Etsy search results are flooded with cheap mass produced drop ship garbage instead of the handcrafted and well thought creations that made the site popular. Change it back!
Going public was the nail in the coffin for Etsy. As soon as you become slaves to the shareholders it's all about making soul sucking decisions to increase profits.
When are we going to realize that this is a failed economic system? This “shareholders above all” ideology is destroying the country. Call me dramatic but it’s true!
You can't even call it an alternative to Amazon because they don't have as much inventory as Amazon. I cannot remember the last time I brought anything on Etsy.
Totally agree! Etsy used to be about the little guy and now it's just another mass produced money maker for the big corporations or those who have found a way to make bug bucks on something that isn't genuinely handmade.
I bought what I thought was a homemade quilted bag for a knitting project bag, and it was packaged like it came out of a factory. I felt very duped and it was the last time I searched Etsy for something. I try to seek out small sellers who have their own website or shopify page first. I don't buy anywhere near the amount that I used to.
GREED ruined Etsy. I’ve been on Etsy since 2010. My sales continue to drop recently since they started mucking around with it and raising their prices. Etsy continues to turn a blind eye to copyright infringement and drop shippers. They blindly ban shops for no reason because their AI is incorrect. There should be a class action lawsuit against Etsy for shutting down shops without reason and holding their money hostage. Now would be a good time for a rival platform to be created that was like the old Etsy everyone knew and loved.
AI enthusiasts should take this as a warning. Delegating jobs to algorythms doesn't work, because they still can't discriminate. My shop was shut down within 24 hours with no explanation and I'm totally sure there wasn't anything "harmful" or "immoral" on it (just 3 fairly abstract paintings). Still, since your work is examined by bots, they persisted in their error. I was practically robbed of the initial fees because of course they give no refund. They lost a seller AND a buyer. Disgusting policy.
Last year they removed my 99% handmade product (excluding the materials), after I contacted the customer service they removed my account 😂. So yeah, they still remove handmade products but let the made in China stay.
The fact that they consider themselves a competitor with Amazon is a huge red flag... they weren't originally, they were totally different markets. Trust is gone. Sad to see this same old story repeat yet again; corporate profits over all else that ultimately ruins the unique gem that it was.
It's even visible looking at Kalin's face when talking about Etsy and then comparing it to Silverman's face. One person is actually excited and honest, the other has no clue about what the platform is about.
Etsy has also tried to position itself as a competitor to EBay, with small shops angling to sell vintage goods to interior decorators at inflated prices. And then there’s the elevated cost of shipping which Etsy claims is to “offset its carbon footprint.” Well, I happen to have an exceptionally small carbon footprint already, and really resent having to pay more to have something delivered than I would if I purchased it on eBay, Poshmark, Mercari or Amazon. Why should I have to fund Etsy’s virtue-signaling PR campaign? As if that’s not bad enough, Etsy prioritizes displaying sponsored items over merchandise that actually matches the search terms. It’s very frustrating to shop on Etsy, and who the heck wants to scroll through 25+ pages of 75% inaccurate items to locate something you might be interested in purchasing? It’s not a great environment for sellers, either. My sister makes high quality custom make jewelry for a living, and attracts new clients by displaying her wares at different fairs, bazaars and local markets. I asked why she didn’t have an Etsy shop, and she wrinkled her nose and said that Etsy only shows sponsored items - so if a seller doesn’t pay the extra monthly premium to have their item promoted, their merch gets buried under pages of sponsored items. Since that extra premium doesn’t guarantee a sale (why would it when Etsy will advertise the item to people looking to buy something entirely different) she said it just wasn’t worth her time - and other craftspeople she knew agreed.
People don't value human labor anymore. Contractors are charging $150 per hour to unclog toilets but when the craftsman or craftsgirl wants $15 per hour to make handmade goods, people turn up their noses and demand a discount.
@@materialgrl2000 That is a main point many people forget about or simply never had on their radar. There is a company called 'Manufactum', which sells beautiful commonplace items here in Germany, very well crafted, often made from wood, copper and steel instead of plastic. And sure, when you buy one of these things, you might save a lot of money in the long run, because they will not break after 6 months or even 6 years. I often marvel at their catalogue, wishing I had more money. Alas, I don't have the money to save me money this way, because in comparison with the goods made from plastic, they are so insanely expensive, I simply can not afford them, I _have_ to buy cheap. And I am not even an unskilled worker, I am a nurse, but what I make netto per year is absolutely ridiculous. Let's just say that a member of the german parliament makes almost as much in a month as I earn netto per year, tax free of course. So all that talk about buying quality etc. is more or less a hypothetical thing for a lot of hard working people.
We choose to live in an economy controlled by Tories or Republican crony capitalists and their insider contacts, and then get surprised when they eat up all the small businesses. Let's try getting politically literate, and changing this as a society
a company like Etsy should never go public. Period. The idea that a company must have limitless growth is non sustainable for the majority of companies. If it is profitable, it should be seen as successful, but a company like Etsy who's main demographic was bespoke, handmade items cannot possible sustain growth in perpetuity. Going public and having public investors was the nail in the coffin. It will never go back to the way it was.
You are right but the problem is a successful company will 1) Be too valuable to the owners to NOT cash out. 2) Eventually be undermined and destroyed by a company like Amazon that will copy/undercut/out-promote or other dirty tricks until you are gone. It is a carrot and stick. Zappos is owned by Amazon now, for example.
Corporations and the stock market are ruining America! Profits above good business practices, and taking advantage of workers to squeeze more profits = low pay and benefits
As an ETSY seller, I’m drowning in their ridiculous fees. They try to dilute it by separating them out. For any one sale, there are 7-9 different fees.
I calculated that’s It’s about 35% of the total sale in fees. Sure you can decline to offer free shipping and turn off the “marketing” but nobody will ever find you.
no literally so many ridiculous fees yet still they’re not even pushing our products unless we have to go again and pay for Ads or promotion which really sucks their peak was in 2015-2020, now everyone wants to make fast money and ruin certain things for us
I joined a few months ago, I made a few sales but the fees have wiped out almost all my profits. I’m considering closing the shop up before I go into the negative again when everything is due to update, another 0.20 per item. 😢
I’m a current Etsy seller, but Etsy treats sellers like garbage! So many copyright infringement happening, Etsy never cares. Etsy just cares about money.
It’s so interesting that it used to be a place for handmade and artists and crafters.. but now print on demand has taken over.. and copyright infringement is so interesting when everything is in similarity designed and created.. it should be layback in sense that things are mostly recreated using certain designs and made into an persons own item to sell.. Etsy used to be an online Farmers Market…
I've been an etsy seller since 2008 and my stuff, items I've sold for years, are getting pulled by a bot for copyright infringement. I sell vintage product items like old labels so naturally, I list the company name of the label. It's antique, so therefore not copyright infringement but bots don't care. So for all those listings I have to do their email and hope for the best. So far, the only items that have been reinstated for me were my hand made 'tribal' jewelry. My labels didn't make the cut.
I had an Etsy shop and they randomly closed it without warning and no explanation. When I tried to inquire, I got a clearly automated message with no real explanation. I’ve heard this happen to MANY others!
How, exactly, does Etsy work? You sign up on somebody else's website for free. You get a little framework to display your items. The website becomes the transaction processor and takes a cut from every sale. Etsy made money off people who have zero common business sense. You have to spend money on your business, there's no way around it. You heard "free" and thought "profit".....ignoring the fact you chose to bring in an unnecessary 3rd party middleman to take some of the money from every sale when the smart move would've been spend the money to build a website catalog showcasing all your stuff. Put a direct purchase link to the actual payment processor on the showcase page. Do exactly the same marketing you have to do anyway to send somebody to your "free Etsy shop" so Etsy can take some of your money it didn't earn, that you have to wait a few weeks to get paid from, but instead, send them to your website so they can buy it right from you, you get paid immediately, all the money. Etsy is the price gullible people pay for being lazy and gullible.
Absolutely. If Etsy shuts down your shop for no reason or removes stuff from your shop for no reason then file a FTC complaint and a complaint with your state agency. Etsy is charging for listings, ads, and now just to open a shop. They must provide the product or service that people are paying for.
THIS! My shop was shut down and I wasn't even able to speak to a human being or appeal. I'm a freelance artist and had to go back to a 9-5 job after it was shut down. Yet there are still THOUSANDS of resellers and junk still on the platform. I don't understand how it works!
ETSY IS NOT AMAZON! THEY SHOULD NOT BE ASPIRE TO BE AMAZON! THEY NEED TO BE THE BEACON OF INDEPENDENT SELLERS! THEY NEED TO BECOME A PRIVATE COMPANY AND STOP PRIORITISING SHAREHOLDERS!
I am an Etsy seller. I moved a year ago and deactivated my account temporarily. I have not been motivated to reactivate it. It's too much of a hassle. I'd rather spend the time and capital building my own brand and funneling people towards an independent website than to shovel out the endless fees to continue with Etsy.
Right on. I quit Etsy when I found out that they were collecting the email addresses of my own independent customers and selling them to my competitors on the platform.
As an Etsy seller I can say the worst part is not being able to contact a HUMAN support, bots are not able to help in so many cases. And second worst is the absence of truly HANDMADE category of products. Comparing with POD and drop shipping is bad.
Going public makes a few rich people richer and nothing else matters. They invest a few millions at the beginning, sell at the peak and move on to the next deal. What happens to the company after doesn’t matter.
Corporate America, especially tech companies, are utterly obsessed with what's been doing "line goes up." Which is insanely stupid, because no company can grow forever and growth for growth's sake can destroy a company's future. But the CEO that made the decisions that destroy the company will be long gone by the time that happens, so they don't care. They'll have moved on to another company and proceed to destroy it as well, just so they can make their bank account larger, even though they already have more money than they can ever spend in their lifetimes.
I used to see Etsy as the safe space where I could buy a wide range of artworks and know I was supporting small businesses. Now it’s become a minefield of mass-produced junk made from subpar materials. Breaks my heart.
Yup. A.I. jank is junk, and nearly every so-called "industry" has been saturated with that type of algorithmic arseness. If you want something of quality, you MUST build, grow, design, or craft it yourself. No exceptions anymore.
I feel the exact same, I bought some press-on nails on Etsy thinking I was supporting a small business but turns out it was a dropship from aliexpress selling 2$ nails for 20$
@@Novastar.SaberCombat Its the future. People complained about almost all advances in tech. My college painting professor told me how people used to be sticklers about grinding their own pigments when it came to painting. Love it or hate it tech isn't going anywhere.
Yes, if I wanted something of quality, something handmade I always went for etsy. Now it's full of cheap bad quality stuff and I have no energy or time to surf through that
Im a handmade seller on Etsy and I can’t sell anything because I’m competing against clipartists, drop shippers, aI art, POD and digital sellers who don’t follow licensing rules. True handmade sellers can’t make a living on Etsy like we used to!!
@@marcilk7534 Shops that have real pictures in their listings, their shop sections are filled out, their cover and branding matches, maybe they have pictures at the bottom of their shop that shows them doing their work or their workspace, those are all things to look for. anything that doesn’t look like it was hand drawn or hand crafted, like so many of these tshirt shops or tumblers, hardly any of them are honest artists. Shops that are all mock-ups and the same mock-ups throughout (like the shop they showed with the tumbler cups) usually are not drawing their own stuff and aren’t following correct licensing practices. Cohesiveness is a big thing to look for too.
It has become very difficult to find handmade sellers. When I put in a search I get page after page of mass production. And even returning to a previous seller for sew in labels, the saved receipt was very incomplete, I had to do quite a search to find what font and size I used before. I don’t order them often, it takes a while to use them up. Good luck moving forward.
I had a successfull Etsy shop around 2014-2017 and recently wanted to reopen my shop. I was truly SHOCKED about the increase in the fees and how many of them are there now!! Etsy has definitely changed for the worse. It used to be a beautiful place for sellers and buyers who love crafts. Bring it back!
I used to sell my handmade silver jewelry on Etsy, but I stopped due to the deluge of fake and counterfeit products being sold. I can’t compete with people selling cheap, mass produced items. They’ve pushed true artisans off the site.
Etsy's a MESS. I have a visual artist friend who is not on etsy, but sellers have taken his imagery and put it on their laser-burned wood products and etsy doesn't care. Plagiarism and theft is just so rampant, and now we are adding AI to the mix. It's awful. I have my shop paused because it exhausts me and I know there's zero recourse if someone copies my stuff and sells it because etsy DOES NOT CARE who is selling what, as long as they are making money.
100% what Ive thought about Etsy for a while. Idk how many sellers just straight up take IP and sell it. I've seen images of celebrities, album covers, brands etc. in countl as different "art" forms being sold. I've seen these thieves (no other word for them) basically draw or trace a popular photograph of a famous person and act like they actually have a right to profit from it. It's places like Etsy that allowed this behavior to be accepted by the general public. It's nothing more than theft and cheapens art and discourages actual artists from sharing their creativity.
I had my own photos of my one of a kind items I made myself stolen by other Etsy sellers and offered for sale by them. It was horrible trying to get them removed. There is very poor seller support from Etsy. I used to sell but not now, none of my items are selling on Etsy this year.
@@tater4ever The problem with that is, you can copyright a knitting pattern, but you can't prohibit the sales of items made using that pattern. Same with clothing designs, they're selling cheap knockoffs using photos of the real deal. And the photos my fashion designer friend used on her site were taken by a professional photographer, who has to be the one to submit the claim, not her. As for me, no, I unfortunately didn't copyright my illustrations cuz it's like $85 just to file one application, so if I did that for all of my work it would be thousands of dollars. And even then I wouldn't have the money to go after some Chinese reseller who stole my art for their phone cases. I could go after Etsy itself, but again, it's expensive to do so, and Etsy knows it. They rely on us small artists not having the funds to take legal action.
@@FrackMeister Exactly! I chatted with an Etsy rep about it and I asked her if she would explain why and she said yes, and then I said, ok, why? And she said, oh, I'm not allowed to share that with you. So fine. I went on strike. Haven't purchased anything from Etsy in 6 months and I used to buy several times a month. I've found other platforms where I can buy direct from the artists, and they are the ones I wanted to support by shopping on Etsy in the first place.
So why can't you put your stuff on your own website and all the work you do to send somebody to an etsy shop to they can see all your competitors and you can give an arbitrary 3rd party money for intercepting your sales flow, you could be sending them to your own site instead....so they buy from you, only you, and you make all the money per transaction. What, exactly, was Etsy actually doing for you that you couldn't do yourself?
It does look trashy ! during Father’s Day I had several reminders of my dad that died on my dashboard and homepage and then another link at the top. Don’t forget your Father’s Day. It was literally plastered all over my dashboard in one color columns and boring fonts showing NO products just words. Then under that let’s not forget the wonderful “you may also like” showing your own products😢 Sold on Etsy since 2007 never seen it this bad my last drop in traffic like this was 2016 I’m down like 71% in views etc. my website actually beat etsy sales this year! It doesn’t look like that’s going to change either. I’ll keep going down down down more and more each month on Etsy.
My Shop is Mark Ross Jewelry. It has actual handmade items by me, which is what Etsy should be!!!!🤨 Lots of us truly cannot compete with this surge of people drop shipping everything. Thank you to those who continue to support us!!!
