My biggest beef with Etsy is that they want us to be dishonest with our customers and tell them they’re getting free shipping when we are actually raising our prices to cover the shipping. That, and constantly telling us how to run our businesses. I was in business long before Etsy. Maybe I could teach them something.
I don't think any humans actually work at Etsy anymore. I think it consists of a board of directors, and some coders. A grand experiment in running a company completely AI.
Yes, totally agree. I started my Etsy Shop in 2009. I was attracted to the concept that it was my shop on Etsy and they made me look good. It is obvious that they want the sales to be Etsy, And it no longer feels or looks like my business. I like being an entrepreneur and I don’t think Etsy gets that is way different than a “corporate” structure they are trying to build.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for articulating exactly what I wanted to say!! You are so spot-on about the micro-management that Etsy is forcing down our throats! I also use Pirate ship for the reasons that you listed and have been a 'game changer' in price,simplicity, Customer Service!! I sent them a note and assured them that I wasn't leaving! I have been a buyer on Etsy for at least 15 years..... They are about to lose a buyer and a seller!! Thank you for your posts!! Jane
Kara, you are getting to the point that I have already gotten to. At midnight on Sunday, December 15, I am closing my shop after 7 years. Customers have always been a pleasure to work with---Etsy not so much. It has become a stressor in my life that I no longer will tolerate. They are definitely NOT the company I enjoyed when I started and we've all tolerated many changes they have come up with, but it no longer brings me the joy it used to. So, after Q4, I'm leaving and won't be looking back. You are clearly heading down the same path I have been down. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning from you and you have given immensely to those in this community, but I will also say you seem to have lost your joy for this platform, too. Best wishes to you as you seek to find the joy and fulfillment you once had when you first started. Sadly, you won't be finding it on Etsy anymore.
They don’t care about anything but their profits. They have shareholders and they are all that matter. Sad. I’m about done too. Have my own website and drive my own traffic. I look at Etsy as extra income. Hope you feel better soon Kara ❤
I’m not on Etsy these days but I honestly believe we all need to move to self-hosting and connecting through each others blog comment sections like the good old days of the internet. I saw everyone move en masse from the blog world to instagram and since then people have been spaces to algorithms rather than building their own internet lands.
I closed my shops 2 months ago for all the reasons you listed, and more. Fever or not, that was an excellent assessment of the situation. I hope you feel better soon! 😊
I’ve had an Etsy shop since 2011 and I have pretty much had it. Their changes have caused my sales to plummet. I don’t sell anything unless I have a sale of at least 20 to 25% off. I don’t know who’s running the company now, but they need to go. They are prioritizing shops that have 500 items or more of cheap Stanley cups and printed sweatshirts. It has just become a Walmart. I recently had an insane customer who harassed me and threatened bodily harm to me and I spent at least 15 hours on the phone with Etsy and they did absolutely nothing about this person who was harassing me for three months. Their customer service is horrible and everything that I loved about selling on Etsy disappeared.
It’s so true that it’s hard to sell without running 25% off and now it seems 30%. It’s illegal to run a perpetual sale yet Etsy’s algo seems to reward only those that do. And you’re not allowed to change your pricing for a sale, understandable, but how can you win that rigged system? 🤷♂️
@sonseraedesigns about 3 years ago I did $100,000.00 in sales the last the last 2 years I am lucky to hit $25,000.00. Been with Etsy since 2013 and every year up until they went public I was increasing sales. Then boom the bottom has dropped out. Sad how it has gotten so bad.
I’m sick of them touting that they are handmade and human while keeping drop shipping and allowing AI. I also hate that they have the worst customer service anywhere while demanding perfect customer service from sellers.
I thought Amazon KDP has the worst "support" I have ever seen. It was so bad I even closed my account knowing I couldn't come back. After fighting with them for a month because they blocked me from uploading my new book and blamed it on me, one hour after I closed my account they decided the issue was on their side.
I agree with you. 100%, so unprofessional what they did with pirate ship. My shop was shut down 2 weeks ago, I am a Wreath maker. They said I violated handmade policy. I believe I was shut down for a reason, not any violation bc I know what I can sell and what I can’t but I’m glad! Other platforms to use, never going back even if they reinstated never! They are so greedy and no human help anywhere.
I love your videos and content, Kara. Thanks for this rant voicing many of our frustrations. I'm definitely done with Etsy's BS. It's like being in an abusive relationship that we keep hoping will change. The only silver lining with my dead in the water sales is that it forces me to think bigger and differently about how I market my art. It was nice while it lasted but those idiots are driving that company right into a ditch.
Exactly this. Whenever Etsy makes yet another change, I say to my husband, 'Guess what Etsy has done NOW!!' and he is always stunned at how inept, amateurish, and disrespectful of the sellers Etsy is. This week, I closed my shop, and will sell only from my (very established) website instead. I've had an Etsy shop for 10 years, but I can't stand the hassle of dealing with all the imposed changes any more. Sales on Etsy have dropped 70% in the past year, whereas on my website they have gone up.
I absolutely am sick of Etsy and don't trust them. Closing shops with bots, unlisting items, micro managing shops and leaving the temu, aliexpress and shein junk on there. It is ridiculous and not fun. Been there since 2011 and I feel the ship is sinking now.
My Etsy shop has just been sitting there for quite a few months with no attention due to illness and other stresses & time eaters. But I have continued to monitor seller videos and site updates. Now that I am ready and need to get active again, the number of changes made is just daunting. When I consider what it takes to rank in search, comply with all the new stuff, etc. I seriously am considering not doing it. The cost of stress that wrecks one's health is the steepest cost of all - and includes time and medical bills. And it's very real. Now I need to figure out a new source of income, which is also daunting as a senior.
I 100% agree!! They have taken down my listings because my photos are stolen and therefore I'm blamed, and I can't talk to anyone about it because no one there will talk to me about it. I'm currently working on building my website to replace Etsy so that I can say goodbye to Etsy forever.
@jennifergacek5885 Yeah, it is sad that anyone can send Etsy a form saying you are infringing on their property rights, and boom, you get that item taken down. And there is nothing you can do to get it back. I had an item taken down that someone said that I infringed on. I wrote to the company and they said that guy doesn't even work here anymore. So I told Etsy and sent them the email.and they said sorry in order for us to take this down we need a letter from the person that filed the form saying that it can be re listed. Etsy will not do any kind of investigation just take it down. Back a few years the US Navy wrote a blanket letter to Etsy saying that a whole bunch of store were infringing on Navy items so Etsy goes and just takes down everything that havs Navy in it. So that included Navy Blue colored items and started a huge back and forth. It is supposed to be each and every store or item needs to have a form done not just a blanket one saying that. So I thought maybe Etsy would have learned something about that but they did not.
