I’ve heard so many stories like this from others. I don’t have an Etsy store but I have thought about it for my handmade craft. The more I look into it though the more I am turned off the idea. Thanks so much for this video!
I completely agree with you 100%. I've been selling on Etsy for 3 years now. I push my own traffic with the advertising I do myself. Yes, Etsy pushes my items as well. Yet I haven't gotten a sale in 4 months now. I get tons of views each day. Yet no sales. I have my prices set lower than what I want to. I do let my customers pay the shipping. I just can't afford to pay the shipping on all of my items. I'm paying a minimum of $50 each and every month to Etsy just to have my shop open. It is costing me out of pocket each and every month. In 3 years I can count on one hand the amount of money I have actually gotten paid out from my Etsy account. Etsy keeps all of my sales money to pay my account balance each month plus charging me the rest of the amount as well. I pre make all of my items so I can offer same day or next day shipping. I love Etsy as well. Yet, it's getting to the point it's not worth it. Specially when trying to compete with people that are doing drop shipping or buy for resale.
I've always known one doesn't make much selling through middlepeople. There tends to be more and more middle people alongside all the taxes one has to pay. Etsy is also publicly traded and the Boards and stockholders need their share of the profits which you and the other sellers on Etsy are subsidizing. And that is the biggest group of middle people ever.
I would remove products/available stock from etsy, but leave the store front with a link to your own website. That way previous shoppers can find you to buy more.
I have a relatively small online presence and have had my Etsy shop for 3 years. Thankfully I’ve never been put in reserve or had any problems but I just know it’s inevitable. I started selling at in person markets this year and got a square reader for payment processing and then ended up looking into their free website builder and just launched my website this past Friday. I don’t have enough volume for a Shopify subscription to be justifiable vs Etsy fees but the free square site has enough features to be able to do what I want to. After watching this, I think I’ve just decided to let me Etsy listings expire as that comes up and just close my shop in a few months because I just don’t agree with the way they are running their business anymore and I don’t want to give them my money. And in the future, I’ll be sure to check for someone’s own website when I find something I want to purchase on Etsy.
This was so eye-opening as someone who also uses Etsy. I have seen other small businesses have huge problems with Etsy. That is why I started my own website too, because I am worried if I get bigger, I will start losing more money. I have also noticed that Etst is not just homemade stuff now, which makes me a little sad how customers would rather pay less money for something that is not homemade. I would rather spend a little more money on something that is homemade and will last me so much longer. Thank you for sharing your thoughts :)
I'm leaving too. 11 years I've been on Etsy, I'm moving to Folksy as I want a slower pace, lower fees and somewhere I can shop handmade. I'm starting a new job, which I'm excited about and want to put that first. I keep saying to myself I will leave a few items in Etsy. But then Etsy is brain draining.
Spot on Taylah, everything you said is true and you've given a great analysis! Thank you for giving such good and matter-of-fact advice. Very sweet attitude about contributing to the bushfires too, go Aussie! ❤
I was thinking about this too. Where can we go to get more info about this? I would appreciate any info as to where we can go, maybe Facebook page or website.
This video was very helpful. It seems it, seems Etsy don’t care about their shop anymore. I can relate to a few things that you mentioned , I post my reborn dolls on a few Facebook groups , sometimes I will get my ad taken down and I’m not allowed to post anymore again if it’s concerning a Doll, they will not give me any reason why the groups tell me it’s not their fault it’s Facebook, Facebook just said I broke a rule, but I definitely did not break any rules, and you can’t speak to anyone from Facebook it’s impossible to get a hold of someone. I know yr frustration. If I were you, I would leave Etsy. You don’t need them sweetie ❤
Always have a back up store like your own website. If Etsy shutdown your store you still have other stream of income, plus with your own website you have your own customers.
thank you for this information, I am wanting to do a online store in costumes and this is really helpful information. everyone's experiences is validated
I am grateful to Etsy because it gave me the opportunity to start my own business without money. But I agree with you basically about everything you said. I should have opened my own website long time ago
I have a feeling that you have a pretty successful business and if so, Etsy will feel that if you and everyone else leaves. I've watched many videos on "why I'm leaving Etsy". It's pretty rotten what they have done to small businesses/crafters. When I had my Etsy shop it was literally impossible to be found through searches... the same people would come up over and over and my shop was buried deep. Good luck!
The Etsy CEO actually put out a video and a blog about that issue with drop shippers and stuff like that and they are cracking down on it now and they are going back to their original route of you having to basically prove that you handmade hand crafted that item but I understand where you’re coming from but yeah, I did want to let you know that they are cracking down and they are trying to get back to where it’s all just handmade
I was badly scammed when I opened my Etsy store earlier this year. So difficult as a newbie to tell which emails are genuine as they all have an "Etsy"logo. Luckily my bank detected it and stopped the payments so the scammers got nothing but the security issue bothered me. How did they get my details in the first place?