That's what I'm saying. If a customer sees the "same" item for $5 that you handmade for $40, make a guess which one they're gonna pick. I've seen stuff and thought, how can that be mad for $5?
The desire for infinite growth is one of the worse parts of the modern business approach. When will we accept that a business is successful when it can sustain itself, rather than it continually making more?
When consumers care enough to only purchase from sellers with good ethics. As long as there are people willing to give their cash to greedy uncaring merchants, it won't stop.
@@wildflower1397op asked a sensible question because infinite growth is just not possible for any business. But hoping people will buy "because of good ethics" is such pipe dream I don't know if it's coming from naivete or out of touch privilege. "Good ethics" sellers are also charging an arm a leg because "it costs more to make a principled product". Have you seen the economy? It's just that buyers are uncaring. A lot of times buyers don't have a choice!
Probably around the same time our country as a whole stops telling everyone we’re in a recession simply because our economy is not quadrupling. GDP is embedded in the culture ‘grow or die’. :(
@@OutOfHereSoonnot necessarily. Take Stanley for example it’s been around for decades but look at it now. Sometimes it’s other things like the target market or the marketing itself. But Etsy isn’t that great for targeted marketing . It has algorithms as well and these platforms push people to pay to play by not giving exposure. Plus you don’t have your customers information to retarget them. On Etsy you are always hustling for the sale yet getting lost in the sea of listings. Someone who bought from you might not be able to find you if they choose to purchase again. That’s why forget Etsy and setup your own site so you have more control over your money and customers
Hey Josh Silverman: TECHNOLOGY can never replace the creativity of HUMAN ARTISTS. Bring back the artisans. (Boycott Etsy until the artisans regain the respect they deserve.)
I agree OP but at the same time "artisans regaining the respect they deserve" is so vague.. How do we know if and when it happens? Is that only up to Etsy or also, ultimately, the buyers?
I was an Etsy seller. Made really great money YOY where I was able to support my family with it. Then they started trying to be amazon. You had to try and ship next day, which is hard to do when you make things by hand. You get penalized if you don't have "free shipping" and don't ship next day. It's too much pressure and they are burning handmade sellers out.
I also have been on Etsy for over a decade and used to sell fairly well considering my one of a kind items are costly, but this year I have sold nothing at all on Etsy... same goes for Ebay... I used to sell as fast as I could make them, but not anymore. I am having a hard time buying food these days.
I used to sell on etsy until they increased fees and then randomly decided to hold my money for 90 days (thats a full financial quartile) for no reason other than i didnt handmake my stuff quickly enough. I was also forced to pay for ads i didnt need, i was already overloaded on work and didnt need more sales
For buyers too. I’ve gotten scammed numerous times on products the seller claimed was homemade but was an extremely poorly made Chinese knock-off. The scam sellers even steal other legitimate seller’s photos. How is Etsy not catching this?
N they didn't became another money hungry company. They evolved into a money hungry CORPORATION. I'm appalled how in 2024 so many people in the west don't know the clear distinction in motive. See Boeing? That's what happens all the time when a company rests on public funds. Always. 100% of the time. Private companies work, public companies do not
@@absolutefreedom8035But very, VERY difficult to find in the glut of Asian imports, AI crap, and so, so many trademark and copyright infringing products.
@@absolutefreedom8035 they are but the trust towards the site having reliable sellers is gone so now you are left with the job of figuring out whether a seller has genuinely handmade their products or not- which is often hard to tell.
@@absolutefreedom8035 Yes, buried under pages and pages of cheap mass produced junk. Last time I visited Etsy it was almost impossible to find an authentic seller. So I just left.
Etsy is a sad shadow of its former self. It started as a way to buy affordable hand-made crafts. Now it’s basically Wish but at a much higher price point.
@bubbles2868 I will for sure! Will you do the same? I do farmer's markets, and when we all do well, we all do well. We artists are a family. I'm unfortunately not good with social media. I'm old. There are so many creatives out there. I hope someone rescues us. I deactivated my listings. I've been meaning to when I started seeing tools and supplies. Good luck to you. I tell my vendor friends, "sell everything!" I hope you sell everything!!! What do you make?
@@bubbles2868I just listened to podcast “how I built this” by Guy Roz … business advice show who interviewed this morning a coop of artists - owned by artists - who were the Etsy alternative. Unfortunately I missed their name but u could look it up
@@mickeyfried9821 Selling on Etsy was one of my goal . By the time I was ready (Lifehappens) the platform had lost all of its magic. I too would love a new site to show my artisan pieces. I handnit socks (25 happy years of creation ). My local market is nice but I just love going to the post office to send a pair of socks to an appreciative stranger . I bet you know the feeling 😃
I sell on Etsy and their policy says that they are against selling mass produced products.. but Etsy is full of those drop shippers which makes my handmade items almost unsearchable because there is so much amount of mass produced products, it cannot filter my products anymore. They don’t give a sht about the real crafters with their small business, they only care about the money.
I'm sorry, I know the feeling. I ended up moving to selling my work on FB, but I had to work hard at building my following. I really loved Etsy in the early years. Always sad when something sweet like that withers away.
I hate that this happened. Etsy has done a horrible job! I used to love shopping there. It would help if they would make the filter actually work! When I search for “handmade” I want handmade not mass produced from a factory. I want original items. Searching for hours to find those items is not an enjoyable experience. I have done so recently and received some beautiful things but I would have appreciated a better experience. And to find out now how they are treating their sellers? Horrible!
Etsy kicked an Artist friend off the platform when she owed 15 cent on a sale she had made. With NO ability to challenge it. Just kicked right off. No way to get ahold of a human to discuss this with. No Customer Service is a huge issue.
Это просто позор, как Этси относится к продавцам! Немотивированные баны, невозможность связаться с техподдержкой, которая либо просто шлет штампованные ответы, либо отвечает просто бот. Они не несут никакой ответственности за то, что ломают бизнес тысяч людей.
I've been scammed by people multiple times, either via being hacked and people making big purchases, or buying something from a scammer and never receiving the item. There is no customer service. I had no one to explain the issue to and they would direct me straight to the seller, who was likely the scammer and so wouldn't respond. I had MY account frozen after it was hacked and my money was stolen and there was no one to reach out to. I gave up on Etsy.
"What happened to Etsy"? They went public. Once you're accountable to shareholders, it's all about money, capitalism, profits. The very "heart" of Etsy was individual artists sharing their skill and talent, and earning money from it.
Of course you would say "capitalism". Capitalism involves supply and demand. No one is demanding mass digital products and foreign merchant dropshipping.
Public or private, companies still have boards and often have CEOs who prioritize profits over ethics. I worked with a lot of tech startups who behaved exactly the same way, most who never went public - rather, they chose to hire executive leadership teams and compile boards who would push them towards profits above people, above mission.
@@TheGoldenCapstone of course it is capitalism, if the company doesn't go public they don't have quota's to make, they don't make changes to grow sales and you still have a home made crafts website
Etsy went downhill. As someone who sold on the platform since 2011, I finally left the platform after 13 years. Lackluster sales, ridiculous rules, overlooking junk...I am done.
@@ffgarcia not selling again for a bit. Just needing a break. I have loads of friends who have switched to selling in small shops or at local markets and do quite well. Best of luck to you!
@@ffgarciaat this point most artists are switching to their own web stores through places like shopify, which sucks because you loose the customers who were finding you via search :( they really ruined a great thing
Plaid did for me. Third party payment system that required access to all transactions past present and future on the bank account I was using… big red flag. They don’t need that to deposit payment. They are selling my data. Boom. All my stuff now resides in a local brick and mortar.
I spent more time photographing and listing and researching SEO than actually making. It was driving my hourly income down to pennies. And the crazy “unboxing experience” was insanely expensive to create and pack and ship.
As a buyer, I’m sad to see the handmade sellers leave the platform. It used to be where I went to find unique gifts and decor. I don’t shop on it much anymore. I’m hoping another platform pops up to replace the original Etsy.
Me too. I want unique things now-pottery, small furniture items, jewelry, holiday decorations-the list could go on. I know it costs more, and can take longer. That’s what it takes for what I want. Even saying “handmade” doesn’t mean anything now at Etsy. The last few items I’ve searched for-a lamp, small tables and shelves-the “shop” assured me it was “handmade” by local artists, “one of a kind.” BS. I found the exact same thing in mass amounts on other big internet sales sites, marked made in China, at a wide range of prices. I really wish someone would develop another site that does what Etsy started out doing.
Of the top five t shirt sellers on Etsy, four are wall to wall IP violations: counterfeit Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, etc. merch. And nothing happens to those people, while legitimate shops are banned for no reason. In the quarterly earnings call Silverman ran his mouth about using AI to get rid of sellers who "lack the skill or the will" to make their own designs. What a bunch of BS. The person who lacks the skill or the will to fix Etsy is him.
I have heard from many sellers on Etsy that they were shut down and had no way of getting their shop back - some not even selling copyrighted materials.
I dont sell tshirts but they shut me down right after I set up my acct (doing all the work of setting up) and after Etsy ppl approved my shop. I sell handmade items
They also banned people that sale custom made service dog gear. My service dog is medical equipment and he has to have properly fitted, high quality gear or else he could get hurt. He does light mobility so he has to have a custom made semi-rigid handle of a specific size and material, you can't find those anywhere except for people that specifically make them. Now I have to spend hours searching on instagram to find a seller that makes high quality gear. I have enough stuff to deal with daily, this makes it even harder for me and my service dog.
They steal IP from small sellers too... I've reported shops selling my art on drop-shipping shirts (etc) and Etsy does not give a single damn - they continue to make money on every transaction so until someone threatens legal action they just ignore you.
Etsy literally blocked me out of my shop without notice or explanation. What was once a safe haven for artists and crafters, is currently a money sucking vampire. Glad I'm out anyway.
'Zon, EFlay, and Eetzovaries all have one thing in common now: INSTA-BANS. 😂 They hold the power to destroy people's lives in an instant... and they use it. Legally. The CEOs probably enjoy it, too. Those who bow to their will may remain. Else, those people get ERASED. Obliterated. 💪😎✌️ #cartels
I'm so sorry. I love Etsy,but fewer folks are doing their own creative products. I see a lot of AI prints they charge you to download and they charge too much for something they aren't really creating and then the onus is on me as customer to print the images out. Screw that.
Fee # 1 Processing fee 3% + .25. Fee # 2 Transaction fee on the Item price 6.5% Fee # 3 Transaction fee on Shipping 6.5% Fee # 4 Forced off site ads (Success Penalty Fee) 12% and if you cancel the sale, he charges your card for the ad fee anyway. That's 28% + .25 and that's BEFORE income tax. Josh Silverman must go to prison.
I get maybe one ad sale a year. It is not a hardship, compared to doing actual in person shows the fees are very low. Gas, food, lodging, booth fees. Do consider that many still use Etsy. Be kind
I’m a Etsy seller who sells hand made crochet hats and bags, all of which take me a day to make (I also work full time). Similar items from dropshippers sell for $20 a knit hat and people tell me my $35 crochet hat is “too much”. People want retail prices for hand made items when it takes us way way longer to make, as well as developing craftsmanship and skill to create and supplies. It’s absolutely crazy.. has me thinking to just get a bi weekly farmers market booth to sell instead.
A lot of people still appreciate a hand made item and will gladly pay more for the quality.. Etsy is combining customers that would normally be aware of that, with customers looking to bargain shop.. it’s affecting artists along with the increase in the cut Etsy was taking from artists
That's the problem with business models like this. It panders to the lowest common denominator, and when it comes to humanity, the lowest common denominator is *_really_* low.
Yes! In order to actually rank in search results you need to provide free shipping to customers. They push sellers to offer discounts if an item remains in a buyer’s shopping cart. If a product is late, the buyer can request a full refund and get to keep the product as well. Advertising is a must in order to rank in search results and it’s very expensive. They’re basically trying to be Amazon where they squeeze the seller so that buyers receive their mass produced junk as quickly and cheaply as possible.
@@ovh992 I'm shocked Ebay is still around. It used to be awesome, like an online garage sale. Then they started treating small sellers like trash. The only reason Ebay was fun was because it was so easy for anyone to buy and sell. I haven't shopped there in years, because if I can't sell, there's no point. It's just another Amazon.
mistreatment of its sellers by closing down their shops without notice and no communication. also not protecting sellers when their work gets copied. etsy has become another version of Shein, but still masquerading as a place for homemade crafts
Yup, we had our store suspended for ZERO reasons and explanation, and appeal process was ignored. We set up our own website, but what a shame that this is what Etsy has become.
Not a seller friendly site for sure. For many reasons. Sellers are always anxious in there, and cannot support creativity this way. Pressure to compete, pressure not to lose bagde, pressure to ship next day, etc etc. And technical support is totally worthless.
Yes Etsy has lost its way!! What Happened To Etsy? Silverman got greedy and went public with the company. Now it's all about profit not the (artisan) people.
True. This kind of amazes me, tbh. I mean, at one hand companies like Etsy go the way of turbo-capitalism, while on the other hand they seem to forget the most simple laws of the market. I really don't understand this level of cognitive dissonance at all.
We choose to live in an economy controlled by Tories or Republican crony-capitalists and their insider contacts, and then get surprised when they eat up all the small businesses. Let's try getting politically literate, and changing this as a society
on the other hand a competitor to amazon isn't a bad thing for consumers, monopolies offer worse customer service and prices because they can get away with it because you have no alternatives.,
@@Alex_-oc4bt I get your point, but if you want to be a competitor to Amazon, you should build your business around that aspiration. It just doesn't even a jot make sense to start with an entirely different premise and then all of a sudden change your course so drastically. You will alienate your customers _and_ your sellers and you _will_ eventually lose them - while not getting any new customers, because why would they use your shop? Also, Etsy is _a lot_ more expensive and the product range is a lot smaller in comparison to Amazon.The whole thing just doesn't make any sense.
You guys have to see Tim Hortons, our #1 coffee shop. It used to be so good until some foreign company bought it. Now they have ONE person to serve all day..lineup can be 20 people long. One girl. Half the people leave, they don't care..its about real estate holdings now not profits. We went from 25 flavors of doughnuts to about 8. :)
As a long time Etsy seller, since 2009, there has been a change in 'customer'. I make linen clothing to order and have a handfull of PDF sewing patterns available in my shop. Since 2023 I regularly receive messages from customers asking why their ordered apron hasn't arrived yet. When I check their order, it turns out they have bought a sewing pattern for an apron for 7.50$ Since this year I have larger orders. No longer one skirt here, a pair of pants there, but customers buying 3, 4, 5 of the same model skirt at once. When the skirts arrive, they contact me wanting to send a few back. Apparently they purchase a few colours and send back the colours they don't like. The tendency seems to be that the current customer simply doesn't realize an item is handmade. And that is what happens when Etsy starts competing with Amazon, Temu and Shein.
How frustrating that must be for you. It also shows how some people maybe don't value/understand the difference between mass produced and hand made. I wonder if you could send them swatches in advance so they could choose a color before you did all that work.
Etsy allows violence against women and human trafficking thrive on their platform, disguised as “art” FOR YEARS. I stopped selling and buying from this greedy company years ago. It was once, a good thing but principles are too. It deserves to go away.
