The Etsy Strike is a grassroots initiative to unite Etsy sellers in protest of various policy changes at Etsy over the past few years. Organized by a small group of sellers who connected with one another on Reddit, the petition they’ve circulated has gotten more than 76,000 signatures, or just over 1% of Etsy’s 7.5 million active sellers, and has been covered by dozens of media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, NPR, CNN, and Rolling Stone.
How did this movement begin and what are its founder hoping will happen? We spoke with one of them, Kristi Cassidy, to find out. In her Etsy shop, Auralynne, Cassidy sells steampunk, gothic wedding dresses and costumes that she designs and makes. The dresses are priced at a few hundred dollars each. (You can listen to our interview on our podcast page where you can also read the full transcript.) Although she has her own ecommerce shop, Cassidy says the majority of her sales have always come through the Etsy marketplace.
Changes leading to discontent
“For a long time, the platform was a very good place to do business and I didn’t at all mind sending all my customers from social media there,” she says. “The fees were low enough that I didn’t feel like I was just doing work for them to take money off of me.” All that changed, according to Cassidy, in 2019. “It was it was just kind of this mystery that I that I couldn’t figure out,” she says.
“Every change that they’ve made on the platform, since then, has been very bad for creators. And I, just gradually, as all these changes are coming through, I’m getting more and more fed up.”
When the Star Seller program launched in 2021, a system in which Etsy awards a star to shops that respond to messages within 24 hours, have 5-star reviews, and ship on time, Cassidy says she was at her breaking point. “I kind of was like, I’m done, I can’t fight right now. But next time.” Etsy’s recent announcement that transaction fees would be going from 5% to 6.5% was that “next time.”
Kristi Cassidy is one of the Etsy sellers who has organized the Etsy Strike.
Photo courtesy of Kristi Cassidy
Getting organized
“I posted something [on Reddit] that said we need an Etsy seller’s union. And there were a bunch of people that agreed with me in the comments. And one of those people was the person who started the Etsy strike Subreddit,” she says. From there, the group banded together to take action. While Cassidy set up a WordPress site, another member reached out to coworker.org, a site that assists gig workers in uniting to spark change in the workplace.
Together, the group brainstormed the ways in which they wanted Etsy to change, and one member wrote up their demands including allowing all sellers to opt-out of Offsite Ads, doing away with the Star Seller program, cracking down on resellers, improving customer service, and canceling the fee increase.
Outreach
When the petition began gaining momentum, Cassidy became the member of the group that interacted with the press. “I wound up being the face and it is just I have been going from interview to interview to interview and I have lost track at this point. Like, I could not tell you how many over the last three days,” Cassidy says. At one point this week, when her child was home sick from school, she was concerned she was going to develop a sore throat and have to slow down her interviews, but that hasn’t happened.
I support @EtsyStrike. This is getting ridiculous. Time to build a better marketplace for handmade goods?
— Rob Kalin (@rokali) April 11, 2022
Cassidy says the group is not sure what might happen in the short term. They reached out to Etsy directly on Monday, but have not heard back (although Silverman did address investors in the Wall Street Journal this week, he hasn’t spoken publicly to sellers about the strike, nor has anyone else at the company). “We do have plans to build the equivalent of a union for Etsy sellers, some kind of solidarity organization,” says Cassidy. “We are all gung ho about going forward with this. And it’s going to be epic. We don’t know exactly what form it’s going to take yet, but it will be epic.”
The group was bolstered this week when Rob Kalin, the founder of Etsy, tweeted in support of the strike. “That,” she says, “was an amazing moment,”
Abby Glassenberg
Co-founder
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.
Look into Etsy’s merger/acquisitions, starting in just the last few years… Reverb, Depop, & Elo7. Depop was a “mostly cash purchase” at the price tag of 1.6 Bil. That is a large current/liquid asset. Where did they acquire this asset ?? Etsy seller fees. Not to mention, that Elo7 was acquired for 217 Mil.
Etsy has “millions” of sellers, because it now owns subsidiaries, & only employs slightly over 2000 people.
