“Etsy truly stands for something different.”
That’s how the company’s CEO, Josh Silverman, explained Etsy’s strong third-quarter performance. Revenue was up 128% in comparison to the summer prior. This is in keeping with a continual upward trend over the last few years. Etsy has a “strong brand, underpinned by the unique inventory in our marketplace.”
But does it really? Sure, it once did, but I’d argue that’s hardly the case anymore.
I’ve been an Etsy seller for 15 years now. I opened my shop in July 2005, when Etsy was still in beta, and have kept it open ever since. Like Silverman described, my shop is booming. In 2020 orders for my sewing patterns and supplies were up 15% and my total Etsy revenue is up 13% in comparison to 2019. And yet, the more I look around when I’m on Etsy, the more uneasy I feel. The way I see it, Etsy is marching steadily towards a future in which it resembles every other marketplace out there (think Amazon, eBay, and Wal-Mart). Etsy’s brand is in jeopardy and, left unchecked, the marketplace is vulnerable to being upended by competitors. Let me explain.
The problem
There are 3.7 million active Etsy sellers right now. That number is up 42% from the same period in 2019. One has to wonder how many of these new shops are like ElegantStudioFinds. My guess? Quite a lot. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, ElegantStudioFinds is doing a healthy business on Etsy at 113 sales since it opened offering “Home Décor & More!.” The only problem? Every one of the 47 vases, mirrors, clocks, and statues listed appear to also be found on the Chinese wholesale site Alibaba.
On the left, a mirror for sale as a “handmade product” in the Etsy shop ElegantStudioFinds. On the right, the mirror on Alibaba starting at $1.70 for 40 pieces. All of the items in the ElegantStudioFinds shop appear to be sourced from Alibaba as do the items from many thousands of other reseller shops on Etsy.
Here’s the thing, though. There’s no need to call out this seller in particular. To do that would really be unfair. After all, ElegantStudioFinds is one of what must be tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of reseller shops on Etsy. They seem to be in every category. They’re literally everywhere. To find them hardly takes any searching at all.
Just look for a product, anything really. Let’s try incense burners. Soon you’ll notice multiple different shops selling the same thing, like the same waterfall incense burner, many using the same product picture. Now head over to search for incense burners on Alibaba and, viola, there’s the identical product. In fact, I’ve found that if you keep an Alibaba window open and an Etsy window open simultaneously on your browser while you’re doing these sorts of searches you’re likely to become confused between the two. The product selection is that similar (and complicated by the fact that Alibaba sellers are notorious for stealing Etsy sellers’ photos and using them in their listings, too).
Now, let’s take it one step further. Open a third browser window and search for the same product on Google more broadly. You’ll very likely find the item being sold on Amazon, too, and on Wish, and likely a few other places.
Waterfall incense burners. The first seven are for sale as a “handmade product” from different Etsy sellers and the eighth is on Alibaba starting at $4 for 10 pieces.
Right now, Etsy is depending on consumer laziness. They’re betting most people won’t take the time to do these sorts of searches and will just assume items on Etsy are artisan-made (even when the prices don’t make sense for an artisan-made product). But how long can this bet last?
This problem isn’t new
Of course, there are still handmade shops on Etsy, along with supply sellers and vintage sellers. These are people doing their best to keep up with the changes, abide by the rules, and make Etsy work. Competing in a marketplace that’s teeming with resellers, but pretends it isn’t, is bizarre and exasperating. The mix makes it very hard for consumers to discern which is which.
There have long been resellers on Etsy. Many of us will remember April Winchell of Regretsy who, from 2009-2013, mocked the ridiculousness of certain aspects of Etsy. Winchell was one of the first to shine a bright light on the reseller problem and the way Etsy was blissfully ignoring it, even then. In 2015, there was Three Bird Nest, a women’s clothing reseller who was blatantly flouting Etsy’s rules. It took Etsy several months to finally shut that shop down. Now, though, the issue is really rampant. I would argue, actually, that it’s out of control. Resellers are everywhere, in every category. They are all over Etsy. The marketplace is, as far as I can tell, saturated with them.
Core values
To me, the question comes down to this: What does Etsy stand for? What does this company value now? One thing we know for sure – it’s not handmade.
Silverman told Vox in 2019 he doesn’t like the words “handmade” or “craft” because they “don’t communicate anything to buyers when they think of Etsy.”
“Nobody wakes up thinking, ‘Gosh, I need to buy something handmade today,’” he told the Vox reporter. “You need to furnish your apartment. You need to prepare for a party. You need to find a gift for a friend. You need a dress. Handmade is not the value proposition — unique, personalized, expresses your sense of identity, those are things that speak to buyers.”
So, according to Silverman, today Etsy stands for unique and personalized. It stands for expressing your sense of identity. But what happens when consumers discover the set of 7 hand-carved spoons they bought from AvoCraftsCo in San Diego to ‘express their sense of identity’ are also available from Maison&Coeur on Etsy, based in Guangzhou, China, and HandmadeBranded on Etsy, based in India, and can be bought on Alibaba in packs of 50? That unique expression doesn’t feel all that unique anymore because it turns out that the maker is really a factory. But then again, at $44.95 with free shipping, how realistic was it to expect a set of seven handmade spoons anyway?
Taking it one step further, to investors Silverman emphasized that Etsy was playing a new role in the economy during the pandemic: supplying essentials. He was referring, I think, to shops selling masks and flour, but Etsy is now also a place to buy controllers for your Playstation 2, a screen protector for your iPhone, multi-packs of Lysol. Essentials, for sure.