Etsy is facing the problem that real artisans confront: you can't compete against mass-produced items/sites. It might take an artist a week to crochet something that a machine can make in a few minutes. Etsy was NEVER supposed to make its sellers compete against the "it's-handmade-because-someone-pushed-a-button" type of product, and an artistic site is NEVER going to make the money that an Amazon will. Etsy's problem was thinking it needed to do what Amazon, Ebay, etc. already did.
Etsy isn't the problem for the sellers/creators. The problem for the sellers/creators is they welcomed an unnecessary 3rd party middle man to take a cut of their profits for the "privilege" of having a "shop"...Etsy might have a nicely built site or marketplace but the model should've been a big red nope for any seller/creator with common sense. You create this handmade thing. You bought supplies. You spend time creating it. You spend money on marketing. You spend money on a website. You spend money to ship orders. You forfeit a percentage of every transaction to your payment processor (PayPal, Stripe) because you didn't get a business account at your bank. You were already doing it all, footing the bill. Along comes Etsy and says hey, sign up and open up a shop, it's free...we'll process all the transactions so you can create. We'll only take a percentage of each transaction. Sellers/creators flocked to it and can't figure out why they're going broke and not making any money. They want to blame it on copyright and bots and dropshippers. NO. It's because you chose to build your business in another entity's house and give them a chunk of your money so they could do what you were already doing on your own. Marketing all over social media and instead of sending them to your personal site with a direct link to paypal or stripe to buy it, process your own orders and get on with it, you're now sending people to an etsy shop like that's unique, to let another entity take more of your money. If you'd gotten a business account with your bank, got your own website or social media option and posted purchase links yourself right to the paymet processor, you would be making ALL the money...doing ALL the work because it's your business. That's what happens when you decide to have a business. You have to run it.
Etsy’s search bar isn’t functional because the results don’t show only the keywords searched, let alone allow you to omit words. And the results show the same things multiple times, it’s ridiculous. Also, the last quote in this piece wasn’t about the artists or even their buyers, it was about cutting more employees from the company- WTF?
Now you know why remote work is not really viable. Same thing happened everytime i left the office to work at home too as a senior dev lol...site would acculmulate bugs until they had me inside for a week straight to iron them all out.
THIS!!! Searching is a *nightmare* now. They're allowing all these junk sellers to game the system with however they do their keywords, and now even the buyers hate the site. Screw your sellers, screw your buyers, screw your business. Not that it'll matter to the CEO. They always get cushy bonuses even when a company goes belly-up.
Essentially it seems that search keywords and filters are not applied to "advertised" items. Which are close to half results shown. They are still using your keywords to pick stuff to show you that's broadly related to what you're looking for. But unless you know exactly what you know and squeeze the last drop out of all filters available, you'll drown in advertised listings rather far from what you're looking for. Even if you filter for shops based in the US, the advertised listings are not bound by it 🤦 Forget about just browsing. You'll drown in an ocean of cheap repetitive mass produced junk.
@@stoneneils remote work has nothing to do with any of this. Solutions to these problems don't require anyone to work in an office. You just don't know anything about the Tech industry.
@@TheGoldenCapstone You're right. As a 55 years senior dev who spend the last part my career programming Magento for ecommerce companies taking in millions..i know nothing!! lol You kids are SO CUTE!!!
Their fees when you make a sell are terrible, they will threaten to close your store over “prohibited” items that others sell with ease, and they allow resell of supplies people get from eBay, Amazon, temu. Having handmade items next to things mass produced on Amazon is degrading as an artist
Exactly. When they introduced that fee hike and star seller crap, my sales and revenue went down big time. The moment someone gives u anythjng less than 5 stars, for NO REASON since they'll say "perfect, just what I wanted" but gives u 3 stars...??? And my shop is punished for a month.
@user-gx1nc6gu6h lol then add in that they expect you to pay for daily clicks JUST CLICKS, NOT SALES, and off site ads... its insane. You can't make money if you're actually buying materials and spending time on these products. It's almost impossible. It's just a wash in the end.
My issue is as a buyer I don't understand why I get so many irrelevant search results. It's frustrating, coupled with as a seller, I can't even locate my own things knowing the key words I used.
Thank you CNBC for using your platform to be a voice for us. Josh Silverman may not hear the voice of us little artists and crafters, but he sure will see this! Etsy is known for being a very niche marketplace. It competed by being unique in that aspect. The downfall is due to Etsy straying from it's brand. I've heard many people say that they will no longer shop on Etsy anymore and the 3 main reason I hear is due to dropshippers, AI generated "art", and people selling prebought graphics that you can find anywhere. The once loyal Etsy shoppers leave in frustration because they are shopping for handmade and artist designed goods and have a hard time finding us under all of the other crap that has flooded the marketplace. In all fairness it's not completely Etsy's fault. It's the rise of the "hustle bros" and "gurus" on UA-cam telling everyone to set up shop on Etsy selling AI generated images, dropshipping, or slapping premade graphics on a T-shirt from a print-on-demand company. Why they don't tell their audience to take it to the appropriate marketplace like Amazon, Walmart, or Ebay instead of Etsy is beyond me.. But they are doing so much damage!
It most certainly IS on Etsy. They are the ones that allow these type of sellers to start shops on their websites where they previously didn't. They are the ones allowing drop shipping. They decided to go public and now the goal is to increase profit every year to compete with Amazon and Temu. The fact that the company considers themself a competitor to those drop shipping websites, tells you all you need to know. The company became sellouts. Simple as that.
It was etsy 100% their AI bots flagged my account once they started to let drop shipping. I am a handmade artist with 99% authentic made materials. And I couldn't get ahold of customer service to solve the problems. It's them not anyone.elses fault why I lost my account
What he said is total crap about removing items, Etsy is flooded with Disney and other copyrighted products, just search disney and you'll get pages of stuff, all of which is illegal. There are items with swear words, nudity, the place is so far removed from what it was. Plus youtube makes out like everyone can just set up a store and make a quick buck, but it's not that easy, for most people it's their full time job and it's hard work. That's why it's so flooded with low quality items now, people are are just wanting a "side hustle" and believe they can do so without actually having to put effort in. It's so frustrating what Etsy has become.
It's art, so I have no problem with nudity or profanity. I would argue that art is really the best public place for most nudity. However, stolen artwork on cheap crappy items is both illegal and nasty.
Got these N.P.C’s out here just trying to make a quick buck with no originality or taste. They are the cash hungry bots of society. I wish they’d just sell on Amazon and leave us creatives alone.
I do believe they've removed 115% more than last year, or whatever the number he said was... but drop-ship listings are being added so much faster now, that this number is useless. It's like trying to bail out the Titanic with an ice cream bucket.
I have been an Etsy shopper for so many years, it’s my go to place for gifts and original decor. It’s very disheartening to know this, and to have this concern that I may end up receiving some drop ship garbage. I want handmade, and I want to support the creator, not a manufacturer
The most frustrating part about this is that they are saying they’re using AI to help sellers, but they don’t realize is, it’s hurting sellers. I have lost my star seller badge solely because multiple items were flagged by Etsy box. It took me months to get items reinstated and I still didn’t get my star seller badge back. I’ve been penalized for Etsy having bad AI. What does CO doesn’t realize is we a store owners cannot get a hold of anybody to speak about our stores. Speaking to a human seems impossible. As a store owner on Etsy. Not only do you flagged items that should not be flag. You shut down stores that should not be shut down you take away peoples entire incomes in a flash. And then you don’t even let them speak to a human. This entire platform is going down the drain. Don’t let AI run your platform if you don’t have a good AI. How do they not realize this?
i feel the same. i have so much anxiety related to my store, afraid it will get shutdown because my store gets flagged when im not shipping ontime or a dont follow their new updated systems . I then cannot call any etsy representatives. No more humans. ETSY is going down because there is no customer service.
Nobody has a good AI. I live in San Francisco and we have AI cars driving all over. Everyone uses AI customer service now. It’s a dystopian nightmare. AI should never have replaced people as it’s not as smart as humans and never can be. No matter what they claim. These stupid cars stop for everything except living beings and have caused road blockages. I watched one stop mid intersection recently, and it didn’t know how to go across the road, so it blocked 4 way traffic, nobody could go. AI customer service doesn’t understand how to deal with the unique challenges of their own websites, how things can get complicated and weird. So it gives you a few options and that’s that. You can never reach an actual human. These companies save so much money by firing all of their actual human workers, they don’t care that they’re hemorrhaging customers. It’s impossible to exist with this and I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry your shop is being effected. It’s all terrible and these organizations don’t care!
Wondering when will Etsy realize that treating sellers like crap will be the end of their platform. Sellers are who make this platform and without us Etsy wouldn't exist!
I totally agree with the CEO being at fault. I used to shop Etsy for EVERY wedding, baby and house warming gift; Christmas giving too. Etsy really isn’t that much different from Amazon by rewarding people for buying mass produced items, and selling them for crazy amounts. It’s bologna. I’m so tired of seeing customers wiping out ant item at HomeGoods, Marshall’s, etc; then turning around and selling them on Amazon, Etsy, Posh, etc for 4x the price. Even worse…..just steal the items, then do the same. Inflation, inflation; that’s all we hear about. Well STOP the thieves, and cap the percentage increase people place on these items to sell. Maybe then, the stores won’t have to raise their retail due to the theft. As for the Board of Directors; I don’t know who’s the biggest crook; the people stealing, or the Board of Directors? You say your stock isn’t where the BOD wants it to be? Do you know what their solution is? Easy…cut the hours of all the part-time workers. Look around your store. I challenge anyone to walk in one of these stores and find more than 3 workers on the floor, and that’s not including the cashiers. YOU CANT. If they’re LUCKY, PART-time people are getting 1 or 2 days a week. Our country says unemployment is down…..duh…it’s all part time people working 4 hour shifts once or twice a week. No, this isn’t a political statement either. I’m just tired of seeing friends working 3 jobs to make ends meet with NO medical insurance.
Not just a copy of Temu etc. They will pretend that a product is genuinely small-scale production and sell it for 90$ and then the same product will be on Amazon for 30$
Etsy has not decreased their fees they are grifting from the sellers. Stores $$$ has plummeted but Etsy is still taking their lavish cuts. Etsy is dead.
Absolutely hate what Etsy has become. Scammers have really been taking advantage of its policies. For example some sellers have abused the allowance for ai, creating fake finished images of stolen or faulty crochet patterns (so you buy a pattern, make the object and it's incomplete or different than what was advertised). As well for at least a decade now I have seen hackers selling digital in game pokemon creatures regularly. Another reason I despise the site is mass produced (mainly from China of course) are sold alongside handmade goods. Completely opposite of Etsy's original premise.
Also I keep seeing posts on social media where Chinese sellers on Etsy are asking for 5 star review in exchange of free products... You can't trust reviews on Etsy anymore either
It's gross. I looked for handmade beads once and it was like 12 pages of Ali baba / amazon beads that were clearly not handmade and twice as expensive as Amazon. Make it make sense.
The star seller is another huge issue because for people that are just coming into Etsy and starting out they have almost no way of getting their products out there if they are going into a flooded market like perfumes or graphic designs because the first few pages are going to be star sellers and most people will not look past the first two pages
I still love Etsy, but it drives me crazy in the worst way trying to make sure I'm shopping from real artists, and not getting cheap crap from overseas, or not getting scammed by a lieing listing. It's super frustrating to spend so much time trying to purchase things.
Silverman ruined Etsy. He is only concerned in making shareholders happy. Etsy has very poor customer service and treats sellers like garbage. I hope he goes down along with Etsy.
I stopped putting effort into my Etsy shop as soon as they gave "free shipping" stores priority. I dealt with small-margin items, it was impossible to make free shipping happen without losing money.
Yep, "free" shipping really just means the sellers pay for it instead of the customer. So to keep profit margins good enough to stay open, we're forced to pad that expense into the list prices of our products. Either that or refuse, charge for shipping anyway, and get shoved to the back of search results behind everyone who does offer it. Including behind ALL the drop-shippers. Since their margins are so much better they can afford to charge less than us, offer free shipping, AND make good margins. We get blended into the background jumble of sellers who max out their listing titles with barely relevant (and often fully inaccurate and unhelpful) keyword spam. I'd love if there were a way to filter OUT all the free shipping sellers, but no retail site I've ever seen offers that as a search option.
My items are large and heavy, but I put FREE SHIPPING in an effort to sell, but it has not even worked this year as I have had no sales at all from Etsy where I used to be able to earn a living with my items made by me.
Etsy no longer give 'freeshipping' priority, even though they say they do. It was quietly announced in one of their presentations. Grinds my gears how dishonest they are
I used to shop on Etsy for handmade goods and vintage finds. Now it’s a very expensive Temu, full of cheap mass-produced crap. That woman was right, it’s cups all the way down. Many of my favorite artists have disappeared, to who knows where. I no longer look at Etsy when I shop. There are a couple craft fairs in my area I look forward to for those unique gifts and purchases. And the people who run them are smart enough to limit the number of people who can sell soap, for example, or blown glass. Real Etsy artists should consider joining forces and creating a platform they intend to be for artists who like to create, with people who don’t intend to ever go public and change the philosophy. They’d do well.
They suspended most of creative sellers who kept the platform alive for absolutely no fckin reason and have let 3rd worlders flood the market with dozens of anonymous accounts reselling chinese counterfeits
I sell vintage on Etsy and other platforms. Etsy has the most time consuming and least intuitive process for listing items. And when I try to shop on Etsy, my searches turn up mostly items that have nothing to do with my search terms. It's frustrating as a buyer AND a seller, and therefore my least favorite online sales platform.
Etsy has done a lot of ridiculously annoying things lately, like adding popup windows to every single item urging people to revisit favorites, deals, or carts, charging sellers 12% for google ad sales with no opt-out over 10K/year, hiding the new items feed in favor of sales, etc. For all of these reasons I have cut my shopping there from quite frequent to practically nothing. The user experience is now so irritating that it’s like having someone follow you around poking you with a stick yelling “Buy something, dammit!!” I really have no idea what they are thinking. It’s like they’re trying to torpedo their own business. 😢😒
Same here; I really dislike the popups. Please stop nagging me to check out while I’m still shopping. Stop fear mongering that the item I *just* put in my basket is almost gone. It’s so unpleasant compared to how it used to be.
Omfg I despise the pop ups. It is literally disruptive to my browsing! If you want me to shop, let me shop for god’s sake! Stop getting in my way! Jesus.
I was an Etsy seller in 2006 and watched it just become worse and worse. Tons of listings that were obviously not hand made kept popping up and getting priority in viewing. Then the knock offs from China started popping up and undercutting the actual hand made items...sometimes by a lot, and the quality was horrid with these knock offs. I knew of sellers that actually had their pictures lifted and used for these knock offs. Etsy didn't care and would only under the most brazen acts ever remove these listings (but not the actual shops). I left in 2015 because it wasn't worth being there anymore. Growth is not the end all, and I wish that line of thinking would stop. Have a mission (hand made) and do it well. They are trying to be something that lots of platforms do better. They had a niche. They don't really have that anymore
What platform do you use now? I am close to signing up on Etsy to sell my digital templates. Glad I saw this video. But other platforms can you recommend?
