. Your review has pushed me over to just starting my own website. I don't understand the people who love etsy telling other makers that starting a website will be too difficult so don't bother. I get it that Etsy is the fast and easy way but for some makers the risk is not worth it. Some of us have the options of going slow and steady with building a customer base. I've heard too many horror stories about Etsy so I'll go the slow and steay route with my own site and possibly other small platforms. Thanks for your honest reivews.
It has been a long time since I put my shop on hold, but at that time Etsy did make some aspects very easy for someone who had no experience. Much has changed so I can’t speak to it.
This is sad to learn! I've only shopped on Etsy, but I've noticed so much product comes from China, and it hadn't occurred to me how much this means to legitimate shops in taking away from American-made craft goods. I did start to notice the source and now try to avoid those foreign providers (can you really call them "shops" if their product is not hand-made?) Thanks for bringing this to light. It's a sad commentary on the loss of integrity in our times.
I’ve opened two Etsy shops recently and both of them got about 5 views in the first two weeks, then no views at all. Meanwhile, I’ve been making sales just fine on eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari with no problems getting paid. This video just cements my thought that I should just shut down my shops on Etsy.
I don’t understand your point. Were you pointing out that she’s a kind and thoughtful person who cares about all of God’s creatures and their endeavors?
Former eBay seller, I've always had some type of problems with these big companies. Tried Etsy ages ago and at the time their algorithm was working against new shops. I didn't get many views and no sales. I've been thinking of trying again, but this video has me deciding against it. There's no way I can afford to have sales and communication shut down. Thank you 🙏🏻 and good luck with your business 🍀
They Dont shut you down immediately. you just get lower ratings if you do it 10 x maybe? There probably is some number rule. You can change your ship by dates at any time. You have to be aware on your site as a shop owner. Read up.
I've been looking into making a store on Etsy- and now I'm saved from making THAT mistake! Thanks for spreading the word! We need to decentralize from all these corporate hacks!
It's sounding like overzealous AI is responsible for these suspensions - situations that a human would be able to figure out quickly. But as you say it's really hard to communicate with companies like this.
Funnily enough I said to Jonny it feels like all the Etsy staff went to the Bahamas for 6 months and left AI to run things 🤣 It is really strange and will be interesting to see what their future holds.
@@hedgecomber When I was teaching at Heathercombe a year or so ago I had an email from YT telling me my account was being suspended for a breach of their terms, but with no further info. I managed to find an appeal form and fill it in, asking what I was supposed to have done. A few days later I received another email saying that my account was being reinstated, but no explanation. I wonder now if that was also an AI judgement that upon appeal was looked at by a real human and judged to by them to be incorrect. No doubt a cheap way for YT and other to deal with breaches as humans only need to look at cases if a person appeals.
That's just what it is in 2020 etsy suddenly got 100s of 1000s of new sellers who had never run business before they where getting loads of sales and some could not keep up some never intended to they where taking buyers money and disappearing. Etsy was trying to do something to protect buyers and stop scam shops but because they are using AI things went too fare the other way and innocent sellers have been caught up in it.
It seems a lot of us have had negative experiences with Etsy. I had a shop for about two years and got increasingly tired of having my hard earned money sucked right up! I closed my shop as well a year and half ago and ALMOST decided to reopen another shop but I really don’t think I will.
I had an inactive Etsy store, and when I got back into selling my art I was just planning on reactivating the store. But I’ve been reading about Etsy horror stories and have decided not to go that route.
Same here, let my Etsy site go inactive when these horror stories broke and have finally decided that I can't put myself in the position Etsy wants to put everyone in as a seller. Goodbye permanently to all of the Etsy hassle and yes, fraudulent behaviour...
@@Sailpen564 because there’s millions of sellers and there’s not millions of complaints. Plus people are always far more likely to whine. You know it’s true
thank you so much for sharing what you've learned as well as the stories of other small businesses... I never knew how bad this has gone, and when we're ready to sell our items, we will NOT be using Etsy. Thanks again!
I launched an Etsy shop for my baking business selling cookie gift boxes and I would have made Etsy star seller, but they counted against me for not having 95% message reply within 24 hours. I only had two messages, one was from my mom about a question about an order that I replied to and the the other one was from a seller that has an auto response of thanks for your order. I didn’t reply to that one because it didn’t need a reply and I didn’t want to bother the seller that I had purchased from. Because I didn’t reply to someone I purchased from, I got a strike. Since then I had replied to other sellers I purchased from and also from a buyer from my shop. I may have had 10 messages since then and all were during my review period for star seller. Today I was notified that I didn’t qualify for star seller and they have a ton of my money from sales because of a reserve that was placed o my account even though I didn’t break bay rules. It’s so frustrating and I would like to go to another selling platform or just do local flea markets or craft shows. I am so disappointed.
They did that to me, too last January. I have a shop, but in this case, I was a customer. The seller had a mix-up with my items, and her last message was "Let me check and get back to you." I'm always very prompt in replying, and this was on New Year's Eve, and I was busy, so I didn't think it required a response. When I asked them why they dinged my SELLER account, they said that a seller is a potential customer, and you should be more professional. I searched their rules, and could not find anything about this.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I am a woodturner and blacksmith, and do not know how to get my made things into hands of folks who would want it. I considered etsy, but read many negative things from makers. I am thinking now of squarespace, but beyond maintaining a website the hugest hurdle is a social media presence. I like what I do, and am not a vid maker. Farmers markets and holiday bizarres have been my best successes.
@@monkeddy3366Agreed but if (and it's a big if) the advertising for the website is done properly and given a wide outreach then the traffic to the site will increase, word of mouth of someone who's used the website is also good. There are ways to make it work but it's alot of time and effort which whilst crafting is very hard to do.
Having run a commercial (membership) website a number of years back, I can't emphasize how important BACKUPS are. I was using what was then one of the top-rated ISPs in the US and over the course of about 3 years they changed which hosting plan I was on 2x without notifying me (each time I found out by accident while emailing their user support people on unrelated issues), told me I had "made changes to my website" when it began experiencing server-side issues (I had professional experience in the field and was able to tell them what was wrong but according to them, it was not possible and I must have changed something in my website), and when all the server issues I'd been warning them about finally caused a massive crash on their side I was notified that my hosting plan did not include automatic backups -- and when I pointed out they'd been billing me for a plan that *did* include backups, they told me I was mistaken but offered a "discounted" price of just $250/hour to restore my site on a new server *if* I could provide them a full backup. Being a bit of an idiot, I had assumed they would honor the contract I'd had for years and had stopped making my own backups after the 1st year -- the site never returned and I lost a *lot* of money. Moral of the story: KEEP YOUR OWN BACKUPS because ANY platform can obliterate you if you don't.
I'm stopping right here at 11:30 min. Before going any further I am sending love and appreciation. Big hugs. I'm a soppy gal too and I recognize your compassion. Thankyou, the world needs more of that. Okay, on with the rest of the video! - Much love from Alaska
I have had a very busy Etsy shop for many years and I was suspended. I was never given any reason. It was my and my adult daughter's only income and it was out of the blue. We were locked out so couldn't filled so negative feedback happened and there was no way back after that. I became very depressed it caused a great upset between myself and my daughter because we never really understood why we were suspended. My daughter did open another shop and I make things and she makes things we are still on Etsy but every you turn around they pull the rug out from under the sellers a little and it never feels safe or solid. I was with Etsy when it started but sadly they are not that Etsy anymore and haven't been for a very long time.
I can tell you that the globalists want to do away with small businesses, so they make it very difficult for them to keep going. It's basically communism. You will work for the state in what they want you to. That was the reason for all the lockdowns too. Fortunately the world is waking up and fighting back.
I still have an Etsy shop where I sell knitting pattern. It was something that did really well during lockdown. I'm not really bothered how much I am making it just runs and I just respond to emails when I get some. More isn't to do. So later on I opened a second shop for my hand knitted items and I sold a few items but then I looked at my earnings and I thought nope, you are ripping me off with fees there and fees the other, if I ended up with 40% it was a lot. And then I also came across the issue with withholding funds and I thought I don't want to have to deal with it anymore and closed it down. Still running the pattern shop. I sell all my other stuff on eBay now where I earn much more.
Take them to court for loss of earnings, damages, future earnings and reputational damages and so on..If they mismanage their business, their contract with you do not cover them, regardless of what the contract say. Also, nothing that is illegal can be done legal through contract.
Wow! That’s horrible! I am working on launching my own small hand-crafted items business and was just a few weeks from establishing an account with them. Of course, I’m looking into other platforms and my own website but was really looking forward to getting on Etsy. Thanks soooooo much for your sound advice! This would be a great time to start a co-op type of platform where each small business has a stake or share in the platform itself!!! Perhaps, they need an attitude adjustment in the form of a lawsuit from all shop owners???