A march toward sameness
Granted, as far as marketplaces go, Etsy is now a very well-optimized one. Under Silverman, there have been all sorts of improvements to the buyer experience that have significantly reduced friction and led to increased conversions. Sellers are incentivized to offer free shipping on orders over $35. Personalized search helps shoppers find just what they’re looking for, and lists allow them to save products for easy retrieval. Videos can now show products in action, and “best seller” markers along with alerts about how many other shoppers have an item in their cart create a sense of social buying and urgency. Plus, Etsy has enrolled all of its best-performing shops in a giant ad campaign on Facebook and Google to drive sales, and savvy television ad campaigns are exposing new audiences to the marketplace.
All of this is working. Gross merchandise sales were $2.6 billion in the third quarter, that’s up 119% from the third quarter of 2019. But if shareholders were to scratch the surface and take a closer look at what’s really selling, I think they’d be surprised. It’s not unique, special items buyers can’t find anywhere else. It’s mass-produced products that are being bought and resold (and that includes face masks, by the way).
If Etsy does nothing to course-correct, it will lose the very thing that makes it valuable. Unfortunately, I don’t see any incentives in place for it to do so. Resellers have plenty of inventory that they can ship fast and easily discount, and Etsy generates a listing, transaction, and shipping fee on every one of their sales.
Silverman just received a $9 million bonus to “retain, incentivize and motivate” him over the next four years at Etsy. If things stay along their current trajectory, just imagine what the marketplace will look like then.
Editors Note 1/8/2021: The name of the owner of ElegantStudioFinds has been deleted from the article at her request. The owner of ElegantStudioFinds changed the location of the shop from Tennessee to Utah after this article was published.
Abby Glassenberg
Contributor
Abby co-founded Craft Industry Alliance and now serves as its president. She’s a sewing pattern designer, teacher, and journalist. She’s dedicated to creating an outstanding trade association for the crafts industry. Abby lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Excellent analysis! I totally agree that they need to be more aggressive about removing resellers if they want to keep the “special” brand.
Yes, continuing to allow resellers diminishes Etsy.
Etsy should follow the same parameters that the better juried craft shows insist upon, I.e. offering products that are truly handmade in the United States. If anyone wants to purchase mass-produced Chinese imports, there are plenty of other platforms.
Why only handmade in the United States.?
Apologies. You are quite right; hand-made is hand-made no matter where.
My point was to distinguish between that and items being mass produced in factories.
Lots of products are handmade in factories. Does handmade mean not by robots? still takes hands to make a car but not too many are offered as handmade
If Etsy is going to let this continue, they need to change their Terms of Service. When their TOS specifically says reselling isn’t allowed but they continually allow it, and rarely enforce their own TOS, then it creates community frustration when they don’t even enforce their own TOS. Just change the TOS already. Etsy will never do anything about these sellers because there is nothing incentivizing them to do so; they make mad $$$ of these sales and it keeps their profits big and their stock valuable. These types of resellers probably amount to at LEAST 30-40% of their sellers and that’s literally millions of dollars in revenue. Culling these sellers would create a drastic sudden dip in their profits. So its bad business for them to clean house. Their handmade sellers are what made the site what it is but since becoming a publicly traded company, they do not care about their handmade sellers. Etsy has become a monopoly that can’t be taken down. And too many sellers, while frustrated by Etsy, rely on that business, and have nowhere else to go. It would take someone with a lot of $$$ and a huge amount of backers to create a new handmade platform that can have the same amount of traffic and pull sellers, en masse, off Etsy. It would take hundreds of thousands of sellers to suddenly just jump ship to another site for Etsy to start changing things.
Hi Abby, very well written article! I truly echo your same issues and concerns with the direction if Etsy. And I am increasingly uneasy with my continuing business on the platform. I left my 9 to 5 job years ago to leave “corpa mindset” and looks liI bcke this where Etsy is heading. Those of us who worked countless hours to help build Etsy ‘s business deserve better treatment.
At 2.6 billion in revenue in 3rd quarter alone, the handwriting is on the wall. Highly doubtful they’ll remove resellers. 🙁 $$
You nailed it. The all mighty dollar is waaay more important to Etsy than the genuine handmade seller. The greedy shift came when Etsy became a publicly traded company. Each new change (ie: demanding FREE shipping through threats of being buried in the listings) is a shift toward Amazon.
I agree and this definately needs to be monitoried on Etsy.
I agree 100% The resellers are driving genuine sellers to the wall. Etsy is losing its USP and becoming just another ebay or Amazon. It is disingenuous of Josh Silverman to say that handmade is not uppermost in buyer’s minds but that individuality and uniqueness is when he must know as well as anyone that the unique, individually made is not going to have been mass produced in a factory. If Etsy continue along this path they risk being accused of misselling unless they change their advertising to reflect the reselling influx.
This, 100%.
The true reason that so many imports and stock items are on Etsy is simple, Amazon is way too expensive and so is eBay with Etsy for 20 cents you have a product listed and that’s all you’re going to pay so if you really want to understand the marketplace that’s why Etsy is here
You pay 20 cents for the listing but then when it sells the fees start piling up. With their fees & the free shipping I was clearing about $72. on an item I sell for $89. You have to pay etsy a % of the sale & then a% of the $ collected and then a % of the shipping charges because they generate the label and then actual shipping charge is on top of that. So that’s $17. in fees on a handmade item and that doesn’t take into account the time, materials or overhead.
Exactly. Well said. And if you are ac tiny non-reseller like you and you use the offsite ads “feature” it’s15% of sales +++
Excellent article.