I have been handmaking items since 2011. Etsy is currently on a rampage, taking down my listings. China sites have lifted my photos and are selling replicas of my items and Etsy takes down mine without asking for proof. I am currently filing legal action with China to get my photos taken down and finally was able to get in contact with someone at Etsy to prove I make my items. Etsy threatened to close my store if one more violation is found, but I cannot guarantee that a China suppliers won't steal another photo of mine and then Etsy finds my photo on their site. I have over 26,000 sales and they treat me like a criminal!
I stopped shopping as much as I had to sort through pages and pages of mass produced Temu-ish merchandise. It was so hard to find actual vintage or handmade items. It was better when they actually artists, collectors, and makers showcased. Mass produced items already have a home on apps like Amazon, we don’t need more of that.
JOSH SILVERMAN ruined Etsy JOSH SILVERMAN killed everything we depended on. JOSH SILVERMAN takes 28%. JOSH SILVERMAN uses Etsy for his personal piggy bank.
@@amystreasuresdesign Actually the removal of Chad Dickerson began when "They" suggested he get a Board of Directors together. That's how "they" perform takeovers to remove the business from the founder. They do it to movie theaters, playhouses, selling plaforms, etc...NEVER EVER have a board.
I know someone that used to have a very niche Etsy shop - no one was ever going to get rich off it, but they enjoyed it. Etsy raised their fees such that they were making no profit at all, and so they closed the Etsy store and now they just do local craft shows.
At this point I'm only keeping my Etsy shop open because it's good for my reputation when people google my brand and they see the 5-star Etsy rating with the 100k sales count. It's time for a new handmade marketplace to take over. By someone with ethics, who is prefereably a maker themselves.
Etsy and other retailers like Amazon have pivoted to having almost exclusively low quality Chinese products sold at huge markups. It’s a shame. I’m not someone who only cares about buying American goods, but I do appreciate high quality items made by name brand companies or small businesses.
There’s a marketplace that is actually useful now called Goimagine. Unlike Etsy, it’s got curation, and unlike Etsy all profits go to charity so shareholders can’t manipulate it.
I wonder why people are still so stupid that they can't smell the huge markups. How can someone be so stupid and not being broke? A 100% markup is normal but i see much more in the range of 1000% sometimes.
It's a shame. I bought a couple of very nice handcrafted items on Etsy recently. I had no idea Etsy went corporate. There needs to be a marketplace that serves artisans, not stockholders. If the artisans on Etsy aren't happy, I, as a customer, am not happy.
The moment any company goes public they go STRAIGHT DOWNHILL!! The stockmarket RUINS companies.. once you are public you are not serving the customers or your employees, you are serving the almighty stock holder and that's who you are beholden to. I wish there were a way to abolish that damnable thing..
Etsy seller here and I am experiencing a surge in cancellations because the customers want me to ship a handmade item within 1-2 days which is insane!! Buyers are also treating sellers as if we are mass manufacturers. Etsy is not fun anymore and has become very expensive.
@@callmemothermercury If you had a few millions Chinese slave laborers working for you, you could crank out anything in 2 days or less. And that is your competition.
@@LemonLimes99 Yes. If you sell one $20 item every 2 days. And you are just waiting for that one order every 2 days. Handmade means time. I do not know what handmade items you make.
I've been a customer of Etsy shops since 2015. I do not buy anything from those junk shops, only from original Etsy sellers with genuine handmade or authentic vintage and antique items. Everything in the junk shops can be found on Amazon and most of those shops that I've seen originate in China while they deceptively show that their location is in the US or the UK. The algorithm rarely shows the mass production shops to me anymore. It has determined that I cannot stand them and know that I am not alone in those feelings. There are still wonderful, creative, kind sellers on Etsy. I hope they will stay. They are greatly appreciated by the majority of buyers. I feel fortunate to have found them and to continue to find them. Watching this video has inspired me to go buy something today from real Etsy creatives.
If you really want to support a handmade seller you see on Etsy, try to find whether they have their own shop - by purchasing from their own website you’re cutting down the middleman and allowing the seller to actually make a profit for a change.
The BEST thing to do is when you find a product on Etsy, message the seller and ask if they have a website of their own, and buy from that if possible. This way, the seller gets all (or at least more) of the funds, and you may even find they have listed it cheaper on the site as Etsy take so incredibly much in fees and charges..
@DiamondPearl just be careful because if etsy's AI sees the seller say the word "ebay" "amazon" or other links in the message, they could be suspended for using the site to direct people away :(
I joined Etsy in 2009 and it looked completely different back then. There was a better sense of community among the sellers and the visibility for your products was unmatched. I used to spend 8+ hours a day on the platform learning more about how to make my shop stand out, take better pictures, improve my customer’s experience, and get inspired from the featured shop stories. Now, it feels less like a community and more like a giant virtual mall with millions of individual stores - some of which don’t even put their actual hands on the products they sell. I still have a shop, but I don’t spend nearly as much time on the platform anymore.
Thank you for covering this topic! I realised my art got stolen by a big Etsy shop back in March, and there was pretty much no support from Etsy when I reported the infringement (and that artwork was sold on my own Etsy shop). That shop is still running but I decided to close mine, as Etsy is no longer what it used to be :/
@@Clemmers316 I'm starting a merch company. I considered Etsy, but the stories about sellers getting banned made me decide to just open my own website instead.
That is terrible! I’m so sorry! Specially when it’s original work… and I bet regular people like this can’t even hire a lawyer to help… 🙁 I hope there are other similar platforms that can grow to be what Etsy used to be. All I know is that bc of all this I don’t even TRY to shop there anymore.
I joined Etsy in 2006 when Rob Kalin still owned it and it was fun to be a seller. We all made money back then doing what we loved to do. I shut my shop in 2013 when the fees started ruining our profits and you couldn’t be seen in search unless you bought ads. Eventually sellers won’t be able to afford the fees.
It was great in 2010 for me. Like you said, sales suddenly dropped in 2013 for me as well. I even noticed the competition giving up. I knew it was an Etsy thing because my personal website was keeping pace. I kept my shop open to funnel customers to my personal website, but sales were so bad and the Ads that didn’t even work! I’m convinced Etsy hid my shop from being seen unless I paid. I never trusted Etsy ads again after that. Sales started picking up again in 2017ish. But now in 2024 it is the worse I have ever seen it. Sales are at an all time low. I make more on my personal website. This is the first time in over a decade I actually had to manually pay my Etsy fees because I didn’t make enough profit to cover my listings. That is NUTS!
@@CherryBlawesome May I ask how you promote your personal website? I just joined Etsy in fall 2023 and man it is tough but seems the only way to have a venue people will go to:(
When a company puts more emphasis on making a profit rather than the actual business and those who make the business a success it’s only a matter of time before it comes crumbling down
Flooding Etsy with "commercial" versus handmade goods from independent makers is what has killed their business model. Why would I buy a mass produced item for twice the price on Etsy? Independent makers like myself are seeking out new platforms to sell handmade products because we have no desire to compete with goods made in factories.
Well absolutely! Drop shippers removed me from Etsy completely. I don't trust the platform anymore., And it's not just sellers that are complaining. I'm a customer.
I am MORE frustrated as a shopper. I'm tired of being harassed about things in my cart with pop-ups that block me from continuing to shop... or coupon codes that I have already been told about 60 times. I hate the search engine showing me nothing but mass produced trash and not having anyway around it. I'm livid about being harassed for reviews, and that I MUST leave a comment in my review to publish it. I hate that they removed ALL of the shop features that were originally implemented so that buyers could feel confident that they were buying handmade/small business items.... they don't actually want to stop these things at all.
I got scammed so hard a few years ago on ebay. I had to threaten a lawyer to get my money back. Then I deleted everything, no account no more ebay credit card. all of it, they are trash
Etsy search results are flooded with cheap mass produced drop ship garbage instead of the handcrafted and well thought creations that made the site popular. Change it back!
Is it possible for a public company to revert back to private lol
@@mykki.d yes. Twitter was made public and once Elon bought it he made it go private.
exactly, so tired of the absolute JUNK. I despise drop ship crap. Scum.
@@mykki.dthey have to buy their shares back
It's basically turned into Amazon marketplace
Going public was the nail in the coffin for Etsy. As soon as you become slaves to the shareholders it's all about making soul sucking decisions to increase profits.
When are we going to realize that this is a failed economic system? This “shareholders above all” ideology is destroying the country. Call me dramatic but it’s true!
You read my mind, startups die in their first few years too
Companies cannot just grow forever. That's what shareholders want.
"Who cares about 5 years from now, I want a return NOW."
you realize private companies also have shareholders right?
Etsy was supposed to be a marketplace for homemade goods, but now it's just an Amazon alternative. There's no room for home crafters anymore.
You can't even call it an alternative to Amazon because they don't have as much inventory as Amazon. I cannot remember the last time I brought anything on Etsy.
Totally agree! Etsy used to be about the little guy and now it's just another mass produced money maker for the big corporations or those who have found a way to make bug bucks on something that isn't genuinely handmade.
But atleast amazon gives volume in business. Etsy charges a bomb for a peanut of sales.
I bought what I thought was a homemade quilted bag for a knitting project bag, and it was packaged like it came out of a factory. I felt very duped and it was the last time I searched Etsy for something. I try to seek out small sellers who have their own website or shopify page first. I don't buy anywhere near the amount that I used to.
Ebay
GREED ruined Etsy. I’ve been on Etsy since 2010. My sales continue to drop recently since they started mucking around with it and raising their prices. Etsy continues to turn a blind eye to copyright infringement and drop shippers. They blindly ban shops for no reason because their AI is incorrect. There should be a class action lawsuit against Etsy for shutting down shops without reason and holding their money hostage. Now would be a good time for a rival platform to be created that was like the old Etsy everyone knew and loved.
Or start a Union for online crafters to protect our rights! ✊️
AI enthusiasts should take this as a warning. Delegating jobs to algorythms doesn't work, because they still can't discriminate. My shop was shut down within 24 hours with no explanation and I'm totally sure there wasn't anything "harmful" or "immoral" on it (just 3 fairly abstract paintings). Still, since your work is examined by bots, they persisted in their error. I was practically robbed of the initial fees because of course they give no refund. They lost a seller AND a buyer. Disgusting policy.
And it's flooded with scammers.
My Shop was ban for REASON they "cant disclosed" I still have the email and it gives me nightmares.
agreed
I remember the days when Etsy removed my listings for not being handmade enough and now they allow every piece of mass produced junk on there.
And bulk counterfeits
I've seen people reselling things from World Market on there. It's crazy.
Last year they removed my 99% handmade product (excluding the materials), after I contacted the customer service they removed my account 😂. So yeah, they still remove handmade products but let the made in China stay.
Lori copyrighted infringements there too!
I miss Regretsy.
The fact that they consider themselves a competitor with Amazon is a huge red flag... they weren't originally, they were totally different markets. Trust is gone. Sad to see this same old story repeat yet again; corporate profits over all else that ultimately ruins the unique gem that it was.
It's even visible looking at Kalin's face when talking about Etsy and then comparing it to Silverman's face. One person is actually excited and honest, the other has no clue about what the platform is about.
They are using Amazon as an excuse for their failure. Any company that allows counterfeit products is not looking out for their customers.
Completely forgot their roots
This right here. 'Focusing on growth' where the foundation of the original business was predicated on creators being artisans.
Etsy has also tried to position itself as a competitor to EBay, with small shops angling to sell vintage goods to interior decorators at inflated prices.
And then there’s the elevated cost of shipping which Etsy claims is to “offset its carbon footprint.” Well, I happen to have an exceptionally small carbon footprint already, and really resent having to pay more to have something delivered than I would if I purchased it on eBay, Poshmark, Mercari or Amazon. Why should I have to fund Etsy’s virtue-signaling PR campaign?
As if that’s not bad enough, Etsy prioritizes displaying sponsored items over merchandise that actually matches the search terms. It’s very frustrating to shop on Etsy, and who the heck wants to scroll through 25+ pages of 75% inaccurate items to locate something you might be interested in purchasing?
It’s not a great environment for sellers, either. My sister makes high quality custom make jewelry for a living, and attracts new clients by displaying her wares at different fairs, bazaars and local markets. I asked why she didn’t have an Etsy shop, and she wrinkled her nose and said that Etsy only shows sponsored items - so if a seller doesn’t pay the extra monthly premium to have their item promoted, their merch gets buried under pages of sponsored items. Since that extra premium doesn’t guarantee a sale (why would it when Etsy will advertise the item to people looking to buy something entirely different) she said it just wasn’t worth her time - and other craftspeople she knew agreed.
The fall of Etsy's dedication to locally made, hand-made goods is tragic. The old Etsy was great for gifts and custom crafts.
its funny
Still is
it still is u gotta know where to look
@@kenfern2259It shouldn’t be so hard to find hand made items.
@@absolutefreedom8035You’re cheap.
People don't value human labor anymore. Contractors are charging $150 per hour to unclog toilets but when the craftsman or craftsgirl wants $15 per hour to make handmade goods, people turn up their noses and demand a discount.
Not me. I believe in buying original handcrafted art and paying what it is really worth.
The problem is people generally don't make enough money to pay for quality.
@@materialgrl2000 That is a main point many people forget about or simply never had on their radar. There is a company called 'Manufactum', which sells beautiful commonplace items here in Germany, very well crafted, often made from wood, copper and steel instead of plastic. And sure, when you buy one of these things, you might save a lot of money in the long run, because they will not break after 6 months or even 6 years. I often marvel at their catalogue, wishing I had more money.
Alas, I don't have the money to save me money this way, because in comparison with the goods made from plastic, they are so insanely expensive, I simply can not afford them, I _have_ to buy cheap. And I am not even an unskilled worker, I am a nurse, but what I make netto per year is absolutely ridiculous. Let's just say that a member of the german parliament makes almost as much in a month as I earn netto per year, tax free of course. So all that talk about buying quality etc. is more or less a hypothetical thing for a lot of hard working people.
We choose to live in an economy controlled by Tories or Republican crony capitalists and their insider contacts, and then get surprised when they eat up all the small businesses. Let's try getting politically literate, and changing this as a society
@materialgrl2000 that's not true. Most people don't understand what good quality is
a company like Etsy should never go public. Period. The idea that a company must have limitless growth is non sustainable for the majority of companies. If it is profitable, it should be seen as successful, but a company like Etsy who's main demographic was bespoke, handmade items cannot possible sustain growth in perpetuity. Going public and having public investors was the nail in the coffin. It will never go back to the way it was.
Not only not sustainable, why is it always desireable? What a shame. When will we learn?
You are SO RIGHT. 👍🧓
It seems that unending growth is simply unsustainable and it always boggles my mind why companies only seek this.
You are right but the problem is a successful company will
1) Be too valuable to the owners to NOT cash out.
2) Eventually be undermined and destroyed by a company like Amazon that will copy/undercut/out-promote or other dirty tricks until you are gone.
It is a carrot and stick. Zappos is owned by Amazon now, for example.
Corporations and the stock market are ruining America!
Profits above good business practices, and taking advantage of workers to squeeze more profits = low pay and benefits
As an ETSY seller, I’m drowning in their ridiculous fees. They try to dilute it by separating them out. For any one sale, there are 7-9 different fees.