So glad I didnt skip to the bit just about etsy, which is how I came across the video in the first place. You are wonderful, i love all your little rambles and side tracks and how youre not afraid to show excitement or sadness. I'll definitely be subscribing and watching more because you seem like my kind of person - real, and that's beautiful 🧡
Same here! I saw this pop up on my feed, and since I’ve been contemplating restarting my scent crafting, with an eye towards Etsy, I clicked. Less than 30 seconds I clicked subscribe. Real, kind, beautiful, and lovely lady. My kind of human.
I've just found your channel, and as a new Etsy seller, I was intrigued. I owned a brick & mortar for 30 years & moved it all online with my own website in 2020. I am a superstar at in person retail but online, and SEO, and all that not so good. I started an Etsy shop in addition to my own site about a year ago & that has been very slow also. I think your strategy is the best one. I think just focusing on building a following and then primarily one's own site is the safest route.
Greetings from a brand new subscriber. Your video just popped up in my feed- thank you for putting this out! Yes, a little warranted rant is good for the soul! (Etsy is evil!) I love your casual vlog style, it’s very well edited and beautiful. You stick to the point and keep each part relevant without unnecessary rambling. So often I get bored watching “vlog” videos, so I’ve never wanted to do one myself. You have me changing my mind. Even your scripted commentary sounded so fresh and conversational, not stiff and flat like most people reading out loud. I can’t wait to watch more from your channel. Thanks again and cheers from across the pond!
Your products are glorious! I’m so sorry you couldn’t keep your shop open. I’ve been asked by many why I don’t open an Etsy shop for my art, and I tell them not after hearing all the horror stories from sellers. Nope. It will be word of mouth or just paint for the sake of painting because I love it!
I tried selling wisteria pods which can be used to make "weather toys", as I call them, that twist when dry and untwist in damp weather. I use wool felting to make gnomes or little people that turn directions to predict rain or dry weather. Scales of a pine cone do the same thing, open and close. To make a long story short, I kept getting locked out of my store, plus the only sale I made was to myself when my computer crashed and I lost a PDF file I made on how to craft the wisteria pods into weather toys. I never lost much money since I never made any. So I just dropped out of Etsy.
Etsy is a disgrace! Who do they think they are grabbing and hanging onto the sellers money? Imagine £7000 is owed to the carpenter mentioned. I am glad he has told the BBC. I won't buy anything from Etsy anymore. The Carpenter could get in touch with a radio programme and tell them about Etsy and advise what their lawyers recommend. Xxx
As a leather crafter, may I suggest you also bevel the edges of you card holdes as well. It will give you a more finished edge. Best wishes for a successful business.
As a future seller, I am glad to find videos like yours. I like to keep informed on how these platforms treat their sellers. I'm sorry that Etsy decided to sell out and act like a corporation and no longer like a platform for the little guys.
I have a Etsy account but only have 7 sales since opening this past March so I’m going try my own shop thanks for your video this really help me decide
Woa… so glad I came across this video just now-I’ve been working on getting the designs and the supplies (and the courage) together to have a go at opening an Etsy shop, and you may have just helped me dodge a bullet. I had no idea things had gotten so bad with them over the years!! (I’ve been a customer of several shops on there, but have never looked much further into the company itself… lesson learned lol). Thanks for posting this ❤ and for being a lovely person to that little bunny, where many would’ve just kept on driving
I just started an Etsy shop in July. I have had some orders but the issue I run into is the over saturation of similar products. (I do faux florals). The last few sales they started withholding some of my income. Not as much as the article you showed but enough to make a dent in my profits. All because one order as for a local customer and I didn’t have or include a tracking number due to the fact that I delivered it personally instead of shipping it. (Etsy has this as an option but apparently still penalizes you if you do this.) I don’t have a huge social media reach yet either so going it on my own would be very difficult. I’m hoping to generate more sales but I honestly get very discouraged by the whole thing.
Hiya. The way to beat the star seller ridiculousness is 2 things. 1 put 'not available ' in the tracking code box . 2 set up an auto reply on your messages. You will need to keep reactivating the auto reply because i think it only lasts about 2 weeks, maybe a month. But this will mean all yr tracking stuff is covered ... etsy expects this even if its a non tracked item to get 5star seller rating so this stops the strikes there...and auto message keeps your response rate up . And as for replies that aren't needed i just add an emoji like 👍 or 😍 to acknowledge the message...seems to work so etsy sees you have replies but it doesn't keep the convo going . Xxx hope this helps x
TH-cam suggested your video, and I was curious about what was going on with eTsy. Haven't even watched that part, fell in love with you when you stopped for the bunny
Jane!!! First of all, Congrats on starting your own shop! I'm so sorry to hear about your experience on Etsy. I've shopped on Etsy for years, but will now ask sellers if they have other sites where I can purchase. Best of luck! I will be visiting the website btw. Your hair looks fabulous!
I'm sorry to hear of your challenges! I have been on Etsy for about three years now. I've been quite successful with my shop, and it's been nothing but a wonderful experience. However, I have heard others state they have had an undesirable experience, and I am glad that I'm not one of them. I believe that the majority of people are having great experiences, and as another person stated, these same challenges happen on other similar sites as well. I've tried selling on a couple others in the past, but prefer Etsy thus far. Journey on in abundance!
Thank you for your honest assessment!! I've bought from etsy in the past and had no troubles, but again that's been 10+ years ago. Well done calling out the jerks in the nicest possible way. I think the term "hopping mad" says it all. ❤
I which to revive my dormant Etsy shop. After listening to this, I think it's a real red flag! I personally have never had any problems, but it's not the sane company anymore. I remember an unannounced money grad that happened a few years ago, when suddenly sellers were were having revenue hijacked via a policy change. The change was that the company was taking their fees out of revenue, in a switch of the finance structure - the sellers had been give until the 15th to pay regular fees, but suddenly were left with no operating funds, as a new system was rolled out requiring the total dyes on whichever sale came next. Do you understand what I am talking about? I had Several years of good business from 2009 to 2015, then got remarried. That is why I am not active with my business. It was a big adjustment period for me. But now that I am ready, this really stinks to hear about this.
I think having your own website and for some also not having their eggs in one basket and toeing in to various larger market places would be better than just focusing on one. But, keep remembering how just a few years back there was a good local newsletter free at many outlets that had low cost adds and in depth interviews with crafting and health businesses, and smaller businesses. The internet swallowed them up. Creating online newsletter store and off line, like the golden olden days, with shares, co-op, and not relying heavily on ai or computerization, linking up to others in all areas, spreading this and connecting them. Thats what keeps coming to me.
Thanks for sharing Jane. I was just about to set up a shop on Etsy and firmly believe I was led to you. Now I definitely will not. I live in Australia and don't know where I will go. But I will search. Thanks again.
I am so grateful to have found your channel! I found you from researching the best platform to start my own online store. I will definitely stay away from Etsy after all of the bad news I have heard about them. Thank you for sharing !
So glad I came across your video regarding Etsy. I started a little venture on Etsy exactly 12 months ago. Two shops actually. My first shop sold vintage items (China, glassware etc) and the second was haberdashery - buttons, patterns - all vintage. Within a month, both shops were put into Etsy ‘gaol’ for a sudden increase in sales(isn’t that a good thing?) and they retained 75% of my sales for minimum 45 days. I am in Australia and the footfall isn’t great here but I was gaining traction. I persevered, emailing them constantly to explain their actions to no avail. Eventually they released my shops to trade but then two months after, I was put in gaol again for not putting tracking on some sales. Postage in Australia is very expensive and to send a couple of buttons as a ‘package’ Is not viable. Well, anyways I have just closed my stores and looking to use either Squarespace or a Wordpress website and will see how that goes. I wish you luck in your endeavours and I’ve just subscribed to your channel so I’ll follow your progress. Many thanks from Australia 🇦🇺
Thank you Jane for the mention :) We are small in Etsy terms of reach but we have 160K combined following on social media. We take commission but all of that and more goes on paid advertising. We have just had our first seller make 2500 sales in just under 2 years so it's definitely possible to really make it work on our platform.
My pleasure! Those sales are FAB! 🤩
I love what you’re doing over there and seeing how you respond with your sellers is such a breath of fresh air after everything I’ve heard about Etsy 😕 Hope you clean up in the mass exodus ☺️
@@hedgecomber Thank you! I started off selling on Etsy and genuinely I am sad at what they have become! Sadly their juggernaut status makes it hard for anyone else, apart from Amazon to compete!
Would dearly love to hear how you have set this up. Would LOVE to do something like this in Australia, where Sellers do not have to fear things like Etsy/ebay etc... getting too greedy down the track.