So much truth here. 🙌🏼
Agree!!!
I have come across this more and more on Etsy. This definitely needs to addressed by the “Powers that Be” at Etsy.
Absolutely!
It’s really sad how Etsy has changed over the years. I loved buying from artists, knowing that what I was getting was from a well-established craftsperson. I had a shop myself and the worst discussions I remember having were artists who insisted prints were original art.
My roommate just bought some face masks from a seller that said they were hand made. When she got them, they were masks made in China. So there’s also false advertising.
Great article Abby. This has been a year to really look at values. Let hope the handmade aspects of Etsy sellers will become valued once again.
I agree 100%, I personally design, make, package and ship each and every item in my shop.
I agree that Etsy has very little incentive to remove resellers. I believe they are no longer interested in brand integrity or brand loyalty and want to cash-grab as best they can. This is what happens, generally, when a company goes public and is not at all surprising. It might be time for true handmade Etsy sellers to stop concerning ourselves with the unfairness of competing with resellers, accept it, and develop new strategies to reach the buyers that do wake up and say, I want something handmade (or at least something that is not mass produced. I know I have customers that do this.) This is a tough shift. I’m not looking forward to it, but, honestly, if Etsy wants to compete with Amazon and other online selling platforms, then we, as sellers, owe it to ourselves to research these other platforms and see if our goods will sell better over there.
I agree it has become all about the dollar on Etsy!
Thank you Abby- well said and expressed. Yes Mr. Silverman and the shareholders have taken something very special away from Etsy and what it once represented. Now Etsy is creating just an amalgam of mediocrity. Yes buying habits are based on what people need but with the current mindset of Etsy, they are removing the choice( or making it more difficult to recognize) of a Buyer to be able to select handmade or better quality or the unusual goods.
Stacey makes a valid point- why would you buy on Etsy when you can get the same on Amazon, Target, Ebay, Wish etc etc-and – why would you be loyal to Etsy as a Seller if you can get better selling results on the same product elsewhere!
There is an old saying – If you lose your way go back to where you started and for Etsy this should be focusing on handmade, quality, special, individual, unique, OOAK, made with love, personalized, customized, made to measure, capturing the niches and top end quality goods. Almost forgot- and the same for vintage goods. Why be like other selling platforms- they are all the same…….how boring.
This. Yes. So much this. Abby’s analysis of Etsy is spot-on and in my opinion, Allyson’s assessment is also so true. The phrase Allyson used, “an amalgam of mediocrity” fits my perception of what Etsy has become. There are plenty of sellers and makers still offering handmade, fabulous, unique items that are getting swept under the rug and overlooked for the inexpensive/cheap reseller items. It’s heartbreaking for those who spend time and energy making beautiful items who then feel forced to sell at lower prices to compete. Those makers are paying the same listing fees as everyone else, even if the items aren’t selling.
If Etsy chooses to ignore the boom of resellers that have turned their platform into “an amalgam of mediocrity”, then Etsy itself is part of this problem. Currently, it seems Etsy is happy to take the listing fees and such from small shops, regardless of their selling success. If Etsy is able to pay Silverman a $9 million bonus, clearly they are doing well by having these resellers as shops. Profits are a big incentive for many corporations (and humans, in general), but I always thought Etsy stood for unique/handmade items made by actual human hands, not a factory of machines. The shift is distressing, to say the least.
I’m not sure how Etsy would combat the reseller explosion, other than maybe requiring process/progress photos of listed items when in the handmade category. Even then, resellers would circumvent it somehow. It reminds me of something my father used to say, “When mice get smarter, you build a better mousetrap.” (Which I believe is his own version of a Ralph Waldo Emerson line that is often misquoted.) And my response to him once I was a bit older was “But then you get smarter mice.” I’m just wondering which group in this scenario would be the mice – makers, resellers, or Etsy themselves.
Amen to this. Although I still sell on Etsy, I’ve stopped buying much there — it’s gotten too hard to weed through the mass produced, cheap products to find the treasure I used to find. Such a shame.
Well said. 100% agree.
I rarely go to Etsy anymore. I only ever head there if I have a specific seller in mind that I found elsewhere, usually on Instagram, or have been purchasing from for years. It’s too bad because I used to be able to spend hours there, browsing and buying too many beautiful things that I just didn’t need but really, really wanted. Not any more. I refuse to spend hours digging through repetitive listings of mass produced product. If I really want/need something like that, I can go to Amazon for the same thing, just with a lower price and a better search engine. Ugh.
I’m sorry big execs like mr Silverman don’t understand the importance of handmade craftsmanship. I feel so sorry for people like him that can’t appreciate the human element. How boring he must be.
I bet his home is full of wall art.
Thanks Abby Glassenberg for the heads up on these people. You have saved many from getting ripped off . Something all too prevalent these days.
Etsy was founded to make money. Its a business and if sales are slumping because people are not buying what your offering its time to rethink your platform, as in any business. I read so many post about knocking etsy and resellers, if the customer is happy with the item they found and bought. then whats wrong with that? if your sales are dropping then find a way to fix it and focus on that. those who want to purchase ( Hand Made ) made in the US, thats who they will buy from. I look around at sellers and so many still have great years in numbers. so is it really resellers? or is it just what your selling?
At last, you have articulated something I have felt for the past few years. Thank goodness.
Thank you, Abby, for an excellent article. I’m afraid the original Etsy is a thing of the past. I’ve been an Etsy seller for ten years and it’s been a tough transformation to witness. I continue on the platform because I have loyal customers that, thankfully, keep returning.