I agree, Kara, 100%. I know you don’t want a book here--there’s a list I could make, but our time is valuable. The Pirate Ship thing was a real surprise-Etsy not communicating with them. What would make me think that they wouldn’t do something major to us, without notice? (which I’m guessing they’re about to do soon). And I'm so tired of the "do this or" get punished in search business. I know that Etsy can do whatever they want-their platform, etc. But they are taking more money from sellers, without it being from sales. To me, it all seems unsustainable-maybe not for Etsy, but it is for me.
I had three etsy stores they took all three down permanently. All three stores had itmes that I hand made myself I was told one store was in violation but NEVER told what was in violation then a month later the other two stores were taken down. No recourse at all.. etsy just sucks now.
@@tinaindina7032 One store was selling handmade leather items like wallets, sheaths, money clips etc. The second store was selling hand made shoulder puppets and the third store only had some earrings we made. We were in the process of working on that store.
I agree, it's exhausting trying to work out why your sales and views are down. In the UK, you can buy Royal Mail labels for a discount if you are buying in bulk. This is what star seller is about in the UK. They get a discount but that is not passed on to us. They have forced us into buying their labels as they have negotiated a discount and wrapped it up as something else.
And a company that just got kicked out of the S&P 500 and they are trying to tell us how to run our business. I do not want my store to fail like Etsy is. I have been with Etsy since 2012 and wow has it changed.
Every quarterly meeting for the past couple of years I have been wondering if this is the one where Silverman announces his retirement. So far he hasn't, but once again I am wondering about the next meeting, next week. He already looked a bit stressed at the last one, so who knows.
@@ecouturehandmades5166 agreed, and if that happens, the next days announcement will be them removing the handmade rule. I'm convinced shareholders see it as a huge shackle on their all-important profits.
Yes, I agree that Etsy is making it harder and harder to do what’s needed to list there and unless you are heavily doing social media to drive your own traffic, visits are drastically dropping.
I have been on Etsy only since February and have had 10 sales. I am hoping sales will pick up in the last quarter for Christmas shopping. Then I will make my decision on closing my shop. I don’t know what else to do to bring in sales. It’s just ridiculous. I sell at holiday art shows and at my age that’s just fine.
Running a business takes a lot of time and a lot of work no matter where you sell it. You can't just list items on Etsy and think people will flock to you.
05:15 Etsy customer support is a ghost town for sellers. I've been writing on the chat for two days. No respond. Not even an auto-generated reply! That's what makes me mad 😡
@@KaraBuntinTutorialsthey have had it for a while now. So I guess it must be working for Etsy. Or else they would have dropped it? That usually what they do when it’s not. Maybe it does lead to more sales. And our pillows are also show when a customer is looking for wall art (someone mentioned those as an example). I still remember your daughter searching for earrings and ending up buying sunglasses, years ago.
I had to talk to “customer support” through the online chat regarding an issue with shipping charges. For whatever reason the only option offered to my buyers is priority mail or priority express. I sell vintage postcards. And the customer service agent had the nerve to tell me I need to reference the USPS guidelines for first class mail. It’s a platform problem and she told me to contact USPS. BTW - I had shipping preferences set up for my postcards at a flat rate. This was something that happened with the platform. It has become more complicated. I do better on Poshmark and eBay overall.
Etsy threatened me today... after having a shop in operation since 2007... "Update your info, or your shop will be shut down in 6 days". I updated it of course. Also, there was no need for me to change any of my info... it was all correct to begin with. So, they threatened me over nothing. Is there even a customer service number we can call as sellers anymore?
Haha! 😂 I’m going to tell my subscribers to go watch the Dodo when I start ranting. Love it! Great video. I agree with a lot of your points. ❤ Hope you feel better soon!
I assume pirateship wasn’t the only connection affected, but I also think a lot of us use it. It’s cost effective and has many tools to help streamline the workflow of processing orders from multiple platforms. They also do such a great job of keeping us informed of rate changes and so on. My sales have not grown as much on Etsy as other platforms, and the recent refusal to show products that charge shipping has caused it to just about screech to a halt. I will be interested to see how this pans out in the coming months. It’s a bit stupid to make sweeping changes just before a holiday rush.
What Etsy doesn't understand is that sellers can survive without Etsy but Etsy CANNOT survive with sellers. If there are no sellers, there will be no buyers. You can't have buyers with out anything to sell. Wish they would wake understand and help out is sellers more. They say Keep commerce human and sellers can not even talk to a human. Pretty ridiculous isn't it!!!!
I love pirateship, I use it for all my personal shipping. Etsy is just annoying all together. They seem to know what's before for us, but need us. Don't poop where you eat.
Pirateship has always been cheaper than Etsy for me. I am not a major seller or anything but will be cutting and pasting if need be. Also selling on other sites.
Yep over 62,000 sales my last day for sales is October 31, quitting when u are at the top .01 sellers is hard But I can’t stay and be honest with all the changes
Being outside the US and a very low number seller, the nonsense hasn't hit me hard. A monthly account fee will hurt me though and probably mean I'll have to seriously think about leaving Etsy.
One of the nonsense that bothers me the most lately is the arrival timeframe they are showing. It is utterly based on absolutely nothing, which, as you said, gives us sellers a harder time running our business. I’m in Montreal, Canada. My shipping timeframe is 1-2 business days, but i often ship on the same day as the order. The predicted timeframe for delivery to California often shows 4 business days to customers from day of order (not even a timeframe, but rather a specific day…!). ARE YOU KIDDING ME? There is ZERO chance that’s gonna happen. Even for very close like NY or NJ, it won’t happen except once in a blue moon. Like WHY. It’s NOT because Etsy wants to shorter timeframes THAT IT IS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. What ever happened to underpromise-overdeliver, basic Business101 practice? Nope, make them expect the moon and the get mad AT SELLERS. Such nonsenseeeee i’m tireddddd lol
well i did what you said not to do- started an etsy shop. several issues that i can't get etsy to respond to- my shop isn't being shown to anyone so just been paying them to sell to my customers outside of etsy when the point was to leverage their marketplace. also telling me i dont have "access" to the seller features like the seller boards and groups. can't even post that im having this issue on the message boards! they do not respond to my emails. any advice would be greatly appreciated
My advice would be to sell somewhere else...But seriously, I can't help because it sounds like there's something going on with the indexing of your shop. Not having access to seller forums is really weird.
"How high can the fees go before you quit" reminds me of a woman I worked for that said, "What is the least I can offer John so he stay here." Same greedy concept.