@@aussiegal22 I already had an audience which was lucky but I took our a rather large loan and got it built! It was a leap of faith but I am so glad I did!
Thank you! @@DefundTheMasons
I remember WAY back when etsy was about HANDMADE items. They sold out and started selling made in China garbage, pushing out the hand crafters.
Yep, me too EE ☹️
When I opened my etsy shop in 2018, it was all handmade, hand crafted and it was a good thing. Then came the cheap resale stuff , like car-boot sale stuff, that would sneak in. The fees were sneaking upwards and in came forced ad fees, which if clicked would haunt a seller for 6 months. Then etsy chose to favor certain groups over others for their promotions even though we are all makers. The fees grew higher and higher.
Buyers, fueled by social media online unboxing videos, pushed the boutique wrappings and packings as part of the experience - which adds extra cost on the side of the sellers - as buyers still wanted low cost for high experience. ( Attention buyers, that colorful packing material, cloth bags, stickers, confetti, personalized thank you cards, ribbons, etc that your stuff is wrapped, not to mention the safe packing padding, shipping boxes, tape and labels, all cost the buyer money, and increase the price of the item you are buying, or SHOULD.)
The algorithm pushed shops with pure-blood 5 star reviews. Any review less than that from any buyer would knock you off the promoted or high ranking page, even if the buyer was complaining, not about your product, but about the shipping or customs agency. Again the fees climbed. Even more people found they could repackage mass produced items and sell them as handmade or handcrafted. (I personally know someone that is still doing this and making a great deal of money and it infuriates me, but etsy allows it.)
I left in Spring of 2021, after two months of the fees outstripping any profit what-so-ever, which was tiny to begin with. I'm glad I wasn't around for the current fee with-holding disaster, but good grief.
It has come to the point where makers aren't even making enough for their item and aren't able to pay themselves for their time, skill and effort - which was the whole point of etsy to start with.
Wow! Didn't know they started doing this. I hate when shows, shops, sites do this. Not fair to compete w China mfg stuff😢
Just some of the makers. Obviously not all, or etsy as a company itself. But it's out there. @@ccbluesky9780
It's owned by Amazon, still good to buy supply in a small batch. Unfortunately now it has become an easy eshop outlet for brick and mortar businesses. Vintage was good too, now not anymore. It was a gem
It breaks my heart that Etsy has turned into this mess. I lived shopping there and found many treasures. Etsy has lost another customer.
Same here
EVERYTHING has "turned" into this mess. SAME GREEDY, UNSCRUPULOUS, BAIT-AND-SWITCH system. Who are the parent companies? The government.
Yes it's so sad
It's all about money .0.gerrible
It breaks my heart too. I love my customers (many of whom are women with cancer or other hardships causing hair loss, I make wigs) I am very honest seller with history over 5 years of selling and star seller badges. I was suspended without reason while cheap China products keep selling, toxic and low quality and sometimes outright thieves (they have stollen my pictures in the past, guess who go penalized), I don`t understand how honest sellers get taken down while cheap resellers stay. Don`t buy on Etsy pls.
@@FreeBellatrix💔 that’s terrible
So Etsy demands that I respond immediately to my customers BUT Etsy doesn’t feel they need to respond to their sellers! Not! I’ve been considering setting up a shop, but not going to now.
Etsy is the poster child of double-standards.
I pretty much just said the same.
Etsy are just as bad as Facebook with shutting people down without havung the decency to say why.
Yeah, try to find the contact link.
Buying off etsy is just as bad actually I was threatened my confidentiality in the "spiritual" community of etsy by a seller and etsy did nothing about it but banned me for apparently harassment bc I asked the seller for a refund bc of how she threatened me!! So I got permanently banned from buying
How refreshing to see a TH-camr just being a normal person, down to earth, authentic, learning, messing up, for better and for worse. I am not even done watching, just had to say this.
and with a nice british accent to boot ... bonus!
Etsy sucks. I launched a shop and, sold one item. It was a SCOBY for $8 US. SCOBY is the rubbery thing used to make kombucha. The buyer was from Canada. I was SO EXCITED to make a sale. Etsy took their commission from the entire total INCLUDING THE SHIPPING! Basically, they took it all and, my enthusiasm along with it. I made $0.08 on the sale. I closed my shop as well. Thank you for looking after the bunny.
😮😮😮😢
I'm sure there are people padding their shipping prices to make money back, but for Etsy to make money from the shipping charges is outrageous. Profits over people.
@@1Letter23Numbers. It seems like ETSY is steering people toward using the free shipping option. If my experience is how they roll all of the time then, it seems that a higher base price with free shipping and, no international orders is the only way to go. I think that a fair share could be had by the sellers and, ETSY would still be able to make a nice profit.
That sounds demoralizing and depressing! Usually the buyer pays for shipping, unless you've set things up differently... as someone with a shop, this doesn't sound familiar and I'm wondering what happened :/
Me too!
I started selling on etsy a very long time ago, when commissions were 5 - 7 %. It was great. Wonderful audience, got paid quickly, you paid your bill once a month....and then..... they started swiping some money the minute you sold stuff, and then more at the end of the month, started shutting down more sellers, not paying attention to communications, and I closed my shop. Since hearing the awful things they have done to sellers since, I'm confident I made the right decision.
me too.
I just wanted to know what the problem with Etsy was, and instead there was 3 min of crafting then 15 min of ADHD distraction and waffle. Get to the point!
Just a bunch of thieves
@@marieflechas94She had a pop up that said go to 13:00 if you only want to know about etsy...
She said to fast forward the video to the 13.00 position if you didn't want to see the craft section. You obviously werent paying attention.@@marieflechas94
Etsy is not what it used to be. They allow all kinds of sellers who didn’t design their own products to sell on there and they take too high of a percentage of the sale now. Also, keep in mind that doing leatherwork is very demanding on your body.
This! It is over-run with Chinese store fronts. It was ruined in the same way as EBay was. I haven’t had my shop open for a very long time so I can’t speak from a seller’s perspective, and my most recent buying experience was fine. But they totally lost their way.
This is how these mega corporations do things,
It started with ones like Walmart, home Depot, etc....
Then when tech became available to the general population now it's the "sellers market" they've monopolized.
And they get away with it because they have an endless supply of wealth.
They pay to be at the top of search engines, and they use their money to lobby politicians to keep their scam going strong through loophole after loophole.
It's very easy to setup a shop on these sites, but now you're hostage to their guidelines and policies.
It's very difficult to build up your own website business without them,
because your webpage is lost somewhere at the bottom of black hole called search engines...
💯
That's because Black Rock and Vanguard have huge shares in Esty. Anything they either own or have shares in is not good. They steal people's money and that's how they get rich.
@@BattlerBears71it makes sense, I had the impression it was Amazon, but again who owns Amazon.
Thank you for attempting to help the dear bunny.
I'm glad you were able to give it fresh water & a cosy, comfortable safe space. Rest in peace, sweet rabbit.
🙏🌿💐🌿💚🤍💚🐇💚🤍💚🌿💐🌿🙏
Considering Etsy is getting closer to making 3 Billion dollars in revenue in 2023 and I have been hearing/reading that they are more concerned about the shareholders than they are their shop owners this seems like pure greed to me. Holding 75% of sellers funds for 45 day is disgusting. I suspect that it's not because of the flimsy excuse of "keeping the marketplace safe," but it has everything to do with the amount of interest $$ those "held" funds are making for them during those 45 days. I have been working toward opening a handmade jewelry shop on Etsy for quite some time but at this point I feel I need to find other options. I am new to your channel so I am happy the algorithm put you on my FYP. Thank you so much Jane for this video, you have save me from many a Etsy headache I am sure. Wishing you much success with your sites.
I 100% agree, and that’s the exact opposite of what Etsy was created for 🥴
Good luck with whichever platform you end up using ☺️
Same here. I've been struggling with where to open a shop. Etsy just seems so easy. But nope. Nope nope nope. This video was basically the last straw for me. I will learn from the wisdom of those before me! I'm too old to place the risk game of "I just have to try it myself".. nope.
Playing devil's advocate, holding funds is one way to guard against money laundering. Etsy has no way to know if a good was actually sent, or just a blank envelope. People could sell fake/non-existant products and sell them to people in their circle, who "buy" them just to wash money. There's a rise in a technique called "smurfing," which is when a lot of people transfer money in small amounts, usually below the threshold of IRS interest.
How sad
Greed! It's always greed !
I will not be shopping @Etsy again.
What about Squarespace? I have been hearing about them from a few crafters.. instead of using Etsy.
TH-cam randomly suggested this video to me 9 months after you made it but it showed up right when i have been trying to decide if etsy is the place to sell my art and this helps me decide. I live in the states and your video just confirmed all my concerns about selling on etsy. I am so grateful you showed up here when you did. New follower!!
yeah, same; ‘randomly’ suggested this after a facetime conversation about ….. opening a shop on etsy happened.
