same! Makes me sad too because I liked getting original-ish objects from people rather than corporations, but when you can't even tell what's dropshipping vs what's something real that just was stolen by temu... meh
sometimes u can tell , i still use etsy quite often . When 2 different seller sell the same item with same pic and everything its gets fishy oh not to mention custom work that is a easy selling point , hand made no problem
Same! I saw crocheted items that were so cheap that a crafter couldn't even make them for more than a couple dollars an hour. I suspected that they were mass produced or produced in country where a couple bucks an hour is a decent wage.
If you are able to take a screenshot of the product you are dubious about. Go to Google and do a reverse image search. This will bring up where the item is being sold anywhere on the internet. Plus, most of the sellers that are reselling AliExpress or mass produced products don’t bother to take their own product photos, so it makes it even easier to identify mass produced products.
I think at this point, even its sellers are just hoping for the latter so something better than step in and take it's place, as I don't see Etsy going back on any of its policies at this point.
Once you go public, there is no turning back. That's not how it works. It will need to simply collapse or turn into another "Ebay-Amazon" and nothing else. They will not clean up their act.
Amazon gets worse by the day, too. Even if you are explicitly searching for a brand (like bosch) sometimes the first 20 hits or so aren’t even the brand, let alone the item you want. At this point it’s easier to google it and add „amazon“ as search word. Our family is trying to actively avoid Amazon in this point in time, but the results varies. Sometimes it works amazing and is even cheaper, and we support smaller shops, sometimes there’s no alternative. And yes, we accept that small shops are more expensive (sometimes), that’s not a problem. But double the price and a delivery time of 2 weeks compared to next day with amazon is a tough sell, even if you dislike and avoid amazon…
Same i used to dislike ebay but now its really easy to search vintage on ebay and just get actual vintage results. If i search vintage on etsy i just get a load of stuff. Some real vintage Some vintage style stuff. And on eetsy you cant give a bad review. Because the company can just remove your review if its neagtive. I bought silk off etsy and got synthetic ..I complained they refunded me and then i couldnt leave a review to let others know. I go to local craft smaller websites now. Theyre nowhere near as convienient because you have go go to multiple websites but at least i know its local small crafts and products. Or local but abroad.
The moment they went public marked the beginning of the end. It stopped being about providing a good service and became only about maximizing profit. Enshittification everywhere.
I'm not sure about Etsy's case, but a lot of tech startups are eventually forced to go public. Software Developers take lower base pay than they would get at Google, Facebook, etc. for more equity in the company on the promise that they'll be able to sell it in the future. Eventually you get to the point where your top tier of engineers will slowly move on if there's no sign that the equity will be sellable, and you can't offer new engineers as much equity (a lot is already owned by investors whose money got the company off the ground). So, they have to go public in part to "pay" their early staff and keep everyone happy.
Digital artists have also been screwed over by Etsy thanks to their tolerance for generative AI. I used to take art commissions through Etsy, but there's no point anymore when my "competitors" can shit out hundreds of glossy dead-eyed derivative works in the time it takes me to clean up a sketch. I'm sure many buyers can tell the difference, but many others didn't care and/or didn't even see my listings under the endless pile of slop. So I left. It's wild to me how they've managed to make their "artist-focused" site so hostile to artists of all media.
If it makes you feel better, as you said. People still care about whether the product they’re buying is AI. I was recently buying a desk mat for myself and I was choosing between 2 20$ mats and a 45$ mat. Even though the design for the 20$ was better for me, reviewers detected AI errors and I bought the 45$ mat instead because I knew the artist and she has posted her drawing the art for the mat before.
@@slimeprivilege there are tons of people who simply don't care and just use AI instead, even if someones art is good. Why spend money on another person when u can shit out slope that destroys our planet for free?
I literally had to stop using Etsy for this reason. I had some disposable income and moved into a new place, so wanted some wood art for my wall as I like that style. Went to Etsy to support another artist and immediately was inundated with cheap, knock offs that were a 1/10th the price an actual, handmade piece would cost. And there was no way to filter those sellers or their MULTIPLE copycat accounts out. On the one hand it forced me to shop local, and I've been buying art from a local weekend fair to fill my walls and found a local artist I absolutely love in the process. But on the other I'm still furious that Etsy is essentially useless now.
The sad fact is there's no difference to Etsy from a dollar made from linking a buyer with a genuine artisan and a dollar made linking a buyer with Shenzhen Cheap Tat Manufacturing Concern. It's the reason I don't bother with Amazon, or, as I call it now, Alizon. Bezos don't care, and it has possibly the worst search system in ecommerce - by design.
Plus shopping local helps get you out of the house which is good for your mental health.But yeah it is nice to be able to go on etsy and find something unique, not anymore.
@@kittykat632 for me I do prefer shopping in person, but it can be hard for me to feel like i have the time to make the decisions I can make from online. for me I used Etsy for furry things and my favorite shop closed so... I don't use it anymore. I'm sure they were struggling because of the bloat of mass production on the site. finding furry stuff IRL is so hard if you don't spend the big bucks on tickets to a furry convention, let alone waiting for the specific time of year they're held. (not in the cold gross winter here, that's for sure)
Etsy is the"PERFECT" US Company... Start up, get the sellers to do all the work to build up company, then change everything so company makes all the money, until it collapses... Everything, everywhere, eventually becomes a scam...
I was stunned lately when I went looking for something the other day. I had no idea it had gotten this bad. It's the actual embodiment of 'Enshittification'.
I use etsy like I use amazon, as a catalog to find creators, since search engines are all useless now It's like the yellow pages for sellers, then I go directly to the seller's website and instantly get a better deal We live in a cyberpunk dystopia, you'd better start acting like it, chooms
I've done that, too. Unfortunately sometimes the only place the seller sells from is the Amazon site. The thing I wanted was highly recommended by other cat folks so I thought it would work for me, but the company when I emailed them said they only do sales through Amazon. Sucks. I wanted that but I didn't buy it.
I do the same thing! You know it’ll be cheaper on the sellers website, or even in their fb group. I use Etsy mostly for buying embroidery designs to stitch out onto my own projects. Almost every domestic seller also has a website and a Facebook group. The website is usually cheaper bc Etsy adds so many fees that sellers have to mark up their products. The FB group is where to find the GREAT deals though.
You nailed the situation completely. I used to sell antiques on Etsy. The shipping was starting to ruin me, especially since antiques are all different sizes and weights to consider. Then, they took down a listing of mine which was an item made of cow bone. As I also like to educate people on their antique purchases, I had mentioned in the description the history of the item and how they used to be made of ivory, but everything in my listing specifically stated that it was cow bone. They flagged it as being made of ivory. When I tried to reach someone in customer service to reinstate the listing, I was told they would get back to me soon. That was four years ago and I’m still waiting. Then, I moved to Europe, settled in and went to reopen my shop after the move. After years of branding, customer loyalty and reviews, I was told I couldn’t reopen the shop because I changed countries. I had to start all over from scratch. I wasn’t even allowed to reuse the name. So I closed shop permanently.
That's an irrational policy. Unless a business has a registered trademark or service mark, another company in a different State or nation is free to also do business under that trade name. Even if Etsy refused to allow you to reopen your shop under the original account, it should have allowed you to use the same shop name when operating a different business regardless of the jurisdiction it was organized in.
@gaiustacitus4242 I agree. I tried and then they said my company name was already taken (by me, for my US company). And, of course, there was no customer service to discuss it with.
@@MableM1985 I've had similar arguments in efforts to prove that I was (at the time) the sole owner of the business after having purchased the interest of the other owners. There is nothing more frustrating than having the documents to prove your claims and dealing with people who are too dense to understand the documents submitted for review and how businesses operate under the law.
As a seller I abandoned Etsy. I sold a 20€ drawing and got €12, I sold a full body piece for €80 and got €40 back. I hate the site. I don’t want to charge customers this ridiculous price over a company. I went to independent selling.
I’m very sorry to hear about your upcoming random account suspension. I stopped selling on Etsy years ago when my sales stopped after I posted some criticism of Etsy’s then recent change to allow outsourced production. I did some digging on the seller forums and saw dozens of people had the same exact thing happen with Etsy citing “algorithm changes” as the likely culprit.
Thank you so much for doing that! I can speak firsthand that small businesses really appreciate that. These days, we're using Etsy orders to include a coupon specifically to our actually website to hopefully drive more traffic there since very few people do what you do.
@sustainablejungle I'm also a small business owner so I know how disappointing it can be to lose money on fees. It breaks my heart that people just making a living or at least trying to are having to pay so much of their hard earned money to a company like that. 🫣
yep, sorry to have to do it, and trust me I bought a big piece of furniture off Etsy! (note the cheapest way to ship anything LARGE is via a bus company. As long as you package it very very carefully, as they don't insure it won't be damaged, the bus company did a terrific job though you do. have to show up with a truck to take it off the bus. Super cheap)
I’m an Etsy seller and this year has been by far the worst year I have had. I’ve been selling since 2012 on Etsy. Thanks for the video!! It was spot on.
*We are all feeling it across all platforms. The scary truth is we are in yet another RECESSION and never even got to a "Bust and Boom" Cycle since people are finally learning to SAVE for a rainy day. The world could be at the end of its 500 Year "PAPER MONEY" experiment as Bit Coin passes the $100,000.00 mark!!! This is important folks! Ever since I started talking bitcoin for payments my business is exploding again!*
@@Emily-rz7fsit’s the same shit as on ebay, had good views on listings there pre 2020 and nowadays maybe 20 views at best with international social media marketing. Shit sucks
I made a shop to sell handmade leather and steel bracelets. Even when I gave my creations intensely bizarre names and ran a search for said bizarre names, I wouldn't find my item until the third or fourth page, because I didn't want to pay all the ad fees. And with all the mass produced fake jewelry that does NOT take eight hours to produce each, nobody in the world would pay me what my work was worth anyway, they can't tell the difference. :( This was seven years ago. I've long since given up even trying. :/
We had growing business in Etsy. We made all products by hand in small town in Europe. Beginning of the year they just suspended our account with no comments, explanation. This was big blow to our team. Sad. We moved on and growing in other platforms. The same time dropshippers from Asia are still selling like crazy and even reusing our product pictures. Crazy,
I had a business with almost 1000 sales in under a year and out of nowhere they shut me down too.. went from 1000$ a week to a big fat 0... Nothing from their team.
You summed this up so well! Etsy is NOT for creators, Silverman's goal was always to turn it into another Ebay/Amazon. Etsy is no longer the handmade platform.
It's really sad that a platform built for creators and crafters has been taken over by folks who don't care about those very people. But unfortunately not surprising in the modern world.
It's unfortunate, too, because they had that market cornered! But you screw your sellers, you've screwed your business. Amazon handmade and Michael's have tried to compete, but unless they have the buyers they are not good alternatives.
Such a bizarre business plan for the CEO. In trying for more and more, they are ruining their whole business model. Sounds like Etsy is on the way out….but a great opportunity for anyone who can be the next “original Etsy.”
The term "hand made" feels like a loophole for Etsy. Every single piece of clothing that Shien sells is stitched and trimmed by humans, yet intuitively I feel they shouldn't belong on the platform. Also kind of devalues the work that we offshore to the global south, rather than their business practices themselves. Great vid and I love your craft ❤
This is such a good point. It really is so complicated. Heartbreaking that the real makers of those handmade items don’t get paid a lot probably and someone else profits from them. I guess that’s capitalism but it’s still not very fair.
Yes this is an excellent point. As with a lot of things in the sustainability sphere, it's absolutely one of those terms that gets abused and we do forget that technically a lot of mass-produced stuff is also hand made by workers we take advantage of and for some reason, don't consider them artisans in their own right, which they absolutely are. And thank you so much for your kind words about my craft!
This is because handmade is like "natural". It's the wrong term to describe what you actually want to support and denotes a form of an argument to nature fallacy. What you want is bespoke, small, independent etc. Those are the real terms you want but hand made doesn't necessarily mean any of that.
I was duped by a seller with “handmade” lingerie; when the pieces got to me, they were obviously drops hipped and in cheap packaging with Chinese writing on them. I was livid. I reported them but have no idea if anything was done. It was like $60 for dollar store lingerie.
I am an Etsy Seller, and I have had great luck with the platform. However, I hear what you are saying! I stopped offering free shipping this year, and my sales plummeted. They also tried "slipping" an advertising campaign it on me. So, for example, I had a $180 product, and they charged roughly 10%, plus an additional $39 because they said that they secured the lead from an Etsy Ad. The sale came from a repeat Buyer, and so they just advertised to her, and tried to collect the $39. Well, what do you do? It is a lovely platform, but, as everything else these days, it isn't what it used to be. I think that we should all rebel and go back to the 90's!
Honestly so glad others are talking about this! I used to adore Etsy for it being a “one stop shop” for easily finding local handmade goods and small businesses in my immediate area or just within the country. For the past few years it has definitely turned more into Amazon without the Prime option vibes.
as someone who's started their Etsy shop within the past year, their response to dropshippers only screws over real shops: any shop made after April 2024 has to wait THREE WEEKS after receiving an order to get paid for that order. Do you order supplies to make the product once it's been ordered? Need the money from it now? Too late, nothing will release your payments early! I never see anyone talk about this despite how insane it is.
And it's not like that does anything for the drop shippers. It just maybe gives them a buffer for scammers who just don't ship at all. Mind, it doesn't even matter because they have access to your bank account and just take back anything they gave you on a whim.
As someone that DID dropship waiting 3 weeks for the money isn't even an issue assuming you are selling the uasal cheap shit you only need like $2-$10 upfront to dropship it. You shouldn't be selling handmade items if you don't already have the supplies in hand anyway you're never 100% guaranteed to show up at a store needing something to make the item and find it.
@ambeegaming76 i don't think you realize how hard it can be to wait so long for the money even if you do have all the supplies. having to beg family members to help me for bills that I HAVE the money for but can't access is humiliating
@@ambeegaming76 They hold back the money that should go to shipping as well. So you're running in the red for most of a month. You can just put everything on a charge card (if you have one) but that's not a fun place to be...
Small family-owned Ukrainian shop, sell on Etsy since 2013. Yes, it's getting worse and worse, please share reasonable alternatives. I know a ton of Ukrainian-based shops that were closed due to the "policy violations" related to sanctions, but none of them are located on the occupied territory, they all operate in central/western part of Ua. And obviously they don't ship to sanctioned regions (there is literally no way to do this). And yet Etsy doesn't check them, it just shuts them down. And the shipping policy is a joke, how on Earth am I supposed to ship overseas for "free"?..
You just put all of the cost on customer in a price. Also they suspended my shop right when the war started. For digital products. Amd then the second one. Never trust them as your main income source.
It costs me $250 per year to have my own web site, where I sell my own products directly. Given the current Etsy rules I'm thinking its better for sellers to go independent. It might be more work and a lot of technical research, but you get to keep all your profits.
