What Is Going On At Etsy

What happened to Etsy?

Rising fees, random account suspensions, algorithm changes, continually ignoring the requests and concerns of its sellers and implementing policies that are punishing small businesses and makers and rewarding the type of unsustainable mass production business model that Etsy used to serve as an escape from.

Whether you're a seller or a buyer—this is one video you won’t want to miss.

Let's talk.

00:00 Intro
01:53 Etsy's Rise & Fall
05:10 Rising Fees & Deceptive Pricing
07:30 Free Shipping Policy: A Visibility Trap
10:40 October 2024 Algorithm Change: The Final Straw
12:13 Random Account Suspensions
13:20 The Rise of Dropshipping
16:30 Outro

Resources:

[aneikrust]

The moment they went public marked the beginning of the end. It stopped being about providing a good service and became only about maximizing profit. Enshittification everywhere.

[somelurker]

Digital artists have also been screwed over by Etsy thanks to their tolerance for generative AI. I used to take art commissions through Etsy, but there's no point anymore when my "competitors" can shit out hundreds of glossy dead-eyed derivative works in the time it takes me to clean up a sketch. I'm sure many buyers can tell the difference, but many others didn't care and/or didn't even see my listings under the endless pile of slop. So I left.
It's wild to me how they've managed to make their "artist-focused" site so hostile to artists of all media.

[renaeheath]

I bought a Christmas teacher sweatshirt 2 weeks ago and wore it to school. My fellow teacher said: I have the same one! I bought it from Shein! I was so sad to hear this because I vowed never to buy from there and now I may never buy from Etsy again. I paid triple for cheap fashion.

[MrHandyDad]

Etsy is the"PERFECT" US Company...
Start up, get the sellers to do all the work to build up company, then change everything so company makes all the money, until it collapses...
Everything, everywhere, eventually becomes a scam...

[NnjaSnake]

As a buyer, I can’t stand the same-y Chinese garbage that Amazon is already swamped by. Etsy needs to clean up its act or disappear into irrelevance.

[MsPoeticVisions]

I was an Etsy seller when the 'free shipping" came about. I was in a hurry to switch everything over so I wouldn't lose any possible sales. I added the estimated amount to each item to make up for the shipping cost (this was encouraged by Etsy). The next week I made a sale from ITALY. I was so excited. It was the first sale I had made overseas. I calculated the shipping rate. It cost more than the actual item which was marked around $120. I hadn't thought about the possibility of making an international sale. It was shipped on-time and made it to the destination. I had to go back and mark each item for US sales only. Since then, sales overall plummeted. I've stopped creating my art to sell. The items I made were also becoming oversaturated in the marketplace. I just today shut down my Etsy shop, a bittersweet ordeal, which lead me to finding your video. Thanks for helping me know it isn't just me out here struggling with Etsy.

[errilocale]

Not all companies need to be publicly tradeable.

[EugeneHoverhand]

I use etsy like I use amazon, as a catalog to find creators, since search engines are all useless now
It's like the yellow pages for sellers, then I go directly to the seller's website and instantly get a better deal
We live in a cyberpunk dystopia, you'd better start acting like it, chooms

[kjd]

Not too long ago I bought an Etsy pattern for a crochet amigurumi corgi dog that was so adorable, I wanted to crochet it for my husband. I've been crocheting since I was 7, which amounts to over 50 years of experience. I started crocheting using the pattern but got confused, so I went to the accompanying YT video. Watching carefully, I matched what the "creator" was doing stitch for stitch -- starting over several times, including having my husband sit beside me and watch as I duplicated her stitch by stitch -- yet mine was not coming out like hers. Then we noticed there was a very clever cut where the video was edited (my husband is a professional videographer and video editor). I later learned there are many amigurumi patterns that are fake and/or AI that pass for human-made, including ones that have videos "demonstrating" how to complete the pattern. The videos are clever tricks of the eye, like this one was.

In other cases, I've bought a few other patterns like a sewing pattern for a purse that was so badly written I ended up in tears trying to complete it. Some patterns are AI, but many, many are from people who may be able to make the item themselves but are utterly wretched at writing out a pattern for others to follow. The word "Etsy" has become a dirty word around our house, despite there being a few gems amongst the dung-piles. At least while they last.

[MableM]

You nailed the situation completely. I used to sell antiques on Etsy. The shipping was starting to ruin me, especially since antiques are all different sizes and weights to consider. Then, they took down a listing of mine which was an item made of cow bone. As I also like to educate people on their antique purchases, I had mentioned in the description the history of the item and how they used to be made of ivory, but everything in my listing specifically stated that it was cow bone. They flagged it as being made of ivory. When I tried to reach someone in customer service to reinstate the listing, I was told they would get back to me soon. That was four years ago and I’m still waiting.

Then, I moved to Europe, settled in and went to reopen my shop after the move. After years of branding, customer loyalty and reviews, I was told I couldn’t reopen the shop because I changed countries. I had to start all over from scratch. I wasn’t even allowed to reuse the name. So I closed shop permanently.

[CeruleanRogue]

I literally had to stop using Etsy for this reason. I had some disposable income and moved into a new place, so wanted some wood art for my wall as I like that style. Went to Etsy to support another artist and immediately was inundated with cheap, knock offs that were a 1/10th the price an actual, handmade piece would cost. And there was no way to filter those sellers or their MULTIPLE copycat accounts out. On the one hand it forced me to shop local, and I've been buying art from a local weekend fair to fill my walls and found a local artist I absolutely love in the process. But on the other I'm still furious that Etsy is essentially useless now.

[rohanlerenard]

I recently came back to Etsy to buy gifts for friends and family. I had not been on here for a good three years, and I was horrified. Finding actual artists on there is a torture, so much drop shipping.

[mgracie]

I always try to see if they have a website before buying off etsy. Etsy is not for the people anymore.

[moonshineaudios]

As a seller I abandoned Etsy. I sold a 20€ drawing and got €12, I sold a full body piece for €80 and got €40 back. I hate the site. I don’t want to charge customers this ridiculous price over a company. I went to independent selling.

[bhelliom]

if you see an ad for an item on Etsy that you actually want to check out, DO NOT CLICK THE AD - type in the name of the item and the artist into the website itself, or else they’re charged the marketing percentage.

[Alex]

As an Etsy maker myself, I have also been affected by all these things. After years of struggle, I’ve come to see it as an opportunity to start selling locally. I’ve created pop-ups around town, sold at farmers markets, and school events. I feel like I have my freedom back!

[SilverwingStudios]

I made a shop to sell handmade leather and steel bracelets. Even when I gave my creations intensely bizarre names and ran a search for said bizarre names, I wouldn't find my item until the third or fourth page, because I didn't want to pay all the ad fees. And with all the mass produced fake jewelry that does NOT take eight hours to produce each, nobody in the world would pay me what my work was worth anyway, they can't tell the difference. :( This was seven years ago. I've long since given up even trying. :/

[justinetorres]

As a buyer, I knew things had changed with the platform and have been disenchanted for years with all the ads and mass produced items all over the site. I had no idea what they were doing to sellers though! Thank you for this informative video!

[haganeedle]

I’m an Etsy seller and this year has been by far the worst year I have had. I’ve been selling since 2012 on Etsy. Thanks for the video!! It was spot on.

[naturecrafty]

You summed this up so well! Etsy is NOT for creators, Silverman's goal was always to turn it into another Ebay/Amazon. Etsy is no longer the handmade platform.