Etsy is GREEDY AF
I’m on the same boat, time ago I had a sale for $424 and just on fees was $140 if they don’t do something that’s gonna be the end of my shop.
I calculated that’s It’s about 35% of the total sale in fees. Sure you can decline to offer free shipping and turn off the “marketing” but nobody will ever find you.
no literally so many ridiculous fees yet still they’re not even pushing our products unless we have to go again and pay for Ads or promotion which really sucks their peak was in 2015-2020, now everyone wants to make fast money and ruin certain things for us
I joined a few months ago, I made a few sales but the fees have wiped out almost all my profits. I’m considering closing the shop up before I go into the negative again when everything is due to update, another 0.20 per item. 😢
I’m a current Etsy seller, but Etsy treats sellers like garbage! So many copyright infringement happening, Etsy never cares. Etsy just cares about money.
It’s so interesting that it used to be a place for handmade and artists and crafters.. but now print on demand has taken over.. and copyright infringement is so interesting when everything is in similarity designed and created.. it should be layback in sense that things are mostly recreated using certain designs and made into an persons own item to sell.. Etsy used to be an online Farmers Market…
I've been an etsy seller since 2008 and my stuff, items I've sold for years, are getting pulled by a bot for copyright infringement. I sell vintage product items like old labels so naturally, I list the company name of the label. It's antique, so therefore not copyright infringement but bots don't care. So for all those listings I have to do their email and hope for the best. So far, the only items that have been reinstated for me were my hand made 'tribal' jewelry. My labels didn't make the cut.
Exactly right
So sorry 😢
AMEN TO THAT!
I had an Etsy shop and they randomly closed it without warning and no explanation. When I tried to inquire, I got a clearly automated message with no real explanation. I’ve heard this happen to MANY others!
Yes, this happened to me as well. I tried opening a different shop, and it wouldn’t let me 🫤
I have had it happen numerous times.. no explanation ever and and no apology
@@ARTATAKDOTCO this happened like a year ago and still haven’t heard back from them 😂
I keep hearing about this too. So sorry for your loss!! Like when a landlord evicts you.
@@branch9digital Thank you Branch.. Its surprising they can get away with such dictatorial behavior
Etsy needs to be investigated for shutting down loyal seller accounts with no notification and then holding onto their money for 180+ days.
How, exactly, does Etsy work? You sign up on somebody else's website for free. You get a little framework to display your items. The website becomes the transaction processor and takes a cut from every sale. Etsy made money off people who have zero common business sense.
You have to spend money on your business, there's no way around it. You heard "free" and thought "profit".....ignoring the fact you chose to bring in an unnecessary 3rd party middleman to take some of the money from every sale when the smart move would've been spend the money to build a website catalog showcasing all your stuff. Put a direct purchase link to the actual payment processor on the showcase page.
Do exactly the same marketing you have to do anyway to send somebody to your "free Etsy shop" so Etsy can take some of your money it didn't earn, that you have to wait a few weeks to get paid from, but instead, send them to your website so they can buy it right from you, you get paid immediately, all the money. Etsy is the price gullible people pay for being lazy and gullible.
💯
Now it's full of Chinese sellers.
Absolutely. If Etsy shuts down your shop for no reason or removes stuff from your shop for no reason then file a FTC complaint and a complaint with your state agency. Etsy is charging for listings, ads, and now just to open a shop. They must provide the product or service that people are paying for.
THIS! My shop was shut down and I wasn't even able to speak to a human being or appeal. I'm a freelance artist and had to go back to a 9-5 job after it was shut down. Yet there are still THOUSANDS of resellers and junk still on the platform. I don't understand how it works!
ETSY IS NOT AMAZON! THEY SHOULD NOT BE ASPIRE TO BE AMAZON! THEY NEED TO BE THE BEACON OF INDEPENDENT SELLERS! THEY NEED TO BECOME A PRIVATE COMPANY AND STOP PRIORITISING SHAREHOLDERS!
Absolutely! Amazon is not Etsy. Etsy is not Amazon.
too late. It's already happened.
Same for Walmart, Target, Newegg, or even Safeway - I hate searching for stuff on their websites only to see 3rd party stuff.
TELAPORT IS TAKING OVER
too late
I am an Etsy seller. I moved a year ago and deactivated my account temporarily. I have not been motivated to reactivate it. It's too much of a hassle. I'd rather spend the time and capital building my own brand and funneling people towards an independent website than to shovel out the endless fees to continue with Etsy.
This is good you should never have depended on Etsy the plan should have been to eventually move into your own platform. Good luck
Right on.
I quit Etsy when I found out that they were collecting the email addresses of my own independent customers and selling them to my competitors on the platform.
Soooo you’re not an etsy seller
Good for you. Your time is precious, and you're established. Etsy will eventually see more like you leave.
If you do sell online again, find a different host site. It's gone downhill for sellers especially in the last few months.
As an Etsy seller I can say the worst part is not being able to contact a HUMAN support, bots are not able to help in so many cases.
And second worst is the absence of truly HANDMADE category of products. Comparing with POD and drop shipping is bad.
Why compete with Amazon? Why the obsession with the constant growth? Going public kills most of the companies 🤷♀️
Going public makes a few rich people richer and nothing else matters.
They invest a few millions at the beginning, sell at the peak and move on to the next deal.
What happens to the company after doesn’t matter.
Yay Capitalism😕
Greed, everybody wants to be a billionaire these days.
@@dotdash8327not just a billionaire, a billionaire by *being the middleman* while doing no work
Corporate America, especially tech companies, are utterly obsessed with what's been doing "line goes up." Which is insanely stupid, because no company can grow forever and growth for growth's sake can destroy a company's future.
But the CEO that made the decisions that destroy the company will be long gone by the time that happens, so they don't care. They'll have moved on to another company and proceed to destroy it as well, just so they can make their bank account larger, even though they already have more money than they can ever spend in their lifetimes.
I used to see Etsy as the safe space where I could buy a wide range of artworks and know I was supporting small businesses. Now it’s become a minefield of mass-produced junk made from subpar materials. Breaks my heart.
Yup. A.I. jank is junk, and nearly every so-called "industry" has been saturated with that type of algorithmic arseness. If you want something of quality, you MUST build, grow, design, or craft it yourself. No exceptions anymore.
I feel the exact same, I bought some press-on nails on Etsy thinking I was supporting a small business but turns out it was a dropship from aliexpress selling 2$ nails for 20$
@@Novastar.SaberCombat Its the future. People complained about almost all advances in tech. My college painting professor told me how people used to be sticklers about grinding their own pigments when it came to painting. Love it or hate it tech isn't going anywhere.
Yes, if I wanted something of quality, something handmade I always went for etsy. Now it's full of cheap bad quality stuff and I have no energy or time to surf through that
We still produce 100% of our woodworking items, but it’s hard to stand out :/
Im a handmade seller on Etsy and I can’t sell anything because I’m competing against clipartists, drop shippers, aI art, POD and digital sellers who don’t follow licensing rules. True handmade sellers can’t make a living on Etsy like we used to!!
I had to switch from handmade to vintage. Handmade was not at all selling.
As a customer, I try to find true handmade stuff, but it’s so hard to tell what is and isn’t.
@@marcilk7534 Shops that have real pictures in their listings, their shop sections are filled out, their cover and branding matches, maybe they have pictures at the bottom of their shop that shows them doing their work or their workspace, those are all things to look for. anything that doesn’t look like it was hand drawn or hand crafted, like so many of these tshirt shops or tumblers, hardly any of them are honest artists. Shops that are all mock-ups and the same mock-ups throughout (like the shop they showed with the tumbler cups) usually are not drawing their own stuff and aren’t following correct licensing practices. Cohesiveness is a big thing to look for too.
It has become very difficult to find handmade sellers. When I put in a search I get page after page of mass production. And even returning to a previous seller for sew in labels, the saved receipt was very incomplete, I had to do quite a search to find what font and size I used before. I don’t order them often, it takes a while to use them up. Good luck moving forward.
My art keeps showing up on other people’s pages
I had a successfull Etsy shop around 2014-2017 and recently wanted to reopen my shop. I was truly SHOCKED about the increase in the fees and how many of them are there now!! Etsy has definitely changed for the worse. It used to be a beautiful place for sellers and buyers who love crafts. Bring it back!
I used to sell my handmade silver jewelry on Etsy, but I stopped due to the deluge of fake and counterfeit products being sold. I can’t compete with people selling cheap, mass produced items. They’ve pushed true artisans off the site.
Profits over people. Coin over community. Economy over ethics. 💪😎✌️ THIS IS THE FUTURE. ⚔️🇱🇷⚔️ #Murica #Corporatism #Schlavery
Same here
:((((( this is so sad. it’s not right !!
@@Novastar.SaberCombat😭😭😭
Same. I've been with Etsy since 2012 but it's really hard now because I can't lower my prices but so much to compete.
Etsy's a MESS. I have a visual artist friend who is not on etsy, but sellers have taken his imagery and put it on their laser-burned wood products and etsy doesn't care. Plagiarism and theft is just so rampant, and now we are adding AI to the mix. It's awful. I have my shop paused because it exhausts me and I know there's zero recourse if someone copies my stuff and sells it because etsy DOES NOT CARE who is selling what, as long as they are making money.
Yup. My friend has had her clothing designs stolen, another had her knitting patterns stolen, and I have had my art pieces stolen.
100% what Ive thought about Etsy for a while. Idk how many sellers just straight up take IP and sell it. I've seen images of celebrities, album covers, brands etc. in countl as different "art" forms being sold. I've seen these thieves (no other word for them) basically draw or trace a popular photograph of a famous person and act like they actually have a right to profit from it. It's places like Etsy that allowed this behavior to be accepted by the general public. It's nothing more than theft and cheapens art and discourages actual artists from sharing their creativity.
@@WobblesandBeandid they copyright or get there lawyer involved ?
I had my own photos of my one of a kind items I made myself stolen by other Etsy sellers and offered for sale by them. It was horrible trying to get them removed. There is very poor seller support from Etsy. I used to sell but not now, none of my items are selling on Etsy this year.
@@tater4ever The problem with that is, you can copyright a knitting pattern, but you can't prohibit the sales of items made using that pattern. Same with clothing designs, they're selling cheap knockoffs using photos of the real deal. And the photos my fashion designer friend used on her site were taken by a professional photographer, who has to be the one to submit the claim, not her.
As for me, no, I unfortunately didn't copyright my illustrations cuz it's like $85 just to file one application, so if I did that for all of my work it would be thousands of dollars. And even then I wouldn't have the money to go after some Chinese reseller who stole my art for their phone cases. I could go after Etsy itself, but again, it's expensive to do so, and Etsy knows it. They rely on us small artists not having the funds to take legal action.
Etsy has made it all but impossible to search for what you want.The search functions have became a sick joke.
Absolutely, totally
I hate how you can't even search categories anymore.
@@FrackMeister Exactly! I chatted with an Etsy rep about it and I asked her if she would explain why and she said yes, and then I said, ok, why? And she said, oh, I'm not allowed to share that with you. So fine. I went on strike. Haven't purchased anything from Etsy in 6 months and I used to buy several times a month. I've found other platforms where I can buy direct from the artists, and they are the ones I wanted to support by shopping on Etsy in the first place.
Yes!!! It's so frustrating!!
So why can't you put your stuff on your own website and all the work you do to send somebody to an etsy shop to they can see all your competitors and you can give an arbitrary 3rd party money for intercepting your sales flow, you could be sending them to your own site instead....so they buy from you, only you, and you make all the money per transaction.
What, exactly, was Etsy actually doing for you that you couldn't do yourself?
The front page of Etsy used to be a quirky, handmade art fest. Now it’s the equivalent of a Walmart parking lot.
Is your account also suspended?
It does look trashy ! during Father’s Day I had several reminders of my dad that died on my dashboard and homepage and then another link at the top. Don’t forget your Father’s Day. It was literally plastered all over my dashboard in one color columns and boring fonts showing NO products just words. Then under that let’s not forget the wonderful “you may also like” showing your own products😢
Sold on Etsy since 2007 never seen it this bad my last drop in traffic like this was 2016
I’m down like 71% in views etc. my website actually beat etsy sales this year! It doesn’t look like that’s going to change either. I’ll keep going down down down more and more each month on Etsy.
@@KellyNeddo are you making enough sales in your store
@@KellyNeddo like am also felling somehow with my store
@@KellyNeddo can I know more about your Etsy store
My Shop is Mark Ross Jewelry. It has actual handmade items by me, which is what Etsy should be!!!!🤨 Lots of us truly cannot compete with this surge of people drop shipping everything. Thank you to those who continue to support us!!!
Oh, I like your style! :D Your jewelry is pretty!
That's what I'm saying. If a customer sees the "same" item for $5 that you handmade for $40, make a guess which one they're gonna pick.
I've seen stuff and thought, how can that be mad for $5?
Found your shop and am following. Stunning Swarovski crystal jewelry!
Thank you! I try sooo hard to search for actual shops that aren't cheap overseas crap. Definitely going to your shop!
I spend so long searching for shops like yours! I'm bookmarking for later because your work is beautiful 🙂
The desire for infinite growth is one of the worse parts of the modern business approach. When will we accept that a business is successful when it can sustain itself, rather than it continually making more?
it's the 'never enough' crowd we have to contend with
When consumers care enough to only purchase from sellers with good ethics. As long as there are people willing to give their cash to greedy uncaring merchants, it won't stop.
Welcome to capitalism. No one cares. I doubt humanity will survive to see the end of the century because of greedy people like this.
@@wildflower1397op asked a sensible question because infinite growth is just not possible for any business. But hoping people will buy "because of good ethics" is such pipe dream I don't know if it's coming from naivete or out of touch privilege. "Good ethics" sellers are also charging an arm a leg because "it costs more to make a principled product". Have you seen the economy? It's just that buyers are uncaring. A lot of times buyers don't have a choice!
Probably around the same time our country as a whole stops telling everyone we’re in a recession simply because our economy is not quadrupling. GDP is embedded in the culture ‘grow or die’. :(
I am a long-time Etsy seller and I’m DONE. Income dropped more than 50% since 2022-23.
I'm down 80% from my 2020 high. Now I'm at the almost same level I was when I first joined in 2012 😂😂😂🥲
Where do you sell your items now?
Your income dropped and whose fault is that? Perhaps its the product?
@@OutOfHereSoonnot necessarily. Take Stanley for example it’s been around for decades but look at it now. Sometimes it’s other things like the target market or the marketing itself. But Etsy isn’t that great for targeted marketing . It has algorithms as well and these platforms push people to pay to play by not giving exposure. Plus you don’t have your customers information to retarget them. On Etsy you are always hustling for the sale yet getting lost in the sea of listings. Someone who bought from you might not be able to find you if they choose to purchase again. That’s why forget Etsy and setup your own site so you have more control over your money and customers
@OutOfHereSoon you must be new here 😂😂😂
Etsy has just become a ridiculously expensive Shein or Wish. We all hate it now. It’s absolutely destroyed now.
Hey Josh Silverman: TECHNOLOGY can never replace the creativity of HUMAN ARTISTS. Bring back the artisans. (Boycott Etsy until the artisans regain the respect they deserve.)
I have so disappointed
As an artisan on etsy 😭
I agree OP but at the same time "artisans regaining the respect they deserve" is so vague.. How do we know if and when it happens? Is that only up to Etsy or also, ultimately, the buyers?