Agree with this, but I also know i's unfortuantely not as simple as that. Due to AI and all the Google Core updates that have happened over the last year which are vastly deprioritixing small web content creators in favor of Google's AI answer, Google shoping results, and Reddit, basically, it's virtually impossible for small sites to land anywhere near the top of the SERPs anymore, so organic traffic from Google is virtually zero. We have a website, have our product listed in the Google shop, do a lot of work promoring the website over our Etsy, even send coupon codes good on the website only as thank yous with each Etsy order, nad yet organic traffic there is still a drop in the bucket to Etsy. Definitely a step sellers need to take to try to work towards Etsy independence, but it's not one that can jsut replace the other in a short amount of time.
Absolutely. And social media has just never been something that's taken off for me. I've tried consistent posting, trending audio, all the suggested reel settings, etc etc, and still just get so little engagement on that front. Funnily, my embroidery socials have much higher engagement levels than my actual craft business ones because it's such a niche subject matter that I embroider so I've kind of found my community there. But it's ironic because that's not even my business. I basically just do that for fun and really only make any money there by taking occasional commissions.
@sustainablejungle Try googling products similar and the same as yours, and look at the other web sites that come up. That should give you an idea of how successful just having your own dedicated web site will be. I'm not an artist, I'm an engineer, and I sell products that I design. But the shopping cart system that I use to take payments is a free open source program. There's a lot of open sources programs available which means you don't need to spend a lot of money to get an online store going. I even created my web pages myself. Although there is a lot of research to be done, but you can create you web site while your etsy store is still active.
This is called the process of "crappification". This is what happens to companies that start with organic, user focused online websites - Pinterest, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. Happens to restaurants that are bought up by chains. These places initially are focused on growing or providing a specific service, but if they decide they are going to go public, they need to show that they can make money, so it all changes. Then people leave the site, and a new one starts up, rinse and repeat.
As an Etsy maker myself, I have also been affected by all these things. After years of struggle, I’ve come to see it as an opportunity to start selling locally. I’ve created pop-ups around town, sold at farmers markets, and school events. I feel like I have my freedom back!
I'm a consumer who used to buy gifts almost exclusively on Etsy. The proliferation of cheap, made in China or India knockoffs and other items pretending to be homemade by an artist but which were instead made by child labor in some dark factory in Asia, totally turned me off. Etsy is just Amazon by another name. In fact, many of the same items are being sold in both places.
Sold an item on etsy for 160€, etsy took a 40€ cut in fees out of that. Also 2 stores that i opened were first banned by AI, took 2 weeks till I could reach a human that apologized for the decision and did undo it. After paying taxes on etsy fees too, I am left with 90€, from that goes off shipping and material cost etc. No idea how the CEO thinks this is feasible
He is at best an out of touch millionaire and at worst wants Etsy to be another scam like rideshare programs where most people just get burned out after learning that they can’t keep ahead of costs
It's very feasible for the drop shippers whose inventory cost is just pennies or a few dollars per item, and have margins and sales volumes high enough to comfortably offer free shipping (and pay all of Etsy's other fees) and still make a nice profit. And since drop shippers and AI folks are making Etsy the vast majority of their money now, Etsy has zero incentive to care about the little guys who only sell dozens or hundreds of items per year because that's all they can make.
I honestly do not buy from Etsy anymore because I don't want to support it. If I do a search and it brings me to an Etsy store, I try to find the maker's personal website to see if I can purchase by other means.
I used to buy quite a lot on Etsy, from Halloween “fake” eyeliner, to wooden yoga equipment. As sustainability was always important to me, I usually shopped from my geographic location by using their “country” filter to filter out anything out of Europe. This also had the advantage of removing some fast produced Chinese products. Now, this filter disappeared from my phone app altogether. Therefore I cannot be bothered to shop from Etsy anymore.
I’m so happy your video found me. I have been an Etsy buyer since 2009, it used to be my top used app because it was so much fun to find unique, fun things. Even if I didn’t buy them, I could favorite them and visit them later. I have become so frustrated because it has gotten so hard finding those things. I have to filter things to ship only within the United States to filter out drop shippers, which then punishes those who are in other countries that I might have otherwise bought from. I also really hate that every time I turn around the app has changed. The favorite and new updates tabs are absolute disasters now and I can’t go back and find things I want to buy later or see if a favorite shop has released something new - the whole point of those tabs. They don’t support true small business sellers anymore and as a buyer, that makes me devastated.
The buyers have changed too. There have always been scams, but the majority of clients were polite and appreciative. Any issues with a sale (and I had very few for the first seven years) were quickly worked out. Now (the last three years) I almost dread a sale on the platform. It seems like there is an issue every third sale or so. It went from feeling like selling at a high-end craft fair to feeling like you're at a bargain basement flea market.
Absolutely. We unfortunately had to change our return policy to flat no returns because people were requesting returns for absurd reasons. We obviously override the policy in select instances if we are indeed at fault, but most buyers on Etsy seem to have unrealistic expectations these days. That or they just do not read the product description at all and then get upset when the item comes exactly as described. 🙃
Never sold on Etsy, but I can relate. Used to sell on a different platform. Example of an angry customer complaint: "You sent me the wrong colour, I ordered green!" Response: A) Your order clearly specifies white, and B) white and black are the only two options. Platform: Grant the return. The seller pays for shipping both ways, the money will be reimbursed to the seller, but only after we have taken our cut first, as if the order was in fact complete.
I think the reason consumers are extremely demanding and thoughtless is because this the expectation on most other commerce websites. Free returns, returning something after you actually use or wear it once or in the case of some sites like temu or cider, customers are actually incentivised to just keep the garbage they bought and buy more because it's cheaper for them than processing a return. Most consumers expect this type of service everywhere and it is eroding out sense of what a good buying experience is.
im a seller and a buyer... and yes you are more than right. i make handmade jewelry on a lower cost base for people so they can afford my pieces and i see a lot of jewelry "handmade" (have seen them on shein etc) choosen over mine it breaks my hearth! and as a buyer its so difficult to tell if you are ripped off or not it hurts our reportation as a seller too
What's even more interesting with that free shipping stuff is that for us, sellers from outside of the US, 'free shipping' means 'free shipping for the American customers.' And that just pushes us to make worldwide shipping free. Which is a bit insane. We either have to hide worldwide shipping within our prices and punish local customers to keep American clients or lose money on orders sent to the US (and worldwide). Or, well, stop using free shipping completely and lose sales.
Here vintage from Germany.... Yes...and it's insane... A parcel costs nearly 50 euro to us.... And when DHL throws the stuff on the ship- even when you paid Express before Christmas.... So shipping is not 10 days but 4 -6 weeks.... Etsy refunds and you stay on all costs and looses the product too
When I was first considering selling on etsy, the shipping was my main problem. I tried shipping some art from Switzerland (where I am) to friends in Hamburg and Amsterdam. I used an A4 cardboard envelope and paid 14.50CHF (15€) each and the one to Hamburg came back. Adding 15€ to the selling price ruins everything. So I didn't open an Etsy shop...
@@artfoex Yeah, and when we moved to England, I tried using Evri, with which Etsy partners. And I had something like three orders lost within the first month. And then they charged additional fees for almost every package I sent. Supposedly, because I measured them wrong. While I'm sending with Royal Mail, nothing like that happens. Never!
Preach, sister! You just got yourself a new subscriber. When they started buying Super Bowl ads I knew they had no idea wtf they were doing. Also, making hundreds of millions off masks during the pandemic made their shareholders go:”Yes, keep doing that.” As far as dropshippers go, if they have generic merch photos, they’re probably not legit. Look at the “related items” and a lot of times they’re literally the same designs (t-shirts especially). You can’t sell a t-shirt for less than $10 and make a profit, it’s just not possible.
Everything you said is spot on! Another thing I’ve noticed is people/scammers scrape Etsy for “best sellers” and steal artists work. Eventually there becomes so many similar listings but it’s ppl stealing artists work. This on top of AI and dropshipping is so frustrating. I’m just about ready to close my Etsy because of this.
It's been unusable on the customer end for years too. Not sure what their goal is, as I only hear bad things about the seller experience too. The search function is basically useless. Gave up on it years ago sadly. I remember eBay became a bit tyrannical, but finally with competition (vinted, depop, etc) they have made seller terms more reasonable again. Hopefully the same happens for Etsy. Seems like a huge gap in the market honestly.
It is a huge gap! And someone who used to operate a consignment store, I have considerable eBay selling experience, too, and definitely have a better experience there. If nothing else, it's relatively easy to speak to an actual person at eBay customer support, if something does go wrong, whereas it's basically completely impossible to speak to anyone at Etsy.
I felt they just buy bots for poor random interactive, forced sellers to pay more to Etsy ad, cos the lower the selling the more desperate on ads profits, they clearly using this strategy to build up profits figures for the board n yearly report.
Has eBay actually made any changes to improve things for sellers? I left the platform in 2019 because things only ever got worse. And worse. And somehow still worse. What has improved?
@@IanHobday It's gotten no better on eBay, but the customer base seems to accept higher costs now. Given all the fee increases, COG inflation, rising shipping costs, and eBay's dogged attempts to emulate Amazon despite that being a) impossible and b) all sorts of enshittification, sellers haven't had a choice but to raise our prices. We're certainly not getting bigger profits as a result of doing so. All the problems eBay had pre-pandemic only got worse. Especially paying even more to promote your items so they appear in search results.
@@mallwydmanlobbi Ah, that sounds like the eBay I know and "love". Clearly they're sticking to their long-running motto of, "We're not happy until you're not happy!"
NGL what I do on etsy is if I'm buying something I find a shop I like using their search, then I take the name of the shop and the items and I google it and buy it on their own site, unless it's only available on etsy like some patterns.
That's the best way to approach this and us small sellers really apprecaite buyers like you that take just a little extra time to seek out our own shops first. Thank you!
I sell stickers, enamel pins and clay crafts on etsy. Everything is at least designed me and i do make stickers at home and also clay crafts. The enamel pins i draw but due to not being able to make them i use manufacturing for it. But i still draw them and also hand cut the backng cards and ship them my self. I just think it is so unfair, that there are sellers, who can sell 100 alibaba stickers that they havent designed for 2-3$ I could never compete with the price. I am also always transparent about possible manufactoring and what i make start to finish. Then i see shops that have million sales but claim to be entirely handmade by one person. It really grinds my gears. :(
This video could not be more perfect, thorough or accurate. It summarizes everything I have seen and felt about Etsy for several years now. I stopped selling there, knowing it would reduce my visibility outside of my local marketplace. But I could not keep up with businesses that are undercutting small makers at every junction by selling mass produced or imported goods.
I have browsed on Etsy, but never purchased because the shipping has been comically high. Just yesterday I went down a rabbit hole and decided to search for classic xmas candy. A US seller had a 400g bag for $36. The shipping to Canada - ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY SIX dollars!! You'd think it was being overnight air freighted to Antarctica.
"Make Commerce Human" became the most laughable slogan for a company ran by bots with an insane amount of AI generated crap and drop-shipping resellers. I've had issues with my accounts a few times, and spent WEEKS trying to figure it out with Etsy help desk, only to get replies from a new person that basically started the whole process over every single time I got an e-mail back. It was maddening. About the shipping : I've been trying to set my prices while keeping the 'free shipping' in mind. However, shipping to let's say Australia could be around 11CAN. Shipping the same order within my own country would be about 27CAN. All while losing about 15$ on my item sale with their fees and taxes and taxes fees. (Why is there a SHIPPING FEE if I'M THE ONE SHIPPING IT MYSELF?!)
That slogan is what really does it for me 😭 Nothing human about it anymore. AI generated slop "items" being sold, scam dropshipping, and on top of it all.. No customer support, or whatever support you might find is just an AI bot. So tiring.
My wife used to make badge reel pulls from upcycled jewelry parts and pieces. She did quite well on Etsy for about a year or two, then the market flooded with cheaply priced mass produced copies from the C.H.Ina corporation. That ended that. I sold vintage items and also supplies like old canvas, vintage fabrics, etc. Pretty soon I too was pushed out by the overseas sellers selling fake junk. I used to buy on Etsy but between the flood of garbage listings and the outright scam sales I ejected. Etsy is going the way of eBay, screw the makers and small sellers in pursuit of ever greater profits for the corporate overlords.
Here is why Etsy is closing shops: 12:13 Random Account Suspensions & 14:35 Removing Listings...Etsy wants it to "look" like they are policing the platform. Follow the money it's easy to see Etsy values drop shippers who gleefully follow their insane rules and they are willing to sacrifice true makers to keep them all under the guise of of "policing the platform". I am not an Etsy shop owner...but I am an artist and I hate this crap Etsy is doing!
This is a great post. I really like how you made your introductory comment first and then asked for me to subscribe. Everything you said was important, relevant and concise. There were no “filler words” just there to make the video longer.
I have been on Etsy, selling handmade miniatures, since its first year. I was doing really well on Ebay, and decided to try Etsy on the recommendation from some people who were in the miniature collecting world. I remember when I first opened a shop, it was dead. Zero traffic. I actually did not think it would take off. I still have my shop, but it have been in vacation mode for several months now, and I am not sure if I will open it back up. I find that I do just as well selling on Facebook. Every year, it seems like they add more and more changes that anger sellers. The one that really ticked me off was when they began taking a percentage of fees from shipping. Wtf!? That is not even income! And as a Canadian seller, I simply cannot do free shipping.
I'd highly encourage you to avoid jumping ship too fast (and this comes from someone who sells on Etsy and think they are a terrible company). Setting up a website is cheap, but getting customers to find it through advertising is expensive. If you could spend $13 on advertising to get a customer that would be a miracle (I was watching Shark Tank yesterday and 2 different companies said they were proud of $50 and $75 costs to get each customer) at $13 you'd need to average $100 per order to hit the 'fee' rate that Etsy charge. If you were hitting $50 advertising spend per customer (like on Shark Tank) you'd need each customer to spend $400 to be comparable to Etsy. HOWEVER, if you have a large social media following (or can build one) and sell items that result in repeat customers then maybe you would make more on your own website, but keep your Etsy shop running in the background in the meanwhile.
That would cost more. Payment processors also have fees. They are not as high. But Etsy have have to pay employees. They are a business. They have overhead.
Im in uk and theyve just run a massive ad campaign hinging on everything being "handmade".. drives me nuts especially as i was about to use them to start selling. I make dice and candles and jewelry but looking at etsy made me depressed. I have no idea what option to use now. Your embroidery is FIRE ❤
They run the same advertising campaign in Germany and I always get mad when I see it ! Etsy bought a local German DIY online platform in 2018 and it all went downhill from that. Instead of spending money on adds they should fix their platform.
In Germany we used to have a similar platform like Etsy which was called Dawanda. It founded 2006 and sold to Etsy in 2018. I really miss Dawanda because it was just like you described the early Etsy. Only small creators and vintage sellers.
