Sellers also have to keep in mind that Etsy has changed the algos again with the big push on AI technology so if you haven't updated your shop to the new requirements that Etsy is asking for, you're not going to rank well and your shop is not going to do well.
I'm in the same boat as other sellers with less orders, but every time I do a batch of updates on older listings or do a batch of new items, I get a surge in orders and see positive outcomes in my shop. If you aren't in compliance with the new recommendations and if you aren't hitting the minimums for what is required, then you really can't simply just blame Etsy. They're telling us what they want.
I do agree though that we are continuously pushed to give discounts and I see the emails that Etsy sends to the general public that are like DEALS DEALS DEALS! and it's pretty gross. Especially with the abandon cart offers, I feel like it's training customers to just put things in your cart and you'll get a discount. I get more sales when my items are NOT on sale vs when they are.
Factor in competition too. I've been on Etsy since 2013 and at one point I was getting 250- 500 sales a month. I didn't even have to do my own marketing and I had sales flying in, but it's not like that anymore. Now there are a crap ton more sellers on Etsy selling the same thing I am and many of them are just bought off Aliexpress and re-sold, so people want low prices, but with that comes low quality, a lot of times.
There are many things that we can't control that are at play, but for the ones that you CAN control, getting on board, despite all the extra work it's going to take, just helps you in the long run.