It’s just Aliexpress now.
Yes it can, and it is.
I was an Etsy seller. Made really great money YOY where I was able to support my family with it. Then they started trying to be amazon. You had to try and ship next day, which is hard to do when you make things by hand. You get penalized if you don't have "free shipping" and don't ship next day.
It's too much pressure and they are burning handmade sellers out.
It's really crazy to me that they started penalizing if you don't ship next day, even for items which are handmade after an order is placed!
That’s crazy - I remember all the great experiences when the seller has reached out personally to discuss personalization.
Yeah, I took off the free shipping over $35 because I was taking losses from it and my YOY stats are down 62% 🙃
I also have been on Etsy for over a decade and used to sell fairly well considering my one of a kind items are costly, but this year I have sold nothing at all on Etsy... same goes for Ebay... I used to sell as fast as I could make them, but not anymore. I am having a hard time buying food these days.
Exactly. They have made Etsy a bullying site to sellers.
I used to sell on etsy until they increased fees and then randomly decided to hold my money for 90 days (thats a full financial quartile) for no reason other than i didnt handmake my stuff quickly enough. I was also forced to pay for ads i didnt need, i was already overloaded on work and didnt need more sales
Yes!! Etsys nuts for doing this. Holding our money for 90 is obscene
Josh Silverman completely destroyed Etsy for sellers.
Greed greed greed
For buyers too. I’ve gotten scammed numerous times on products the seller claimed was homemade but was an extremely poorly made Chinese knock-off. The scam sellers even steal other legitimate seller’s photos. How is Etsy not catching this?
And in doing that, he completely destroyed it for buyers like me as well.
@@WorldsEnd84 and now all the management will wonder and talk on countless board meetings about "why are we not making more money?!".
..and for buyers, I would argue.
Etsy is not a website for a handmade products anymore and they don’t care about small sellers. They became another money hungry company.
N they didn't became another money hungry company. They evolved into a money hungry CORPORATION. I'm appalled how in 2024 so many people in the west don't know the clear distinction in motive. See Boeing? That's what happens all the time when a company rests on public funds. Always. 100% of the time. Private companies work, public companies do not
true
What I liked about Etsy was the sale of products I could find nowhere else! That is what made it famous. Take that away, and they can’t compete.
@@absolutefreedom8035you may still be in Etsy as someone who makes handmade goods, but it's getting increasingly more difficult to find you.
@@absolutefreedom8035But very, VERY difficult to find in the glut of Asian imports, AI crap, and so, so many trademark and copyright infringing products.
@@absolutefreedom8035 they are but the trust towards the site having reliable sellers is gone so now you are left with the job of figuring out whether a seller has genuinely handmade their products or not- which is often hard to tell.
@@absolutefreedom8035 Yes, buried under pages and pages of cheap mass produced junk. Last time I visited Etsy it was almost impossible to find an authentic seller. So I just left.
Yes
Etsy is a sad shadow of its former self. It started as a way to buy affordable hand-made crafts. Now it’s basically Wish but at a much higher price point.
We need a new platform!!!
Etsy is greedy. I'm done with them!!!
Our new platform cannot be publicly traded!!
When you find one let us know
@bubbles2868 I will for sure! Will you do the same? I do farmer's markets, and when we all do well, we all do well. We artists are a family. I'm unfortunately not good with social media. I'm old. There are so many creatives out there. I hope someone rescues us. I deactivated my listings. I've been meaning to when I started seeing tools and supplies.
Good luck to you. I tell my vendor friends, "sell everything!" I hope you sell everything!!! What do you make?
@@bubbles2868I just listened to podcast “how I built this” by Guy Roz … business advice show who interviewed this morning a coop of artists - owned by artists - who were the Etsy alternative. Unfortunately I missed their name but u could look it up
@@bubbles2868 Society6 is something I just saw. Will it help you? 🤔
@@mickeyfried9821 Selling on Etsy was one of my goal . By the time I was ready (Lifehappens) the platform had lost all of its magic. I too would love a new site to show my artisan pieces. I handnit socks (25 happy years of creation ). My local market is nice but I just love going to the post office to send a pair of socks to an appreciative stranger . I bet you know the feeling 😃
I sell on Etsy and their policy says that they are against selling mass produced products.. but Etsy is full of those drop shippers which makes my handmade items almost unsearchable because there is so much amount of mass produced products, it cannot filter my products anymore. They don’t give a sht about the real crafters with their small business, they only care about the money.
Correct. "If you ain't rich, you ain't nothin'." --J.P.
I'm sorry, I know the feeling. I ended up moving to selling my work on FB, but I had to work hard at building my following. I really loved Etsy in the early years. Always sad when something sweet like that withers away.
Truth ...😢
It’s tragic. When I go on Etsy, I am looking for hand-crafted items like yours, not mass-produced garbage.
I hate that this happened. Etsy has done a horrible job! I used to love shopping there. It would help if they would make the filter actually work! When I search for “handmade” I want handmade not mass produced from a factory. I want original items. Searching for hours to find those items is not an enjoyable experience. I have done so recently and received some beautiful things but I would have appreciated a better experience. And to find out now how they are treating their sellers? Horrible!
Etsy kicked an Artist friend off the platform when she owed 15 cent on a sale she had made. With NO ability to challenge it. Just kicked right off. No way to get ahold of a human to discuss this with. No Customer Service is a huge issue.
Это просто позор, как Этси относится к продавцам! Немотивированные баны, невозможность связаться с техподдержкой, которая либо просто шлет штампованные ответы, либо отвечает просто бот. Они не несут никакой ответственности за то, что ломают бизнес тысяч людей.
Yeah, and be aware of what you say in the forums.
I've been scammed by people multiple times, either via being hacked and people making big purchases, or buying something from a scammer and never receiving the item. There is no customer service. I had no one to explain the issue to and they would direct me straight to the seller, who was likely the scammer and so wouldn't respond. I had MY account frozen after it was hacked and my money was stolen and there was no one to reach out to. I gave up on Etsy.
I was kicked off when they decided a deer painting of mine was copyright infringement. No warnings, no nothing. Just banned my account 🤷🏻♀️
They will not even talk to you before banning you
"What happened to Etsy"? They went public. Once you're accountable to shareholders, it's all about money, capitalism, profits. The very "heart" of Etsy was individual artists sharing their skill and talent, and earning money from it.
Of course you would say "capitalism". Capitalism involves supply and demand. No one is demanding mass digital products and foreign merchant dropshipping.
@@TheGoldenCapstone Sounds like you agree with me, so I'm not sure what's the purpose of your comment
Public or private, companies still have boards and often have CEOs who prioritize profits over ethics. I worked with a lot of tech startups who behaved exactly the same way, most who never went public - rather, they chose to hire executive leadership teams and compile boards who would push them towards profits above people, above mission.
@@ALynn-wp9gb if ypur startup only works to make a profit it'll probably fail, usefull products don't come from having to make money
@@TheGoldenCapstone
of course it is capitalism, if the company doesn't go public they don't have quota's to make, they don't make changes to grow sales and you still have a home made crafts website
Etsy went downhill. As someone who sold on the platform since 2011, I finally left the platform after 13 years. Lackluster sales, ridiculous rules, overlooking junk...I am done.
Where do you sell now instead? I’m looking for options
@@ffgarcia not selling again for a bit. Just needing a break. I have loads of friends who have switched to selling in small shops or at local markets and do quite well. Best of luck to you!
@@ffgarciaat this point most artists are switching to their own web stores through places like shopify, which sucks because you loose the customers who were finding you via search :( they really ruined a great thing
Plaid did for me. Third party payment system that required access to all transactions past present and future on the bank account I was using… big red flag. They don’t need that to deposit payment. They are selling my data. Boom. All my stuff now resides in a local brick and mortar.
I spent more time photographing and listing and researching SEO than actually making. It was driving my hourly income down to pennies. And the crazy “unboxing experience” was insanely expensive to create and pack and ship.
As a buyer, I’m sad to see the handmade sellers leave the platform. It used to be where I went to find unique gifts and decor. I don’t shop on it much anymore. I’m hoping another platform pops up to replace the original Etsy.
YES! This is the solution!
Me too. I want unique things now-pottery, small furniture items, jewelry, holiday decorations-the list could go on. I know it costs more, and can take longer. That’s what it takes for what I want.
Even saying “handmade” doesn’t mean anything now at Etsy. The last few items I’ve searched for-a lamp, small tables and shelves-the “shop” assured me it was “handmade” by local artists, “one of a kind.” BS. I found the exact same thing in mass amounts on other big internet sales sites, marked made in China, at a wide range of prices.
I really wish someone would develop another site that does what Etsy started out doing.
As a long time Esty customer, I HATE sorting through the junk, mass produced crap. It's a huge turn off and I don't shop as often as I used to.
Of the top five t shirt sellers on Etsy, four are wall to wall IP violations: counterfeit Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, etc. merch. And nothing happens to those people, while legitimate shops are banned for no reason. In the quarterly earnings call Silverman ran his mouth about using AI to get rid of sellers who "lack the skill or the will" to make their own designs. What a bunch of BS. The person who lacks the skill or the will to fix Etsy is him.
I have heard from many sellers on Etsy that they were shut down and had no way of getting their shop back - some not even selling copyrighted materials.
I dont sell tshirts but they shut me down right after I set up my acct (doing all the work of setting up) and after Etsy ppl approved my shop. I sell handmade items
THISSSSS!!!!
They also banned people that sale custom made service dog gear. My service dog is medical equipment and he has to have properly fitted, high quality gear or else he could get hurt. He does light mobility so he has to have a custom made semi-rigid handle of a specific size and material, you can't find those anywhere except for people that specifically make them. Now I have to spend hours searching on instagram to find a seller that makes high quality gear. I have enough stuff to deal with daily, this makes it even harder for me and my service dog.
They steal IP from small sellers too... I've reported shops selling my art on drop-shipping shirts (etc) and Etsy does not give a single damn - they continue to make money on every transaction so until someone threatens legal action they just ignore you.
Etsy literally blocked me out of my shop without notice or explanation. What was once a safe haven for artists and crafters, is currently a money sucking vampire. Glad I'm out anyway.
We had a similar experience. We will never go back
where do you sell now?
@@bringtheseo just locally, i haven’t found an alternative yet
Same.
'Zon, EFlay, and Eetzovaries all have one thing in common now: INSTA-BANS. 😂 They hold the power to destroy people's lives in an instant... and they use it. Legally. The CEOs probably enjoy it, too. Those who bow to their will may remain. Else, those people get ERASED. Obliterated. 💪😎✌️ #cartels
They stopped caring about their artisans when Silverman took over. Ruined my business.
Yep! The same exact thing happened to me.
What’s an alternative? I’ve been only doing trades at local art meet ups but would love to sell online.
Looking for alternatives as well here.
For those looking for alternatives, find a Web site service. There are plenty out there. Then start a UA-cam, and Instagram or whatever to advertise.
I'm so sorry. I love Etsy,but fewer folks are doing their own creative products. I see a lot of AI prints they charge you to download and they charge too much for something they aren't really creating and then the onus is on me as customer to print the images out. Screw that.
Fee # 1 Processing fee 3% + .25.
Fee # 2 Transaction fee on the Item price 6.5%
Fee # 3 Transaction fee on Shipping 6.5%
Fee # 4 Forced off site ads (Success Penalty Fee) 12%
and if you cancel the sale, he charges your card for the ad
fee anyway.
That's 28% + .25 and that's BEFORE income tax.
Josh Silverman must go to prison.
I get maybe one ad sale a year. It is not a hardship, compared to doing actual in person shows the fees are very low. Gas, food, lodging, booth fees. Do consider that many still use Etsy. Be kind
If you live in Canada we also get a "currency conversion fee", I assume European sellers also do.
Josh Silverman should be investigated, one year ago Etsy got called from the UK to answer on seller money they were holding, they should prison him…
@@joan-lisa-smith Jesus christ, so your total fees must be upwards of like 30-40%? Ridiculous!
I’m a Etsy seller who sells hand made crochet hats and bags, all of which take me a day to make (I also work full time). Similar items from dropshippers sell for $20 a knit hat and people tell me my $35 crochet hat is “too much”. People want retail prices for hand made items when it takes us way way longer to make, as well as developing craftsmanship and skill to create and supplies. It’s absolutely crazy.. has me thinking to just get a bi weekly farmers market booth to sell instead.
20 bucks wouldn’t cover the cost of yarn!
Farmer's Markets are the new Etsy
No but fr youre on the right path. And then get your own website
A lot of people still appreciate a hand made item and will gladly pay more for the quality.. Etsy is combining customers that would normally be aware of that, with customers looking to bargain shop.. it’s affecting artists along with the increase in the cut Etsy was taking from artists
That's the problem with business models like this. It panders to the lowest common denominator, and when it comes to humanity, the lowest common denominator is *_really_* low.
Etsy is becoming like Amazon; treating sellers badly and focus more on corporate profit.
And eBay!
Yes! In order to actually rank in search results you need to provide free shipping to customers. They push sellers to offer discounts if an item remains in a buyer’s shopping cart. If a product is late, the buyer can request a full refund and get to keep the product as well. Advertising is a must in order to rank in search results and it’s very expensive. They’re basically trying to be Amazon where they squeeze the seller so that buyers receive their mass produced junk as quickly and cheaply as possible.
And the irony in all of that is Amazon has a handmade section, and at least for the handmade sellers the support is at least 10x better than Etsy’s.
Fact
@@ovh992 I'm shocked Ebay is still around. It used to be awesome, like an online garage sale. Then they started treating small sellers like trash. The only reason Ebay was fun was because it was so easy for anyone to buy and sell. I haven't shopped there in years, because if I can't sell, there's no point. It's just another Amazon.
mistreatment of its sellers by closing down their shops without notice and no communication. also not protecting sellers when their work gets copied. etsy has become another version of Shein, but still masquerading as a place for homemade crafts
That happened to two friends, one of which got back into her shop, the other was still trying, as of the last text to us about it.
Just like dating apps
Yup, we had our store suspended for ZERO reasons and explanation, and appeal process was ignored. We set up our own website, but what a shame that this is what Etsy has become.
Not a seller friendly site for sure. For many reasons. Sellers are always anxious in there, and cannot support creativity this way. Pressure to compete, pressure not to lose bagde, pressure to ship next day, etc etc. And technical support is totally worthless.
Yes Etsy has lost its way!! What Happened To Etsy? Silverman got greedy and went public with the company. Now it's all about profit not the (artisan) people.
If there's going to be nothing unique about Etsy, they have no reason to exist. We dont need another Amazon.
True. This kind of amazes me, tbh. I mean, at one hand companies like Etsy go the way of turbo-capitalism, while on the other hand they seem to forget the most simple laws of the market. I really don't understand this level of cognitive dissonance at all.
We choose to live in an economy controlled by Tories or Republican crony-capitalists and their insider contacts, and then get surprised when they eat up all the small businesses. Let's try getting politically literate, and changing this as a society
on the other hand a competitor to amazon isn't a bad thing for consumers, monopolies offer worse customer service and prices because they can get away with it because you have no alternatives.,
@@Alex_-oc4bt I get your point, but if you want to be a competitor to Amazon, you should build your business around that aspiration.