What you are describing is elitism. The Etsy culture feels that e-commerce revolves around them. Pride goeth before the fall. Top executives make their money by increasing the Etsy stock price. The only thing that drives stock prices is earnings. And that is what they are focused on, EARNINGS! That is what is driving all the nonsense. Eventually Etsy is going to figure out that quality products and good customer service is what drives good business.
The lack of respect to sellers is the key. Etsy allowes obvious scammers to keep expensive items with no returns and charge our bank accounts. I’m sick of no customer support and violation of the seller rights, I’m not even mentioning loosing money this is clear enough . Quit to where? Pls share the options!
I used to be on Etsy 14 years ago, I quit because I couldn’t believe they wanted me to charge more for shipping and the fees. I couldn’t do it anymore. So I left.
I was on Etsy for 7 years with a small jewelry business. I had trouble with my logon = no help. They started telling me how to file my taxes, no thanks! I do that every year all by myself. It just got to be less reward and more trouble. What I hated most was no help from a human when I needed it most. 🎉
Yes!! I agree! I get charged fees for shipping even when I do not use shipping through Etsy. I’m done with Etsy. I’ve had enough! I will be deleting my shop at the end of December, and will be focusing on promoting my website.
@@tinaindina7032 yes, I’m well aware of that. What I’m referring to is the fee that’s recently been applied even though I do not use Etsy’s shipping. I never used to get charged this fee UNLESS I shipped through Etsy. I’ve watched this very closely. And to be honest, it’s not the only reason I will be closing my shop.. I didn’t like what they did with Pirate Ship.
I used to make a sale or 2 a month on Etsy but I stopped for a year or so. I just started putting 5 of my Ebay items on Etsy every day and have not made a single sale in over a month.
I'm sticking with Pirate Ship for sure. I assume Pirate Ship will make a work around like a Chrome Extension that will allow you to export your shipping info and import it back into Pirate Ship. I don't care if it is to export a google doc and then bulk import. I will take that extra step. Those credit card points are so worth it!!!! Pirate Ship also also been easy to work with.
Couldn't agree more and I don't even ship stuff! Etsy's 'professionalism' is non-existent, I'm not sure they ever had any. They've pulled this same move with other apps that were integrated, no notice, no conversation, the 3rd party company finds out after the customers. The disrespect is bullshit. Etsy has a serious culture problem and their lie about making commerce human is beyond laughable. It's even more notable when you go to another platform and are treated really well - or should I say like normal.
I agree 100% with you. I have been on Etsy 12 years and made my shop run on my own before they have stepped in and mess with my shop. Yes the past theee years were going well. However I am a top seller because I did all my social media. Gained a following and made so many sales through the years that has also linen their pockets. They did share us well the past three years and stopped in June. Everything changed. Like they factory reset my hard work and then put so many hard to meet expectations on my shop. Sales,views,everything down 60% the past 4 months since all the changes. If I did not have a following I would be done! I have had to get back to daily soical media on insta,FB, YT to get views and sales. Its just wrong. I thankfull have kept my star seller. If you dont you wont get phone support with Etsy. Only way to get help would be by email. Just wrong.
100% agree, I'm >this close< to leaving at the end of this year. I've spent years trying to 'crack the code', obsessively learning everything I could and teaching myself the rest...it's doing my head in to sit there every day and pick apart how I operate to 'optimise' things. We're just lab rats to them, zero respect for our livelihoods. The last straw for me has been image match. If they think I'm taking one lot of photos for my ebay and one lot just for my etsy shop, they can stick it 😂 I'm not interested in their mind games any more. It used to be a place for creativity to thrive, now it's just a game of 'how far can you be pushed'. 👎
I completely agree, Kara; Etsy seem to be tying themselves in knots to make our lives more difficult- they will end up with good sellers leaving for other platforms. It's a lesson in how not to run a platform. Every week there's another issue for us to resolve, people will reach their tipping point and realise it's just not worth the hassle. There are other places to sell!
I agree with every word you say, including that it will be the constant "nannying" which will make me leave. As far as them "knowing better than us sellers what we want" and "knowing better than the shoppers what they want", if they actually KNEW better their stock wouldn't be swirling at the bottom of the toilet bowl. I expect though that the Q3 surprise announcement might pick that up a bit. The take-away: they have ZERO respect for sellers and would gladly get rid of us altogether if they could.
@@KaraBuntinTutorials Indeed, and that's what they're counting on. Those millions of newbies who are dying to open an Etsy shop, especially the ones in certain other countries.
You have such righteous indignation! Unfortunately, I forgot to sign up for Pirateship over the weekend, so I don't know what I'm going to do. So far, I've used Etsy for shipping labels, but I've only had 4 sales,
Hope you feel better, and YES! The nonsense about Pirate ship was infuriating! Dear Etsy…Stop interfering, nickel and diming us, and use that energy to get your platform to work properly. I’m going to keep using pirate ship too.
No its not the fees! I've made a lot of money on etsy its the sellers support! There is none. My wife and I are looking to change platforms because of it. What would be a good platform for handmade items for knitters?
I would start your own website and send your traffic there. All of the patforms will send you traffic but nothing is guaranteed because everyone is shifting to the more browse-based algorithms. I would look into Goimagine if you're in the US because it's US-only, handmade-only, and they offer a plan with a website.
I had a problem and contacted them; no reply. I figured out on my own in the end. What exactly is etsy customer service for?! They demand high standards from their sellers, but don't apply it to their own staff.
You hit the nail on the head. Etsy's been increasingly intrusive this year. Too bad about Pirate Ship--I use them for international labels. It's around $19 to send a 4 oz package to Europe with Etsy's shipping labels, but it's only $12.99 on Pirate Ship, and I think they both use the same export service, because both get sent to an export processing facility in Smithtown, NY before being shipping overseas. Yet Etsy's label is $7 more. My views are down 50% YOY; they keep doing something with the algorithm and my shop has been floundering since Gift Mode. I wish they would stop fussing with their algorithm and learn to adopt the mindset of "if it's not broke, don't fix it." I finally made my own website and I bought your Pinterest course; all of this is making me not want to put all my eggs in Etsy's basket. (Also, feel better!)
My views are down 30% YOY but… my total revenue is up 28% so I think it’s great. And that’s the thing with Etsy… what might be hurting one shop is beneficial to another. 🤷♀️ it might change for my shop, but I’m enjoying it right now. 😊
A few months ago I started getting "this item may arrive late. Buyer expects this package by.." And I have adjusted my processing time to a week our AND default is usps ground advantage. I typically ship within 2-3 days so well before my ship by date and use usps ground. I noticed my shipping rating going down and I think etsy is telling customers false expected delivery dates...