Great article , totally agree. I encountered this firsthand when someone else listed on Etsy, a product I created and sold on Amazon. I tried several avenues to stop this shop from selling my product, reporting the shop as ‘not hand made’ because it’s my product, I filed trademark documents, but the trademark is filed but not granted. I spoke to representatives, but Etsy will not remove the listing . Unfortunately, I think Etsy wants to be the next Amazon which is to the detriment of all ‘makers’. We still need the niche for ‘handmade’ in the marketplace.
Exactly! Great article!
Oh this article hits close to home. I had an Etsy site years ago when it was supposed to be handmade but then started seeing more and more manufactured things. I also had 6 stores within 150 mile radius of my home that I rented space in that made me sign a contract that everything I sold was made by me. Then I started seeing things in there that were the same being sold at Hobby Lobby in one store. When I brought it to the managers attention, she said the person swore she made them herself. Of course it wasn’t too hard to prove otherwise but they continued to allow her to sell. Shortly after, they changed their rules to include Handmades by others. Of course I could not compete price wise. I left the stores and it wasn’t long until they closed one by one.
I’m in agreement with what has been mentioned here re: shopping on Etsy. I rarely ever do searches anymore, because of all of the obviously mass-manufactured dross that comes up. As a maker (and consumer!) I am looking forward to the development of a new “strictly handmade” platform to give Etsy some competition.
Excellent article! Do you think there are parallels between what happened with Craftsy and what’s happening to Etsy? As a seller of personalized embroidered items, I’ve been thinking about moving away from Etsy for the past year and a half, but then hopped in on the mask making craze in April when masks were hard to find. From Sept-Dec, I sold thousands of felt 2020 masked gingerbread ornaments that I was able to produce quickly on my embroidery machine. It’s been by far my most profitable year, but I enjoyed my shop much more when I was making fewer sales, connecting more with customers, and not repetitively making the same thing all day.
This article does a good job of explaining how pariahs are watering down what makes Etsy special. I do feel like a distinction needs to be made between resellers and people who sell supplies for crafting and art. I sell quilt patterns created by independent designers with their permission and quilt fabric that I am licensed to resale. I consider my shop an online quilt shop, but I can see how it might be confused with one of these shops that is just flipping stuff.
Kudos to you for being an early joiner on Etsy. I miss some of the early features like Pounce to discover new listings and the public Treasuries. You yourself sell eyes for stuffed animals. Are they all handmade? I also sell things that fall under the vintage category that Etsy used to tout but now rarely highlights. Vintage fabric and patterns can be considered both supplies and collectibles.
Thanks Rose. I am a supplies seller on Etsy. I sell digital sewing patterns and supplies to make stuffed animals and dolls including safety eyes. These are in the supplies category, not the handmade category.
We need a business entrepreneur to create a new site for strictly handmade. Who has the money and gumption?
You should take a look at goimagine.com. They have created a marketplace for handmade sellers. They went live August 18. And a bonus, the company profits go to Charity.
Am I understanding correctly that in order to sell there I would need to never follow a pattern, except one you design?
You should check out goimagine.com
I agree Etsy does need some healthy competition. What if several 100 top Etsy sellers pulled resources together to hire top techs to create a new platform that’s owned by the makers? I’ve been on Etsy for almost 9 years now and am increasingly uneasy with Etsy’ s decisions and close ties with Wall Street.
That’s an excellent question! I have noticed in recent days that there are many venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who are investing millions in social media and other startups like Gab, Parler, Telegram, etc. and I wonder why no one seems interested in starting a new platform like the old Etsy model.
It seems to me that there is a huge demand for quality vintage and handmade items as well as hundreds of thousands (if not more) talented artisans to supply that demand.
I have been on Etsy for 10 years with two shops, one vintage, one handmade- and I’ve never been able to make a living at it. Etsy has always been my hobby.
That being said, this has been my worst year in history. Sales are down 80% even though I am doing everything possible to make sure my photos, listings and tags are good, as well as using Etsy ads and promoting on my own. Nothing seems to work anymore, I can’t figure it out.
Yet my competitors are doing amazingly well.
I still believe that there is quite a bit of money to be made by the right person who sees what a big money maker Etsy is and decides to jump in. I sure would be a customer.
Bravo, Abby!!
I am a seller of leather goods on Etsy for 13 years, a once exceptional place to sell handmade goods, and have survived the pitfalls of constant change. My success was, from the onset, personalized, custom handmade items and it worked great for us until the company went public. Now that they have shareholders to be accountable to people like Silverman push the envelope. Free shipping was the start for us. I only list a few things with free shipping to draw buyers to our shop. Then it was the nickel and diming away my earnings. I am still fortunate enough to be selling our goods, but I can see in time our demise.
Thank you so much for writing this accurate depiction of the life of Etsy. So sad it is coming to this.
What nickel and dimeing ???
The true reason that so many imports and stock items are on Etsy is simple, Amazon is way too expensive and so is eBay with Etsy for 20 cents you have a product listed and that’s all you’re going to pay so if you really want to understand the marketplace that’s why Etsy is here
That’s all you got out of that?!? Well let’s see. I sold an item. In the financial section of my page I read three deductions under taxes and fees: 1. transaction – $.47, 2. transaction – $2.86 (probably the taxes which is understandable) then 3. Sale- $2.33, Etsy’s percentage from my sale and then the re-listing fee – your stated $.20. A total of $5.86 from that one sale. When I sell a high ticket item their take, naturally, is higher. If I refund for shipping overcharges, which I do, there is a fee for that. There is also a fee for cancelling an order (usually because I can’t contact the buyer for details.) I’ve had friends complain that when they use Etsy shipping stickers (or whatever they are called) there are fees there and sometimes the return total is inaccurate .