I sold on Etsy from 2009-2014ish. Even though that was before a lot of these changes took place, myself and many sellers could see the writing on the wall and started to leave the platform. I closed up shop right around when mass-manufactured items started being allowed as long as sellers provided proof (no matter how spurious) that a real craftsman had touched the product somewhere along the line...meaning that real craftsmen got completely flooded out by dropshipper storefronts claiming to source/manufacturer their items from "small local artisans". It hit the jewellery and clothing sellers extremely hard. I had no idea that it had gotten this bad for sellers. I now only use Etsy to browse through shops and then just buy from the maker's own website instead. This just feels like the endgame of the total corporatization and conglomeration of the internet, where all internet users are funneled into using an increasingly small number of channels for everything. Functionally, Etsy, Temu, Amazon, Aliexpress, and Ebay are all the exact same store, pushing the exact same mass-produced cheap slop, made in the exact same factories.
I’ve been a primarily digital seller (coloring pages, sewing patterns), with some physical items like stickers that, due to living situation I go through a secondary source to produce (all quality checked by me before shipping) for about 8-9 years now and honestly it’s just not feeling feasible to keep up an Etsy shop anymore, let alone while trying to get through college. I wasn’t even aware of some of the things you mentioned in this video until now, but they explain quite a bit. Thank you for this video, it’s been very informative and has definitely helped further influence me to go find a better platform to sell what I make.
Reading all the comments below, it really seems like it's time for a class action lawsuit against Etsy from all the storefronts they've completely ruined by their insane changes and profit-driven policies and lack of owner support. They've ruined people's livelihoods and shouldn't be able to get away with that!
Over what? You have to find laws they've broken or argue that they've done something unfair unilaterally with the power dynamic. I reckon its possible but not straightforward or garunteed
Once I saw on Etsy a set of earrings for 19.90 that had been exactly the same from a chinese seller, that sold in that shop for 1.50 or something like that. 😞
This does happen where sellers create double accounts and raise prices, but it's also woeth keeping in mind that some Chinese sellers rip off Etsy sellers with a cheap Chinese version and undercut their business. Shein and Temu have an extensive history of this--just search Shein ripped off my design and you'll see SO MANY people accusing them of this. So it is possible that the original Etsy listing was the first, and deserves to be priced at $20. But it's so hard to tell anymore
Yep, I see TEMU stuff on Etsy all the time. If you search for something generic like "gold ring" for example, you'll see all identical stock photos. HOW ARE THEY ALLOWING THIS?
Many independent makers platforms are facing the same thing. Options for marketing are being bought up, changed to the point that they don't work for small enterprises, and/or just shut down. Why does it feel like artists and makes are being starved out and/or silenced?
I sold on Etsy for years and closed my shop a few years back due to everything you are speaking about. I was loosing money, some things you can't just up the price on to compensate for having to give free shipping. There are things that just aren't worth more and customers won't pay more for, so you have a listed product that won't sell. Great video!!
Very good video, this is a huge problem and I think you've done a good job explaining it. I as a customer have been using Etsy less and less because of the amount of dropshippers and such, and I knew there was some bad stuff going on from the sellers point of view too, but I didn't understand the depths of it until now. The lack of transparency around the fees is apalling, and if I'd known about the immense pressures to provide free shipping I probably would have asked to tip somehow for the actual shipping cost -- if I ever do shop on Etsy again, I'll probably try to do that? I do want to add a slight bit of nuance to one small thing that you said though, which is the way you use the phrase "hand-made" in opposition to "mass produced". I agree that it absolutely is a huge problem that there's so much mass-produced stuff on the platform and that the dropshippers are claiming credit for it, but I think it's very important to acknowledge that certain categories of mass produced items (mainly clothing) made in China often _are_ hand-made, just, by people working under horrible conditions in sweatshops. Of course this doesn't apply to all types of items, and I understand how this might seem a nitpick, but it's a matter that I personally find important -- and one that in my opinion, makes the growing presence of these items even more horrifying, because an item made by exploited hands forced to do so is in my mind even more of a problem than an item made by a machine.
I'm coming from it from an Etsy buyer prospective, when I do my shopping I ensure before anything else that the Etsy store-front folks are in my state, that way I feel more confident they are local to me and less likely to be a drop shipper. It can happen but if I limit my search, I tend to find more genuine (non-corporate) folks selling crafts. Also support anything going on in your area, look occasionally if there's a festival near you or artist alley or if a comic convention is occurring; I usually find lots of original, one of kind items from attending those seasonal events.
I'm glad I'm not the only person who does this, before I shop I always filter by country it's shipped from and it has to be from the US or my own state. But it's annoying because the filter resets very easily if I navigate away. And then I'm bombarded by 'handmade' mass produced stuff.
Sadly you can’t really evaluate the real location of a seller from the location posted since etsy manages that. For example I sell both pod and handmade and etsy shows various locations in my listings for my pod suppliers that aren’t always accurate. Sometimes they show my location, sometimes they show the printer location. I’ve had customers get upset about this but there is no way to control it.
I’d agree with the fees you mentioned. I’ve been on etsy since 2006 and seen a lot of changes. If you do the math, even without offsite ad it costs about 12% in fees because usually not every listing sells, plus fees etc. with offsite ads it is more.
This. I've said this for years, but it just becomes more and more insulting as literally everywhere else is taking inflation into account, except Etsy.
I've been waffling on starting an Etsy shop for a couple of years, mainly because I've seen so many *very* negative reviews of their business practices, the randomness of shop closures, the apparent near-total lack of actual human support for sellers, and the flood of drop-shippers who are basically shilling for Chinese mass-production companies. Your analysis of the fee structures is the straw that broke the camel's back; somehow, until now, I managed to miss a straightforward breakdown of how much it would cost me to sell on the platform. I'll continue to keep an eye on Etsy, but have stricken them from my list of possible shop hosts for the foreseeable future. THANK YOU!
If you're in the UK it's actually quite simple (though Etsy try and make it look complicated) the fees are 13% of the sale total (including postage) plus 20p(ish as it's converted from dollars) to list each item. Just make sure to turn off the settings for paying for advertising when you join as paying for adverts when you have no sales or reviews is unlikely to get you a return (though as mentioned in the video, if you become successful Etsy force you to join the advert scheme)
Thank you for sharing this, so interesting to hear from a sellers point of view too. As a buyer I used to love Etsy, the handmade beautiful items I purchased were worth the premium price. But noticing the prices get even higher and the quality and amount of clear mass produced garbage listings really turned me away from using it at all. Such a shame to see when there are so many amazing crafters out there but they get swamped and hidden within all the rubbish. I hope one day the site can get back what it once, or you can all find a place online to replace it.
The $6 shipping thing is crazy! Especially like antique sellers who might sell large or heavy items. My parents sell a 4lb. book that my dad illustrated that costs way more than $6 to ship. Even when I ship something that’s only 1oz it can be almost $5.
Yeah, I don't think they understand that shipping can fluctuate based on size and weight and location. I send very small products that mostly fit in 5x5" or 6x6" cubic box and typically weigh 10 ounces to 2 pounds, and even then, my average shipping cost is probably at or even a little above $6, so I can't imagine what it's like for sellers than ship heavy, large items.
@@sustainablejungle. They just don’t care. They want you to fold it into your prices. I won’t buy from sellers who play these shipping games to please the Etsy algorithms; as a non-US buyer, I would end up paying full price international shipping on top of subsidizing the “free” US shipping built into the item price.
I was an Etsy seller until just after the pandemic, and I reaped the rewards of the boom in online shopping. Your video should be required for prospective Etsy sellers to view. One thing that wasn't fully covered was zone pricing for USPS shipping. I was an East Coast seller with the majority of my sales going to the West Coast. To cover the cost of "free" shipping in my prices I, in effect, had the closer East Coast sales subsidize part of the shipping costs to my West Coast customers. I had previously charged the actual shipping costs to all and felt that was fair. Good luck and I hope your shop stays successful.
Thank you very much and so happy to hear you enjoyed the video. Yeah, I think it's important to educate prospective Etsy sellers on the reality of those fees, because Etsy's lack of transparency on the matter is insane. Yeah we also use the location offsetting method. We haveflat-rate shipping set to their $6 cap, and sometimes shipping to surrounding states are just a little cheaper than that, and shipping cross country is something double that, but it overall balances out...at least since we turned off the $35 free ship policy, because we were losing a lot of money on shipping when we had that on!
@@sustainablejungle Btw, re fees, you forgot to mention in the hidden charges section that these are all pre-sales tax (in the UK where I am it's called VAT - unless you are VAT-exempt - and it's 20% on top of the 6.5% transaction fee, 4%+£0.2 payment processing fee and £0.16 listing fee).
I stopped buying on Etsy when shipping prices became outrageous. I have had shipping quotes that were 3 times the price of the item. I live in Ontario, not Siberia! Sad how Etsy has changed. Back in the beginning, it was a great site to shop from, and I found some great items.
I get how frustrating it is, but as a seller, I can say those shipping prices are not actually the fault of sellers or even Etsy itself. That's all the postal service, as they're the ones who are setting shipping rates....and continuing to raise them. For instance, for me to ship a small 1 lbs package to Canada, it costs at least $25 after my commcercial shipping discount. More the farther away in Canada I'm shipping. I know my international shipping rates are extremely high and I hate that it's the case, but it literally costs that much to ship internationally these days.
Longtime Etsy buyer - not frequently but a few times a year, for gifts or small things. The experience has gotten so much worse for shopping too. There are way, way, way too many listings (because dropshippers can generate way more products than actual artists), items are in completely the wrong category (because so many of the dropshippers are spamming description terms to get their listings in multiple categories), stores are incredibly difficult to evaluate quickly (because dropshippers & dropshipping customers skew the amount & reliability of reviews), and the filters are completely useless (because it's not valuable to Etsy's bottom line to help sort products in any truly meaningful way). Not to mention the sheer number of ads or promoted listings. I really liked the suggestion by other commenters to use Etsy as a search engine for craft shops rather than a storefront or point of sale. I'll definitely be doing that until a worthy competitor gets enough traction. Sad to see another great piece of the internet crash and burn for the sake of investor profits.
I have bought from Etsy, but stopped as soon as it started creeping into drop shipping. I also tried to become an Etsy seller, and for myself it was so convoluted and difficult to set up I gave up. Those kinds of requirements are only overcome by companies who have the resources (read, money and time), to even set up a store. Let's be clear, Temu, Shein, Romwe, Amazon, eBay and now Etsy are basically drop ship outlets all coming from the same place, by the same people, for the same available stuff. Part of the problem is the closing of brick and mortar stores of every size. The places where mass produced clothing, crafts, home decor, etc, are no longer places who will buy from the manufacturers because they don't exist anymore. The sweatshop, cheaply made goods need a market, and it's slipped into the gap made when physical stores noped out. Where there was quality restrictions and safety protocols for the crap, now it's non-existent. And the cherry on the top or them is that they can creep though the individual sellers' well made, handmade and creative goods and clothing and rip them off and sell them with no real recourse for the creators.
I just started selling on Etsy, I run my own site and sell on eBay but thought Etsy would be a good outlet too. I sold a $525 item, and the seller paid $75 shipping,. My take away from this entire transaction was $391. What a joke. I thought eBay was bad.
Oh wow, that's awful. My stuff is all lower value items (mostly $20-$30) which a couple $100+ art pieces so it stings just a bit less looking about how much they take away from each sale.
I have reported TONS of shops selling AI art and NONE of them got deleted. Can't tell me it's too hard for them to spot it when a shop has 380.000 products with 2 days delivery time "handmade art" the simple limit of 50 items per month alone would be enough to stop a lot of ai scammers and dropshippers from abusing the platform
@@peauela1775 They don't disclose it in the description. And even if they did, they are still scammers. Someone copy-pastes the requests of their customers into a free software fueled by stolen artworks and takes 100+ bucks for it. How in the f is that not a crime
Embroidery is slow art. It takes lot of time and effort to create one project. It’s kind of insulting. AI has ruined a lot of crochet social media and pattern sites already. So sad to see it happen to embroidery now too. This is just depressing.
I think AI is ruining a great many things, as it is also environmentally destructive. It steals to learn, and then turns that into "creation". It will then come after the original artist for copyright infringement. I think there is at least one guy on youtube that has had an AI infringement complaint, on his originals.
I learned so much from this video. Thank you. I've been doing a lot of Etsy purchasing but now I'm going to be ultra discerning and careful, and look into going to sellers' websites off Etsy.
You absolutely nailed it. Etsy is going through the same problems so many companies do in our late stage capitalism hellhole. Once they went public they forgot who makes their money for them and what makes Etsy special, and focused instead on squeezing blood from a stone (that's us) for shareholders. Profits always have to be trending up, growing quarter over quarter. That is not a sustainable, environmentally friendly, nor realistic business model for any type of business, yet our whole mindset and economy are built on this concept. I have been on Etsy since its beginning. I sell vintage and antique items, and it's sad to see how low it's sunk. A lot of it is now cheap, mass produced junk manufactured abroad with environmentally harmful methods. Just like Amazon, but marketed differently. I've never been dependent on Etsy as my only sales venue, but artists who make their products have fewer options and I hope new platforms become available/successful. :(
My husband just finished getting his Master's in Accounting and Business Management and the number of things in American business practices that straight up don't make any sense is shocking. The big heads will say it's because we don't understand high level business but I think it's because American led businesses act a lot like scams and Ponzi schemes
I've been on Etsy since 2020, much to my surprise there was demand for my items, so I slowly started expanding it. 2023 was my biggest year, making almost $20k (before fees), and then... half my sales disappeared. I never knew why, I only missed out on Star Seller status a couple times, like 98% of my reviews are 4 stars or more, I just assumed the algorithm didn't like me anymore. I've tried raising my prices to cover the ever-increasing shipping and Etsy fees, and I think I've hit a point where I can't anymore, sales all but disappeared when I hit that threshold. Fortunately for me this was just a side hustle, so I'm now winding down the shop and just getting rid of whatever I have on hand (which is taking forever since Etsy isn't sending me any sales). The sad thing is, at least for me, it's not entirely Etsy's fault, it's equally Etsy and USPS, they keep jacking up their rates like 10-20% every year (sometimes TWICE a year!), I just can't justify some of my prices that I need to have to cover the shipping (most of my items are $15 or less, so shipping is sometimes half the cost!).
I feel you. Last year was good for us as well and while we haven't dropped off the map this year, it definitely feels slower. I'm also not always a star seller, just because I have a few things I ship in a stamped envelope so can't add tracking and I'm not going to charge people $3 in shipping for a $3 item just to appease Etsy's demand for tracking. And yes, comparing current USPS fees to when I first started selling on Etsy...it's like nearly double compared to 2018! I hate to think what they'll be like in another 6 years.
Also worth mentioning on the forced off-site ads. My partner was doing limited run, the only way to get them before they sold out was through links on social media and yet she still saw fees from off-site ads. We're entirely on Etsys word for these so it's likely just as phony as Facebook video metrics.
I have been their a long time. I let my shop lay dormant for awhile, but I remember when ETSY was on Gold Street. I shop there also. I hated that they allowed drop shippers and non-handmade items. It made it hard to compete. Many of the things you spoke about in your video are so true about Etsy. Many small creators can not afford to move to other platforms, so they stay on Etsy and take the abuse. I have also heard of Etsy refunding purchases without even giving the seller a chance to verify the issue or correct it. Leaving the seller in a finance hole. Yes Etsy can be a trip.