I think it's because etsy is trying to push buying faster shipping labels. Because in theory with my blown out processing time is a week out plus 5 business days putting in my shipping method. So if a customer orders on 10/1 I should see a ship by date of 10/7. Plus 5 business days so buyer should expect delivery by 10/14. If I ship 10/4 I typically get that message mentioned above.
They've been sending customers delivery estimate dates that are wildly inaccurate. They know that if the customer complains it will be to US, not to them, so they don't care.
Some other places to sell would be ebay, Amazon if you qualify for their handmade program, start your own website, Goimagine if you're in the US and sell handmade products, and there are other smaller marketplaces. eBay is probably the best bet for a general merchandise platform that has a lot of traffic.
I agree with you. I was surprised when Pirateship said Etsy was not responding to them either. Very unprofessional! Etsy is the one teaching us how to run a business and be professionals. Keeping commerce human? Yea right!
I agree with the search being a mess. I haven't shopped on Etsy in awhile until a few weeks ago. I was searching up gothic art prints and on the first page there were rows and rows of AI art. I think there was only 1 or 2 products that were hand made. I looked through about 4 or 5 pages and was able to find 7 to 10 different listings that weren't AI, but most of those listings were from the same 2 or 3 shops. After that I pretty much gave up looking. It sucks that they allow AI art on Etsy in the first place, but the least they can do is add a filter so that I can filter it out when I'm searching.
idk why I'm getting charged tax on the shipping amounts and charged a second transaction fee for it too. The buyer sends one lump sum, I receive one lump sum from etsy but im being taxed and fee'd for two transactions. Is there any way around this?
The sales tax is charged on everything, unless I'm mistaken about that, you don't pay that though, Etsy collects and remits it so it doesn't count as our revenue. There's a 6.5% fee on any money that the customer sends to you, no matter what it's for, but it's broken out into a trensaction fee and a shippign transaction fee since you "sold" the label to them.
@@KaraBuntinTutorials You are correct. The customer pays the Sales Tax when they purchase an item, and then etsy remits that to the federal monetary tax powers that be. :)
Yea, fees are irrelevant. I already have their fees priced into my price. So if they raise fees then I’ll raise my prices and Etsy will make less money from less sales.
Some other places to sell would be ebay, Amazon if you qualify for their handmade program, start your own website, Goimagine if you're in the US and sell handmade products, and there are other smaller marketplaces. eBay is probably the best bet for a general merchandise platform that has a lot of traffic.
I started a new shop a few months ago for products that didn't quite fit my long running one. I've made $1,500 so far, but have not seen a dime. I didn't love the 2 week hold, but I was banking on those funds actually releasing after 2 weeks. Apparently, that hold resets every time you get a new order (according to the agent I chatted with at length today). I had to put my shop on vacation so I can get paid 2 weeks from today (hopefully). I'll be migrating all of those products to my current shop while I get a Shopify website up and running. I've been distrusting Etsy for a while now, but this was the ridiculous straw that broke my back.
Yeah, that hold is based on the date of the sale, then it releases but other things can still be held. After a certain time they’ll remove the hold completely, so you’ll be paid as people buy things, but for new shops the hold period can be really long.
Kara, PREACH GIRL! you articulated EVERYTHING 100% PERFECTLY! LOL They want to make ecommerce human what a friggen laugh! You can't get a human on the phone or anywhere even if you try! They don't know the definition on human. A human is a BOT named Stan (sorry to any Stan's out there). Etsy does not respect the sellers that made them ETSY (=Money). They have not clue how to communicate. The bot hasn't figured out what the word communicate means. Ok, Kara as a real human I'm sorry you're not feeling well. make some homemade chicken soup :) ok
I’m in Denmark and I copy and paste in to the ‘shipping label customs label service’ here (nShift) It takes a bit of time but I only have about 20-30 orders per week. Selling vintage. And next year the Danish Postal service will have a solution so I don’t need to have nShift as a service. Saving money.
My biggest beef with Etsy is that they want us to be dishonest with our customers and tell them they’re getting free shipping when we are actually raising our prices to cover the shipping. That, and constantly telling us how to run our businesses. I was in business long before Etsy. Maybe I could teach them something.
I'm sure that you could.
I don't think any humans actually work at Etsy anymore. I think it consists of a board of directors, and some coders. A grand experiment in running a company completely AI.
If I already haven’t had a shop forever…I sure wouldn’t open one now!
Me neither
Yes, totally agree. I started my Etsy Shop in 2009. I was attracted to the concept that it was my shop on Etsy and they made me look good. It is obvious that they want the sales to be Etsy, And it no longer feels or looks like my business. I like being an entrepreneur and I don’t think Etsy gets that is way different than a “corporate” structure they are trying to build.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for articulating exactly what I wanted to say!! You are so spot-on about the micro-management that Etsy is forcing down our throats! I also use Pirate ship for the reasons that you listed and have been a 'game changer' in price,simplicity, Customer Service!! I sent them a note and assured them that I wasn't leaving! I have been a buyer on Etsy for at least 15 years..... They are about to lose a buyer and a seller!! Thank you for your posts!! Jane
You are so welcome!
Kara, you are getting to the point that I have already gotten to. At midnight on Sunday, December 15, I am closing my shop after 7 years. Customers have always been a pleasure to work with---Etsy not so much. It has become a stressor in my life that I no longer will tolerate. They are definitely NOT the company I enjoyed when I started and we've all tolerated many changes they have come up with, but it no longer brings me the joy it used to. So, after Q4, I'm leaving and won't be looking back. You are clearly heading down the same path I have been down. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning from you and you have given immensely to those in this community, but I will also say you seem to have lost your joy for this platform, too. Best wishes to you as you seek to find the joy and fulfillment you once had when you first started. Sadly, you won't be finding it on Etsy anymore.
On one hand I'm sorry, on the other hand I'm jealous of you!
They don’t care about anything but their profits. They have shareholders and they are all that matter. Sad. I’m about done too. Have my own website and drive my own traffic. I look at Etsy as extra income. Hope you feel better soon Kara ❤
I’m not on Etsy these days but I honestly believe we all need to move to self-hosting and connecting through each others blog comment sections like the good old days of the internet. I saw everyone move en masse from the blog world to instagram and since then people have been spaces to algorithms rather than building their own internet lands.
I closed my shops 2 months ago for all the reasons you listed, and more.
Fever or not, that was an excellent assessment of the situation. I hope you feel better soon! 😊
Thanks!
It's sad to see Etsy become a greed machine. Sellers are the product.