Oh my gosh how can they hold the money that people have already paid for an item. Unless its evident that you are stealing people's money and not shipping products then I would understand but otherwise that's stealing from the seller. Eek
Thank you so much for the great advice. I still hope my Etsy shop will take off at some point. It's open for 3 years now but it is not selling at all. I had hoped it would pick up sooner and or grow at least a little. Same with social media by the way. Do you have any tips for a noob of selling on Etsy?
I had an account for 14 years sold £1000's and one day they shut it down with no explanation. I will never sell there again. Now I am on Amazon and selling even more, again not the best like you said to have all your eggs on one basket. I have started to build a website and hopefully it will see me well.
A neighbor just dumped her Etsy account as well. Too expensive and not enough traffic. I've waited on starting my own shop, trying to find another option.
Yes. Well said... "Esty does NOT care!" It's beyond obvious; as a buyer, searching (Aaaggghhh!) for an item(s) I want has become a total waste of my time & is quite disrespectful. Their ridiculous pop-ups just drive me away. Who wants to drudge thru 100,000+ items of over-priced garbage? And, that's just getting started, oh my! BTW, WTH does Keep Commerce Human mean? To me, it means Etsy is proudly advertising their dishonesty. Way to go, AI Etsy!
I opened my etsy shop 8yrs ago and I had closed it and had considered reopening then decided not to, I've gone a little back and forth whether to or not, I had no sales anyway, but am going to reopen a little later in the yr, and going to have a website too, not sure if it'll be at the same time or not but etsy shop reopening and a site... I'm aussie myself, thought I'd add that too 😅
I defo wanna move away from etsy but i don't have a following to drive traffic to a shopify but i already spend $30 on marketing each month ($1 a day) so i could afford the monthly fee but id have to build socials from practically zero!
Same. I moved from Etsy to my own website now n I am going through the same thing with my crochet business and trying to start my social media from the ground up but wondering how that wud play out if I don’t hv much traffic coming in.
I closed my Etsy earlier this year because the fees have just gotten out of hand. I have always had my own website, but I thought it couldn't hurt to add another revenue stream but after 3 years, it was no longer worth it.
I've seen posts on a FB group where someone orders a custom embroidered item. Its produced, shipped and delivered with proof on time. The customer contacts Etsy and says "they didn't get the item" and Etsy automatically refunds.
I forgot about the reserve. I was on it and it was terrible. I had Shopify but didn’t sell much so I went back to Etsy because I thought it would help and no new customers have purchased 😢
Have you experience ETSY's "localisation" ? They are advising buyers to buy local. It affects my ETSY shop (selling wool art) so much since I am from Malaysia and non of my customers are from Malaysia. Most of my sales are from USA, 95% and 4% from UK and 1% Europe. Before Covid my sales are ok, like 10 t0 12 sales per month and then I closed it when Covid hit. I reopened it again last year around June. Sales were slow and I understood that cuz it's like starting new again. I had like 1 sale per week, both from return buyer and new buyers. I can't remember when ETSY started their "localisation" as I remembered receiving an email from them. I didn't think much about it then cuz I thought they were just talking about it in general without setting up anything in their algorithm . Then I realised my sales just stopped! I still didn't realised about the localisation, I thought maybe I don't have enough products. So I geared up and filled up my shop! After more than half a year without a single sale, then I found a Kim Bliss's video (UK) talking about her sales too! Then I tried to look for other video talking about this subject but most of them are US sellers so I guess this won't affect them! I think majority of us outside of the US have customers mostly from US. Then, I told myself, it's time to move....so I started to seek elsewhere to move. There are a few platform out there and it seems Shopify is quite popular. I might consider Shopify and definitely living ETSY for good after 10 yrs+. Like you have said about the shipping, I only charge USD4 for the shipping (actual shipping is USD12), ETSY still highlighted it and said that it's too high! So, that's it...I am giving up! Thanks Taylah💜
i don't trust Etsy anymore as at one point had a shop on there which I had open for 3-4 or possibly even 5 years, then when I got my first sale (£12) including shipping, etsy took all of the money that i should've received as well as them charging me £10 every month:(😭
I have seen a few popular content creators stating their closing the esty and thinking about quitting. Perhaps it is burnout. It can just be the economy for everyone.
While they can hold on to people's money - would that not mean that while it sits in their bank account - they are getting the interest for the days spent there - while the seller misses out on that same interest?
In Josh’s video last week he never said handmade one time. It’s no longer a handmade site! He knows it. He’s making too much money to go just handmade anymore. Sad. I’m leaving also
You should just stop etsy. They are not doing you any favors. I dont order from etsy any longer for thid simple reason: shoukd only be handmade items not factory made