Hey Jane, we had similar experiences with eBay. They held our money because they didn't recognise a partnership as a company! We took them to court, represented ourselves and won (against their fancy international lawyers). That felt good. We are setting up a shop inside our WordPress site. It's a bit complex & not without issues but hey no-one gets to mess us about!
Wow, that is fricking awesome!!! Respect to you both, that took some balls. I didn’t add the shop to my wordpress site because of the chance of slowing it down, I figured a separate e-commerce site was the best option for me, especially as my wordpress site pays the bills so I need it to be fast and responsive.
Is your shop live yet, I’d love to see it!
@@hedgecomber Thanks mate. It was a lot of work with eBay but I got super stubborn about it & just went NO. This is England. You don't get to keep our money. The judge was actually super supportive. The shop isn't ready yet we are making it quite scalable with some of our wonderful partner firms supporting us. Exciting & hard work both!
That makes no sense you do not have to be a registered company to sell on ebay I’ve been selling for years as an individual and they have never held my money once. I think there’s more to the story here.
@@mr.t8496 I could. It's really straightforward in reality. eBay simply didn't understand UK commercial structures for commercial (rather than private) accounts. They suddenly decided that they wanted various details on commercial accounts that didn't exist for us. For example they wanted a company number Fine for a plc or ltd company. Doesn't exist for sole traders or partnerships. Trouble was they started requiring these details to pay the balance that they already owed and wouldn't fix the errors in their system.
eBay isn't the only online business that doesn't recognize sole proprietorships and general partnerships and legitimate businesses, even though these types are the oldest known form.
I jumped ship about 4 or so years ago now and set up my own shop on my website. For me, it was the best thing I ever did, but I had grown a fairly large following during the 12 years I was selling on Etsy, which helped. I could see back then that the Etsy I once knew was no more. I hate what they've become. It's very sad.
As IF I needed more reason Not to open an ETSY store… THIS MAKES IT FINAL ❤ Thank you 💖💖💖
I agree. : (
Now, where do I go with my upcycling merchandise that I've made here in the US?
Me too.
Yes, where?
Good news for all the sellers on Etsy🤷🏻♀️
Me too I took mine down.
You do beautiful work! I wish you the best.... Etsy is HEARTLESS! They do NOT care about their customers...something is terribly wrong with their business ethics. In short, they are HARMING not helping! You did the right thing! Have NOTHING to do with them.
Etsy is owned by Vanguard and Blackrock....Who also control over 80% of all U.S. Companies (Not sure about other countries). Just imagine what will happen if they decide to start doing this across the board!!!
Born and raised by Atheist Marxists and I've been hearing that same garbage misinformation here on TH-cam spouted by financially illiterate Leftists for YEARS!!!. Unfortunately that whole time I wasn't investing in the Stock Market mainly through an IRA or Roth. The reason why Vanguard and Blackrock own all these assets is because WE the AMERICANS are invested in out Retirement Accounts through Vanguard or Blackrock Index Funds. Hope you don't end up like me and SO FAR BEHIND!!! Start a Roth account if you're in a Lower Tax Bracket. If you earn under $53k/year you can also contribute substantially to a "Taxable Investment Account" and all Long-term Capital gains and Qualified dividends will be Taxed at 0%... Tax FREE!!! Plus you can contribute up to $6500 after-tax dollars to your Roth that will also be Tax Free in Retirement... Plus you can withdraw contributions at any time because they're after Tax. If you're in a higher Tax Bracket... which I doubt... you can contribute to a Traditional IRA and reduce your current Tax burden and defer them until retirement when you're in a Lower Tax Bracket. Either way, chances are you're going to either invest directly through Vanguard or purchase shares in a Vanguard ETF like VOO. Blackrock also offers many Index funds and Money Market Funds... That's the only reason why they hold so many assets. It's on the behalf of all the Americans investing their hard earned money for retirement and investment purposes THROUGH Blackrock Index Funds and Directly through Vanguard. Don't stay financially illiterate. Educate yourself and invest in your retirement!!! Social Security won't be enough unless you want to live just above the Poverty line. If you contributed $17/day with compounding that would be $217,000 in 35 years which could easily grow by appreciation to $1M!!! Start NOW!!! Keep it simple. Buy VOO and other low cost broad market Index funds. 🙏🏼
BTW and FYI... if you own shares in any of these funds or Stocks, YOU get to Vote on who and what they do with the board of directors. You don't have to but you can.
depends on who holds the majority of the shares. i suggest you look into blackrock, and vanguard. they have their hands in everything and need to be broken up for trust issues.@@Simonjose7258
That explains a lot.
P.S. We can also fight and work for change at the same time. Just don't cut off your nose to spite your face.
Thank you for giving the bunny a home in its last hours. 🐇🐇
As a business owner myself, I dealt with this years ago and vowed never to have Etsy as my sole business source. Always always always have multiple sites!
Great idea, I decided the same thing. I'm a successful top rated freelancer on Upwork, BUT! When I travel and have bad location (third countries) I have 0 clients. So it's just a disaster, I'm working over other channels. It's a main purpose for me.
I can’t imagine the horror of waking up and someone has closed by business and is ignoring me, taking my money and keeping the rest in their ‘bank’ . I would never go on there at all, I spend time on creative marketing for independent small businesses and driving everything towards my own site. I own the Wordpress template, my domain, I pay my own hosting, it’s not even expensive now. I have 24/7 customer service available to me if I need it. No hosting company closes a site (unless it was posting illegal criminal activities) and I find it all works smoothly. I’m no techy wizard, I find it fairly easy to use Wordpress stuff. I’d never trust any of these arty platforms when they can close me down for no reason and then ignore my begging! Awful, they should be taken to court for this nonsense.
Not all small businesses can afford the costs of multiple site fees.
@@salnellen1381 - But that is not @kerrikolby6124 's fault. S/he took a route that worked for her/him.
I need a better site that will allow me to sell in the US and UK. I'd appreciate suggestions.
I had an Etsy shop for 10 years and watched it fall apart. It started primarily when they became a publicly traded company, there was a hostile takeover by some finance bro who, if I remember correctly, had been fired from his last job. He aimed to make the company more like Amazon or alibaba, despite it doing a billion in sales. And in that way he succeeded, but he wrecked everything else about it. Now real artists get buried by the Alibaba resellers, and unless they bring their own audience they will struggle to be discoverable. It used to be such a lovely community - it still bums me out to think about 😢
I've been on Etsy since 2010 when it was the good times; now, after that Silverman guy and the shareholders, it's just not worth it anymore. ...not to mention that people steal ideas then those ideas become saturated. And as long as Etsy makes money off the thieving seller, no one says a peep. Currently, I'm whittling down my little product. I will keep my shop but cease selling there.
@@ReneesatItAgain I also had problems with copycats. What does Esty do? They PROMOTE the copycats by making them "best sellers" and "Etsy's Choice." They are so evil. I have had a store since 2013. Etsy was always bad with their inconsiderate constant "tests" but they are over-the-top bad now. Every day they do something else STUPID, and it totally kills inspiration for the real crafters. I had plans, but with all the stupid things they keep doing, I'm hanging it up. There is no way search even works on their site.......all kinds of irrelevant junk comes up now. People cannot search and find my products. I literally hate Etsy at this point. I am looking forward to the karma coming their way. Their stocks have already taken a deep dive.....down, down, down. GOOD.
It’s really sad that one can find more truth from those that experienced selling through a platform versus the one who did the video trying to push the platform.
ETSY began to fall apart the minute they became publicly traded.
Hi Jane. I currently have a shop on Etsy. I started it April of 2022 and after two small sales they put a reserve on my account for around 2 months. I had quit my part time job in the hospitality industry to work from home. This really hurt me financially. I have recently noticed a huge decrease in traffic as well as sales. I have had one sale since July. I am currently seeking other platforms to sell on and have recently rented a space at my local antique mall and it has proven to be more profitable in a shorter period of time that Etsy has been in the last several months.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience, I hope you find the perfect solution soon ☺️
I wish you much happiness and success!
Great news & you get to see real live human beings instead of dealing with AI bots meant to destroy Humanity.
Where are you located? I'm curious how much the rent is these days.
there is no other site that doesn't do this crap,sadly
@@GabrielleTollerson They all have their tricks-of-the-trade. It's disgusting.
Thank you for this! I came to read it because I have been thinking about starting an Etsy shop next year. This is shocking. In the US, I think some of these people would have justification for legal action. I need to look around and see if they are even doing that over here. Although, like you, as a person with a firm level of personal integrity, the whole thing leaves me with very bad feelings all around. I'm on Poshmark and buyers have three days after a "delivered" tracking notification to request a refund before the money is released. That is reasonable. Holding everyone's money for 45 days is outrageous! But Etsy stands to make millions in interest of of their "escrow fund," and I wonder if that's not the actual motive for doing it.