Yes we are!
All really good points to keep an eye on. Thanks very much for the overview. Hope you're feeling a lot better soon.
I’ve had an Etsy shop since 2011 and I have pretty much had it. Their changes have caused my sales to plummet. I don’t sell anything unless I have a sale of at least 20 to 25% off. I don’t know who’s running the company now, but they need to go. They are prioritizing shops that have 500 items or more of cheap Stanley cups and printed sweatshirts. It has just become a Walmart. I recently had an insane customer who harassed me and threatened bodily harm to me and I spent at least 15 hours on the phone with Etsy and they did absolutely nothing about this person who was harassing me for three months. Their customer service is horrible and everything that I loved about selling on Etsy disappeared.
It’s so true that it’s hard to sell without running 25% off and now it seems 30%. It’s illegal to run a perpetual sale yet Etsy’s algo seems to reward only those that do. And you’re not allowed to change your pricing for a sale, understandable, but how can you win that rigged system? 🤷♂️
@sonseraedesigns about 3 years ago I did $100,000.00 in sales the last the last 2 years I am lucky to hit $25,000.00. Been with Etsy since 2013 and every year up until they went public I was increasing sales. Then boom the bottom has dropped out. Sad how it has gotten so bad.
I’m sick of them touting that they are handmade and human while keeping drop shipping and allowing AI. I also hate that they have the worst customer service anywhere while demanding perfect customer service from sellers.
I thought Amazon KDP has the worst "support" I have ever seen. It was so bad I even closed my account knowing I couldn't come back. After fighting with them for a month because they blocked me from uploading my new book and blamed it on me, one hour after I closed my account they decided the issue was on their side.
Yep. I removed all my physical products from my shop & only carry my digitals there now. However, Etsy is micromanaging without giving needed support.
I agree with you. 100%, so unprofessional what they did with pirate ship. My shop was shut down 2 weeks ago, I am a Wreath maker. They said I violated handmade policy. I believe I was shut down for a reason, not any violation bc I know what I can sell and what I can’t but I’m glad! Other platforms to use, never going back even if they reinstated never! They are so greedy and no human help
anywhere.
I love your videos and content, Kara. Thanks for this rant voicing many of our frustrations. I'm definitely done with Etsy's BS. It's like being in an abusive relationship that we keep hoping will change. The only silver lining with my dead in the water sales is that it forces me to think bigger and differently about how I market my art. It was nice while it lasted but those idiots are driving that company right into a ditch.
Your artwork is so good, etsy doesn't deserve it.
Exactly this. Whenever Etsy makes yet another change, I say to my husband, 'Guess what Etsy has done NOW!!' and he is always stunned at how inept, amateurish, and disrespectful of the sellers Etsy is. This week, I closed my shop, and will sell only from my (very established) website instead. I've had an Etsy shop for 10 years, but I can't stand the hassle of dealing with all the imposed changes any more. Sales on Etsy have dropped 70% in the past year, whereas on my website they have gone up.
That's good to hear! It's good that people have alternatives.
I absolutely am sick of Etsy and don't trust them. Closing shops with bots, unlisting items, micro managing shops and leaving the temu, aliexpress and shein junk on there. It is ridiculous and not fun. Been there since 2011 and I feel the ship is sinking now.
There's a feeling of something going on behind the scenes, for sure.
My Etsy shop has just been sitting there for quite a few months with no attention due to illness and other stresses & time eaters. But I have continued to monitor seller videos and site updates. Now that I am ready and need to get active again, the number of changes made is just daunting. When I consider what it takes to rank in search, comply with all the new stuff, etc. I seriously am considering not doing it. The cost of stress that wrecks one's health is the steepest cost of all - and includes time and medical bills. And it's very real. Now I need to figure out a new source of income, which is also daunting as a senior.
100% agree! I love Pirate Ship and will continue to use them. Hope you feel better soon.
Thanks, I'm fine!
Absolutely applauding and echoing exactly what you are saying here!! I’m so sick of it!
I’ve started working on my Shopify website
Go for it!
I 100% agree!! They have taken down my listings because my photos are stolen and therefore I'm blamed, and I can't talk to anyone about it because no one there will talk to me about it. I'm currently working on building my website to replace Etsy so that I can say goodbye to Etsy forever.
If you sell on Amazon it could just be because they are on there. Ridiculous.
@@MusingsOfEve I don't sell on Amazon. The Chinese sites steal my photos all the time.
@jennifergacek5885 Yeah, it is sad that anyone can send Etsy a form saying you are infringing on their property rights, and boom, you get that item taken down. And there is nothing you can do to get it back. I had an item taken down that someone said that I infringed on. I wrote to the company and they said that guy doesn't even work here anymore. So I told Etsy and sent them the email.and they said sorry in order for us to take this down we need a letter from the person that filed the form saying that it can be re listed. Etsy will not do any kind of investigation just take it down. Back a few years the US Navy wrote a blanket letter to Etsy saying that a whole bunch of store were infringing on Navy items so Etsy goes and just takes down everything that havs Navy in it. So that included Navy Blue colored items and started a huge back and forth. It is supposed to be each and every store or item needs to have a form done not just a blanket one saying that. So I thought maybe Etsy would have learned something about that but they did not.
I agree, Kara, 100%. I know you don’t want a book here--there’s a list I could make, but our time is valuable.
The Pirate Ship thing was a real surprise-Etsy not communicating with them. What would make me think that they wouldn’t do something major to us, without notice? (which I’m guessing they’re about to do soon).
And I'm so tired of the "do this or" get punished in search business.
I know that Etsy can do whatever they want-their platform, etc. But they are taking more money from sellers, without it being from sales. To me, it all seems unsustainable-maybe not for Etsy, but it is for me.
They're definitely going to be pulling something soon.
Another great video!! Thanks!! I hope you fell better soon.
Thanks so much!
I had three etsy stores they took all three down permanently. All three stores had itmes that I hand made myself I was told one store was in violation but NEVER told what was in violation then a month later the other two stores were taken down. No recourse at all.. etsy just sucks now.
That’s not good. What were you selling m?
@@tinaindina7032 One store was selling handmade leather items like wallets, sheaths, money clips etc. The second store was selling hand made shoulder puppets and the third store only had some earrings we made. We were in the process of working on that store.
I agree, it's exhausting trying to work out why your sales and views are down. In the UK, you can buy Royal Mail labels for a discount if you are buying in bulk. This is what star seller is about in the UK. They get a discount but that is not passed on to us. They have forced us into buying their labels as they have negotiated a discount and wrapped it up as something else.