So please, forgive me if I agree to disagree with you.
Etsy does not charge for shipping overcharges or cancelling an order. At least in my shop they don’t.
I’ve never been charged a fee for refunding shipping overages – in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Since they charge their fee on what you charge for shipping, when I refund shipping overages, Etsy gives me a fee refund.
I’ve never been charged a fee for cancelling an order.
There are NO fees for the shipping labels purchased through Etsy. You pay the price of shipping and the price is discounted from what you’d pay at the post office.
I have had an Etsy shop since 2011 and It is profitable. I think you are confused about Etsy’s fees and what you should be paying for.
Etsy’s total fees on any sale run about 10% of the sale. This includes the listing fee, the transaction fee, and the payment processing fees.
If your pay for advertising, you may see an additional fee for that if the advertising resulted in a sale (outside advertising, 12% of the sale if it is mandatory or 15% if you have opted in) or if you purchase Etsy Ads (advertising withing Etsy – pay per listing view–you set a monthly budget)
If you purchase your shipping labels through Etsy, then you will also be charged for the exact amount of the shipping you have purchased. If you do not purchase through Etsy, you have to buy your shipping from somewhere. This is not an additional fee, unless you deliver your items yourself or your customer is picking it up from you, shipping is something you have to pay for.
Sales taxes and VAT are added on to the sale at checkout. This never impacts the price of your item or your profits. Etsy charges these fees to the customer and then takes them out immediately to pay the proper agencies.
In the 10 years I have been on Etsy, I have never been charged to cancel an order or to refund someone’s money. The only thing they do not refund you in this case is the original listing fee of $0.20
I’m so glad you remember April and Regretsy. It was the best! I’ve had a few shops on Etsy since 2008, and I feel like it has become impossible to compete, impossible.
WOW — I don’t buy much online, but this is a total shock. I thought Etsy was supposed to be handmade, handcrafted. If the owner just got a NINE million bonus, is he really doing his job? His job is simply to INCREASE sales – but at what cost. I’m not an Etsy store owner and I likely WILL NOT become one. What a shame that it’s all about MONEY and not keeping true to what Etsy started out to be.
Such an excellent article. I’m grateful to you for articulating what is going on with Etsy over the years. I’ve earned a living full-time on Etsy since 2009 with a strictly handmade (OOAK artwork) business. The changes over time have not hurt my sales, but I feel like I’m in a marketplace that no longer supports or reflects the care and quality of my work. I no longer feel any loyalty to Etsy as a brand – I’m only there for the traffic and my loyal customers who are habituated to the site. I’m dismayed at the trajectory Etsy has taken and have little hope for the future of the marketplace. If there was a viable alternative I would abandon Etsy in a hot minute and never look back.
I totally agree and it’s part of the reason I decided not to open an Etsy shop, preferring to sell my items to people that know me and know the quality I put into my work. I have friends who’s photos and ideas have been stolen and it has harmed their businesses. One closed her shop because of it. I prefer to buy directly from individual websites because I know those individual’s have been creating for years and I have trust in their products. I’m so tired of all the cheap imitations and gross consumerism. Thanks for another great article!
To those who are looking, there is a “strictly handmade” marketplace for American-made products. It’s called Aftcra – http://www.aftcra.com/
I don’t have much personal experience with the site, but it’s nice that it exists.
Such a well written, to the point article, stating things exactly as they are. The big question is where can we artists/sellers of truly handmade items go now? Ive tried a few other platforms with not much success.
Etsy became just another marketplace when they stopped policing resellers and allowed mass producers and production partners.
Here’s a very new marketplace for handmade that opened in April 2020 and moved out of beta in August: https://goimagine.com. It will donate corporate profits to children’s charities. I set up my bead jewelry “shop” there.
This is Spot On. As a top seller on Etsy for over 10 years, I now focus soley on my website and don’t put much energy into Etsy. It is not a good business model any longer. My items are labor intensive handmade and their is to much junk from overseas.
Really good article, and sadly so true…I have to say though, having been a true handmade seller on Etsy from the start, my business has continued to grow year on year. I do still seem to be increasingly visible to the more discerning customer….for now!!
Excellent article and I hate the fact that it’s ALL completely accurate. Etsy has become just another online selling outlet. And, I fear that NOTHING anyone says will change that. After all . . . we can’t expect integrity from a man who’s getting a 9 million dollar bonus for dragging Etsy’s core reason for existing through the mud . . . can we?
On another note though, I’m not sure we can attribute Etsy’s uptick in income for last year to any changes made by Silverman. Everyone ordered more online than ever last year because they were cooped up in their homes and afraid to go out shopping.
I seriously want to thank you for writing this! I am one of the real hand made everything shops! And I wish so much that Etsy was what it says it is. I might actually make some money (and Etsy would, too!) and people won’t try to cheat and be angry at me after they have dealt with the imposters of Handmade!!
Just call me Alibetsy…
Fantastic article! As a vintage seller, sometimes the only way to tell the item is from China at first glance, is the gold foil sticker Made in China. Remove that and sellers can pass them off to ‘unaware buyers’ as handmade or vintage. Buyer beware on both ends of the spectrum.