I’ve started back in … drum roll… 2007! I have one shop but expanded to a charitable shop as well, while my mom was faced with cancer. 2017 I opened that shop and in 2020 they closed it. We - customers were able to donate quite an amount to St Jude Hospital. I have to say, after losing my dad in 2016, having hospital visits myself in 2017, my mom passing in 2018 then loosing my job in 2019 - having them close my shop down was the straw that broke my back.
Then when learned that people were reselling from Aliexpress here in America- it feels like 2000 all over again where people want that Walmart price. We all need several platforms to sell and no longer depend on this changing monoliths. 😢
So, so sorry to hear about such sad times you had losing your parents - and having your shop closed down was despicable. I wish for better times for you. From London U K.
@nancypedrick5596
First off, I am so sorry for your loss of your parents. I lost mine from long term illnesses and cancer, and can relate.
May you and your endeavors be blessed with success.
Also, I made scented candles and other things and relate to the Walmart Mentality of wanting it cheap no matter the quality. A hard mindset to get
I'm sorry about your parents, but please please wake up to how evil the mafia allopathic industry is. If they took toxic drugs of any kind, that is what makes people sick & often kills them.
Be well & sorry you were attacked by the evils' etsy site.
So sorry for your loss, I really hope you are doing better now, Etsy behavior was disgusting.
I'm a watercolor artist and was thinking about Etsy to use that platform but now it's a Big NO. Thank you 😊JK FLORIDA USA 🇺🇸.
I agree
I had been with etsy for about 10 years mostly as a buyer but had sold a few items. Decided to join the bandwagon with print on demand. Had a custom order from a FB friend. Sold her a few t shirts which she received and I was promptly suspended permanently. After 3 appeal attempts they told me there were fraudulent sign in attempts. I answered their questions with no response. They still have my money and won't respond. I am so done with them. I won't recommend them to anyone and can't buy there anymore.
I’m so sorry 😟
what do you think you did wrong? did you create the design? was the design copyrighted?
@@HelmetVanga maybe they did nothing wrong and still got targeted by Etsy. It happens.
Take them to court they cannot keep your money
@@HelmetVanga I appealed twice and they said it was because someone tried several times to sign into my account with fraudulent info. Apparently that gets you shut down permanently. They stopped responding after that. So disappointing. I am reseller on many platforms but can't even buy on etsy now.
So sorry to hear this happened to you! I already have a website based on the Square platform, but was considering opening an Etsy shop to relaunch my business after a rough beginning last year. However, after hearing all the recent horror stories, I've completely reconsidered. Sounds like learning how to be interesting on TH-cam (another problematic platform) might be the better solution. Between TH-cam, Instagram, and Facebook (shudder), I hope to start building a community of interest.
Honestly, I wish the creators facing issues with all of these huge, faceless services could band together and start a class-action/international lawsuit. I hate that as an American, that's where my mind goes, but realistically, this money grab sounds like embezzlement, and is something any lawyer worth his salt would be able to take on and win.
Square space has been in the news too for holding on to seller's funds.
Thanks so much for this. Crafter's need to pull together and start a shop where we are team players and support one another. I hate the way these big organisations treat small business. It's disgusting. I used to have a website shop, but I got hacked by very bad people. So I have not traded for 13 years. But I want a shop again on my website and maybe work with other crafter's to advertise their products in turn for them advertising my daughter's and mine.
Thanks so much for this. It makes your blood boil. Well done for making a stand and for saying no to supporting a Company that simply could not care less about others.
P.S. I love your keyrings. They are beautiful.
Great idea, good luck with it ☺️
I was following what was happening with the Indie Sellers Guild over on their website and I learned about the launch of the Artisans Cooperative, which is exactly what you are talking about in the first part of you comment! As someone who thought about opening en Etsy shop but ultimately decided against, I find the concept very appealing!
I fully agree that there needs to be a better platform that is much less about greed, lies*, and cares about the sellers. I have been very annoyed about a few things over the past few years.
This one gets me too -
*So Etsy claims to save you a certain amount in shipping fees when you buy your shipping label through them, but they leave out in that statement the face that they also charge you 10% of the shipping fee that a customer pays. That can be enough to wipe out most of that "big" discount and cause you to pay some of the shipping. Not great when selling "small dollar items. Shipping is so high, and with etsy fees, almost not even worth it anymore.
hosting security is a lot better now that it used to be... hope you give opening your own shop a try. Just be sure to purchase hosting that provides a SSI (secure socket layer) certificate. The shared certificates are safe and cheap! I pay $119 per year for hosting and then add pay pal buttons to my products for free. I think Pay pal takes about 2.4 percent. What a deal!
Everything you said about Etsy is absolutely true. Thank you for exposing them. They are a horrible company.
Thank you for your honesty and posting this vid. I have been hesitating for a long while, about starting an Etsy store. But I am so sick of these platforms that start out free, introducing fees, then getting dame GREEDY GREEDY GREEDY and going to shit, leaving millions of small business like your in a huge hole! It's about time a platform started where they were simply happy with earning enough, to pay their bills and eat!
Jane, I have never heard anything bad about Etsy. I have purchased on Etsy for many years, with no problems. I listened to your rant and read the BBC article and will rethink my view of Etsy. Thank you for sharing!
When I saw your black cat I thought... wow, we're kindred spirits and when you picked up the hurt baby bunny, I thought, Wow, I have a twin in Cornwall! Who would have thought? I'm so sorry the bunny didn't make it... but just think: his last moments of life were in a comfortable place made by someone who cared. Most wild animals will never experience that. You did good. 😉
❤️
💜💜💜 I agree.
Hi! My new Etsy shop was open only four days and they suspended my shop permanently, I was slowly filling my store and couldn’t access my account. After reaching out to me they told me they couldn’t tell me why they were closing it and they wouldn’t reconsider! What? How is that any way to rune a business? I decided to move to a Shopify store instead. Very disappointed in Etsy’s ethics.
I am so glad you gave that Bunny a comfortable & peaceful place to rest in peace.❤
Cornwall is on my list of places to visit in the UK. I have visions of dramatic cliffs, crashing waves, sea/smuggler caves, twisty narrow streets, old pubs and lovely people.
You tried to save the bunny. It’s never easy. But it died in peace.
If you needed a reminder that people really enjoy your videos; you have 24 views in under 10 minutes!
You rock girl!!!
Aww, that’s a cute message! Thanks ☺️
Thank you, Jane! Much appreciate you taking the time to create this very useful video. I am trying to create my online shop, Etsy was my first option, but after this review, I will find another way to sell my goods
We were just contemplating opening an ETSY store.. but, I think we'll take the hard-earned advice of others and stay far, _far_ away from there. Thank you for sharing this vlog with us! :) Shannon A
Same here!!
Me too!
I guess it’s time to search out an alternative.
Same here
And yet there’s plenty who don’t have any trouble at all.
What I would do is launch your own website and do the work to get your name out there. It takes time and money but better spending it on yourself than giving it to a corporation so their CEOs can buy a sixth vacation home.
I’ve been hearing about the “new” Etsy recently. I even listened to or read an article or interview with the new CEO who apologized, sort of, for the mistakes he has made with the direction his company has been on. He seemed surprised that the profit vs customer and vendor centered business model had caused such a debacle. I will not shop again on Etsy until it’s direction is changed. I have also subscribed to your channel. I’m so glad to have found you.
Thank you for this video. We're starting up a craft group in our village and some people may want to start selling. We'll avoid Etsy like the plague and use another outlet. Fun times ahead for all of us.
That sounds fun Pat, hope all goes well ☺️
Wow! Etsy is really not nice. reminds me of all the Social media accounts that got closed because they had an opinion. I will definitely look elsewhere for products. Done with all the harm Etsy has caused good people. Miss the little mom and pop stores of the world.
Thank you for talking about this. I had no idea things like this were happening on Etsy. I was hppy to buy from there thinking I'm supporting the crafters, people's small businesses. I had noticed there was a suspicious amount of made in China things, aware that I must look carefully at what I'm buying, but I had no idea the website would be doing shady things like holding money from the sellers. Disappointing.
I think if you shop the site, just be aware of what the individual is selling, making sure they are actually making the items. I’ve got a few friends who sell some of their wares and I try to support them.
But setting a shop up there for myself? Nope.
Thank you for comforting the bunny 😪you are truly a great human.
Good decision to leave Etsy. I used to love Etsy I had my Etsy shop for well over 10 years and it got worse and worse and worse. Finally after they gave me an ultimatum on taking payments I just refused to jump through another Etsy hoop. When I did not comply to yet another rule change they shut down my shop. I am so disappointed with what Etsy has become. I still do shop there as I want to continue to support artists but is is not the first place I shop when looking for hand crafted items.