Hi Sustainable Jungle. This is the first time TH-cam has sent me towards your videos. This is the first video I have watched of you. I have come to notice that this is a trend - I have heard of this from just about every person who solely depends on an internet company for their company's presence and livelihood. I handmake small form factor, portable computer systems and I have just launched my introductory product line. I epitomize what Etsy seems to have been about. I have never bought or sold on there, and I probably wouldn't. I'd rather continue building my own presence the old fashion way and not base my sales results on "other people's" traffic. Yes, it tempting to just post some pictures and start getting sales, but those sales are based on false pretenses and that is why the dependability factor is so high with these types of sellers. They are not selling to their own merited traffic, but someone else's - again, hence the high dependability factor. That is why they can do practically whatever they want and get away with it - because you've become enslaved to sales without the leg work. Really enjoyed how you present your topic! Definite like here!
The free shipping applies to US only. A friend was going to start selling when this came but being in Australia meant that the free shipping to us would mean that "selling" an item would end up costing my friend OR the prices were so huge no one would buy. Etsy seems to want to be a US store for US only which is terrible for the rest of us.
yeah if I want to buy a patch (which you can put in an envelope) from the US it can cost like £30 on a £4 item. I got some one year by asking an american friend to buy them for me (it cost like £5 for her to ship them over, and this was multiple patches)
Well, it's a domestic policy, not technically just USA. If you're in the US, the free ship policy applies to anywhere in the US. If you're in the UK, it still appliers to you, just in the UK.But yes, it at least doesn't apply to international orders.
@gauloise6442 there is so much stuff from other people though outside Oz. Why should I have to limit myself and why should these sellers only have a domestic market on an online platform. It is not fair to anyone except etsy
There is alot more to getting on the first page and being seen by buyers in the first place. It's why i think videos about SEO are almost useless. I have searched for my product by name and not been able to find it. If Etsy doesn't want you to be seen, then you won't be.
It's true. It took me four years of having my shop be open before it really started to gain traction. And I know a fair bit about SEO and all that, and while I do think choosing the right tags helps you find your target niche a little, it's true that you won't really get seen in the search unless you are a popular shop with good reviews...which you obviously can't get unless Etsy shows you to people. So hard to balance.
Yes! The searches are TERRIBLE. The number of unrelated or misleading listings I've scrolled past, page after page after page, and then thought to myself "That's it? Nobody else on this site is selling those things?" Completely ridiculous.
I’m finding the free shipping for sales over $35 and then add a discounted price for having a listing in someone’s shopping cart, or other small discounts, I’m making less and less from most sales. This past year, I also saw a big drop in visits. Such a shame.
Same here. And with inflation, materials costs alone are rising. Even thoguh we work with upcycled materials, we still need to buy things like shipping boxes and all that keeps going up, on top of earning less on each sale from Etsy. Yet I think I'm at the cap of what I can realistically charge for my products, so I feel like I'm at a bit of a crossroads here.
What happened to Etsy? Corporate greed to start and it's all downhill from there. As a shop owner, they make it very difficult. As a buyer, I hate their search engine. Sadly, I only shop there as a VERY, VERY, last resort.
This is why I think a company is destined to be terrible once publicly traded. It's never about long term profits or sustainable profits. It's about how much can they squeeze a higher profit margin before it dies and gets revived again
Businesses initially need sellers, but when they grew big, they no longer need them as much, then they grew greedy as they can afford to ditch small sellers. Competition is always good. Etsy alternative will make them listen again.
I've been on Etsy since 2008. Whatever this is, isn't Etsy. It has motivated me to do shows, though, and shows are more way fun than the internet. So thank you Etsy, for being such dogshit.
I'm so happy to hear doing shows have been working for you! I wish I could do more craft fairs and shows. Unfortunately, I live in a very small town so the few art markets we have in a year are just low volume and rarely even worth the effort to set up and booth fee expense. I would love to live somewhere with a more popping art scene to do this as well!
@@sustainablejungle I'm not sure what the show scene is like as I am not a maker, but one thing I do (I sell vintage/antique stuff) is take summer/fall sourcing road trips (sleep in my car or camp to save money, but I do tourist stuff along the way). Maybe you could do something similar attending shows and make it like a vacation + work.
I do this to source my upcycled materials and couple times a year! I actually used to be a vanlifer so I have a van that makes it quite cushy. And I've considered travel vending, the trouble is, it can be difficult to align makers markets, especially since many of them require applications wayyyyyy in advanced. But we have found some wholesale partners on these trips so it usually works out, but would love to expand my sales reach further doing this.
My shop is fluffybluecat on Etsy and Oct 1 sales went from 12 a day to 2 sales every other day or less. My shipping is set for on calculated but it is under the $6. It breaks my heart. I was so excited for this holiday season. I have my own website and just signed up for a goimagine shop as well. Wishing everyone else a busy season. 💙😻💙
@veggiegirl3608 Yes, same here. I m a seller since 2014 w 72,000 sales. Etsy randomly deactivated my own original designs mfg by hand in my own studio, gave me a “final warning” and as apparent “punishment,” took down my star seller badges. My polite and professional appeal generated an automated generic email reply. Our search and views fell 60%. Very frustrated and in fear of another AI listing deactivation that might trigger suspension or closure. Without the ability to communicate with a human for seller support, the result is severe damage to our shop members and also to Etsy’s interests because our ASP is $40+ shop name is ShelleyCooperJewelry
I stopped selling on Etsy some time ago. I didn't like what I was seeing, and after watching this video, it totally confirmed my decision. Thanks for bringing this information to light.
Yes, Etsy is getting harder and harder to make a profit. I sell both hand made items and craft supplies and in 2023 my Etsy sales dropped 80% and never went back up. I have diversified a lot (trying all kinds of products). I also offer almost all free shipping (my average shipping is $4.50) and I bake the cost into the item but I have a few items that are a few Lbs that I still charge shipping on (Priority Mail with $12 average shipping). Etsy has dinged me for not being 100% free shipping and I have the $35 free shipping turned off. I would love to find a place to replace Etsy but not holding my breath.
I feel this. There are marketplaces that are stepping up and trying to compete, so I think it's worth creating a storefront on these other options even if they don't get a lot of immediate traction. I think over time, people will get sikc of Etsy and we'll see more and more sellers and ethically-minded buyers leave, but it's certainly not going to the mass exodus I think a lot of us wish for.
Etsy no longer maintains standards. My latest Etsy experience was with a chinese drop shipper/scammer posing as an Indiana shop. Etsy has lost my business forever.
I opened my Etsy shop about 13 years ago and couldn't agree with your summary more. My shop has been exemplary (it's my reputation after all!) but 100% of my interactions with Etsy support have been HUGELY frustrating experiences, which I honestly think is by design at this point, just to exhaust you. I'm in the UK and only use them for overseas sales and send as much traffic as I can to my other UK shop. The traffic I get through Etsy just about keeps me hanging on but I despise their business practices. If there was a viable alternative I would switch tomorrow. Great video, thanks for raising awareness.
Seller here. The $35 free shipping thing is absolutely crushing. And being told that “You’re charging too much for shipping” when you set it at $5 is CRAZY. When I joined Etsy in 2018 it was called “shipping and handling,” and included the cost of packaging as well as the shipping label. Sad times.
why should etsy care what your prices are for shipping??? If buyers think it's too much, they may not buy. If they really want the item, they'll bite the bullet for shipping and handling. I'm in Alaska...shipping costs are always higher.
I used to love Etsy. My sister and I were just talking about this yesterday. About the disappointment of etsy and how it’s all Chinese shops that feel more like temu and Amazon. The heyday of Etsy feels like a fever dream at this point. As a buyer I’ll be looking at other maker market online sites. Thanks for the video essay.
I just checked their policy and there is no "handmade" requirement. The last item in their list if basically a backdoor for virtually anything " As such, everything listed for sale on Etsy must be made, designed, handpicked, or sourced by a seller." Thinking of throwing my hat in for my own designs and would love an alternative that doesn't suck but unless I want to sell on Amazon or Ebay, Etsy it is and I'll likely just price myself out of my market and then have my designs copied by some knock off foreign drop-shipper.
Thanks for checking the policy! Interesting to hear, considering we literally have the CEO on cameras saying they're doing their best to enforce the handmade policy...
@@sustainablejungle I can source items listed on alibaba as "handmade" and be compliant with the policy as written as long as I have a sample in my possession and use original pictures it seems like it would be a-okay on Etsy. I doubt people are actually disclosing their "production partners" accurately. If the CEO claims that products must be handmade then he is lying, it's right there in the written sellers policy.
Thank you very informative and just wow as an artist I have not ventured onto Etsy unlikely I will anytime soon but what you’re saying I’m hearing it sounds like the truth is this: Once an organization goes on the stock market with an a short time, their behavior will be driven by quarterly profits. PERIOD. This is what the stock market has become, and is endemic of most direct to consumer businesses that begin listing on the stock market, the pressures they faced from investors, sadly gets more of their ear, more of their attention, more of their focus more of their energies and more of their action than listening to us little speakers noisemakers oh yeah, those individuals who are Etsy makers. Small artisans MAKE Etsy what they are and understand this there is power in unity. Individuals may not get the respect by the corporation, but an organization of Etsy makers will have a better chance. Shame on you USC you don’t care if the actions that this woman so clearly outlined Are even half true it really is infuriating to hear and my heart goes out to you and others in this situation.
Probably craft markets in your area. Like local craft shows are the best case solution for buying/selling or reaching out to sellers and asking if they sell online *their own website. It's more work but hey atleast you're guaranteed a handmade product, with more of the profits going to the seller. Or Etsy not squeezing every last dime out of your profits.
My first suggeastion would be if you find a seller you like on Etsy, to scroll down to their shop description and see if they have a link to their actual website, and buy there instead. Our website store obviously charges a CC processing fee, but the fees are overall way lower so this helps support the small biz. Local craft fairs are great to discover new local artistis, but obviously you're limited to when they happen. Plus, a lot of small businesses don't participate because they're a lot of work for often not a great payoff (sometimes even a negative one with booth fees!). I personally very rarely do craft fairs for this reason.
This was a really good breakdown, thank you!! I started selling on etsy pretty late, and my shop is only a hobby I don't depend on it. But I was looking at the financial breakdown for this year and was frankly appalled. I went to a lot of in-person markets this summer and put my etsy onto vacation mode and was still getting charged fees that I can't find the source of? On top of that, my square account is linked to my etsy account, and during the in-person art markets etsy took a $0.20 cut of every credit card transaction on top of the processing fees square charges. I can't seem to unlink the accounts even though there is no crossover in usage. True highway robbery lol. I ended up paying a few hundred dollars in fees to etsy even though my shop wasn't active. Thanks for putting this information out there, I'd love to hear more about etsy alternatives!!
That's just plain insane! I can't believe they charge you fees even when your shop is on vacation. I've never put my shop in vacation mode because I've heard horror stories of traffic just dropping off the map when people came back. Instead, I just set my fulfillment times to longer when I'll be back, and now I have even more of a reason to try to never do so. So sorry that happened to you!
As a customer, I abandoned ETSY when I couldn't easily determine which product was mass produced or hand made.
Sad
same! Makes me sad too because I liked getting original-ish objects from people rather than corporations, but when you can't even tell what's dropshipping vs what's something real that just was stolen by temu... meh
sometimes u can tell , i still use etsy quite often . When 2 different seller sell the same item with same pic and everything its gets fishy oh not to mention custom work that is a easy selling point , hand made no problem
you have to dig really far into the results to find the real handmade stuff. there are gems there but its not worth the hassle tbh
Same! I saw crocheted items that were so cheap that a crafter couldn't even make them for more than a couple dollars an hour. I suspected that they were mass produced or produced in country where a couple bucks an hour is a decent wage.
If you are able to take a screenshot of the product you are dubious about. Go to Google and do a reverse image search. This will bring up where the item is being sold anywhere on the internet. Plus, most of the sellers that are reselling AliExpress or mass produced products don’t bother to take their own product photos, so it makes it even easier to identify mass produced products.
As a buyer, I can’t stand the same-y Chinese garbage that Amazon is already swamped by. Etsy needs to clean up its act or disappear into irrelevance.
I think at this point, even its sellers are just hoping for the latter so something better than step in and take it's place, as I don't see Etsy going back on any of its policies at this point.
Once you go public, there is no turning back. That's not how it works.
It will need to simply collapse or turn into another "Ebay-Amazon" and nothing else.
They will not clean up their act.
This is the reason why I left Etsy years ago, sad to see it stink even worse.
Amazon gets worse by the day, too. Even if you are explicitly searching for a brand (like bosch) sometimes the first 20 hits or so aren’t even the brand, let alone the item you want. At this point it’s easier to google it and add „amazon“ as search word. Our family is trying to actively avoid Amazon in this point in time, but the results varies. Sometimes it works amazing and is even cheaper, and we support smaller shops, sometimes there’s no alternative. And yes, we accept that small shops are more expensive (sometimes), that’s not a problem. But double the price and a delivery time of 2 weeks compared to next day with amazon is a tough sell, even if you dislike and avoid amazon…
Same i used to dislike ebay but now its really easy to search vintage on ebay and just get actual vintage results. If i search vintage on etsy i just get a load of stuff. Some real vintage Some vintage style stuff. And on eetsy you cant give a bad review. Because the company can just remove your review if its neagtive. I bought silk off etsy and got synthetic ..I complained they refunded me and then i couldnt leave a review to let others know. I go to local craft smaller websites now. Theyre nowhere near as convienient because you have go go to multiple websites but at least i know its local small crafts and products. Or local but abroad.
The moment they went public marked the beginning of the end. It stopped being about providing a good service and became only about maximizing profit. Enshittification everywhere.
Familiar pattern.
Exactly. Going public really was a big factor in their changes.
So its our fault?
@@koonfasa 'going public' means a company starts being publicly traded and owned on the stock exchange.
I'm not sure about Etsy's case, but a lot of tech startups are eventually forced to go public. Software Developers take lower base pay than they would get at Google, Facebook, etc. for more equity in the company on the promise that they'll be able to sell it in the future. Eventually you get to the point where your top tier of engineers will slowly move on if there's no sign that the equity will be sellable, and you can't offer new engineers as much equity (a lot is already owned by investors whose money got the company off the ground). So, they have to go public in part to "pay" their early staff and keep everyone happy.
Digital artists have also been screwed over by Etsy thanks to their tolerance for generative AI. I used to take art commissions through Etsy, but there's no point anymore when my "competitors" can shit out hundreds of glossy dead-eyed derivative works in the time it takes me to clean up a sketch. I'm sure many buyers can tell the difference, but many others didn't care and/or didn't even see my listings under the endless pile of slop. So I left.
It's wild to me how they've managed to make their "artist-focused" site so hostile to artists of all media.