And a company that just got kicked out of the S&P 500 and they are trying to tell us how to run our business. I do not want my store to fail like Etsy is. I have been with Etsy since 2012 and wow has it changed.
I jsut sold all of my Etsy stock so they can go pound sand as far as I'm concerned.
Hope you feel better soon! I AGREE with you 100%!
Thanks!
Every quarterly meeting for the past couple of years I have been wondering if this is the one where Silverman announces his retirement. So far he hasn't, but once again I am wondering about the next meeting, next week. He already looked a bit stressed at the last one, so who knows.
He will get fired first.
@@ecouturehandmades5166 agreed, and if that happens, the next days announcement will be them removing the handmade rule. I'm convinced shareholders see it as a huge shackle on their all-important profits.
so sorry you are sick with a fever, please take some time off and take care of you!! You are a wonderful person!!
Thank you, I wasn't genuinely sick, I got my covid and flu shots the day before so I always get a fever the day after that.
@@KaraBuntinTutorials That is good to know, was worried for a minute, please get feeling better soon!!
Yes, I agree that Etsy is making it harder and harder to do what’s needed to list there and unless you are heavily doing social media to drive your own traffic, visits are drastically dropping.
I have been on Etsy only since February and have had 10 sales. I am hoping sales will pick up in the last quarter for Christmas shopping. Then I will make my decision on closing my shop. I don’t know what else to do to bring in sales. It’s just ridiculous. I sell at holiday art shows and at my age that’s just fine.
Running a business takes a lot of time and a lot of work no matter where you sell it. You can't just list items on Etsy and think people will flock to you.
@@agomodern I am aware of that.
05:15 Etsy customer support is a ghost town for sellers. I've been writing on the chat for two days. No respond. Not even an auto-generated reply! That's what makes me mad 😡
I’m sick of shopping for something I want & get all kinds of listings that are not what I’m looking for.
Their search is just dumb.
@@KaraBuntinTutorialsthey have had it for a while now. So I guess it must be working for Etsy. Or else they would have dropped it? That usually what they do when it’s not. Maybe it does lead to more sales. And our pillows are also show when a customer is looking for wall art (someone mentioned those as an example). I still remember your daughter searching for earrings and ending up buying sunglasses, years ago.
Etsy got so big, it just stopped caring. :(
I had to talk to “customer support” through the online chat regarding an issue with shipping charges. For whatever reason the only option offered to my buyers is priority mail or priority express. I sell vintage postcards. And the customer service agent had the nerve to tell me I need to reference the USPS guidelines for first class mail.
It’s a platform problem and she told me to contact USPS.
BTW - I had shipping preferences set up for my postcards at a flat rate. This was something that happened with the platform.
It has become more complicated. I do better on Poshmark and eBay overall.
Get well soon!
Spot on Kara!!
Thanks!
Etsy threatened me today... after having a shop in operation since 2007... "Update your info, or your shop will be shut down in 6 days". I updated it of course. Also, there was no need for me to change any of my info... it was all correct to begin with. So, they threatened me over nothing. Is there even a customer service number we can call as sellers anymore?
There's no direct line but oyu can request a call back if that's available.
Haha! 😂 I’m going to tell my subscribers to go watch the Dodo when I start ranting. Love it! Great video. I agree with a lot of your points. ❤ Hope you feel better soon!
Thanks!
💯 agree!! Thank you for making this video 🙏
I assume pirateship wasn’t the only connection affected, but I also think a lot of us use it. It’s cost effective and has many tools to help streamline the workflow of processing orders from multiple platforms. They also do such a great job of keeping us informed of rate changes and so on. My sales have not grown as much on Etsy as other platforms, and the recent refusal to show products that charge shipping has caused it to just about screech to a halt. I will be interested to see how this pans out in the coming months. It’s a bit stupid to make sweeping changes just before a holiday rush.
Love your rants!! And totally agree....its the nonsense!
It's so aggravating.
I put my shop on vacation for this month because my daughter is getting married. I’m not sure if I will reopen it this year, or ever.
What Etsy doesn't understand is that sellers can survive without Etsy but Etsy CANNOT survive with sellers. If there are no sellers, there will be no buyers. You can't have buyers with out anything to sell. Wish they would wake understand and help out is sellers more. They say Keep commerce human and sellers can not even talk to a human. Pretty ridiculous isn't it!!!!
They'll still have plenty of sellers, that's the thing about it, there will always be someone who's willing to go along with it.
Time for new management maybe they should replace Joshy Boy
I have a feeling that's on the table.
I love pirateship, I use it for all my personal shipping.
Etsy is just annoying all together. They seem to know what's before for us, but need us.
Don't poop where you eat.
Pirateship has always been cheaper than Etsy for me. I am not a major seller or anything but will be cutting and pasting if need be. Also selling on other sites.
Yep over 62,000 sales my last day for sales is October 31, quitting when u are at the top .01 sellers is hard But I can’t stay and be honest with all the changes
I'm getting cose to it.
1000% agree
Well said Kara! I totally feel the same way!
It's really frustrating to watch them be such jerks to Pirateship, it shows the lack of respect in general.
I feel EXACTLY the same way, after running my business for almost 10 years on this platform I am really contemplating:"Is this worth it?"
Being outside the US and a very low number seller, the nonsense hasn't hit me hard. A monthly account fee will hurt me though and probably mean I'll have to seriously think about leaving Etsy.
I think it's coming, so just wait to see what they actually roll out before making any decisions. It might not be a big deal.
One of the nonsense that bothers me the most lately is the arrival timeframe they are showing. It is utterly based on absolutely nothing, which, as you said, gives us sellers a harder time running our business.
I’m in Montreal, Canada. My shipping timeframe is 1-2 business days, but i often ship on the same day as the order. The predicted timeframe for delivery to California often shows 4 business days to customers from day of order (not even a timeframe, but rather a specific day…!). ARE YOU KIDDING ME? There is ZERO chance that’s gonna happen. Even for very close like NY or NJ, it won’t happen except once in a blue moon. Like WHY.
It’s NOT because Etsy wants to shorter timeframes THAT IT IS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. What ever happened to underpromise-overdeliver, basic Business101 practice? Nope, make them expect the moon and the get mad AT SELLERS. Such nonsenseeeee i’m tireddddd lol
It's so true, and they know that the customers will be mad at us, not them. Total fakery.
well i did what you said not to do- started an etsy shop. several issues that i can't get etsy to respond to- my shop isn't being shown to anyone so just been paying them to sell to my customers outside of etsy when the point was to leverage their marketplace. also telling me i dont have "access" to the seller features like the seller boards and groups. can't even post that im having this issue on the message boards! they do not respond to my emails. any advice would be greatly appreciated
My advice would be to sell somewhere else...But seriously, I can't help because it sounds like there's something going on with the indexing of your shop. Not having access to seller forums is really weird.