It just doesn't even a jot make sense to start with an entirely different premise and then all of a sudden change your course so drastically. You will alienate your customers _and_ your sellers and you _will_ eventually lose them - while not getting any new customers, because why would they use your shop?
Also, Etsy is _a lot_ more expensive and the product range is a lot smaller in comparison to Amazon.The whole thing just doesn't make any sense.
anytime shareholders are involved its a loss for humanity.
Succinctly said! 👏💯
So true
You guys have to see Tim Hortons, our #1 coffee shop. It used to be so good until some foreign company bought it. Now they have ONE person to serve all day..lineup can be 20 people long. One girl. Half the people leave, they don't care..its about real estate holdings now not profits. We went from 25 flavors of doughnuts to about 8. :)
As a long time Etsy seller, since 2009, there has been a change in 'customer'.
I make linen clothing to order and have a handfull of PDF sewing patterns available in my shop.
Since 2023 I regularly receive messages from customers asking why their ordered apron hasn't arrived yet. When I check their order, it turns out they have bought a sewing pattern for an apron for 7.50$
Since this year I have larger orders. No longer one skirt here, a pair of pants there, but customers buying 3, 4, 5 of the same model skirt at once. When the skirts arrive, they contact me wanting to send a few back. Apparently they purchase a few colours and send back the colours they don't like.
The tendency seems to be that the current customer simply doesn't realize an item is handmade. And that is what happens when Etsy starts competing with Amazon, Temu and Shein.
Etsy is my go to for patterns! I wonder if I have some of yours? That's pretty much the only thing I buy there.
How frustrating that must be for you. It also shows how some people maybe don't value/understand the difference between mass produced and hand made. I wonder if you could send them swatches in advance so they could choose a color before you did all that work.
Easy fix: Don't offer refunds/cancellations. Let your customers know up front with your store policy. That is how I handle it and it works fine.
souns like the low iq customer of amazon is migrating to etsy
💯
Etsy allows violence against women and human trafficking thrive on their platform, disguised as “art” FOR YEARS. I stopped selling and buying from this greedy company years ago. It was once, a good thing but principles are too. It deserves to go away.
Etsy is facing the problem that real artisans confront: you can't compete against mass-produced items/sites. It might take an artist a week to crochet something that a machine can make in a few minutes. Etsy was NEVER supposed to make its sellers compete against the "it's-handmade-because-someone-pushed-a-button" type of product, and an artistic site is NEVER going to make the money that an Amazon will. Etsy's problem was thinking it needed to do what Amazon, Ebay, etc. already did.
There is no machine that can crochet fully put together items, but I agree with you.
I hope all of the sellers open their own Shopify. It sucks, though, because then individuals can’t compete with these larger websites SEO.
The irony is there are probably more artists selling vintage and handmade stuff back on EBay again now. LOL.
@@denverdubois5835 I have noticed this as well
Etsy isn't the problem for the sellers/creators. The problem for the sellers/creators is they welcomed an unnecessary 3rd party middle man to take a cut of their profits for the "privilege" of having a "shop"...Etsy might have a nicely built site or marketplace but the model should've been a big red nope for any seller/creator with common sense.
You create this handmade thing. You bought supplies. You spend time creating it. You spend money on marketing. You spend money on a website. You spend money to ship orders. You forfeit a percentage of every transaction to your payment processor (PayPal, Stripe) because you didn't get a business account at your bank.
You were already doing it all, footing the bill.
Along comes Etsy and says hey, sign up and open up a shop, it's free...we'll process all the transactions so you can create. We'll only take a percentage of each transaction. Sellers/creators flocked to it and can't figure out why they're going broke and not making any money. They want to blame it on copyright and bots and dropshippers.
NO. It's because you chose to build your business in another entity's house and give them a chunk of your money so they could do what you were already doing on your own. Marketing all over social media and instead of sending them to your personal site with a direct link to paypal or stripe to buy it, process your own orders and get on with it, you're now sending people to an etsy shop like that's unique, to let another entity take more of your money.
If you'd gotten a business account with your bank, got your own website or social media option and posted purchase links yourself right to the paymet processor, you would be making ALL the money...doing ALL the work because it's your business. That's what happens when you decide to have a business. You have to run it.
Etsy’s search bar isn’t functional because the results don’t show only the keywords searched, let alone allow you to omit words. And the results show the same things multiple times, it’s ridiculous. Also, the last quote in this piece wasn’t about the artists or even their buyers, it was about cutting more employees from the company- WTF?
Now you know why remote work is not really viable. Same thing happened everytime i left the office to work at home too as a senior dev lol...site would acculmulate bugs until they had me inside for a week straight to iron them all out.
THIS!!! Searching is a *nightmare* now. They're allowing all these junk sellers to game the system with however they do their keywords, and now even the buyers hate the site. Screw your sellers, screw your buyers, screw your business. Not that it'll matter to the CEO. They always get cushy bonuses even when a company goes belly-up.
Essentially it seems that search keywords and filters are not applied to "advertised" items. Which are close to half results shown. They are still using your keywords to pick stuff to show you that's broadly related to what you're looking for. But unless you know exactly what you know and squeeze the last drop out of all filters available, you'll drown in advertised listings rather far from what you're looking for. Even if you filter for shops based in the US, the advertised listings are not bound by it 🤦 Forget about just browsing. You'll drown in an ocean of cheap repetitive mass produced junk.
@@stoneneils remote work has nothing to do with any of this. Solutions to these problems don't require anyone to work in an office. You just don't know anything about the Tech industry.
@@TheGoldenCapstone You're right. As a 55 years senior dev who spend the last part my career programming Magento for ecommerce companies taking in millions..i know nothing!! lol You kids are SO CUTE!!!
Their fees when you make a sell are terrible, they will threaten to close your store over “prohibited” items that others sell with ease, and they allow resell of supplies people get from eBay, Amazon, temu. Having handmade items next to things mass produced on Amazon is degrading as an artist
Exactly. When they introduced that fee hike and star seller crap, my sales and revenue went down big time. The moment someone gives u anythjng less than 5 stars, for NO REASON since they'll say "perfect, just what I wanted" but gives u 3 stars...??? And my shop is punished for a month.
Up to 18% in FEES!!
@user-gx1nc6gu6h lol then add in that they expect you to pay for daily clicks JUST CLICKS, NOT SALES, and off site ads... its insane. You can't make money if you're actually buying materials and spending time on these products. It's almost impossible. It's just a wash in the end.
@@BradVondaYoungkin and the rest! Offsite ad sales take almost 30%
My issue is as a buyer I don't understand why I get so many irrelevant search results. It's frustrating, coupled with as a seller, I can't even locate my own things knowing the key words I used.
Thank you CNBC for using your platform to be a voice for us. Josh Silverman may not hear the voice of us little artists and crafters, but he sure will see this! Etsy is known for being a very niche marketplace. It competed by being unique in that aspect. The downfall is due to Etsy straying from it's brand. I've heard many people say that they will no longer shop on Etsy anymore and the 3 main reason I hear is due to dropshippers, AI generated "art", and people selling prebought graphics that you can find anywhere. The once loyal Etsy shoppers leave in frustration because they are shopping for handmade and artist designed goods and have a hard time finding us under all of the other crap that has flooded the marketplace. In all fairness it's not completely Etsy's fault. It's the rise of the "hustle bros" and "gurus" on UA-cam telling everyone to set up shop on Etsy selling AI generated images, dropshipping, or slapping premade graphics on a T-shirt from a print-on-demand company. Why they don't tell their audience to take it to the appropriate marketplace like Amazon, Walmart, or Ebay instead of Etsy is beyond me.. But they are doing so much damage!
It most certainly IS on Etsy. They are the ones that allow these type of sellers to start shops on their websites where they previously didn't. They are the ones allowing drop shipping. They decided to go public and now the goal is to increase profit every year to compete with Amazon and Temu. The fact that the company considers themself a competitor to those drop shipping websites, tells you all you need to know. The company became sellouts. Simple as that.
It was etsy 100% their AI bots flagged my account once they started to let drop shipping.
I am a handmade artist with 99% authentic made materials.
And I couldn't get ahold of customer service to solve the problems. It's them not anyone.elses fault why I lost my account
What he said is total crap about removing items, Etsy is flooded with Disney and other copyrighted products, just search disney and you'll get pages of stuff, all of which is illegal. There are items with swear words, nudity, the place is so far removed from what it was. Plus youtube makes out like everyone can just set up a store and make a quick buck, but it's not that easy, for most people it's their full time job and it's hard work. That's why it's so flooded with low quality items now, people are are just wanting a "side hustle" and believe they can do so without actually having to put effort in. It's so frustrating what Etsy has become.
It's art, so I have no problem with nudity or profanity. I would argue that art is really the best public place for most nudity. However, stolen artwork on cheap crappy items is both illegal and nasty.
Thissss!!!!!
Agree about copyright and trademark laws. I would estimate it’s over 60% of sellers do this.
Got these N.P.C’s out here just trying to make a quick buck with no originality or taste. They are the cash hungry bots of society. I wish they’d just sell on Amazon and leave us creatives alone.
I do believe they've removed 115% more than last year, or whatever the number he said was... but drop-ship listings are being added so much faster now, that this number is useless. It's like trying to bail out the Titanic with an ice cream bucket.
I have been an Etsy shopper for so many years, it’s my go to place for gifts and original decor. It’s very disheartening to know this, and to have this concern that I may end up receiving some drop ship garbage. I want handmade, and I want to support the creator, not a manufacturer
Thank you for being out there supporting real artists on Etsy! I hope we can survive all this and grow, it's a struggle for sure:(
As an Etsy seller since 2008, it’s unfortunately gone so far downhill from what it used to be.
Did you also experienced the suspension?
The most frustrating part about this is that they are saying they’re using AI to help sellers, but they don’t realize is, it’s hurting sellers. I have lost my star seller badge solely because multiple items were flagged by Etsy box. It took me months to get items reinstated and I still didn’t get my star seller badge back. I’ve been penalized for Etsy having bad AI. What does CO doesn’t realize is we a store owners cannot get a hold of anybody to speak about our stores. Speaking to a human seems impossible. As a store owner on Etsy. Not only do you flagged items that should not be flag. You shut down stores that should not be shut down you take away peoples entire incomes in a flash. And then you don’t even let them speak to a human. This entire platform is going down the drain. Don’t let AI run your platform if you don’t have a good AI. How do they not realize this?
There CUSTOMER SERVICE for SELLERS IS non-existent basically...waiting weeks for an answer???
i feel the same. i have so much anxiety related to my store, afraid it will get shutdown because my store gets flagged when im not shipping ontime or a dont follow their new updated systems . I then cannot call any etsy representatives. No more humans. ETSY is going down because there is no customer service.
Agree and same circumstances and will be focusing on creating my own site with Etsy as a backup. They can no longer be called accountable.
Nobody has a good AI. I live in San Francisco and we have AI cars driving all over. Everyone uses AI customer service now. It’s a dystopian nightmare. AI should never have replaced people as it’s not as smart as humans and never can be. No matter what they claim. These stupid cars stop for everything except living beings and have caused road blockages. I watched one stop mid intersection recently, and it didn’t know how to go across the road, so it blocked 4 way traffic, nobody could go. AI customer service doesn’t understand how to deal with the unique challenges of their own websites, how things can get complicated and weird. So it gives you a few options and that’s that. You can never reach an actual human. These companies save so much money by firing all of their actual human workers, they don’t care that they’re hemorrhaging customers. It’s impossible to exist with this and I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry your shop is being effected. It’s all terrible and these organizations don’t care!
eBay is same. Closing accounts on random
Sometimes when a small town becomes a big, bustling city, it loses its charm.
Truth
‼️
Depends on who runs it.
Wondering when will Etsy realize that treating sellers like crap will be the end of their platform. Sellers are who make this platform and without us Etsy wouldn't exist!
Well obviously that's not true 😔
@@maynotg6521 how's that not true. Does Etsy produce any of their own products like Amazon?
Etsy is in first place platform for sellers. Without them Etsy doesn't exist. @@maynotg6521
They don't care if Etsy died as long as the few guys at top cash out alright.
I totally agree with the CEO being at fault. I used to shop Etsy for EVERY wedding, baby and house warming gift; Christmas giving too. Etsy really isn’t that much different from Amazon by rewarding people for buying mass produced items, and selling them for crazy amounts. It’s bologna. I’m so tired of seeing customers wiping out ant item at HomeGoods, Marshall’s, etc; then turning around and selling them on Amazon, Etsy, Posh, etc for 4x the price. Even worse…..just steal the items, then do the same. Inflation, inflation; that’s all we hear about. Well STOP the thieves, and cap the percentage increase people place on these items to sell. Maybe then, the stores won’t have to raise their retail due to the theft. As for the Board of Directors; I don’t know who’s the biggest crook; the people stealing, or the Board of Directors? You say your stock isn’t where the BOD wants it to be? Do you know what their solution is? Easy…cut the hours of all the part-time workers. Look around your store. I challenge anyone to walk in one of these stores and find more than 3 workers on the floor, and that’s not including the cashiers. YOU CANT. If they’re LUCKY, PART-time people are getting 1 or 2 days a week. Our country says unemployment is down…..duh…it’s all part time people working 4 hour shifts once or twice a week. No, this isn’t a political statement either. I’m just tired of seeing friends working 3 jobs to make ends meet with NO medical insurance.
Etsy went from a curated artist, one of a kind, to a mimic of temu, amazon, ebay. I used to use it monthly, now its maybe once a year.
Not just a copy of Temu etc. They will pretend that a product is genuinely small-scale production and sell it for 90$ and then the same product will be on Amazon for 30$
Etsy has not decreased their fees they are grifting from the sellers. Stores $$$ has plummeted but Etsy is still taking their lavish cuts. Etsy is dead.
They even take 6.5% ON SHIPPING COLLECTED!!! But expect us to do free shipping on $35 😳 Etsy hates us now!
@@HeatherValentineMsFoodieThey learned that from the eBay grifters.
No it’s not lol
Absolutely hate what Etsy has become.
Scammers have really been taking advantage of its policies. For example some sellers have abused the allowance for ai, creating fake finished images of stolen or faulty crochet patterns (so you buy a pattern, make the object and it's incomplete or different than what was advertised). As well for at least a decade now I have seen hackers selling digital in game pokemon creatures regularly.
Another reason I despise the site is mass produced (mainly from China of course) are sold alongside handmade goods. Completely opposite of Etsy's original premise.
Also I keep seeing posts on social media where Chinese sellers on Etsy are asking for 5 star review in exchange of free products... You can't trust reviews on Etsy anymore either
Bought a $200 costume that I never saw. Seller waiting until the last moment and deleted their account after the close of the Halloween season.
It's gross. I looked for handmade beads once and it was like 12 pages of Ali baba / amazon beads that were clearly not handmade and twice as expensive as Amazon. Make it make sense.
Sellers selling patented products and listing them as handmade,
The star seller is another huge issue because for people that are just coming into Etsy and starting out they have almost no way of getting their products out there if they are going into a flooded market like perfumes or graphic designs because the first few pages are going to be star sellers and most people will not look past the first two pages
Etsy's fees are wildly high. They need to reduce the costs by 80% to the sellers for it to be worthwhile.