You really should just have Tumblr/bluesky/twitter whatever or a site for portfolio where you can guide ppl to commission you
If you can of course
If it makes you feel better, as you said. People still care about whether the product they’re buying is AI. I was recently buying a desk mat for myself and I was choosing between 2 20$ mats and a 45$ mat.
Even though the design for the 20$ was better for me, reviewers detected AI errors and I bought the 45$ mat instead because I knew the artist and she has posted her drawing the art for the mat before.
if youre being best by AI artists then im sorry youre just not a good artist
@@slimeprivilege there are tons of people who simply don't care and just use AI instead, even if someones art is good. Why spend money on another person when u can shit out slope that destroys our planet for free?
@@slimeprivilege the price and time are the difference. NOT quality.
I literally had to stop using Etsy for this reason. I had some disposable income and moved into a new place, so wanted some wood art for my wall as I like that style. Went to Etsy to support another artist and immediately was inundated with cheap, knock offs that were a 1/10th the price an actual, handmade piece would cost. And there was no way to filter those sellers or their MULTIPLE copycat accounts out. On the one hand it forced me to shop local, and I've been buying art from a local weekend fair to fill my walls and found a local artist I absolutely love in the process. But on the other I'm still furious that Etsy is essentially useless now.
The sad fact is there's no difference to Etsy from a dollar made from linking a buyer with a genuine artisan and a dollar made linking a buyer with Shenzhen Cheap Tat Manufacturing Concern.
It's the reason I don't bother with Amazon, or, as I call it now, Alizon. Bezos don't care, and it has possibly the worst search system in ecommerce - by design.
Plus shopping local helps get you out of the house which is good for your mental health.But yeah it is nice to be able to go on etsy and find something unique, not anymore.
@@kittykat632 for me I do prefer shopping in person, but it can be hard for me to feel like i have the time to make the decisions I can make from online.
for me I used Etsy for furry things and my favorite shop closed so... I don't use it anymore. I'm sure they were struggling because of the bloat of mass production on the site.
finding furry stuff IRL is so hard if you don't spend the big bucks on tickets to a furry convention, let alone waiting for the specific time of year they're held. (not in the cold gross winter here, that's for sure)
Etsy is the"PERFECT" US Company...
Start up, get the sellers to do all the work to build up company, then change everything so company makes all the money, until it collapses...
Everything, everywhere, eventually becomes a scam...
yeah, they already had Ebay. duh.
Yea man it's so sht. Straight greed straight stupid. Optimize optimize optimize for one thing even though it eventually costs everything.
Create the expectation & then flood the market once you have gained trust. =[
I was stunned lately when I went looking for something the other day. I had no idea it had gotten this bad. It's the actual embodiment of 'Enshittification'.
PREACH it !!!!! Perfect analogy of US Large Companies
I use etsy like I use amazon, as a catalog to find creators, since search engines are all useless now
It's like the yellow pages for sellers, then I go directly to the seller's website and instantly get a better deal
We live in a cyberpunk dystopia, you'd better start acting like it, chooms
I've done that, too. Unfortunately sometimes the only place the seller sells from is the Amazon site. The thing I wanted was highly recommended by other cat folks so I thought it would work for me, but the company when I emailed them said they only do sales through Amazon. Sucks. I wanted that but I didn't buy it.
💯
Man I wanted badass praying mantis blades, jetpacks and chrome upgrades, not shitty scams and failing businesses! This sucks in such a boring way..
I do the same thing! You know it’ll be cheaper on the sellers website, or even in their fb group. I use Etsy mostly for buying embroidery designs to stitch out onto my own projects. Almost every domestic seller also has a website and a Facebook group. The website is usually cheaper bc Etsy adds so many fees that sellers have to mark up their products. The FB group is where to find the GREAT deals though.
That's a good idea. Never thought to do that
You nailed the situation completely. I used to sell antiques on Etsy. The shipping was starting to ruin me, especially since antiques are all different sizes and weights to consider. Then, they took down a listing of mine which was an item made of cow bone. As I also like to educate people on their antique purchases, I had mentioned in the description the history of the item and how they used to be made of ivory, but everything in my listing specifically stated that it was cow bone. They flagged it as being made of ivory. When I tried to reach someone in customer service to reinstate the listing, I was told they would get back to me soon. That was four years ago and I’m still waiting.
Then, I moved to Europe, settled in and went to reopen my shop after the move. After years of branding, customer loyalty and reviews, I was told I couldn’t reopen the shop because I changed countries. I had to start all over from scratch. I wasn’t even allowed to reuse the name. So I closed shop permanently.
thats heartbreaking, I'm so sorry
Ugh that's so awful. I'm so sorry that happened to you!
That's an irrational policy. Unless a business has a registered trademark or service mark, another company in a different State or nation is free to also do business under that trade name. Even if Etsy refused to allow you to reopen your shop under the original account, it should have allowed you to use the same shop name when operating a different business regardless of the jurisdiction it was organized in.
@gaiustacitus4242 I agree. I tried and then they said my company name was already taken (by me, for my US company). And, of course, there was no customer service to discuss it with.
@@MableM1985 I've had similar arguments in efforts to prove that I was (at the time) the sole owner of the business after having purchased the interest of the other owners. There is nothing more frustrating than having the documents to prove your claims and dealing with people who are too dense to understand the documents submitted for review and how businesses operate under the law.
As a seller I abandoned Etsy. I sold a 20€ drawing and got €12, I sold a full body piece for €80 and got €40 back. I hate the site. I don’t want to charge customers this ridiculous price over a company. I went to independent selling.
I’m very sorry to hear about your upcoming random account suspension.
I stopped selling on Etsy years ago when my sales stopped after I posted some criticism of Etsy’s then recent change to allow outsourced production. I did some digging on the seller forums and saw dozens of people had the same exact thing happen with Etsy citing “algorithm changes” as the likely culprit.
I had the same thought. She has a target on her back now ☹️
Not all companies need to be publicly tradeable.
We need to incentivize them to become non-profits.
@@eugenetswong non-profits tend to rot the same as publically traded companies... private ownership is the only way
Ok commy
@@kaydog890 "The capitalist system works because... it just does okay! Don't ask questions!"
And maximizing profit for owners is not the same as maximising value for shareholders.
I always try to see if they have a website before buying off etsy. Etsy is not for the people anymore.
Thank you so much for doing that! I can speak firsthand that small businesses really appreciate that. These days, we're using Etsy orders to include a coupon specifically to our actually website to hopefully drive more traffic there since very few people do what you do.
@sustainablejungle I'm also a small business owner so I know how disappointing it can be to lose money on fees. It breaks my heart that people just making a living or at least trying to are having to pay so much of their hard earned money to a company like that. 🫣
Same!
yep, sorry to have to do it, and trust me I bought a big piece of furniture off Etsy! (note the cheapest way to ship anything LARGE is via a bus company. As long as you package it very very carefully, as they don't insure it won't be damaged, the bus company did a terrific job though you do. have to show up with a truck to take it off the bus. Super cheap)
@@sustainablejungle Could you please share an idea of what this coupon could say? I've been thinking about it but never actually tried it.
I’m an Etsy seller and this year has been by far the worst year I have had. I’ve been selling since 2012 on Etsy. Thanks for the video!! It was spot on.
Started in 2014 and agreed. 2023 started crashing down and it's like sales half every quarter since. And, of course, the fees keep climbing.
*We are all feeling it across all platforms. The scary truth is we are in yet another RECESSION and never even got to a "Bust and Boom" Cycle since people are finally learning to SAVE for a rainy day. The world could be at the end of its 500 Year "PAPER MONEY" experiment as Bit Coin passes the $100,000.00 mark!!! This is important folks! Ever since I started talking bitcoin for payments my business is exploding again!*
I was wondering what was going on. My sale are down like crazy. It’s nice to know I am not the only one noticing this.
@@Emily-rz7fsit’s the same shit as on ebay, had good views on listings there pre 2020 and nowadays maybe 20 views at best with international social media marketing. Shit sucks
What have been the biggest changes for you since then? I always wanted to open an Etsy, but it seems like a bad idea now.
6:23 this breakdown explains why everything on etsy is so expensive, you have to up the price to offset all the fees
I made a shop to sell handmade leather and steel bracelets. Even when I gave my creations intensely bizarre names and ran a search for said bizarre names, I wouldn't find my item until the third or fourth page, because I didn't want to pay all the ad fees. And with all the mass produced fake jewelry that does NOT take eight hours to produce each, nobody in the world would pay me what my work was worth anyway, they can't tell the difference. :( This was seven years ago. I've long since given up even trying. :/
We had growing business in Etsy. We made all products by hand in small town in Europe. Beginning of the year they just suspended our account with no comments, explanation. This was big blow to our team. Sad. We moved on and growing in other platforms. The same time dropshippers from Asia are still selling like crazy and even reusing our product pictures. Crazy,
what platforms would you suggest? I only stay on etsy because I rely on their search/recommendation algorithm for discovery.
I had a business with almost 1000 sales in under a year and out of nowhere they shut me down too.. went from 1000$ a week to a big fat 0... Nothing from their team.
@@internetfox literally any other platform + own store on Shopify or similar platforms. Amazon works too, but fees are crazy there too.
It happened to my shop too
How are they drop shipping the same product you hand make?
You summed this up so well! Etsy is NOT for creators, Silverman's goal was always to turn it into another Ebay/Amazon. Etsy is no longer the handmade platform.
It's really sad that a platform built for creators and crafters has been taken over by folks who don't care about those very people. But unfortunately not surprising in the modern world.
That is a terrible idea. Everyone needs to stop trying to be Amazon. Amazon is for basic necessities and cheap items not quality handmade goods.
Silverman sounds like a Zuckerberg wannabe.
It's unfortunate, too, because they had that market cornered! But you screw your sellers, you've screwed your business. Amazon handmade and Michael's have tried to compete, but unless they have the buyers they are not good alternatives.
Such a bizarre business plan for the CEO. In trying for more and more, they are ruining their whole business model.
Sounds like Etsy is on the way out….but a great opportunity for anyone who can be the next “original Etsy.”
The term "hand made" feels like a loophole for Etsy. Every single piece of clothing that Shien sells is stitched and trimmed by humans, yet intuitively I feel they shouldn't belong on the platform.
Also kind of devalues the work that we offshore to the global south, rather than their business practices themselves.
Great vid and I love your craft ❤
This is such a good point. It really is so complicated. Heartbreaking that the real makers of those handmade items don’t get paid a lot probably and someone else profits from them. I guess that’s capitalism but it’s still not very fair.
Yes this is an excellent point. As with a lot of things in the sustainability sphere, it's absolutely one of those terms that gets abused and we do forget that technically a lot of mass-produced stuff is also hand made by workers we take advantage of and for some reason, don't consider them artisans in their own right, which they absolutely are. And thank you so much for your kind words about my craft!
This is because handmade is like "natural". It's the wrong term to describe what you actually want to support and denotes a form of an argument to nature fallacy.
What you want is bespoke, small, independent etc. Those are the real terms you want but hand made doesn't necessarily mean any of that.
@@BeefIngot That's an excellent point.
I was duped by a seller with “handmade” lingerie; when the pieces got to me, they were obviously drops hipped and in cheap packaging with Chinese writing on them. I was livid. I reported them but have no idea if anything was done. It was like $60 for dollar store lingerie.
I am an Etsy Seller, and I have had great luck with the platform. However, I hear what you are saying! I stopped offering free shipping this year, and my sales plummeted. They also tried "slipping" an advertising campaign it on me. So, for example, I had a $180 product, and they charged roughly 10%, plus an additional $39 because they said that they secured the lead from an Etsy Ad. The sale came from a repeat Buyer, and so they just advertised to her, and tried to collect the $39. Well, what do you do? It is a lovely platform, but, as everything else these days, it isn't what it used to be. I think that we should all rebel and go back to the 90's!
Honestly so glad others are talking about this! I used to adore Etsy for it being a “one stop shop” for easily finding local handmade goods and small businesses in my immediate area or just within the country. For the past few years it has definitely turned more into Amazon without the Prime option vibes.
as someone who's started their Etsy shop within the past year, their response to dropshippers only screws over real shops: any shop made after April 2024 has to wait THREE WEEKS after receiving an order to get paid for that order. Do you order supplies to make the product once it's been ordered? Need the money from it now? Too late, nothing will release your payments early! I never see anyone talk about this despite how insane it is.
This is why I closed my shop, i was open 3 months… sold 2 items and couldn’t see the reason to bother because of the wait plus fees
And it's not like that does anything for the drop shippers. It just maybe gives them a buffer for scammers who just don't ship at all. Mind, it doesn't even matter because they have access to your bank account and just take back anything they gave you on a whim.
As someone that DID dropship waiting 3 weeks for the money isn't even an issue assuming you are selling the uasal cheap shit you only need like $2-$10 upfront to dropship it. You shouldn't be selling handmade items if you don't already have the supplies in hand anyway you're never 100% guaranteed to show up at a store needing something to make the item and find it.
@ambeegaming76 i don't think you realize how hard it can be to wait so long for the money even if you do have all the supplies. having to beg family members to help me for bills that I HAVE the money for but can't access is humiliating
@@ambeegaming76 They hold back the money that should go to shipping as well. So you're running in the red for most of a month. You can just put everything on a charge card (if you have one) but that's not a fun place to be...
Small family-owned Ukrainian shop, sell on Etsy since 2013. Yes, it's getting worse and worse, please share reasonable alternatives. I know a ton of Ukrainian-based shops that were closed due to the "policy violations" related to sanctions, but none of them are located on the occupied territory, they all operate in central/western part of Ua. And obviously they don't ship to sanctioned regions (there is literally no way to do this). And yet Etsy doesn't check them, it just shuts them down.
And the shipping policy is a joke, how on Earth am I supposed to ship overseas for "free"?..
You just put all of the cost on customer in a price. Also they suspended my shop right when the war started. For digital products. Amd then the second one. Never trust them as your main income source.
Set-up your own website, have insta and tik tok . I stopped selling on Etsy too
I think we've done more than enough from your country.
@@HerbieBancock You're not too bright are ya?
Etsy has close relationship with China so not surprising they probably asked for them to remove it
It costs me $250 per year to have my own web site, where I sell my own products directly. Given the current Etsy rules I'm thinking its better for sellers to go independent. It might be more work and a lot of technical research, but you get to keep all your profits.
If you don't own the platform, you don't own the message.
Agree with this, but I also know i's unfortuantely not as simple as that. Due to AI and all the Google Core updates that have happened over the last year which are vastly deprioritixing small web content creators in favor of Google's AI answer, Google shoping results, and Reddit, basically, it's virtually impossible for small sites to land anywhere near the top of the SERPs anymore, so organic traffic from Google is virtually zero. We have a website, have our product listed in the Google shop, do a lot of work promoring the website over our Etsy, even send coupon codes good on the website only as thank yous with each Etsy order, nad yet organic traffic there is still a drop in the bucket to Etsy. Definitely a step sellers need to take to try to work towards Etsy independence, but it's not one that can jsut replace the other in a short amount of time.