"How high can the fees go before you quit" reminds me of a woman I worked for that said, "What is the least I can offer John so he stay here." Same greedy concept.
Kara, you took the words out of my mouth 👏👏
What you are describing is elitism. The Etsy culture feels that e-commerce revolves around them. Pride goeth before the fall.
Top executives make their money by increasing the Etsy stock price. The only thing that drives stock prices is earnings. And that is what they are focused on, EARNINGS! That is what is driving all the nonsense. Eventually Etsy is going to figure out that quality products and good customer service is what drives good business.
The lack of respect to sellers is the key. Etsy allowes obvious scammers to keep expensive items with no returns and charge our bank accounts. I’m sick of no customer support and violation of the seller rights, I’m not even mentioning loosing money this is clear enough . Quit to where? Pls share the options!
I've been telling people to get and build a website for years, so that's the main option. Any marketplace is eventually going to be a problem.
@ thank you Kara for sharing your experience. Happy New Year!
I used to be on Etsy 14 years ago, I quit because I couldn’t believe they wanted me to charge more for shipping and the fees. I couldn’t do it anymore. So I left.
I was on Etsy for 7 years with a small jewelry business. I had trouble with my logon = no help. They started telling me how to file my taxes, no thanks! I do that every year all by myself. It just got to be less reward and more trouble. What I hated most was no help from a human when I needed it most. 🎉
Yes!! I agree! I get charged fees for shipping even when I do not use shipping through Etsy. I’m done with Etsy. I’ve had enough! I will be deleting my shop at the end of December, and will be focusing on promoting my website.
We all pay fees on shipping. It has been like that for many years.
@@tinaindina7032 yes, I’m well aware of that. What I’m referring to is the fee that’s recently been applied even though I do not use Etsy’s shipping. I never used to get charged this fee UNLESS I shipped through Etsy. I’ve watched this very closely. And to be honest, it’s not the only reason I will be closing my shop.. I didn’t like what they did with Pirate Ship.
I used to make a sale or 2 a month on Etsy but I stopped for a year or so. I just started putting 5 of my Ebay items on Etsy every day and have not made a single sale in over a month.
I would stick to ebay unless you want to list things in both places and make Etsy a passive site for yourself.
I'm sticking with Pirate Ship for sure. I assume Pirate Ship will make a work around like a Chrome Extension that will allow you to export your shipping info and import it back into Pirate Ship. I don't care if it is to export a google doc and then bulk import. I will take that extra step. Those credit card points are so worth it!!!! Pirate Ship also also been easy to work with.
Couldn't agree more and I don't even ship stuff! Etsy's 'professionalism' is non-existent, I'm not sure they ever had any. They've pulled this same move with other apps that were integrated, no notice, no conversation, the 3rd party company finds out after the customers. The disrespect is bullshit. Etsy has a serious culture problem and their lie about making commerce human is beyond laughable. It's even more notable when you go to another platform and are treated really well - or should I say like normal.
Absolutely!
I agree 100% with you. I have been on Etsy 12 years and made my shop run on my own before they have stepped in and mess with my shop. Yes the past theee years were going well. However I am a top seller because I did all my social media. Gained a following and made so many sales through the years that has also linen their pockets. They did share us well the past three years and stopped in June. Everything changed. Like they factory reset my hard work and then put so many hard to meet expectations on my shop. Sales,views,everything down 60% the past 4 months since all the changes. If I did not have a following I would be done! I have had to get back to daily soical media on insta,FB, YT to get views and sales. Its just wrong. I thankfull have kept my star seller. If you dont you wont get phone support with Etsy. Only way to get help would be by email. Just wrong.
100% agree, I'm >this close< to leaving at the end of this year. I've spent years trying to 'crack the code', obsessively learning everything I could and teaching myself the rest...it's doing my head in to sit there every day and pick apart how I operate to 'optimise' things. We're just lab rats to them, zero respect for our livelihoods. The last straw for me has been image match. If they think I'm taking one lot of photos for my ebay and one lot just for my etsy shop, they can stick it 😂 I'm not interested in their mind games any more. It used to be a place for creativity to thrive, now it's just a game of 'how far can you be pushed'. 👎
I don’t like Etsy either always resisting my account,what other applications can I make use of
Im tired of them sutting down my shop only to reopen it 2 days later. This constantly happens to me
I completely agree, Kara; Etsy seem to be tying themselves in knots to make our lives more difficult- they will end up with good sellers leaving for other platforms. It's a lesson in how not to run a platform. Every week there's another issue for us to resolve, people will reach their tipping point and realise it's just not worth the hassle. There are other places to sell!
yes there are.
Completely agree! I use Etsy as a gateway to my website. I suggest everyone do the same.
I do too.
I agree with every word you say, including that it will be the constant "nannying" which will make me leave. As far as them "knowing better than us sellers what we want" and "knowing better than the shoppers what they want", if they actually KNEW better their stock wouldn't be swirling at the bottom of the toilet bowl. I expect though that the Q3 surprise announcement might pick that up a bit. The take-away: they have ZERO respect for sellers and would gladly get rid of us altogether if they could.
There will always be enough people who are willing to put up with whatever Etsy wants to force on them.
@@KaraBuntinTutorials Indeed, and that's what they're counting on. Those millions of newbies who are dying to open an Etsy shop, especially the ones in certain other countries.
Feel better!
Thank you!
You have such righteous indignation! Unfortunately, I forgot to sign up for Pirateship over the weekend, so I don't know what I'm going to do. So far, I've used Etsy for shipping labels, but I've only had 4 sales,
It's easy to copy and paste the addresses if you want to use Pirateship. I do it for Goimagine and my website since they don't integarte with it.
And Josh needs to go
Hope you feel better, and YES! The nonsense about Pirate ship was infuriating! Dear Etsy…Stop interfering, nickel and diming us, and use that energy to get your platform to work properly.
I’m going to keep using pirate ship too.
No its not the fees! I've made a lot of money on etsy its the sellers support! There is none. My wife and I are looking to change platforms because of it. What would be a good platform for handmade items for knitters?
I would start your own website and send your traffic there. All of the patforms will send you traffic but nothing is guaranteed because everyone is shifting to the more browse-based algorithms. I would look into Goimagine if you're in the US because it's US-only, handmade-only, and they offer a plan with a website.
You're absolutely right, Etsy has become a stone in the road...it used to be such an interesting place....
I had a problem a week ago. But could never get any help from customer service. 14 attempts and no response.