I was a yarn dyer in 2012. I started on Etsy, but only lasted there about 6 months before I started my own website.
Awesome. Are you still selling?
@@katthevampire942 No, I shut it down about 10 years ago.
Thank you for this information. It’s sad, as in my opinion, small businesses are working so hard to deliver cute, special items for creators. Small business is our bread and butter. Shame on Etsy
I've been peak frustrated with them as well. I started up a shop in late June and I guess because I didn't have 30-50 people off Instagram or Facebook champing at the bit to buy my stuff in the first couple of weeks, they just decided that my store was going to be part of their planned 80% or whatever it is they have to just be failing businesses. Months of no sales except my Aunt back in August and she signed off on the message "Aunt ..." so of course now they know that wasn't an organic sale. I get 0-3 hits a day on the stats. That's it. And what really super ticks me off is I was doing some email maintenance and saw I had a folder I'd set up over a decade ago with emails from when I set up an Etsy shop in March 2008. And you want to know what I saw in those? Shop set up on March x, first and second sale THREE DAYS AFTER!!!!!!!!!! And another a few after that and a repeat customer a month and a half later. So clearly it was a much more egalitarian selling platform back then. Algorithms have completely screwed people like me over.
It can’t possibly be your seo your product or your photos? All etsys algorithm.
@@karenl8837I'm not a seller, only a buyer and yes it's the algorithm. It's like fossicking for gold to find good handmade items, I scroll through pages and pages of the same photos from China to find something genuinely unique.
Years ago, we had two local men who built a huge regional banking empire. They launched their first bank by withholding payments made to their agency for insurance premiums. Yes, they grew from a local insurance agency into a multi-billion US dollar banking empire by simply holding onto insurance premiums for up to 6 months. If a customer had an incident, then their insurance agency would catch up the premiums.
It sounds like Etsy is growing its business following a successful model long used by unscrupulous businessmen.
They are taking advantage of two things: The separation of human interaction - you are dealing to a large extent with a computer. So you have no one to get angry at or communicate with. Distance. The product you purchase (if not a service) probably comes from a long way off, in many cases another country. If there is a problem and you never receive the item, or it is different (lower standard) to what you ordered you are unlikely to spend a lot of time trying to sort it out and are more likely just going to take the hit. So they get your money without having to do much.
Goodness me xx thank you so much x I came across your podcast this morning and the title struck me as I’m thinking of opening an Etsy shop… not now! Really enjoyed your chat and will probably spend the rest of the listening to your others while I work… I’m a weaver xx
Thank you so much for this video. I have had enough of Etsy. Both shop are closed. The fees are ridiculous. I worked really hard for years to build a business that would support me and my family. It was way to much effort for so little money. I am currently working an alternative path. No more Etsy anything. I am done.
☹️ good luck xx
Best of luck and success in your next venture!
you are a sweet soul! something happened to that bunny ... but in the end it knew your loving kindness and didn't die alone. That is quite sweet.
I admire your commitment to integrity. I have an Etsy shop that isn't doing anything much. Was debating strongly whether to make a big push for fall but after hearing all these horror stories I wonder if I could absorb being closed down and having my money withheld. Those are bully tactics that will force smaller shops to take business elsewhere. If this is what Etsy has grown into and what they want they should start being transparent & quit calling themselves a marketplace for makers.
I’m sorry to hear that, could you find a different platform to set up and make a big push on instead?
You tried your best, thank you ever so much for trying to help the bunny. You are a beautiful person with a huge heart.
Thanks so much for sharing. I closed my shop down too before that whole nightmare of Etsy just randomly closing people's shops. I had had enough and went off to find other options to sell my items. I am counting my lucky stars that I did that and like you, I won't be going back to Etsy either from what I have seen from others and the nightmare stories I have heard too. All the best to you!
Oh dear, that's an eye-opener; who would've thought Etsy would practice such shady business tactics. Good luck on your new site Jane. All the best!
To be honest all the sites have issues and any of them can shut us down at anytime. Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, Mercari, Poshmark etc. There are horror stories from all the websites. I've been on Etsy for several years no issues. Hope your journey works out for your website.
@thecatid hi I know all sites have issues in general whether dishonest buyers, technical issues with tracking, etc, but do all sites has the issue of shutting down an account w/o reason and holding funds? That’s the problem here not just issues in general.
I’m not trying to be contentious I know “texting” doesn’t display tone, so with all sincerity I too was recently considering Etsy but I’m not sure anymore and it saddens me to know when I buy from there that my money could be withheld from the seller who deserves it.
Doesn’t seem like a morally ethical company. And I don’t want people experiences and loss of income to be minimized as just any other issue. If Etsy is really shady I want to know and pray it gets exposed. I’m thankful you’ve not been touched by their greed or “closed accounts” but do we continue to support evil companies when they destroy others lives?
I know I’m getting deep but this just reflects the world we now live in where even a person’s word is WAY no longer what it used to be.
I’m happy for you but so heartbroken for the many others.
Very true. My husband use to sell on amazon, we were doing well. Then amazon gave our 5 star reviews to a similar item from a diff seller. We couldn't get them back, so we closed our acc and we lost that extra revenue we use to make a moth. Luckily we have 2 main Shopify websites that do well. I can't even imagine that happening and it being our only source of income, like a lot of other people. I guess it happens w/ all eCommerce websites unfortunately. When its not one thing, its another.
I remember trying out Etsy some time ago to sell some crochet crafts. At that time, everything was simple-ish and easy to navigate. No sales but tried to stick it out until some issues surfaced.
First was the immediate canceling of orders which neither buyer nor seller had control over. After this came the payment holds, a new payment processor, the removal of the tax calculator and the fee increase. The only positive was that my favorite shops had sites outside of Etsy.
Glad you found an alternative for selling your crafts, they look really amazing.
Thanks for the etsy heads-up. I was looking into starting a shop, and this information helps. I looked at your list of alternatives and wanted to give a bit of info i discovered by accident about shopify. I made 2 purchases from a seller that uses shopify, and when the orders shipped, i received a notification stating i could track all my orders through the shop app. I thought, while I dont like having to download a lot of apps, I might as well give it a try. After I downloaded the app and started setting it up, google alerted me that the app wanted permission to access my email messages...😮. Ohhh no no no thats not happening, as i have customer information in some of my messages, and Im not letting that info out for any reason. I texted back the notification telling them they are crazy to ask for this and that i would be letting the seller know what shopify was upto. I did just that and contacted the company to let them know shopify is asking for access to peoples email messages, which is a ridiculous request. Im glad I have my google Security set up so high that it warned me what they were trying to do.
Wow
Same thing happened to me. What a scam! It's really disgusting.
Many other Apps also request permission to access, the camera, microphone, emails, contacts and much more. And it's always in the -small- tiny print which goes on forever, so most people can't be bothered to read it all, and just click OK.
You're a kind person, and a thoughtful human being. Even though I'm just seeing this, 10 months after you posted , I cried too when I saw the dead bunny. I believe that people like yourself hold up your particular corner of the universe. You have gravity. Your kindness and honesty affect more than you know. Needless to say, the Etsy shop I was contemplating is no longer an option. Your experience and opinion is so appreciated.
You just earned a new sub. I've been going back and forth starting on etsy with leaning more against it. Your review has pushed me over to just starting my own website. I don't understand the people who love etsy telling other makers that starting a website will be too difficult so don't bother. I get it that Etsy is the fast and easy way but for some makers the risk is not worth it. Some of us have the options of going slow and steady with building a customer base. I've heard too many horror stories about Etsy so I'll go the slow and steay route with my own site and possibly other small platforms. Thanks for your honest reivews.
My pleasure Tammy, I’m glad it helped. Good luck with your new site ☺️
It has been a long time since I put my shop on hold, but at that time Etsy did make some aspects very easy for someone who had no experience. Much has changed so I can’t speak to it.
This is sad to learn! I've only shopped on Etsy, but I've noticed so much product comes from China, and it hadn't occurred to me how much this means to legitimate shops in taking away from American-made craft goods. I did start to notice the source and now try to avoid those foreign providers (can you really call them "shops" if their product is not hand-made?) Thanks for bringing this to light. It's a sad commentary on the loss of integrity in our times.
I’ve opened two Etsy shops recently and both of them got about 5 views in the first two weeks, then no views at all. Meanwhile, I’ve been making sales just fine on eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari with no problems getting paid. This video just cements my thought that I should just shut down my shops on Etsy.
Is the commission less on Mercari? Etsy is sucking the life out of me
I love how she says that she’s gonna leave Etsy because she hates the company THEN SHE PETS AND CARRIES A RABBIT!! Absolute legend!