@@sustainablejungle SEO is dead for small brands. Social media is the only hope, and even that is really difficult
Absolutely. And social media has just never been something that's taken off for me. I've tried consistent posting, trending audio, all the suggested reel settings, etc etc, and still just get so little engagement on that front. Funnily, my embroidery socials have much higher engagement levels than my actual craft business ones because it's such a niche subject matter that I embroider so I've kind of found my community there. But it's ironic because that's not even my business. I basically just do that for fun and really only make any money there by taking occasional commissions.
@sustainablejungle Try googling products similar and the same as yours, and look at the other web sites that come up. That should give you an idea of how successful just having your own dedicated web site will be. I'm not an artist, I'm an engineer, and I sell products that I design. But the shopping cart system that I use to take payments is a free open source program. There's a lot of open sources programs available which means you don't need to spend a lot of money to get an online store going. I even created my web pages myself. Although there is a lot of research to be done, but you can create you web site while your etsy store is still active.
This is called the process of "crappification". This is what happens to companies that start with organic, user focused online websites - Pinterest, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. Happens to restaurants that are bought up by chains. These places initially are focused on growing or providing a specific service, but if they decide they are going to go public, they need to show that they can make money, so it all changes. Then people leave the site, and a new one starts up, rinse and repeat.
💩🤢
Enshittification
As an Etsy maker myself, I have also been affected by all these things. After years of struggle, I’ve come to see it as an opportunity to start selling locally. I’ve created pop-ups around town, sold at farmers markets, and school events. I feel like I have my freedom back!
I'm a consumer who used to buy gifts almost exclusively on Etsy. The proliferation of cheap, made in China or India knockoffs and other items pretending to be homemade by an artist but which were instead made by child labor in some dark factory in Asia, totally turned me off. Etsy is just Amazon by another name. In fact, many of the same items are being sold in both places.
Child labor in dark factory? For real? You still believe this in 2024.
Sold an item on etsy for 160€, etsy took a 40€ cut in fees out of that. Also 2 stores that i opened were first banned by AI, took 2 weeks till I could reach a human that apologized for the decision and did undo it.
After paying taxes on etsy fees too, I am left with 90€, from that goes off shipping and material cost etc.
No idea how the CEO thinks this is feasible
It’s crazy, and seems so self destructive of Etsy. A company clearly putting short term profit gain over longterm viability.
The CEO will get his paycheck and it will be the same number on there no matter what garbage you sell.. He does not care lol.
He is at best an out of touch millionaire and at worst wants Etsy to be another scam like rideshare programs where most people just get burned out after learning that they can’t keep ahead of costs
It's very feasible for the drop shippers whose inventory cost is just pennies or a few dollars per item, and have margins and sales volumes high enough to comfortably offer free shipping (and pay all of Etsy's other fees) and still make a nice profit.
And since drop shippers and AI folks are making Etsy the vast majority of their money now, Etsy has zero incentive to care about the little guys who only sell dozens or hundreds of items per year because that's all they can make.
@@HumbleWooper Yepp. Totally agree. It's inevitable on all platforms (even TH-cam!).
I honestly do not buy from Etsy anymore because I don't want to support it. If I do a search and it brings me to an Etsy store, I try to find the maker's personal website to see if I can purchase by other means.
I used to buy quite a lot on Etsy, from Halloween “fake” eyeliner, to wooden yoga equipment.
As sustainability was always important to me, I usually shopped from my geographic location by using their “country” filter to filter out anything out of Europe. This also had the advantage of removing some fast produced Chinese products.
Now, this filter disappeared from my phone app altogether. Therefore I cannot be bothered to shop from Etsy anymore.
I’m so happy your video found me. I have been an Etsy buyer since 2009, it used to be my top used app because it was so much fun to find unique, fun things. Even if I didn’t buy them, I could favorite them and visit them later.
I have become so frustrated because it has gotten so hard finding those things. I have to filter things to ship only within the United States to filter out drop shippers, which then punishes those who are in other countries that I might have otherwise bought from.
I also really hate that every time I turn around the app has changed. The favorite and new updates tabs are absolute disasters now and I can’t go back and find things I want to buy later or see if a favorite shop has released something new - the whole point of those tabs.
They don’t support true small business sellers anymore and as a buyer, that makes me devastated.
The buyers have changed too. There have always been scams, but the majority of clients were polite and appreciative. Any issues with a sale (and I had very few for the first seven years) were quickly worked out. Now (the last three years) I almost dread a sale on the platform. It seems like there is an issue every third sale or so. It went from feeling like selling at a high-end craft fair to feeling like you're at a bargain basement flea market.
Absolutely. We unfortunately had to change our return policy to flat no returns because people were requesting returns for absurd reasons. We obviously override the policy in select instances if we are indeed at fault, but most buyers on Etsy seem to have unrealistic expectations these days. That or they just do not read the product description at all and then get upset when the item comes exactly as described. 🙃
This is happening across all platforms. I sell on eBay Poshmark and buyers are definitely getting crazier as time goes on
You are right about the buyers! SO many want to scam the sellers now! They treat small, handmade biz like they are Amazon.
Never sold on Etsy, but I can relate. Used to sell on a different platform. Example of an angry customer complaint: "You sent me the wrong colour, I ordered green!" Response: A) Your order clearly specifies white, and B) white and black are the only two options. Platform: Grant the return. The seller pays for shipping both ways, the money will be reimbursed to the seller, but only after we have taken our cut first, as if the order was in fact complete.
I think the reason consumers are extremely demanding and thoughtless is because this the expectation on most other commerce websites. Free returns, returning something after you actually use or wear it once or in the case of some sites like temu or cider, customers are actually incentivised to just keep the garbage they bought and buy more because it's cheaper for them than processing a return. Most consumers expect this type of service everywhere and it is eroding out sense of what a good buying experience is.
im a seller and a buyer... and yes you are more than right. i make handmade jewelry on a lower cost base for people so they can afford my pieces and i see a lot of jewelry "handmade" (have seen them on shein etc) choosen over mine it breaks my hearth! and as a buyer its so difficult to tell if you are ripped off or not it hurts our reportation as a seller too
What's even more interesting with that free shipping stuff is that for us, sellers from outside of the US, 'free shipping' means 'free shipping for the American customers.' And that just pushes us to make worldwide shipping free. Which is a bit insane.
We either have to hide worldwide shipping within our prices and punish local customers to keep American clients or lose money on orders sent to the US (and worldwide). Or, well, stop using free shipping completely and lose sales.
REALLY? That is insane! For us, it's domestic shipping only, so I had no idea that international shippers were expected to ship to the US for free. 🤯
Here vintage from Germany.... Yes...and it's insane... A parcel costs nearly 50 euro to us.... And when DHL throws the stuff on the ship- even when you paid Express before Christmas.... So shipping is not 10 days but 4 -6 weeks.... Etsy refunds and you stay on all costs and looses the product too
And you even can't block truly fraudulent customers
When I was first considering selling on etsy, the shipping was my main problem. I tried shipping some art from Switzerland (where I am) to friends in Hamburg and Amsterdam. I used an A4 cardboard envelope and paid 14.50CHF (15€) each and the one to Hamburg came back.
Adding 15€ to the selling price ruins everything.
So I didn't open an Etsy shop...
@@artfoex Yeah, and when we moved to England, I tried using Evri, with which Etsy partners. And I had something like three orders lost within the first month. And then they charged additional fees for almost every package I sent. Supposedly, because I measured them wrong. While I'm sending with Royal Mail, nothing like that happens. Never!
Preach, sister! You just got yourself a new subscriber.
When they started buying Super Bowl ads I knew they had no idea wtf they were doing. Also, making hundreds of millions off masks during the pandemic made their shareholders go:”Yes, keep doing that.”
As far as dropshippers go, if they have generic merch photos, they’re probably not legit. Look at the “related items” and a lot of times they’re literally the same designs (t-shirts especially). You can’t sell a t-shirt for less than $10 and make a profit, it’s just not possible.
Everything you said is spot on! Another thing I’ve noticed is people/scammers scrape Etsy for “best sellers” and steal artists work. Eventually there becomes so many similar listings but it’s ppl stealing artists work. This on top of AI and dropshipping is so frustrating. I’m just about ready to close my Etsy because of this.
It's been unusable on the customer end for years too. Not sure what their goal is, as I only hear bad things about the seller experience too. The search function is basically useless. Gave up on it years ago sadly.
I remember eBay became a bit tyrannical, but finally with competition (vinted, depop, etc) they have made seller terms more reasonable again. Hopefully the same happens for Etsy. Seems like a huge gap in the market honestly.
It is a huge gap! And someone who used to operate a consignment store, I have considerable eBay selling experience, too, and definitely have a better experience there. If nothing else, it's relatively easy to speak to an actual person at eBay customer support, if something does go wrong, whereas it's basically completely impossible to speak to anyone at Etsy.
I felt they just buy bots for poor random interactive, forced sellers to pay more to Etsy ad, cos the lower the selling the more desperate on ads profits, they clearly using this strategy to build up profits figures for the board n yearly report.
Has eBay actually made any changes to improve things for sellers? I left the platform in 2019 because things only ever got worse. And worse. And somehow still worse. What has improved?
@@IanHobday It's gotten no better on eBay, but the customer base seems to accept higher costs now. Given all the fee increases, COG inflation, rising shipping costs, and eBay's dogged attempts to emulate Amazon despite that being a) impossible and b) all sorts of enshittification, sellers haven't had a choice but to raise our prices. We're certainly not getting bigger profits as a result of doing so. All the problems eBay had pre-pandemic only got worse. Especially paying even more to promote your items so they appear in search results.
@@mallwydmanlobbi Ah, that sounds like the eBay I know and "love". Clearly they're sticking to their long-running motto of, "We're not happy until you're not happy!"
NGL what I do on etsy is if I'm buying something I find a shop I like using their search, then I take the name of the shop and the items and I google it and buy it on their own site, unless it's only available on etsy like some patterns.
That's the best way to approach this and us small sellers really apprecaite buyers like you that take just a little extra time to seek out our own shops first. Thank you!
I've been lazy about this but I am going to make a concerted effort to remember to do it. I buy a lot on Etsy from independent artists and shops
I sell stickers, enamel pins and clay crafts on etsy. Everything is at least designed me and i do make stickers at home and also clay crafts. The enamel pins i draw but due to not being able to make them i use manufacturing for it. But i still draw them and also hand cut the backng cards and ship them my self. I just think it is so unfair, that there are sellers, who can sell 100 alibaba stickers that they havent designed for 2-3$ I could never compete with the price. I am also always transparent about possible manufactoring and what i make start to finish. Then i see shops that have million sales but claim to be entirely handmade by one person. It really grinds my gears. :(
i spend hours on etsy trying to find sellers like you and its impossible 😢 drop your shop info!
@yourfacelsl aww thanks it S3NSKUART
@@yourfacelslyes, same. I thought I saw someone designing cute pins, but it ended up being a dozen of them on Etsy and Amazon.
This video could not be more perfect, thorough or accurate. It summarizes everything I have seen and felt about Etsy for several years now.
I stopped selling there, knowing it would reduce my visibility outside of my local marketplace. But I could not keep up with businesses that are undercutting small makers at every junction by selling mass produced or imported goods.
I have browsed on Etsy, but never purchased because the shipping has been comically high. Just yesterday I went down a rabbit hole and decided to search for classic xmas candy. A US seller had a 400g bag for $36. The shipping to Canada - ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY SIX dollars!! You'd think it was being overnight air freighted to Antarctica.
"Make Commerce Human" became the most laughable slogan for a company ran by bots with an insane amount of AI generated crap and drop-shipping resellers.
I've had issues with my accounts a few times, and spent WEEKS trying to figure it out with Etsy help desk, only to get replies from a new person that basically started the whole process over every single time I got an e-mail back. It was maddening.
About the shipping : I've been trying to set my prices while keeping the 'free shipping' in mind. However, shipping to let's say Australia could be around 11CAN. Shipping the same order within my own country would be about 27CAN.
All while losing about 15$ on my item sale with their fees and taxes and taxes fees. (Why is there a SHIPPING FEE if I'M THE ONE SHIPPING IT MYSELF?!)
That slogan is what really does it for me 😭 Nothing human about it anymore. AI generated slop "items" being sold, scam dropshipping, and on top of it all.. No customer support, or whatever support you might find is just an AI bot. So tiring.
My wife used to make badge reel pulls from upcycled jewelry parts and pieces. She did quite well on Etsy for about a year or two, then the market flooded with cheaply priced mass produced copies from the C.H.Ina corporation. That ended that. I sold vintage items and also supplies like old canvas, vintage fabrics, etc. Pretty soon I too was pushed out by the overseas sellers selling fake junk. I used to buy on Etsy but between the flood of garbage listings and the outright scam sales I ejected. Etsy is going the way of eBay, screw the makers and small sellers in pursuit of ever greater profits for the corporate overlords.
Here is why Etsy is closing shops: 12:13 Random Account Suspensions & 14:35 Removing Listings...Etsy wants it to "look" like they are policing the platform. Follow the money it's easy to see Etsy values drop shippers who gleefully follow their insane rules and they are willing to sacrifice true makers to keep them all under the guise of of "policing the platform". I am not an Etsy shop owner...but I am an artist and I hate this crap Etsy is doing!
This is a great post. I really like how you made your introductory comment first and then asked for me to subscribe. Everything you said was important, relevant and concise. There were no “filler words” just there to make the video longer.
I have been on Etsy, selling handmade miniatures, since its first year. I was doing really well on Ebay, and decided to try Etsy on the recommendation from some people who were in the miniature collecting world. I remember when I first opened a shop, it was dead. Zero traffic. I actually did not think it would take off.
I still have my shop, but it have been in vacation mode for several months now, and I am not sure if I will open it back up. I find that I do just as well selling on Facebook.
Every year, it seems like they add more and more changes that anger sellers. The one that really ticked me off was when they began taking a percentage of fees from shipping. Wtf!? That is not even income! And as a Canadian seller, I simply cannot do free shipping.
Been on Etsy since 2010 but finally leaving 😢 costs on Etsy are so high. Makes more sense to have my own website and do my own ads.
I wish you all the best with your website!
I'd highly encourage you to avoid jumping ship too fast (and this comes from someone who sells on Etsy and think they are a terrible company).
Setting up a website is cheap, but getting customers to find it through advertising is expensive. If you could spend $13 on advertising to get a customer that would be a miracle (I was watching Shark Tank yesterday and 2 different companies said they were proud of $50 and $75 costs to get each customer) at $13 you'd need to average $100 per order to hit the 'fee' rate that Etsy charge. If you were hitting $50 advertising spend per customer (like on Shark Tank) you'd need each customer to spend $400 to be comparable to Etsy.
HOWEVER, if you have a large social media following (or can build one) and sell items that result in repeat customers then maybe you would make more on your own website, but keep your Etsy shop running in the background in the meanwhile.
That would cost more.
Payment processors also have fees.
They are not as high. But Etsy have have to pay employees.
