♦♦♦♦ Alberta Street Team CHAT THREAD for JUNE, 2018 ♦♦♦♦

[hopnflop]

Bring on June! Welcome to the Alberta Team Chat Thread for June 1-30, 2018.

It's also a super special month for Etsy because it's Etsy's 13th birthday! Etsy is doing a special sales event for it, kicking it off June 18. You can learn more about how to participate here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/seller-handbook/article/etsys-13th-birthday-sales-event/317881695718

Posting in this thread counts towards your team participation and is the main place to get up to date on what we are doing as a team!

Post your New Listings in our promo thread (public & sharable):
https://www.etsy.com/teams/5084/alberta-street-team/discuss/18720372/page/1?ref=team_page

WHERE TO FIND OUR TEAM & PARTICIPATE:
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/AlbertaStreetTeam
PINTEREST: www.pinterest.com/ABStreetTeam/
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/etsyalbertateam/ #etsyalbertateam

If you have any questions about the team or how to get more involved please contact Kalen, the Team Captain, at www.etsy.com/shop/minibytes

Previous chat thread here:
https://www.etsy.com/teams/5084/alberta-street-team/discuss/18693636/page/1?ref=team_page

[hopnflop · Accepted solution]

We have 2 new members to our team!

Carol of Maroonmanx
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Maroonmanx

and

Amanda of Printables4Me
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Printables4Me

[hopnflop · Accepted solution]

Also, I haven't tried the new calculated shipping feature. For those that have tried it so far, thoughts?

Here's the link about it from Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/canadian-sellers-set-up-calculated/325508104713?ref=Sel...

How it works:
https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013946647?flash_digest=cbbc775d543da2dfb05a1a31319d17a6bc...

[lampworkbyjulie]

Welcome new teammates!
Just hit 500 sales. And it only took 11 years. Ha! Most of them have been in the last 3 - 3 years though.
I use Etsy shipping ALL the time. Love it. And it’s actu a little cheaper than taking the pkgs to the post office. I don’t use the calculated shipping option though.

[lampworkbyjulie]

Well this is interesting. Just went to print a shipping and the price has nearly tripled? Is that just a way to get up to use the calculated shipping? Curious. I'm now taking it to the post office to see what's up.

OOPS. My mistake! It's all good. I had entered .99 for weight instead of .099. Pass the coffee.

[snottub]

Hi Guys! Perhaps I have been in the dark, and need to pay attention, but noticed a sales tax on my orders this morning. But only to the US ones. I looked in the forum to see if I could find a thread, but haven't come across anything.
Just curious if there is more info?TIA

[stufd]

Thanks Cindy for the info!
For anyone else :

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000343968-Sales-Tax-for-Washington-and-Pennsylvania

[cindylouwho2]

You are welcome, Bonnie!

Welcome to the newbies!

Someone told me you can't use oversized lettermail on a listing and use calculated shipping - not sure how that works, but that means it would be a non-starter for me.

I've been using Shippo for labels - since they are integrated with Canada Post, unlike Etsy, you get much cheaper rates, even when you factor in the 6 cents a label charge for using Shippo. I've reached level 2 savings, & will be at the top level by the holiday season, but even level 1 is cheaper than Etsy's prices for small packets. And still way cheaper per month than Stamps.com, plus faster than using Snap Ship, since it is directly integrated with Etsy & pulls all of your sales over automatically.

[hopnflop]

Cindy,

I'm testing out the calculated shipping on only a few listings and you are correct. When I set it up, it's all for parcel mail and I'm the same as you that I use lettermail a lot for my greeting cards and pins. The calculated shipping is helpful when I don't want to figure out the costs for items I know I need to send by parcel. I wonder what happens when customers want to order more than one item in one order tho.

Thanks for the tip about Shippo. I'll add that to my list of things to check out for shipping.

[cindylouwho2]

Thanks for that confirmation, Jenny! So, right now I have a whopping 12 items listed that can't fit through the slot, but they all ship flat rate small packet outside of Canada. I am curious how calculated is handling that, especially for multiple item orders. I've always done flat rate shipping, so I don't want it charging people more if they cross into the next level of small packet.

[WireExpressions]

Welcome new teamies!

Nothing to add to the shipping conversation here. I'm where Cindy is. Pretty much everything fits through the slot of doom. :)

I am super excited though...I bit the bullet...no more printing and cutting my own tags by hand! Sucked it up - totally redesigned them and got them professionally printed and cut. Super excited to start retagging stuff!