I don’t understand your point. Were you pointing out that she’s a kind and thoughtful person who cares about all of God’s creatures and their endeavors?
Former eBay seller, I've always had some type of problems with these big companies. Tried Etsy ages ago and at the time their algorithm was working against new shops. I didn't get many views and no sales. I've been thinking of trying again, but this video has me deciding against it. There's no way I can afford to have sales and communication shut down. Thank you 🙏🏻 and good luck with your business 🍀
They Dont shut you down immediately. you just get lower ratings if you do it 10 x maybe? There probably is some number rule. You can change your ship by dates at any time. You have to be aware on your site as a shop owner. Read up.
I've been looking into making a store on Etsy- and now I'm saved from making THAT mistake! Thanks for spreading the word! We need to decentralize from all these corporate hacks!
It's sounding like overzealous AI is responsible for these suspensions - situations that a human would be able to figure out quickly. But as you say it's really hard to communicate with companies like this.
Funnily enough I said to Jonny it feels like all the Etsy staff went to the Bahamas for 6 months and left AI to run things 🤣 It is really strange and will be interesting to see what their future holds.
@@hedgecomber When I was teaching at Heathercombe a year or so ago I had an email from YT telling me my account was being suspended for a breach of their terms, but with no further info. I managed to find an appeal form and fill it in, asking what I was supposed to have done. A few days later I received another email saying that my account was being reinstated, but no explanation. I wonder now if that was also an AI judgement that upon appeal was looked at by a real human and judged to by them to be incorrect. No doubt a cheap way for YT and other to deal with breaches as humans only need to look at cases if a person appeals.
That's just what it is in 2020 etsy suddenly got 100s of 1000s of new sellers who had never run business before they where getting loads of sales and some could not keep up some never intended to they where taking buyers money and disappearing. Etsy was trying to do something to protect buyers and stop scam shops but because they are using AI things went too fare the other way and innocent sellers have been caught up in it.
It seems a lot of us have had negative experiences with Etsy. I had a shop for about two years and got increasingly tired of having my hard earned money sucked right up! I closed my shop as well a year and half ago and ALMOST decided to reopen another shop but I really don’t think I will.
I had an inactive Etsy store, and when I got back into selling my art I was just planning on reactivating the store. But I’ve been reading about Etsy horror stories and have decided not to go that route.
So sorry Mel, but good luck in whichever path you choose ☺️
The vast majority who don’t have horror stories don’t post
@@karenl8837 So how do you know they are the majority, if the don't post, how did you count them?
Same here, let my Etsy site go inactive when these horror stories broke and have finally decided that I can't put myself in the position Etsy wants to put everyone in as a seller. Goodbye permanently to all of the Etsy hassle and yes, fraudulent behaviour...
@@Sailpen564 because there’s millions of sellers and there’s not millions of complaints.
Plus people are always far more likely to whine. You know it’s true
thank you so much for sharing what you've learned as well as the stories of other small businesses... I never knew how bad this has gone, and when we're ready to sell our items, we will NOT be using Etsy. Thanks again!
I launched an Etsy shop for my baking business selling cookie gift boxes and I would have made Etsy star seller, but they counted against me for not having 95% message reply within 24 hours. I only had two messages, one was from my mom about a question about an order that I replied to and the the other one was from a seller that has an auto response of thanks for your order. I didn’t reply to that one because it didn’t need a reply and I didn’t want to bother the seller that I had purchased from. Because I didn’t reply to someone I purchased from, I got a strike. Since then I had replied to other sellers I purchased from and also from a buyer from my shop. I may have had 10 messages since then and all were during my review period for star seller. Today I was notified that I didn’t qualify for star seller and they have a ton of my money from sales because of a reserve that was placed o my account even though I didn’t break bay rules. It’s so frustrating and I would like to go to another selling platform or just do local flea markets or craft shows. I am so disappointed.
Oh that’s so ridiculous, I’m so sorry 😣 Fingers crossed you find your perfect selling place soon x
They did that to me, too last January. I have a shop, but in this case, I was a customer. The seller had a mix-up with my items, and her last message was "Let me check and get back to you." I'm always very prompt in replying, and this was on New Year's Eve, and I was busy, so I didn't think it required a response. When I asked them why they dinged my SELLER account, they said that a seller is a potential customer, and you should be more professional. I searched their rules, and could not find anything about this.
That’s utter bs!
I can't even message my buyers. Etsy has messed that up and won't resolve it. I've asked several times.
That’s basically robbery
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I am a woodturner and blacksmith, and do not know how to get my made things into hands of folks who would want it. I considered etsy, but read many negative things from makers. I am thinking now of squarespace, but beyond maintaining a website the hugest hurdle is a social media presence. I like what I do, and am not a vid maker. Farmers markets and holiday bizarres have been my best successes.
I think having a your own website is the best way to go. No relying on any platform.
The issue with that is traffic
@@monkeddy3366Agreed but if (and it's a big if) the advertising for the website is done properly and given a wide outreach then the traffic to the site will increase, word of mouth of someone who's used the website is also good. There are ways to make it work but it's alot of time and effort which whilst crafting is very hard to do.
@@monkeddy3366True, but a TH-cam channel, IG, etc can help drive traffic to your website instead of to an Etsy store.
Having run a commercial (membership) website a number of years back, I can't emphasize how important BACKUPS are. I was using what was then one of the top-rated ISPs in the US and over the course of about 3 years they changed which hosting plan I was on 2x without notifying me (each time I found out by accident while emailing their user support people on unrelated issues), told me I had "made changes to my website" when it began experiencing server-side issues (I had professional experience in the field and was able to tell them what was wrong but according to them, it was not possible and I must have changed something in my website), and when all the server issues I'd been warning them about finally caused a massive crash on their side I was notified that my hosting plan did not include automatic backups -- and when I pointed out they'd been billing me for a plan that *did* include backups, they told me I was mistaken but offered a "discounted" price of just $250/hour to restore my site on a new server *if* I could provide them a full backup. Being a bit of an idiot, I had assumed they would honor the contract I'd had for years and had stopped making my own backups after the 1st year -- the site never returned and I lost a *lot* of money. Moral of the story: KEEP YOUR OWN BACKUPS because ANY platform can obliterate you if you don't.
@@monkeddy3366 That's where social media, branding, and advertising comes in.
I'm stopping right here at 11:30 min. Before going any further I am sending love and appreciation. Big hugs. I'm a soppy gal too and I recognize your compassion. Thankyou, the world needs more of that. Okay, on with the rest of the video! - Much love from Alaska
I have had a very busy Etsy shop for many years and I was suspended. I was never given any reason.
It was my and my adult daughter's only income and it was out of the blue. We were locked out so couldn't filled so negative feedback happened and there was no way back after that.
I became very depressed it caused a great upset between myself and my daughter because we never really understood why we were suspended.
My daughter did open another shop and I make things and she makes things we are still on Etsy but every you turn around they pull the rug out from under the sellers a little and it never feels safe or solid.
I was with Etsy when it started but sadly they are not that Etsy anymore and haven't been for a very long time.
I’m so sorry this happened to you both, I hope you find another safer way of selling soon x
I can tell you that the globalists want to do away with small businesses, so they make it very difficult for them to keep going. It's basically communism. You will work for the state in what they want you to. That was the reason for all the lockdowns too. Fortunately the world is waking up and fighting back.
@@hedgecomber thank you
I still have an Etsy shop where I sell knitting pattern. It was something that did really well during lockdown. I'm not really bothered how much I am making it just runs and I just respond to emails when I get some. More isn't to do. So later on I opened a second shop for my hand knitted items and I sold a few items but then I looked at my earnings and I thought nope, you are ripping me off with fees there and fees the other, if I ended up with 40% it was a lot. And then I also came across the issue with withholding funds and I thought I don't want to have to deal with it anymore and closed it down. Still running the pattern shop. I sell all my other stuff on eBay now where I earn much more.
Take them to court for loss of earnings, damages, future earnings and reputational damages and so on..If they mismanage their business, their contract with you do not cover them, regardless of what the contract say. Also, nothing that is illegal can be done legal through contract.
Wow! That’s horrible! I am working on launching my own small hand-crafted items business and was just a few weeks from establishing an account with them. Of course, I’m looking into other platforms and my own website but was really looking forward to getting on Etsy.
Thanks soooooo much for your sound advice! This would be a great time to start a co-op type of platform where each small business has a stake or share in the platform itself!!!
Perhaps, they need an attitude adjustment in the form of a lawsuit from all shop owners???
So glad I didnt skip to the bit just about etsy, which is how I came across the video in the first place. You are wonderful, i love all your little rambles and side tracks and how youre not afraid to show excitement or sadness. I'll definitely be subscribing and watching more because you seem like my kind of person - real, and that's beautiful 🧡
That’s so sweet of you, thank you ☺️
That's how I got here. I'm so glad I did.