They are a business. They have overhead.
Im in uk and theyve just run a massive ad campaign hinging on everything being "handmade".. drives me nuts especially as i was about to use them to start selling. I make dice and candles and jewelry but looking at etsy made me depressed. I have no idea what option to use now. Your embroidery is FIRE ❤
Omigosh thank you so much!!! It brings me so much joy to do...which is partly which I keep it off Etsy. No need to let Etsy ruin my favorite hobby!
Try Folksy in the UK.
They run the same advertising campaign in Germany and I always get mad when I see it ! Etsy bought a local German DIY online platform in 2018 and it all went downhill from that. Instead of spending money on adds they should fix their platform.
@@JustME-ft4di Some people did and reported they had no sales. It's similar to other 'Etsy alternatives' in the US. No user traffic.
In Germany we used to have a similar platform like Etsy which was called Dawanda. It founded 2006 and sold to Etsy in 2018. I really miss Dawanda because it was just like you described the early Etsy. Only small creators and vintage sellers.
etsy is actually ex-Dawanda !
I sold on Etsy from 2009-2014ish. Even though that was before a lot of these changes took place, myself and many sellers could see the writing on the wall and started to leave the platform. I closed up shop right around when mass-manufactured items started being allowed as long as sellers provided proof (no matter how spurious) that a real craftsman had touched the product somewhere along the line...meaning that real craftsmen got completely flooded out by dropshipper storefronts claiming to source/manufacturer their items from "small local artisans". It hit the jewellery and clothing sellers extremely hard. I had no idea that it had gotten this bad for sellers. I now only use Etsy to browse through shops and then just buy from the maker's own website instead.
This just feels like the endgame of the total corporatization and conglomeration of the internet, where all internet users are funneled into using an increasingly small number of channels for everything. Functionally, Etsy, Temu, Amazon, Aliexpress, and Ebay are all the exact same store, pushing the exact same mass-produced cheap slop, made in the exact same factories.
I’ve been a primarily digital seller (coloring pages, sewing patterns), with some physical items like stickers that, due to living situation I go through a secondary source to produce (all quality checked by me before shipping) for about 8-9 years now and honestly it’s just not feeling feasible to keep up an Etsy shop anymore, let alone while trying to get through college. I wasn’t even aware of some of the things you mentioned in this video until now, but they explain quite a bit. Thank you for this video, it’s been very informative and has definitely helped further influence me to go find a better platform to sell what I make.
Reading all the comments below, it really seems like it's time for a class action lawsuit against Etsy from all the storefronts they've completely ruined by their insane changes and profit-driven policies and lack of owner support. They've ruined people's livelihoods and shouldn't be able to get away with that!
Over what?
You have to find laws they've broken or argue that they've done something unfair unilaterally with the power dynamic.
I reckon its possible but not straightforward or garunteed
Artists don’t have any money to sue anyone, and companies like Etsy count on that
Once I saw on Etsy a set of earrings for 19.90 that had been exactly the same from a chinese seller, that sold in that shop for 1.50 or something like that. 😞
This does happen where sellers create double accounts and raise prices, but it's also woeth keeping in mind that some Chinese sellers rip off Etsy sellers with a cheap Chinese version and undercut their business. Shein and Temu have an extensive history of this--just search Shein ripped off my design and you'll see SO MANY people accusing them of this. So it is possible that the original Etsy listing was the first, and deserves to be priced at $20. But it's so hard to tell anymore
Yep, I see TEMU stuff on Etsy all the time. If you search for something generic like "gold ring" for example, you'll see all identical stock photos. HOW ARE THEY ALLOWING THIS?
Many independent makers platforms are facing the same thing. Options for marketing are being bought up, changed to the point that they don't work for small enterprises, and/or just shut down. Why does it feel like artists and makes are being starved out and/or silenced?
I sold on Etsy for years and closed my shop a few years back due to everything you are speaking about. I was loosing money, some things you can't just up the price on to compensate for having to give free shipping. There are things that just aren't worth more and customers won't pay more for, so you have a listed product that won't sell. Great video!!
Very good video, this is a huge problem and I think you've done a good job explaining it. I as a customer have been using Etsy less and less because of the amount of dropshippers and such, and I knew there was some bad stuff going on from the sellers point of view too, but I didn't understand the depths of it until now. The lack of transparency around the fees is apalling, and if I'd known about the immense pressures to provide free shipping I probably would have asked to tip somehow for the actual shipping cost -- if I ever do shop on Etsy again, I'll probably try to do that?
I do want to add a slight bit of nuance to one small thing that you said though, which is the way you use the phrase "hand-made" in opposition to "mass produced". I agree that it absolutely is a huge problem that there's so much mass-produced stuff on the platform and that the dropshippers are claiming credit for it, but I think it's very important to acknowledge that certain categories of mass produced items (mainly clothing) made in China often _are_ hand-made, just, by people working under horrible conditions in sweatshops. Of course this doesn't apply to all types of items, and I understand how this might seem a nitpick, but it's a matter that I personally find important -- and one that in my opinion, makes the growing presence of these items even more horrifying, because an item made by exploited hands forced to do so is in my mind even more of a problem than an item made by a machine.
I'm coming from it from an Etsy buyer prospective, when I do my shopping I ensure before anything else that the Etsy store-front folks are in my state, that way I feel more confident they are local to me and less likely to be a drop shipper. It can happen but if I limit my search, I tend to find more genuine (non-corporate) folks selling crafts. Also support anything going on in your area, look occasionally if there's a festival near you or artist alley or if a comic convention is occurring; I usually find lots of original, one of kind items from attending those seasonal events.
I'm glad I'm not the only person who does this, before I shop I always filter by country it's shipped from and it has to be from the US or my own state. But it's annoying because the filter resets very easily if I navigate away. And then I'm bombarded by 'handmade' mass produced stuff.
That doesn’t stop them from reselling Chinese junk that they already have in stock.
Not necessarily drop shipping is a problem but reselling of cheap junk that is for sale on Temu for $1.
Sadly you can’t really evaluate the real location of a seller from the location posted since etsy manages that. For example I sell both pod and handmade and etsy shows various locations in my listings for my pod suppliers that aren’t always accurate. Sometimes they show my location, sometimes they show the printer location. I’ve had customers get upset about this but there is no way to control it.
I’d agree with the fees you mentioned. I’ve been on etsy since 2006 and seen a lot of changes. If you do the math, even without offsite ad it costs about 12% in fees because usually not every listing sells, plus fees etc. with offsite ads it is more.
Especially when most other selling sites have raised their free shipping threshold to $100 or more, the $35 is ridiculous.
This. I've said this for years, but it just becomes more and more insulting as literally everywhere else is taking inflation into account, except Etsy.
I've been waffling on starting an Etsy shop for a couple of years, mainly because I've seen so many *very* negative reviews of their business practices, the randomness of shop closures, the apparent near-total lack of actual human support for sellers, and the flood of drop-shippers who are basically shilling for Chinese mass-production companies. Your analysis of the fee structures is the straw that broke the camel's back; somehow, until now, I managed to miss a straightforward breakdown of how much it would cost me to sell on the platform. I'll continue to keep an eye on Etsy, but have stricken them from my list of possible shop hosts for the foreseeable future. THANK YOU!
You're welcome and I'm happy I was able to help!
If you're in the UK it's actually quite simple (though Etsy try and make it look complicated) the fees are 13% of the sale total (including postage) plus 20p(ish as it's converted from dollars) to list each item.
Just make sure to turn off the settings for paying for advertising when you join as paying for adverts when you have no sales or reviews is unlikely to get you a return (though as mentioned in the video, if you become successful Etsy force you to join the advert scheme)
Scammers: "I'm gonna start my own drop-shipping business!"
result:
Thank you for sharing this, so interesting to hear from a sellers point of view too.
As a buyer I used to love Etsy, the handmade beautiful items I purchased were worth the premium price. But noticing the prices get even higher and the quality and amount of clear mass produced garbage listings really turned me away from using it at all. Such a shame to see when there are so many amazing crafters out there but they get swamped and hidden within all the rubbish. I hope one day the site can get back what it once, or you can all find a place online to replace it.
The $6 shipping thing is crazy! Especially like antique sellers who might sell large or heavy items. My parents sell a 4lb. book that my dad illustrated that costs way more than $6 to ship. Even when I ship something that’s only 1oz it can be almost $5.
Yeah, I don't think they understand that shipping can fluctuate based on size and weight and location. I send very small products that mostly fit in 5x5" or 6x6" cubic box and typically weigh 10 ounces to 2 pounds, and even then, my average shipping cost is probably at or even a little above $6, so I can't imagine what it's like for sellers than ship heavy, large items.
@@sustainablejungle. They just don’t care. They want you to fold it into your prices. I won’t buy from sellers who play these shipping games to please the Etsy algorithms; as a non-US buyer, I would end up paying full price international shipping on top of subsidizing the “free” US shipping built into the item price.
I was an Etsy seller until just after the pandemic, and I reaped the rewards of the boom in online shopping. Your video should be required for prospective Etsy sellers to view. One thing that wasn't fully covered was zone pricing for USPS shipping. I was an East Coast seller with the majority of my sales going to the West Coast. To cover the cost of "free" shipping in my prices I, in effect, had the closer East Coast sales subsidize part of the shipping costs to my West Coast customers. I had previously charged the actual shipping costs to all and felt that was fair. Good luck and I hope your shop stays successful.
Thank you very much and so happy to hear you enjoyed the video. Yeah, I think it's important to educate prospective Etsy sellers on the reality of those fees, because Etsy's lack of transparency on the matter is insane. Yeah we also use the location offsetting method. We haveflat-rate shipping set to their $6 cap, and sometimes shipping to surrounding states are just a little cheaper than that, and shipping cross country is something double that, but it overall balances out...at least since we turned off the $35 free ship policy, because we were losing a lot of money on shipping when we had that on!
@@sustainablejungle Btw, re fees, you forgot to mention in the hidden charges section that these are all pre-sales tax (in the UK where I am it's called VAT - unless you are VAT-exempt - and it's 20% on top of the 6.5% transaction fee, 4%+£0.2 payment processing fee and £0.16 listing fee).
I stopped buying on Etsy when shipping prices became outrageous. I have had shipping quotes that were 3 times the price of the item. I live in Ontario, not Siberia!
Sad how Etsy has changed. Back in the beginning, it was a great site to shop from, and I found some great items.
I get how frustrating it is, but as a seller, I can say those shipping prices are not actually the fault of sellers or even Etsy itself. That's all the postal service, as they're the ones who are setting shipping rates....and continuing to raise them. For instance, for me to ship a small 1 lbs package to Canada, it costs at least $25 after my commcercial shipping discount. More the farther away in Canada I'm shipping. I know my international shipping rates are extremely high and I hate that it's the case, but it literally costs that much to ship internationally these days.
Longtime Etsy buyer - not frequently but a few times a year, for gifts or small things. The experience has gotten so much worse for shopping too. There are way, way, way too many listings (because dropshippers can generate way more products than actual artists), items are in completely the wrong category (because so many of the dropshippers are spamming description terms to get their listings in multiple categories), stores are incredibly difficult to evaluate quickly (because dropshippers & dropshipping customers skew the amount & reliability of reviews), and the filters are completely useless (because it's not valuable to Etsy's bottom line to help sort products in any truly meaningful way). Not to mention the sheer number of ads or promoted listings.
I really liked the suggestion by other commenters to use Etsy as a search engine for craft shops rather than a storefront or point of sale. I'll definitely be doing that until a worthy competitor gets enough traction. Sad to see another great piece of the internet crash and burn for the sake of investor profits.
I have bought from Etsy, but stopped as soon as it started creeping into drop shipping. I also tried to become an Etsy seller, and for myself it was so convoluted and difficult to set up I gave up. Those kinds of requirements are only overcome by companies who have the resources (read, money and time), to even set up a store. Let's be clear, Temu, Shein, Romwe, Amazon, eBay and now Etsy are basically drop ship outlets all coming from the same place, by the same people, for the same available stuff. Part of the problem is the closing of brick and mortar stores of every size. The places where mass produced clothing, crafts, home decor, etc, are no longer places who will buy from the manufacturers because they don't exist anymore. The sweatshop, cheaply made goods need a market, and it's slipped into the gap made when physical stores noped out. Where there was quality restrictions and safety protocols for the crap, now it's non-existent. And the cherry on the top or them is that they can creep though the individual sellers' well made, handmade and creative goods and clothing and rip them off and sell them with no real recourse for the creators.
I just started selling on Etsy, I run my own site and sell on eBay but thought Etsy would be a good outlet too. I sold a $525 item, and the seller paid $75 shipping,. My take away from this entire transaction was $391. What a joke. I thought eBay was bad.
Oh wow, that's awful. My stuff is all lower value items (mostly $20-$30) which a couple $100+ art pieces so it stings just a bit less looking about how much they take away from each sale.
eBay takes 14% of the sale including shipping cost where as it sounds like Etsy takes 25%. That’s insane.
I have reported TONS of shops selling AI art and NONE of them got deleted. Can't tell me it's too hard for them to spot it when a shop has 380.000 products with 2 days delivery time "handmade art"
the simple limit of 50 items per month alone would be enough to stop a lot of ai scammers and dropshippers from abusing the platform
Because AI art is allowed on Etsy. It just needs to be disclosed in the description.
@@peauela1775 They don't disclose it in the description. And even if they did, they are still scammers. Someone copy-pastes the requests of their customers into a free software fueled by stolen artworks and takes 100+ bucks for it. How in the f is that not a crime
Embroidery is slow art. It takes lot of time and effort to create one project. It’s kind of insulting. AI has ruined a lot of crochet social media and pattern sites already. So sad to see it happen to embroidery now too. This is just depressing.
I think AI is ruining a great many things, as it is also environmentally destructive. It steals to learn, and then turns that into "creation". It will then come after the original artist for copyright infringement. I think there is at least one guy on youtube that has had an AI infringement complaint, on his originals.
@@d.rabbitwhite I also saw posts on Instagram of original artwork marked as AI… imagine how the artist feels 😓
I learned so much from this video. Thank you. I've been doing a lot of Etsy purchasing but now I'm going to be ultra discerning and careful, and look into going to sellers' websites off Etsy.
So glad you made this video. I was thinking of selling crafts on Etsy, and now I don't want to deal with their corporate BS.
You absolutely nailed it.
Etsy is going through the same problems so many companies do in our late stage capitalism hellhole. Once they went public they forgot who makes their money for them and what makes Etsy special, and focused instead on squeezing blood from a stone (that's us) for shareholders. Profits always have to be trending up, growing quarter over quarter. That is not a sustainable, environmentally friendly, nor realistic business model for any type of business, yet our whole mindset and economy are built on this concept.
I have been on Etsy since its beginning. I sell vintage and antique items, and it's sad to see how low it's sunk. A lot of it is now cheap, mass produced junk manufactured abroad with environmentally harmful methods. Just like Amazon, but marketed differently. I've never been dependent on Etsy as my only sales venue, but artists who make their products have fewer options and I hope new platforms become available/successful. :(
Ahaaa, the ensh**ification stage, supposedly a sign of platform maturity. According to investors and management.