I had a problem and contacted them; no reply. I figured out on my own in the end. What exactly is etsy customer service for?! They demand high standards from their sellers, but don't apply it to their own staff.
You hit the nail on the head. Etsy's been increasingly intrusive this year. Too bad about Pirate Ship--I use them for international labels. It's around $19 to send a 4 oz package to Europe with Etsy's shipping labels, but it's only $12.99 on Pirate Ship, and I think they both use the same export service, because both get sent to an export processing facility in Smithtown, NY before being shipping overseas. Yet Etsy's label is $7 more.
My views are down 50% YOY; they keep doing something with the algorithm and my shop has been floundering since Gift Mode. I wish they would stop fussing with their algorithm and learn to adopt the mindset of "if it's not broke, don't fix it."
I finally made my own website and I bought your Pinterest course; all of this is making me not want to put all my eggs in Etsy's basket.
(Also, feel better!)
My views are down 30% YOY but… my total revenue is up 28% so I think it’s great. And that’s the thing with Etsy… what might be hurting one shop is beneficial to another. 🤷♀️ it might change for my shop, but I’m enjoying it right now. 😊
A few months ago I started getting "this item may arrive late. Buyer expects this package by.." And I have adjusted my processing time to a week our AND default is usps ground advantage. I typically ship within 2-3 days so well before my ship by date and use usps ground.
I noticed my shipping rating going down and I think etsy is telling customers false expected delivery dates...
I think it's because etsy is trying to push buying faster shipping labels. Because in theory with my blown out processing time is a week out plus 5 business days putting in my shipping method.
So if a customer orders on 10/1 I should see a ship by date of 10/7. Plus 5 business days so buyer should expect delivery by 10/14.
If I ship 10/4 I typically get that message mentioned above.
They've been sending customers delivery estimate dates that are wildly inaccurate. They know that if the customer complains it will be to US, not to them, so they don't care.
I really dislike the fictional date of arrival Etsy shows shoppers.
Yes, it's ridiculous.
I know right and the suggestion of Shipping overnight to get it on time 😮 when they already want is to keep shipping cost low 🤦
I’m fed up with Etsy too. I really want to leave. I am a small time seller with someone suggest another platform for me please?
Some other places to sell would be ebay, Amazon if you qualify for their handmade program, start your own website, Goimagine if you're in the US and sell handmade products, and there are other smaller marketplaces. eBay is probably the best bet for a general merchandise platform that has a lot of traffic.
I so agree with you. Maybe they need better customer service for the sellers.
ANY customer service would be great!
I agree with you. I was surprised when Pirateship said Etsy was not responding to them either. Very unprofessional! Etsy is the one teaching us how to run a business and be professionals. Keeping commerce human? Yea right!
seriously!
Wholeheartedly agree!!
I agree with the search being a mess. I haven't shopped on Etsy in awhile until a few weeks ago. I was searching up gothic art prints and on the first page there were rows and rows of AI art. I think there was only 1 or 2 products that were hand made. I looked through about 4 or 5 pages and was able to find 7 to 10 different listings that weren't AI, but most of those listings were from the same 2 or 3 shops. After that I pretty much gave up looking.
It sucks that they allow AI art on Etsy in the first place, but the least they can do is add a filter so that I can filter it out when I'm searching.
idk why I'm getting charged tax on the shipping amounts and charged a second transaction fee for it too. The buyer sends one lump sum, I receive one lump sum from etsy but im being taxed and fee'd for two transactions. Is there any way around this?
The sales tax is charged on everything, unless I'm mistaken about that, you don't pay that though, Etsy collects and remits it so it doesn't count as our revenue. There's a 6.5% fee on any money that the customer sends to you, no matter what it's for, but it's broken out into a trensaction fee and a shippign transaction fee since you "sold" the label to them.
@@KaraBuntinTutorials You are correct. The customer pays the Sales Tax when they purchase an item, and then etsy remits that to the federal monetary tax powers that be. :)
Thank you for explaining the shipping breakdown. They definitely need to stop messing with all the things.
Yes they do
Yea, fees are irrelevant. I already have their fees priced into my price. So if they raise fees then I’ll raise my prices and Etsy will make less money from less sales.
For this and many other reasons, I will NEVER sell on Etsy!
You also don’t need A I to permanently suspend businesses. And not tell us why!
Agree 100 percent! I want to go over to go imagine but I am so intimidated with the listings.
You can do it!
Any type of discussion about where else we can sell, or what to do if they shut you down?
Some other places to sell would be ebay, Amazon if you qualify for their handmade program, start your own website, Goimagine if you're in the US and sell handmade products, and there are other smaller marketplaces. eBay is probably the best bet for a general merchandise platform that has a lot of traffic.
I started a new shop a few months ago for products that didn't quite fit my long running one. I've made $1,500 so far, but have not seen a dime. I didn't love the 2 week hold, but I was banking on those funds actually releasing after 2 weeks. Apparently, that hold resets every time you get a new order (according to the agent I chatted with at length today). I had to put my shop on vacation so I can get paid 2 weeks from today (hopefully). I'll be migrating all of those products to my current shop while I get a Shopify website up and running.
I've been distrusting Etsy for a while now, but this was the ridiculous straw that broke my back.
Yeah, that hold is based on the date of the sale, then it releases but other things can still be held. After a certain time they’ll remove the hold completely, so you’ll be paid as people buy things, but for new shops the hold period can be really long.
Kara, PREACH GIRL! you articulated EVERYTHING 100% PERFECTLY! LOL They want to make ecommerce human what a friggen laugh! You can't get a human on the phone or anywhere even if you try! They don't know the definition on human. A human is a BOT named Stan (sorry to any Stan's out there). Etsy does not respect the sellers that made them ETSY (=Money). They have not clue how to communicate. The bot hasn't figured out what the word communicate means. Ok, Kara as a real human I'm sorry you're not feeling well. make some homemade chicken soup :) ok
I love pirate ship and it pisses me off that Etsy is continuing to screw around with us! They used to have fabulous customer service now it sucks!
They are gaslighting bullies
AGREE 100%
Feel Better!
Thank you! I jsut got my covid shot so I', having the side effects romt hat. I'm not really sick, it's a fake sickness.
Get well soon.
I dont think you can just copy and paste the addresses. I have to manually put them in since we do not have Etsy shipping or Shipstation available 😡
I’m in Denmark and I copy and paste in to the ‘shipping label customs label service’ here (nShift) It takes a bit of time but I only have about 20-30 orders per week. Selling vintage. And next year the Danish Postal service will have a solution so I don’t need to have nShift as a service. Saving money.