The problem with Etsy is they make it far to easy to open a shop, If they vetted the shops upon application this could all be stopped. If it does not fall under their criteria the imperative word being ‘THEIR’ criteria which is Handmade, Vintage and Craft supplies then it cannot be sold on Etsy. If they had a team of staff dedicated to approving shops before they go live then all this would be picked up on and applications could be denied. Other sites can do this so it is possible.
This then begs the question are Etsy turning a blind eye to it because they are making so much money from it’s resellers, On it’s current path Etsy is set to lose it’s Identity and the unique selling point of being Hand made, Vintage and Craft supplies and it will indeed become just another marketplace flooded with resellers.
Etsy stopped removing most listings or entire shops for reselling during Summer 2015. While most Etsy shops that resell are not 100% reseller listings like the examples linked in the article, more than half of all Etsy shops are now reselling to some extent. I include vintage (reselling brand new, purchased by the case lot, items as 20+ years old) and supplies (reselling, for example, counterfeit Chanel bags made from PU as crafting supplies) in my guestimate. It is no longer possible to know how many items are for sale on Etsy since the numbers shown include ads. But I guestimate that more than half of the listings on Etsy should not be there according to the rules published on the site.
It amazes me to see Etsy shop owners in the Forums (and even here) writing of the reselling issue as if it is something that will dominate the site sometime in the future. That future is happening right now.
Etsy already is “just another online venue”. Most don’t even know it started as “handmade” and “vintage” only. And, don’t expect Etsy to change a thing. So, you either learn to live with the changes or you leave. Others have given some “handmade only” alternatives and I’ve looked at most of them . . . even signed up for one or two. Truth be told, they cannot match the number of people that buy from Etsy. They can’t even come close. I’ve tried GoImagine and that sight is SO slow that I can almost take a nap after I click a link until it actually opens up.
I do not re-sell and I’m doing pretty well. People WILL search out handmade items if that’s what they want. If they don’t care about who made it, they’re not going to shop on GoImagine either.
Adjust. Advertise on Facebook and Pinterest. They’ll find you.
I agree completely. Having been an Etsy seller since 2011, I have seen the reselling get out of control. Silverman is too focused on those personlized, unique items for you and your home. Unique was once upon a time a buzz word of Pier One. Where are they now??? Etsy will eventually follow in those footsteps sooner rather than later, because they do not know who they are. Right now, they are Shopify pretending to be a handmade craft fair.
Actually I do shop with only handmade in mind so Silverman is wrong about that. His statement is offensive to the people who made etsy and put it on the map. Most hand-crafters I support have now all left etsy because it doesn’t care about them. Why should it when the goal is to make as much money as possible, and re-sellers are far more likely to do that. Etsy doesn’t care that hand-made sellers have moved off the site in droves as it can afford to let them go. Reselling makes them money and the remaining handmade sellers make the site look pretty for them. There is no respect, no loyalty involved for handmade.
Also, Covid is good for etsy, both because everyone is buying online, and people are also looking for craft supplies etc. to fill in the extra time many people now have. There are also the profits made from all the mask making and selling. Who knows what people’s look term etsy habits will be. I will say however, that I never look for handmade on Amazon or eBay, their branding and aesthetic is just wrong for me on that and two thirds of my limited buying experience on Ebay have not been pleasant or smooth at all. I now get my handmade from indie sellers with their own shops set up.
I hate the postage free thing too, it really isn’t free – I wasn’t born yesterday and that statement is usually a lie, (not always but usually). What is actually meant is postage included. A few sellers do not charge postage and lose out themselves- those less able to absorb the cost and make a profit usually. I want to know how much the postage is and how much of the price reflects the value of the item. Etsy? I just shake my head and move on. They have become distasteful to me.
Excellent Article,
As a vintage seller with authentic vintage and antiques, it is hard to explain to people why things are not MINT.
Many that are new to Etsy assume that vintage just means a “style.”
There is a need for a higher standard of ETHICS when it comes to labeling things handmade and vintage as a seller and an equal standard to the platform that has a set of rules when joining and promotes the items as such.
I also strongly disagree with Silverman that people do not think they want handmade.
WRONG, the customer’s that were on ETSY, sought ETSY out because it was handmade and they valued the time, talent and quality that went into making something. They valued the story behind it.
They also valued authentic vintage, holding onto something from the past as a treasure and by not MASS CONSUMING knocks off that are not mean to withstand the test of time.
CEO Josh Silverman is certainly aware that “handmade” is Etsy’s differentiator vs other platforms and that the platform is fast loosing that uniqueness with the influx of resellers. Only, he wasn’t hired to be the hero of handmade, but to make a newly traded company stock grow. So far he is succeeding well on that account, Etsy sales are booming and since early 2017, Etsy’s shares have climbed from $13 to $211 ! Keeping up that growth with truly handmade products would be rather impossible. First handmade is a niche market, at least at the moment. Sure there are customers who want real artesan products and are ready to pay the true value, but for every one of them, there are many more people who prefer buying a supposedly handmade product at a low price, without wondering how that low price is at all possible. Second, true handmade products are produced in small quantities, so even if suddenly everyone wanted to buy them, production would not keep up. When demand explodes, small makers often run out of stock, which translates into missed sales opportunity. In its Q2 2020 quarterly report, Etsy reported selling for $346 million worth of masks, for first 3 months of the pandemic alone. All handmade in small workshops? No way. So basically, by allowing resellers of Chinese factory products and the like to flood the platform, Etsy is making sure it can keep growing as fast as Wal Street demands.