I'm quite bored of everything being ensh**itified. Shareholder primacy is a blight on society.
Exactly, this is every industry in America because this is what every MBA program in America teaches.
My husband just finished getting his Master's in Accounting and Business Management and the number of things in American business practices that straight up don't make any sense is shocking. The big heads will say it's because we don't understand high level business but I think it's because American led businesses act a lot like scams and Ponzi schemes
Yep. They are poster child for it. It’s been bad for well over five years now.
I've been on Etsy since 2020, much to my surprise there was demand for my items, so I slowly started expanding it. 2023 was my biggest year, making almost $20k (before fees), and then... half my sales disappeared. I never knew why, I only missed out on Star Seller status a couple times, like 98% of my reviews are 4 stars or more, I just assumed the algorithm didn't like me anymore. I've tried raising my prices to cover the ever-increasing shipping and Etsy fees, and I think I've hit a point where I can't anymore, sales all but disappeared when I hit that threshold. Fortunately for me this was just a side hustle, so I'm now winding down the shop and just getting rid of whatever I have on hand (which is taking forever since Etsy isn't sending me any sales). The sad thing is, at least for me, it's not entirely Etsy's fault, it's equally Etsy and USPS, they keep jacking up their rates like 10-20% every year (sometimes TWICE a year!), I just can't justify some of my prices that I need to have to cover the shipping (most of my items are $15 or less, so shipping is sometimes half the cost!).
I feel you. Last year was good for us as well and while we haven't dropped off the map this year, it definitely feels slower. I'm also not always a star seller, just because I have a few things I ship in a stamped envelope so can't add tracking and I'm not going to charge people $3 in shipping for a $3 item just to appease Etsy's demand for tracking. And yes, comparing current USPS fees to when I first started selling on Etsy...it's like nearly double compared to 2018! I hate to think what they'll be like in another 6 years.
Also worth mentioning on the forced off-site ads. My partner was doing limited run, the only way to get them before they sold out was through links on social media and yet she still saw fees from off-site ads. We're entirely on Etsys word for these so it's likely just as phony as Facebook video metrics.
As a software engineer i can tell you it is a easy thing to change the algorithms to not show your stuff as much.
I have been their a long time. I let my shop lay dormant for awhile, but I remember when ETSY was on Gold Street. I shop there also. I hated that they allowed drop shippers and non-handmade items. It made it hard to compete. Many of the things you spoke about in your video are so true about Etsy. Many small creators can not afford to move to other platforms, so they stay on Etsy and take the abuse. I have also heard of Etsy refunding purchases without even giving the seller a chance to verify the issue or correct it. Leaving the seller in a finance hole. Yes Etsy can be a trip.
Hi Sustainable Jungle. This is the first time TH-cam has sent me towards your videos. This is the first video I have watched of you. I have come to notice that this is a trend - I have heard of this from just about every person who solely depends on an internet company for their company's presence and livelihood. I handmake small form factor, portable computer systems and I have just launched my introductory product line. I epitomize what Etsy seems to have been about. I have never bought or sold on there, and I probably wouldn't. I'd rather continue building my own presence the old fashion way and not base my sales results on "other people's" traffic. Yes, it tempting to just post some pictures and start getting sales, but those sales are based on false pretenses and that is why the dependability factor is so high with these types of sellers. They are not selling to their own merited traffic, but someone else's - again, hence the high dependability factor. That is why they can do practically whatever they want and get away with it - because you've become enslaved to sales without the leg work. Really enjoyed how you present your topic! Definite like here!
The free shipping applies to US only. A friend was going to start selling when this came but being in Australia meant that the free shipping to us would mean that "selling" an item would end up costing my friend OR the prices were so huge no one would buy. Etsy seems to want to be a US store for US only which is terrible for the rest of us.
yeah if I want to buy a patch (which you can put in an envelope) from the US it can cost like £30 on a £4 item. I got some one year by asking an american friend to buy them for me (it cost like £5 for her to ship them over, and this was multiple patches)
Well, it's a domestic policy, not technically just USA. If you're in the US, the free ship policy applies to anywhere in the US. If you're in the UK, it still appliers to you, just in the UK.But yes, it at least doesn't apply to international orders.
You can filter the search results to Australia only
@sustainablejungle thanks for clarifying. Perhaps my friend misunderstood when it came in, this was a very long time ago now.
@gauloise6442 there is so much stuff from other people though outside Oz. Why should I have to limit myself and why should these sellers only have a domestic market on an online platform. It is not fair to anyone except etsy
Your embroidery is amazing! That Tokyo Revengers hoop is absolutely EXQUISITE!
1:40 _You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them!_
There is alot more to getting on the first page and being seen by buyers in the first place. It's why i think videos about SEO are almost useless. I have searched for my product by name and not been able to find it. If Etsy doesn't want you to be seen, then you won't be.
It's true. It took me four years of having my shop be open before it really started to gain traction. And I know a fair bit about SEO and all that, and while I do think choosing the right tags helps you find your target niche a little, it's true that you won't really get seen in the search unless you are a popular shop with good reviews...which you obviously can't get unless Etsy shows you to people. So hard to balance.
Yes! The searches are TERRIBLE. The number of unrelated or misleading listings I've scrolled past, page after page after page, and then thought to myself "That's it? Nobody else on this site is selling those things?" Completely ridiculous.
I’m finding the free shipping for sales over $35 and then add a discounted price for having a listing in someone’s shopping cart, or other small discounts, I’m making less and less from most sales. This past year, I also saw a big drop in visits. Such a shame.
Same here. And with inflation, materials costs alone are rising. Even thoguh we work with upcycled materials, we still need to buy things like shipping boxes and all that keeps going up, on top of earning less on each sale from Etsy. Yet I think I'm at the cap of what I can realistically charge for my products, so I feel like I'm at a bit of a crossroads here.
Etsy is eBay with a bird on it. It’s a faint shadow of what it used to be.
What happened to Etsy? Corporate greed to start and it's all downhill from there. As a shop owner, they make it very difficult. As a buyer, I hate their search engine. Sadly, I only shop there as a VERY, VERY, last resort.
This is why I think a company is destined to be terrible once publicly traded. It's never about long term profits or sustainable profits. It's about how much can they squeeze a higher profit margin before it dies and gets revived again
Businesses initially need sellers, but when they grew big, they no longer need them as much, then they grew greedy as they can afford to ditch small sellers. Competition is always good. Etsy alternative will make them listen again.
I've been on Etsy since 2008. Whatever this is, isn't Etsy. It has motivated me to do shows, though, and shows are more way fun than the internet. So thank you Etsy, for being such dogshit.
I'm so happy to hear doing shows have been working for you! I wish I could do more craft fairs and shows. Unfortunately, I live in a very small town so the few art markets we have in a year are just low volume and rarely even worth the effort to set up and booth fee expense. I would love to live somewhere with a more popping art scene to do this as well!
@@sustainablejungle I'm not sure what the show scene is like as I am not a maker, but one thing I do (I sell vintage/antique stuff) is take summer/fall sourcing road trips (sleep in my car or camp to save money, but I do tourist stuff along the way). Maybe you could do something similar attending shows and make it like a vacation + work.
I do this to source my upcycled materials and couple times a year! I actually used to be a vanlifer so I have a van that makes it quite cushy. And I've considered travel vending, the trouble is, it can be difficult to align makers markets, especially since many of them require applications wayyyyyy in advanced. But we have found some wholesale partners on these trips so it usually works out, but would love to expand my sales reach further doing this.
My shop is fluffybluecat on Etsy and Oct 1 sales went from 12 a day to 2 sales every other day or less. My shipping is set for on calculated but it is under the $6. It breaks my heart. I was so excited for this holiday season. I have my own website and just signed up for a goimagine shop as well. Wishing everyone else a busy season. 💙😻💙
@veggiegirl3608
Yes, same here. I m a seller since 2014 w 72,000 sales. Etsy randomly deactivated my own original designs mfg by hand in my own studio, gave me a “final warning” and as apparent “punishment,” took down my star seller badges. My polite and professional appeal generated an automated generic email reply. Our search and views fell 60%. Very frustrated and in fear of another AI listing deactivation that might trigger suspension or closure. Without the ability to communicate with a human for seller support, the result is severe damage to our shop members and also to Etsy’s interests because our ASP is $40+ shop name is ShelleyCooperJewelry
I stopped selling on Etsy some time ago. I didn't like what I was seeing, and after watching this video, it totally confirmed my decision. Thanks for bringing this information to light.
I’m glad you let us know there’s some (up and coming) alternates to Etsy! I never knew there was anything similar.
Yes, Etsy is getting harder and harder to make a profit. I sell both hand made items and craft supplies and in 2023 my Etsy sales dropped 80% and never went back up. I have diversified a lot (trying all kinds of products). I also offer almost all free shipping (my average shipping is $4.50) and I bake the cost into the item but I have a few items that are a few Lbs that I still charge shipping on (Priority Mail with $12 average shipping). Etsy has dinged me for not being 100% free shipping and I have the $35 free shipping turned off. I would love to find a place to replace Etsy but not holding my breath.
I feel this. There are marketplaces that are stepping up and trying to compete, so I think it's worth creating a storefront on these other options even if they don't get a lot of immediate traction. I think over time, people will get sikc of Etsy and we'll see more and more sellers and ethically-minded buyers leave, but it's certainly not going to the mass exodus I think a lot of us wish for.
Etsy no longer maintains standards. My latest Etsy experience was with a chinese drop shipper/scammer posing as an Indiana shop. Etsy has lost my business forever.
I opened my Etsy shop about 13 years ago and couldn't agree with your summary more. My shop has been exemplary (it's my reputation after all!) but 100% of my interactions with Etsy support have been HUGELY frustrating experiences, which I honestly think is by design at this point, just to exhaust you.
I'm in the UK and only use them for overseas sales and send as much traffic as I can to my other UK shop. The traffic I get through Etsy just about keeps me hanging on but I despise their business practices. If there was a viable alternative I would switch tomorrow.
Great video, thanks for raising awareness.
Thank you and I'm so happy a true Etsy vet like yourself agrees with my points, as you know firsthand even more about the downfall than I!
Do you have your energy website or use another UK site?
I have a Folksy shop but nothing sells on it.
Wondering about trying other alternatives.
@@JustME-ft4di I tried a Folksy site for 6 months but traffic was very poor. I set up my UK shop using Big Cartel but may try Shoppify in the future.
eBay?
Seller here. The $35 free shipping thing is absolutely crushing. And being told that “You’re charging too much for shipping” when you set it at $5 is CRAZY. When I joined Etsy in 2018 it was called “shipping and handling,” and included the cost of packaging as well as the shipping label. Sad times.
why should etsy care what your prices are for shipping??? If buyers think it's too much, they may not buy. If they really want the item, they'll bite the bullet for shipping and handling. I'm in Alaska...shipping costs are always higher.
I used to love Etsy. My sister and I were just talking about this yesterday. About the disappointment of etsy and how it’s all Chinese shops that feel more like temu and Amazon. The heyday of Etsy feels like a fever dream at this point. As a buyer I’ll be looking at other maker market online sites. Thanks for the video essay.
I just checked their policy and there is no "handmade" requirement. The last item in their list if basically a backdoor for virtually anything " As such, everything listed for sale on Etsy must be made, designed, handpicked, or sourced by a seller." Thinking of throwing my hat in for my own designs and would love an alternative that doesn't suck but unless I want to sell on Amazon or Ebay, Etsy it is and I'll likely just price myself out of my market and then have my designs copied by some knock off foreign drop-shipper.
Thanks for checking the policy! Interesting to hear, considering we literally have the CEO on cameras saying they're doing their best to enforce the handmade policy...
@@sustainablejungle I can source items listed on alibaba as "handmade" and be compliant with the policy as written as long as I have a sample in my possession and use original pictures it seems like it would be a-okay on Etsy. I doubt people are actually disclosing their "production partners" accurately.
If the CEO claims that products must be handmade then he is lying, it's right there in the written sellers policy.
Thank you very informative and just wow as an artist I have not ventured onto Etsy unlikely I will anytime soon but what you’re saying I’m hearing it sounds like the truth is this:
Once an organization goes on the stock market with an a short time, their behavior will be driven by quarterly profits. PERIOD.
This is what the stock market has become, and is endemic of most direct to consumer businesses that begin listing on the stock market, the pressures they faced from investors, sadly gets more of their ear, more of their attention, more of their focus more of their energies and more of their action than listening to us little speakers noisemakers oh yeah, those individuals who are Etsy makers. Small artisans MAKE Etsy what they are and understand this there is power in unity. Individuals may not get the respect by the corporation, but an organization of Etsy makers will have a better chance. Shame on you USC you don’t care if the actions that this woman so clearly outlined Are even half true it really is infuriating to hear and my heart goes out to you and others in this situation.
Agreed! And if you're doing well selling your art without Etsy, I recommend staying away!
what's an alternative that would be good to use?
Probably craft markets in your area. Like local craft shows are the best case solution for buying/selling or reaching out to sellers and asking if they sell online *their own website. It's more work but hey atleast you're guaranteed a handmade product, with more of the profits going to the seller. Or Etsy not squeezing every last dime out of your profits.
My first suggeastion would be if you find a seller you like on Etsy, to scroll down to their shop description and see if they have a link to their actual website, and buy there instead. Our website store obviously charges a CC processing fee, but the fees are overall way lower so this helps support the small biz.
Local craft fairs are great to discover new local artistis, but obviously you're limited to when they happen. Plus, a lot of small businesses don't participate because they're a lot of work for often not a great payoff (sometimes even a negative one with booth fees!). I personally very rarely do craft fairs for this reason.
GoImagine is shaping up to be a good alternative, but it’s not available for global sellers.
Mercari. You'll sell ALOT more there, than Etsy. Mercari also has 0 Seller Fees.
This was a really good breakdown, thank you!! I started selling on etsy pretty late, and my shop is only a hobby I don't depend on it. But I was looking at the financial breakdown for this year and was frankly appalled. I went to a lot of in-person markets this summer and put my etsy onto vacation mode and was still getting charged fees that I can't find the source of? On top of that, my square account is linked to my etsy account, and during the in-person art markets etsy took a $0.20 cut of every credit card transaction on top of the processing fees square charges. I can't seem to unlink the accounts even though there is no crossover in usage. True highway robbery lol. I ended up paying a few hundred dollars in fees to etsy even though my shop wasn't active. Thanks for putting this information out there, I'd love to hear more about etsy alternatives!!
That's just plain insane! I can't believe they charge you fees even when your shop is on vacation. I've never put my shop in vacation mode because I've heard horror stories of traffic just dropping off the map when people came back. Instead, I just set my fulfillment times to longer when I'll be back, and now I have even more of a reason to try to never do so. So sorry that happened to you!
I tried to close my shop and was told I had to pay to do so
Thank you for truly shining a light on this issue!!