Etsy does not advertise individual shops. They advertise Etsy, much in the same manner that Amazon advertises just Amazon. Where does their advertisement budget come from ?? Sellers who use Etsy (seller fees)
I would suggest listening to their earnest calls, & any inquires the FTC has looked into, regarding Etsy. I remember when they told sellers to add the cost of shipping into the costs of their items (to instantly return the “loss”), and use their program of “ships free for $35 or more”.. with the incentive of “preferred placement results in Etsy search” (when someone searches for their desired item). The FTC says it’s illegal to instantly gain a return, on a free service. The incentive – “do it, or you won’t be advertised as much” (seller perspective). Not to mention that Etsy used independent shops, without the permission of the owners… for their beta testing program, for the free shipping model. Many sellers had invoices appear, and were unable to cover the free shipping. Independent shops, are not subsidiaries.
Etsy’s legal loophole…. They offer the only option of “if you don’t like it, then close your shop on Etsy”
Now…. They advertise offsite, without the permission of independent shops. You’ll see the ads, on Google, FB, IG, etc. They always state “on Etsy” & not “at (shop name) on Etsy.
Etsy is for Etsy…. Not small business. It wants to be valuable but, will not treat the sellers as valuable. They view the sellers as assets & not independent shops/crafters/makers/proprietors.
I am very glad that this group of fellow Etsy Sellers strive to build a kind of union or solidarity union with the intent to speak for all sellers. That is the only way Etsy will listen to sellers. Without such a union they do what they want pretending they want the best for sellers. It would be helpful if this group of Etsy sellers tried to find fellow sellers in Europe to join in. First, because there are European laws non-European sellers could profit from, and second, because unions have a long tradition in Europe so that the idea may fall on fertile ground in Europe.
Etsy Strike is now Indie Sellers Guild! Free to join, very active Discord. Indie Sellers Guild dot org.
Well, I was going to set up an Etsy account, but I’m not now. I’ve been hedging for awhile. Was getting tired of craft shows outdoors. Will look into other ways.
I just went to Auralynn.com and she has her Etsy strike story all laid out in chapters with fabulously descriptive photos. Very well done and informative!
Auralynn.com is not a website – i just checked! I am interested in joining this strike and being a part of the union – would love resources/links – thank you.
Kathy Crabbe
Soul Reader & Artist
Hi, You can find Kristi’s website, Auralynne, here: https://auralynne.com/ That is where she sells the dresses that she makes. We link to the Etsy Strike page in the beginning of the article.
I joined the strike and yesterday Etsy sent a survey asking what they could do to better help sellers, so I’m guessing they’re trying to find out if this 1% is worth continuing to ignore or if the discontent is more widespread. The only problem is, most of their questions only asked about the past 30 days (i.e. covering the fee increase, which they never mentioned) and the problems span the last few years.
Wish I had the guts to organize an Etsy strike years ago! After 10 years of selling on Etsy I deleted my shop. Sick of fees, shady sellers, etc.
I don’t sell on ETSY but I do use it as a resource for what I do.
I really detest that Star Seller business. If I don’t immediately review a purchase, or write a review, I feel like I’m hurting the person I do business with (and I want to support them). I do like that I can get my raw materials there, as well as gifts, but have honored the strike to help the sellers.
ETSY–make it simple! Don’t get greedy!! You still get the money, but more importantly, you keep the marketplace intact.
I agree. HATE the “Star Seller” thing. Ridiculous and feels like grade school!
I agree there are many things about Etsy which are frustrating. But Etsy provides an amazing customer base. If the transaction fee increase helps improve what Etsy can offer to sellers as far as seller support, website improvement, etc, then I support the increase. My list of needs is long:
-Have separate administrator and employee access to Etsy account so that employees cannot see payment account.
-When you call Etsy and they say they will pass your concern/need along to a different department, then that department you need help with actually contacts you back, or at least sooner than weeks later
-Ability to change customer shipping address and have it save.
-List SKU numbers all in one place, to easily update quantity
-Extend extended ship to time more than once
-Allow special characters in shipping label
-Have FedEx know we are shipping alot so our daily pickup fee is lower
-Allow sellers to be able to re-direct FedEx shipments when customers give wrong address and we have already shipped.
-Have shop name at the top of every listing to make it easier for customers to see all products in the shop.
-Allow us to add a shipping surcharge to Alaska and Hawaii
(Some of these issues have been solved since I switched to Shipstation for shipping)
Believe this was to be expected when “big” business takes over. More about mining data than small biz earning a liv8ng. Time to create something else sad to say.