In doing so, the “handcrafted marketplace” image is increasingly becoming a lie, and eventually, this strategy might run into a wall. But this will take some time. As long as enough true handmade sellers remain on the platform, Etsy will be able to milk its handmade reputation for all its worth. Plus, customers are not all so savvy and often too lazy to check anything, even when it’s really easy as you rightly point out in your article, Abby. As for Etsy’s CEO, he is not on a mission to build a handmade marketplace that will last a century. As long as his strategy can fuel strong growth (and pay handsome bonuses) for a few years, all is well. After that, he can move on.
This is all very sad, and unfortunately highlights the high risk for sellers to rely on a platform. While platforms make it easy to create shops and bring traffic, their strategy and policies often change overtime (or even overnight), leaving those who disagree with no other option than to leave.
I think many are holding on to the fading dream of a viable “handcrafted” only online venue. Etsy has NEVER been a strictly “handmade” platform. They have always accepted supplies and vintage items. Where do YOU draw the line? Are brand new, manufactured in China supplies okay with you, but other non-handcrafted items are not? Do you consider merely personalizing a purchased supply as handcrafted? Many do, many don’t. As far a vintage, I get the “one-of-a-kind” aspect to them, but does the average buyer have the knowledge to determine whether they actually are vintage or chemically-aged copies?
I sell “handmade” only, but I am not afraid of what Etsy is becoming. Yes, there are many people who are searching out handmade items and they WILL find you on Etsy. But, just as many, if not more, really don’t care. By widening the audience on Etsy, I think we’re getting many more people buying handcrafted things that they weren’t even looking for in the first place. And, yes, others are coming to buy totally manufactured IPhone cases. But then, they wouldn’t have purchased from you anyway, correct?
Their TV ads are still solely featuring unique, handcrafted, and personalized items. They’re NOT advertising the IPhone cases. Etsy’s customer base has increased greatly over the last few years . . . to the benefit, I believe, of us all.
So, you can sit around and moan, groan, and feel sorry for yourself over what once was, or you can learn how to label your products so that people searching for handmade products will find you. Advertise yourself . . . there are SO many opportunities to do this. Basically, you really don’t have a choice . . . unless you plan to spend a fortune in time and money to attempt to launch a new venue. You all know that many have tried. NONE have reached the level of success that Etsy has. But, that option exists for you if you simply cannot accept the inevitable change.
Etsy was the place to sell things people make, without meeting retail frameworks and seller markup. It was distinct in that way, and the concept on whoch their brand was built.
There were always non-qualified sellers but they were the minority.
After going public, thing began to change. Mass produced, very cheap products flooded listings.
When a maker is expected to compete with factories in extremely low wage situations, or be blamed for ‘holding on to a fading dream’ in decrying the corporatization regime that now operates this publicly traded business on behalf of shareholders, it is legitimate for artisans who use and helped build and define Etsy to be unhappy.
We thought there was a way to sell handmade things otherwise impossible to market through retail resellers.
Not so fast, says the corporate capitalists.
We see a way to exploit your weaknesses, to allow what was previously not allowed, to force corporate nonsense like free shipping and paying for search results onto makers with no better option. To increase fees while contending it’s still the same ol crafty bunch supporting each other so everyone makes a living.
Josh Silverman gets 9 million bonus.
Shateholders get increased stock prices.
Artisans get told to be corporate or face being an old fashioned chump uselessly wishing for a way to sell their stuff on a fair playing field.
I closed my Etsy shop last week.
I just cannot stomach what they have become.
And dont get me started on “craft shows” charging 300 for 8 hrs of vending.
Sincerely, a hold-out idealist.
Bravo!!!! Standing ovation. I’ve sold on etsy since 2011 and Have been a buyer there longer and i am so over it. My sales have tanked since etsy went public. There is no way i can come close to competing in that marketplace now. My prices reflect that everything is handmade and so i can’t afford free shipping – esp with the 5 fees etsy charges sellers on every order!
Thank you immensely for writing this post. It makes me know i’m not the crazy one here not am i the only one who sees through the craft-washing that has become etsy. Now…. where can a small shop go…. i’m waiting for a new platform that is like etsy was in 2012.
Thank you Kelly – craft-washing is my new favorite term.
Thanks for saying the truth so eloquently and straight to the point. The worst part is that they don’t care for resellers because they bring them money with their many sales. Like in my Category of Cork Bags, there are many resellers not only selling the same items at ridiculous prices but they even use the same pictures, just change the order. I have submitted to Etsy the shop names, items and wholesaler several times and nothing is done. Meanwhile more shops keep appearing selling the same bags either from Portugal or the US. We the shops that sell handmade by us, and follow the rules have to struggle to compete with these resellers that Etsy don’t care to take down.
I also shop looking for unique handmade items. When I went into Etsy earlier this week, I gave up because the site is filled with absolute crap. Very, very disappointed.
I find this very sad. I am a seller myself and I have to see who is knocking me off and offering what looks to be the same at such a low price, it’s almost impossible. It’s turning into an Amazon. I am weaning myself off of Etsy and continually reinvesting time and marketing leading towards my website. I am fortunate to have a website, many do not. Sad.
Here is another example of Etsy becoming ‘just another marketplace’: using Google Shopping, I found 2 Etsy marketplaces selling Milorganite lawn fertilizer. And this is exactly why I’m using Etsy less and less.
I am a buyer, not a seller. While in the process of making a purchase, I discovered the above-mentioned issues, and decided against buying anything.
I’m sorry if it hurts the good sellers, but I do not want to lay out my hard-earned money for junk. Until Etsy finds a way to earn back the trust of its customers, I will not be buying anything there.