Same here! I saw this pop up on my feed, and since I’ve been contemplating restarting my scent crafting, with an eye towards Etsy, I clicked.
Less than 30 seconds I clicked subscribe.
Real, kind, beautiful, and lovely lady.
My kind of human.
I've just found your channel, and as a new Etsy seller, I was intrigued. I owned a brick & mortar for 30 years & moved it all online with my own website in 2020. I am a superstar at in person retail but online, and SEO, and all that not so good. I started an Etsy shop in addition to my own site about a year ago & that has been very slow also. I think your strategy is the best one. I think just focusing on building a following and then primarily one's own site is the safest route.
Greetings from a brand new subscriber. Your video just popped up in my feed- thank you for putting this out! Yes, a little warranted rant is good for the soul! (Etsy is evil!) I love your casual vlog style, it’s very well edited and beautiful. You stick to the point and keep each part relevant without unnecessary rambling. So often I get bored watching “vlog” videos, so I’ve never wanted to do one myself. You have me changing my mind. Even your scripted commentary sounded so fresh and conversational, not stiff and flat like most people reading out loud. I can’t wait to watch more from your channel. Thanks again and cheers from across the pond!
Completely agree
Your products are glorious! I’m so sorry you couldn’t keep your shop open. I’ve been asked by many why I don’t open an Etsy shop for my art, and I tell them not after hearing all the horror stories from sellers. Nope. It will be word of mouth or just paint for the sake of painting because I love it!
I tried selling wisteria pods which can be used to make "weather toys", as I call them, that twist when dry and untwist in damp weather. I use wool felting to make gnomes or little people that turn directions to predict rain or dry weather. Scales of a pine cone do the same thing, open and close. To make a long story short, I kept getting locked out of my store, plus the only sale I made was to myself when my computer crashed and I lost a PDF file I made on how to craft the wisteria pods into weather toys. I never lost much money since I never made any. So I just dropped out of Etsy.
Etsy is a disgrace! Who do they think they are grabbing and hanging onto the sellers money? Imagine £7000 is owed to the carpenter mentioned. I am glad he has told the BBC. I won't buy anything from Etsy anymore. The Carpenter could get in touch with a radio programme and tell them about Etsy and advise what their lawyers recommend. Xxx
As a leather crafter, may I suggest you also bevel the edges of you card holdes as well. It will give you a more finished edge. Best wishes for a successful business.
As a future seller, I am glad to find videos like yours. I like to keep informed on how these platforms treat their sellers. I'm sorry that Etsy decided to sell out and act like a corporation and no longer like a platform for the little guys.
I have a Etsy account but only have 7 sales since opening this past March so I’m going try my own shop thanks for your video this really help me decide
Woa… so glad I came across this video just now-I’ve been working on getting the designs and the supplies (and the courage) together to have a go at opening an Etsy shop, and you may have just helped me dodge a bullet. I had no idea things had gotten so bad with them over the years!! (I’ve been a customer of several shops on there, but have never looked much further into the company itself… lesson learned lol). Thanks for posting this ❤ and for being a lovely person to that little bunny, where many would’ve just kept on driving
I just started an Etsy shop in July. I have had some orders but the issue I run into is the over saturation of similar products. (I do faux florals). The last few sales they started withholding some of my income. Not as much as the article you showed but enough to make a dent in my profits. All because one order as for a local customer and I didn’t have or include a tracking number due to the fact that I delivered it personally instead of shipping it. (Etsy has this as an option but apparently still penalizes you if you do this.) I don’t have a huge social media reach yet either so going it on my own would be very difficult. I’m hoping to generate more sales but I honestly get very discouraged by the whole thing.
That's weird! I ship with stamps a lot, and just mark order as completed and have had 0 issues. 😮
Hiya. The way to beat the star seller ridiculousness is 2 things. 1 put 'not available ' in the tracking code box . 2 set up an auto reply on your messages. You will need to keep reactivating the auto reply because i think it only lasts about 2 weeks, maybe a month. But this will mean all yr tracking stuff is covered ... etsy expects this even if its a non tracked item to get 5star seller rating so this stops the strikes there...and auto message keeps your response rate up . And as for replies that aren't needed i just add an emoji like 👍 or 😍 to acknowledge the message...seems to work so etsy sees you have replies but it doesn't keep the convo going . Xxx hope this helps x
TH-cam suggested your video, and I was curious about what was going on with eTsy. Haven't even watched that part, fell in love with you when you stopped for the bunny
Etsy is owned by Blackrock and Vanguard. 🙄I rest my case.
Well that explains everything!
Oh, now I don’t have any questions left. Thanks for pointing that out.
Oh, ofcourse!
Thank you for that info! That explains everything!
Wow, I feel really ignorant, having not known that. It explains SO MUCH. I'm never shopping there again.
Wow thank you. I had no idea they were doing this!!! I will not be starting a shop on Etsy even though I WAS thinking about it.
Jane!!! First of all, Congrats on starting your own shop! I'm so sorry to hear about your experience on Etsy. I've shopped on Etsy for years, but will now ask sellers if they have other sites where I can purchase. Best of luck! I will be visiting the website
btw. Your hair looks fabulous!
Hello you! Thank you and thank you 🤩
Thank you so so much for caring for the bunny. So many wouldn't have. God's blessings on you for your kindness.
I have had an Etsy shop for many years. But I only sell digital products so never have an issue with delivery.
what do you sell?
I'm sorry to hear of your challenges! I have been on Etsy for about three years now. I've been quite successful with my shop, and it's been nothing but a wonderful experience. However, I have heard others state they have had an undesirable experience, and I am glad that I'm not one of them. I believe that the majority of people are having great experiences, and as another person stated, these same challenges happen on other similar sites as well. I've tried selling on a couple others in the past, but prefer Etsy thus far. Journey on in abundance!
Thank you for your honest assessment!! I've bought from etsy in the past and had no troubles, but again that's been 10+ years ago. Well done calling out the jerks in the nicest possible way. I think the term "hopping mad" says it all. ❤
Haha, that was the polite version of how I was feeling 🤣
I which to revive my dormant Etsy shop.
After listening to this, I think it's a real red flag! I personally have never had any problems, but it's not the sane company anymore.
I remember an unannounced money grad that happened a few years ago, when suddenly sellers were were having revenue hijacked via a policy change. The change was that the company was taking their fees out of revenue, in a switch of the finance structure - the sellers had been give until the 15th to pay regular fees, but suddenly were left with no operating funds, as a new system was rolled out requiring the total dyes on whichever sale came next.
Do you understand what I am talking about? I had
Several years of good business from 2009 to 2015, then got remarried.
That is why I am not active with my business. It was a big adjustment period for me.
But now that I am ready, this really stinks to hear about this.
I think having your own website and for some also not having their eggs in one basket and toeing in to various larger market places would be better than just focusing on one. But, keep remembering how just a few years back there was a good local newsletter free at many outlets that had low cost adds and in depth interviews with crafting and health businesses, and smaller businesses. The internet swallowed them up. Creating online newsletter store and off line, like the golden olden days, with shares, co-op, and not relying heavily on ai or computerization, linking up to others in all areas, spreading this and connecting them. Thats what keeps coming to me.
Thanks for sharing Jane. I was just about to set up a shop on Etsy and firmly believe I was led to you. Now I definitely will not. I live in Australia and don't know where I will go. But I will search. Thanks again.
I am so grateful to have found your channel!
I found you from researching the best platform to start my own online store. I will definitely stay away from Etsy after all of the bad news I have heard about them.
Thank you for sharing !
Aww, thank you! It’s such a shame as they have so much to offer but it all comes with such a risk 😔
Good luck with whatever platform you end up on 🤞☺️
So glad I came across your video regarding Etsy. I started a little venture on Etsy exactly 12 months ago. Two shops actually. My first shop sold vintage items (China, glassware etc) and the second was haberdashery - buttons, patterns - all vintage. Within a month, both shops were put into Etsy ‘gaol’ for a sudden increase in sales(isn’t that a good thing?) and they retained 75% of my sales for minimum 45 days. I am in Australia and the footfall isn’t great here but I was gaining traction. I persevered, emailing them constantly to explain their actions to no avail. Eventually they released my shops to trade but then two months after, I was put in gaol again for not putting tracking on some sales. Postage in Australia is very expensive and to send a couple of buttons as a ‘package’ Is not viable. Well, anyways I have just closed my stores and looking to use either Squarespace or a Wordpress website and will see how that goes. I wish you luck in your endeavours and I’ve just subscribed to your channel so I’ll follow your progress. Many thanks from Australia 🇦🇺