More profit I guess when it comes to tacking on fees for this, that etc….
The enshittification of another company, another industry.
Didn't you hear? It's called junkification 7:37 😂
Well said. Junkification - enshittification
I still love Etsy, but it drives me crazy in the worst way trying to make sure I'm shopping from real artists, and not getting cheap crap from overseas, or not getting scammed by a lieing listing. It's super frustrating to spend so much time trying to purchase things.
*lying
Silverman ruined Etsy. He is only concerned in making shareholders happy. Etsy has very poor customer service and treats sellers like garbage. I hope he goes down along with Etsy.
I stopped putting effort into my Etsy shop as soon as they gave "free shipping" stores priority. I dealt with small-margin items, it was impossible to make free shipping happen without losing money.
Yep, "free" shipping really just means the sellers pay for it instead of the customer. So to keep profit margins good enough to stay open, we're forced to pad that expense into the list prices of our products. Either that or refuse, charge for shipping anyway, and get shoved to the back of search results behind everyone who does offer it. Including behind ALL the drop-shippers. Since their margins are so much better they can afford to charge less than us, offer free shipping, AND make good margins.
We get blended into the background jumble of sellers who max out their listing titles with barely relevant (and often fully inaccurate and unhelpful) keyword spam.
I'd love if there were a way to filter OUT all the free shipping sellers, but no retail site I've ever seen offers that as a search option.
My items are large and heavy, but I put FREE SHIPPING in an effort to sell, but it has not even worked this year as I have had no sales at all from Etsy where I used to be able to earn a living with my items made by me.
Etsy no longer give 'freeshipping' priority, even though they say they do. It was quietly announced in one of their presentations. Grinds my gears how dishonest they are
I used to shop on Etsy for handmade goods and vintage finds. Now it’s a very expensive Temu, full of cheap mass-produced crap. That woman was right, it’s cups all the way down. Many of my favorite artists have disappeared, to who knows where. I no longer look at Etsy when I shop. There are a couple craft fairs in my area I look forward to for those unique gifts and purchases. And the people who run them are smart enough to limit the number of people who can sell soap, for example, or blown glass.
Real Etsy artists should consider joining forces and creating a platform they intend to be for artists who like to create, with people who don’t intend to ever go public and change the philosophy. They’d do well.
I am ready and willing!
They suspended most of creative sellers who kept the platform alive for absolutely no fckin reason and have let 3rd worlders flood the market with dozens of anonymous accounts reselling chinese counterfeits
Most have their own websites,you charge better and avoid the unnecessary stress of having your store shut down.
I sell vintage on Etsy and other platforms. Etsy has the most time consuming and least intuitive process for listing items. And when I try to shop on Etsy, my searches turn up mostly items that have nothing to do with my search terms. It's frustrating as a buyer AND a seller, and therefore my least favorite online sales platform.
Allowing the masses of drop shipped crap on their site puts customers off and puts reputable sellers off, nobody wins.
As an Etsy seller I can say they’ve forgotten about us. It’s difficult.
My daughter told me the same thing. Also her sales have fallen off..
Yes. Totally agreed. They keep increasing their fees and their mandatory advertising fees. Its killing us.
@@plainjanesg5065 They are milking you in preparation for dissolvment.
Etsy has done a lot of ridiculously annoying things lately, like adding popup windows to every single item urging people to revisit favorites, deals, or carts, charging sellers 12% for google ad sales with no opt-out over 10K/year, hiding the new items feed in favor of sales, etc. For all of these reasons I have cut my shopping there from quite frequent to practically nothing. The user experience is now so irritating that it’s like having someone follow you around poking you with a stick yelling “Buy something, dammit!!” I really have no idea what they are thinking. It’s like they’re trying to torpedo their own business. 😢😒
YES!!! Those popups drive me crazy. Crazy enough to stop shopping. Agree with everything you said.
Agree. I hate those pop ups.
Same here; I really dislike the popups. Please stop nagging me to check out while I’m still shopping. Stop fear mongering that the item I *just* put in my basket is almost gone. It’s so unpleasant compared to how it used to be.
I agree... I hate, hate, hate those popups... so annoying... it makes me not want to even shop there.
Omfg I despise the pop ups. It is literally disruptive to my browsing! If you want me to shop, let me shop for god’s sake! Stop getting in my way! Jesus.
I was an Etsy seller in 2006 and watched it just become worse and worse. Tons of listings that were obviously not hand made kept popping up and getting priority in viewing. Then the knock offs from China started popping up and undercutting the actual hand made items...sometimes by a lot, and the quality was horrid with these knock offs. I knew of sellers that actually had their pictures lifted and used for these knock offs. Etsy didn't care and would only under the most brazen acts ever remove these listings (but not the actual shops). I left in 2015 because it wasn't worth being there anymore. Growth is not the end all, and I wish that line of thinking would stop. Have a mission (hand made) and do it well. They are trying to be something that lots of platforms do better. They had a niche. They don't really have that anymore
What platform do you use now? I am close to signing up on Etsy to sell my digital templates. Glad I saw this video. But other platforms can you recommend?
I have been handmaking items since 2011. Etsy is currently on a rampage, taking down my listings. China sites have lifted my photos and are selling replicas of my items and Etsy takes down mine without asking for proof. I am currently filing legal action with China to get my photos taken down and finally was able to get in contact with someone at Etsy to prove I make my items. Etsy threatened to close my store if one more violation is found, but I cannot guarantee that a China suppliers won't steal another photo of mine and then Etsy finds my photo on their site. I have over 26,000 sales and they treat me like a criminal!
Yes, my photos were stolen and my items offered for sale by others. It was a nightmare too get any help from Etsy.
I stopped shopping as much as I had to sort through pages and pages of mass produced Temu-ish merchandise. It was so hard to find actual vintage or handmade items. It was better when they actually artists, collectors, and makers showcased. Mass produced items already have a home on apps like Amazon, we don’t need more of that.
JOSH SILVERMAN ruined Etsy
JOSH SILVERMAN killed everything we depended on.
JOSH SILVERMAN takes 28%.
JOSH SILVERMAN uses Etsy for his personal piggy bank.
Chad Dickerson was the one that opened the site to resellers. This downfall started under him.
It's always the people with man or Berg at the end of their names
@@SomethingSomethinggmy surname is lerhman and I am not Jewish
@@amystreasuresdesign Actually the removal of Chad Dickerson began when "They" suggested he get a Board of Directors together. That's how "they" perform takeovers to remove the business from the founder. They do it to movie theaters, playhouses, selling plaforms, etc...NEVER EVER have a board.
@@CJ.1998X.Y.ZWhat does that have to do with the price of pickles in China ?
I know someone that used to have a very niche Etsy shop - no one was ever going to get rich off it, but they enjoyed it. Etsy raised their fees such that they were making no profit at all, and so they closed the Etsy store and now they just do local craft shows.
At this point I'm only keeping my Etsy shop open because it's good for my reputation when people google my brand and they see the 5-star Etsy rating with the 100k sales count. It's time for a new handmade marketplace to take over. By someone with ethics, who is prefereably a maker themselves.
Etsy and other retailers like Amazon have pivoted to having almost exclusively low quality Chinese products sold at huge markups. It’s a shame. I’m not someone who only cares about buying American goods, but I do appreciate high quality items made by name brand companies or small businesses.
There’s a marketplace that is actually useful now called Goimagine.
Unlike Etsy, it’s got curation, and unlike Etsy all profits go to charity so shareholders can’t manipulate it.
I wonder why people are still so stupid that they can't smell the huge markups. How can someone be so stupid and not being broke?
A 100% markup is normal but i see much more in the range of 1000% sometimes.
Yep! This is why my small business had to leave.
Well you should care. Having all/most of your products made in another country weakens your own country's economy.
It's a shame. I bought a couple of very nice handcrafted items on Etsy recently. I had no idea Etsy went corporate. There needs to be a marketplace that serves artisans, not stockholders. If the artisans on Etsy aren't happy, I, as a customer, am not happy.
The moment any company goes public they go STRAIGHT DOWNHILL!! The stockmarket RUINS companies.. once you are public you are not serving the customers or your employees, you are serving the almighty stock holder and that's who you are beholden to. I wish there were a way to abolish that damnable thing..
Etsy seller here and I am experiencing a surge in cancellations because the customers want me to ship a handmade item within 1-2 days which is insane!! Buyers are also treating sellers as if we are mass manufacturers. Etsy is not fun anymore and has become very expensive.
can the item be made in 2 days? how many days do you require?
@@LemonLimes99 3-5 days, despite that I am receiving cancellations :(
@@callmemothermercury If you had a few millions Chinese slave laborers working for you, you could crank out anything in 2 days or less. And that is your competition.
@@davidcox3076 how lovely 🥲
@@LemonLimes99 Yes. If you sell one $20 item every 2 days. And you are just waiting for that one order every 2 days. Handmade means time. I do not know what handmade items you make.
I've been a customer of Etsy shops since 2015. I do not buy anything from those junk shops, only from original Etsy sellers with genuine handmade or authentic vintage and antique items.
Everything in the junk shops can be found on Amazon and most of those shops that I've seen originate in China while they deceptively show that their location is in the US or the UK.
The algorithm rarely shows the mass production shops to me anymore.
It has determined that I cannot stand them and know that I am not alone in those feelings.
There are still wonderful, creative, kind sellers on Etsy. I hope they will stay.
They are greatly appreciated by the majority of buyers.
I feel fortunate to have found them and to continue to find them.
Watching this video has inspired me to go buy something today from real Etsy creatives.
Exactly! I’m very careful with the sellers I choose for purchases!
If you really want to support a handmade seller you see on Etsy, try to find whether they have their own shop - by purchasing from their own website you’re cutting down the middleman and allowing the seller to actually make a profit for a change.
@eleanor.shadow That's a good idea.
The BEST thing to do is when you find a product on Etsy, message the seller and ask if they have a website of their own, and buy from that if possible. This way, the seller gets all (or at least more) of the funds, and you may even find they have listed it cheaper on the site as Etsy take so incredibly much in fees and charges..
@DiamondPearl just be careful because if etsy's AI sees the seller say the word "ebay" "amazon" or other links in the message, they could be suspended for using the site to direct people away :(
I joined Etsy in 2009 and it looked completely different back then. There was a better sense of community among the sellers and the visibility for your products was unmatched. I used to spend 8+ hours a day on the platform learning more about how to make my shop stand out, take better pictures, improve my customer’s experience, and get inspired from the featured shop stories. Now, it feels less like a community and more like a giant virtual mall with millions of individual stores - some of which don’t even put their actual hands on the products they sell. I still have a shop, but I don’t spend nearly as much time on the platform anymore.
Am I welcomed?
Thank you for covering this topic! I realised my art got stolen by a big Etsy shop back in March, and there was pretty much no support from Etsy when I reported the infringement (and that artwork was sold on my own Etsy shop). That shop is still running but I decided to close mine, as Etsy is no longer what it used to be :/
I just saw your channel. You do beautiful work! I just opened an Etsy store and I’m afraid the same might happen to me.
@@Clemmers316 I'm starting a merch company. I considered Etsy, but the stories about sellers getting banned made me decide to just open my own website instead.
This is why I refuse to sell any of my photos. People take pictures of it, and “Why buy it when I just took a picture of it?”
That is terrible! I’m so sorry! Specially when it’s original work… and I bet regular people like this can’t even hire a lawyer to help… 🙁 I hope there are other similar platforms that can grow to be what Etsy used to be. All I know is that bc of all this I don’t even TRY to shop there anymore.
@@Clemmers316 I just opened a shop myself.... i'm afraid about this as well :(
I joined Etsy in 2006 when Rob Kalin still owned it and it was fun to be a seller. We all made money back then doing what we loved to do. I shut my shop in 2013 when the fees started ruining our profits and you couldn’t be seen in search unless you bought ads. Eventually sellers won’t be able to afford the fees.
It was great in 2010 for me. Like you said, sales suddenly dropped in 2013 for me as well. I even noticed the competition giving up. I knew it was an Etsy thing because my personal website was keeping pace. I kept my shop open to funnel customers to my personal website, but sales were so bad and the Ads that didn’t even work! I’m convinced Etsy hid my shop from being seen unless I paid. I never trusted Etsy ads again after that. Sales started picking up again in 2017ish. But now in 2024 it is the worse I have ever seen it. Sales are at an all time low. I make more on my personal website. This is the first time in over a decade I actually had to manually pay my Etsy fees because I didn’t make enough profit to cover my listings. That is NUTS!
@@CherryBlawesome May I ask how you promote your personal website? I just joined Etsy in fall 2023 and man it is tough but seems the only way to have a venue people will go to:(
I just got on Etsy, cost me $15 to just open an account. Then i only got 2 views in weeks, lost in all the dropshipped goods. Ridiculous website
When a company puts more emphasis on making a profit rather than the actual business and those who make the business a success it’s only a matter of time before it comes crumbling down
I'm sick and tired of these corporations. I'll gladly pay more to support an actual artisan whenever possible. ❤
Once you let MBAs into a visionary company, they gut it to "maximise shareholder value".
right, which is also another way of saying "maximizing management's remuneration" in the process.
Am and MBA, and I can confirm...many students where sold that mantra as if it was an immutable law of physics.
Exactly!!!
Ironically, that’s what ends up killing it.
Every issue I’ve had in the private and public sector, an MBA was the common denominator.
Flooding Etsy with "commercial" versus handmade goods from independent makers is what has killed their business model. Why would I buy a mass produced item for twice the price on Etsy? Independent makers like myself are seeking out new platforms to sell handmade products because we have no desire to compete with goods made in factories.
I gag EVERYTIME someone says "AI is the solution."
The issue with AI is anyone can do it, no skill, secondly since it’s easily accessible anyone can sell it for profit and almost calling it their own
lol they overglorifying what's basically a theft indeed
Generative AI is theft. The goal is ending human creativity to concentrate all artistic wealth in the hands of a few companies
Don't let 🤖 replace humans AND don't let digital Gvmt "currency" replace 💵 real money
Etsy turned horrible and frustrating for artisans : fees everywhere, even a % on shipping cost. No more !
Well absolutely! Drop shippers removed me from Etsy completely. I don't trust the platform anymore., And it's not just sellers that are complaining. I'm a customer.
I am MORE frustrated as a shopper. I'm tired of being harassed about things in my cart with pop-ups that block me from continuing to shop... or coupon codes that I have already been told about 60 times.
I hate the search engine showing me nothing but mass produced trash and not having anyway around it.
I'm livid about being harassed for reviews, and that I MUST leave a comment in my review to publish it.
I hate that they removed ALL of the shop features that were originally implemented so that buyers could feel confident that they were buying handmade/small business items.... they don't actually want to stop these things at all.
The same thing that is killing Etsy is killing eBay. Corporate greed, scams, and losing sight of what actually made the site worthwhile.
I agree... I have both Etsy and Ebay stores for decades now and nothing is selling on either for me and my hand made items that used to support me.
eBay is now just Goodwill.
I got scammed so hard a few years ago on ebay. I had to threaten a lawyer to get my money back. Then I deleted everything, no account no more ebay credit card. all of it, they are trash
@@ritaroad LOL, it always has been. It was created for RESALE.