Etsy removed my shop without warning because they said I had too many bad reviews. Actually, they gave me no reason at first, I had to ask them why. I sold only digital pattern downloads after having sold some physical items, and had maybe ten bad reviews that were mostly due to the buyers not printing the patterns very well. Despite the no refund policy on downloadable items, I did refund anyone who was unhappy, or at least tried to help them troubleshoot their printer settings.
Anyway, it wasn’t a devastating blow as it was just a small hobby and I wasn’t that active. What I found more outrageous was that they also threatened to ban me from BUYING anything on Etsy if I made another account or otherwise defied them following the closure of the shop.
A platform threatening to ban people from buying things as mere customers? Since when?
Clearly, they don’t want my business. I was polite about the shop being closed and didn’t contest it beyond asking them what rule I had broken, so the hostile message was a bit much. I went ahead and just deleted my entire account.
Unfortunate, but as this article says, Etsy is changing for the worse overall, and is no longer the platform we loved anyway.
Good alternative to etsy , now i’m selling on Druzza.com and bonanza
You nailed it! If only there was a way for Etsy Buyers to to be made aware of this – unfortunately, many buyers do not understand the difference between a genuine handmade item and something mass-produced. They are looking for a good bargain and the mundane is popular. Unique is very hard to market, keyword, and sell on Etsy, even though it’s roots came from HANDMADE.
How to educate them? How can they see your article?
You could share it 🙂
It’s amazing how long this has gone on. I made my first purchase on Etsy in 2005, and sold my first item in 2007. I sold (real!) vintage there until I gave up on Etsy for good in 2014. I still follow news about Etsy because it’s such a… spectacle, I just can’t look away. I somehow missed the Three Bird Nest scandal, but there have been SO many others! Whole shops filled with policy-breaking items, and whole blogs dedicated to calling them out.
Authenticity has plagued Etsy almost since its inception. Users have been calling out inauthentic items since the early days, and the flood of unaltered factory items listed as handmade by the seller (and too-new items marked as vintage) has never subsided. Etsy’s lower-than-average selling fees and unwillingness or inability to police their own site have made it irresistible to cheaters.
Part of the problem is that the “handmadeness” is near impossible to enforce. I’ve always wondered how Etsy COULD verify that a seller’s goods really are handmade. Photos of their studio would be the obvious starting point but even those could be faked by a determined seller, and surely Etsy would need staff versed in the fine points of the applicable craft to give such photos a meaningful review.
Setting aside the fundamental difficulty of what Etsy tried to be, they’ve failed repeatedly at the actual TRYING. Their messaging to sellers has focused on daydreams about quitting your day job or making things nicer for buyers (free shipping! gift with purchase! giftwrap every order!), rarely offering meaningful advice about how to be a better seller. Their messaging to buyers has been about buying neat-o stuff, not why handmade MATTERS, or why the seller’s skill and expertise makes their product special. Etsy has always focused on style over substance and the consequences are all over the site.
I used to hope for improvement, but now, after accepting so much investment money and then becoming publicly traded, I can’t imagine any changes for the better, it just seem resigned to it, and privately embraced becoming “just another marketplace”. If they one day make that official pols impossible. My hunch is that rather than attempt the Herculean task of cleaning up the site, Etsy’s leadership have becomeicy, I won’t be at all surprised, and at this point, I don’t think I’d even be sad, just a tiny but disappointed.
Whoops, typo! The end was meant to read:
Etsy’s leadership have become resigned to it, and privately embraced becoming “just another marketplace”. If they one day make that official policy, I won’t be at all surprised, and at this point, I don’t think I’d even be sad, just a tiny bit disappointed.
Etsy is a complete different marketplace than it was when I started using it over 10 years ago. I was searching for overalls, and kept seeing items made in China, then googled “why are all the Etsy shops based in China now?” And your poignant article popped up. Thank you for bringing attention to this. I am so sad it’s become this.
I am a shop owner on Etsy as well as a purchaser. I recently ordered some items (doll accessories for my angels) and the person stated on their page that they made these items. What a crock! They came in packaging that was labeled “made in China” and their business name was nowhere on it. I reported this but nothing happened to them- nothing!
Etsy shop owner here too.
Just to be clear…you are reading the Ali pricing incorrectly. That price shown is for each piece. So $1.70 per piece for the first 40 pcs. If that makes sense. But, it’s frustrating when you know sellers are doing that and passing it off as homemade.
Etsy advertises on tv. They get product from their sellers. But not once have I seen Etsy credit the sellers on their commercials. And if you get “too many orders” Etsy will shut down your shop until you “catch up”. Doesn’t matter what your turnaround time is. Doesn’t matter that you aren’t getting behind on processing those orders. They just shut you down with no warning. How are full time Etsy sellers supposed to pay their bills when that happens to them?? It’s not right!
The rest of your article is spot on tho. Bottom line is that Etsy doesn’t seem to care that people are buying products on Ali and reselling them as handmade on Etsy. They don’t care if their sellers are making a ton of money off of copyright or trademark items like Disney, Marvel, Tiffany, etc. NOTHING happens when you report these shops.
And….Etsy charges so many fees now it’s crazy. Seriously taking 1/3rd of the monies I take in. I’m just a part-timer. I came to Etsy from Facebook because FB increasingly makes it harder to be seen, unless you purchase an add.
I had to switch gears during the pandemic to start offering $5 pieces in my Etsy shop. I make just enough to buy more supplies. No one is getting rich on $5 items! But I love creating so I continue to sell on Etsy.
Thinking of moving to Mercari in the new year.
Thank you for writing your article. .
E