[lampworkbyjulie]

Is there a glitch on Etsy? No new posts to the thread in over a week.

[SnowmanCollector]

Everybody is super quiet these days! I am already starting to get my list together of Christmas markets. How about everybody else? Seems early but I guess it really isn't.

[MagpieQuilts]

It is time to be looking at Christmas markets. Lots of markets happening everywhere. If you come across any that you are willing to share - please do!

[cindylouwho2]

Here is my latest on Etsy search, with confirmation from Etsy staff:
http://www.cindylouwho2.com/blog/2018/6/13/etsys-plans-for-search-algorithm-promoted-listings-2018-u...

I am swamped trying to get caught up before I go away next week. I need to get my shop up to date, among other things.

[MagpieQuilts · Accepted solution]

Not good.

Effective July 16, Etsy’s transaction fee will increase from 3.5% to 5% and it will also apply to the cost of shipping. All other fees, including listing fees, will remain the same.

[MagpieQuilts · Accepted solution]

Good morning everyone! I wanted to share this announcement with you as this message will be going out globally to captains and teams that we work closely with in our communities and is relevant to all of our sellers:

We’ve been helping sellers on their creative journeys for 13 years now. Now, we’re planning to invest even more in bringing buyers to Etsy, building seller tools, and improving your seller experience—including giving Etsy Teams and the Etsy Forums a fresh new look and improved organization that will to make it easier and more fun to connect with creative entrepreneurs around the world. To help make this happen, we’re updating our fees, and we’re adding some new features.

Learn more here: https://www.etsy.com/seller-news/2018-june-update
FAQs here: https://www.etsy.com/seller-news/2018-june-update#faq

We know many of you and your Team members may have questions about how this impacts your business, and we’re providing an opportunity to ask questions in the Forums. From June 14 to 18 Etsy Admin will answer some of your questions in this thread between 8am and 5pm ET (GMT +4). https://etsy.me/june-update-forums-qa

[hopnflop]

I just got the email. Wow!

[MagpieQuilts]

Just an FYI, the note I just posted is from Laura Chaplin from Etsy Canada, not me!

This is not good news for Canadian sellers who pay higher shipping costs than US sellers!

[lampworkbyjulie]

Yep. Got the email too. That’s a pretty hefty increase. Hope they get blasted every which way but loose!

[cindylouwho2]

I was expecting a fee increase, so I budgeted for it. I will probably have to raise shipping prices a bit, but since I should hit the next level of spending for Canada Post in July, my new lower rates will partially offset the increase. Was looking forward to reducing my rates, though, not increasing them.

Tacking it on to shipping will certainly give them a massive increase in revenue, which makes you wonder what they will do next year to increase revenue.

Once they went public, this was always the path they would eventually end up taking.

[cindylouwho2]

Etsy released updated projections for investors at the same time as they emailed us:
https://investors.etsy.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2018/06-14-2018-130239693
and a set of slides to go with the investor press release:
https://investors.etsy.com/~/media/Files/E/Etsy-IR/documents/events/etsy-pricing-update-june-2018.pd...

of note - they will be changing the forums & teams, as I expected:
"Seller Resources
In September, we plan to give the Etsy Teams
and the Etsy Forums a new look that will make
it easier and more fun to connect with creative
entrepreneurs around the world" (slide 11)

slide #14 answers some of the most common questions

also, in relation to my blog post, apparently Etsy has been surveying people on how they would feel about helpful members getting "badges" on their accounts, which does sound like an extension of the Citizen Score which currently impacts search.

[EpicStitching]

Thanks so much for all the great info ladies.
When I think about Etsy never having increased rates in the last 6 years of my shop being open I feel somewhat fortunate.
That said I’m working on a breakdown of numbers to see what the impact will be of new amounts.
What I’ve noticed so far is that it takes a lot more promotion money to get the kind of hits I got 3-4 years ago from ads. I attribute that to more competition in the market.
I hate increasing prices but it does seem to be the only solution I’ve found in the budget so far. And with the loonie falling everyday it’s bleak.
My only hope with currency is the Americans will see our prices in US$ as lower and choose to support us.

I did not know about Citizen score and will look into that. I’m not as active on forums/teams as I used to be due to time constra

[snottub]

Yeah, meh, I struggle with buttons and pricing... they are an inexpensive item in comparison to some things, but I feel already hefty in the fee dept.

Anyhow, happy Friday!

[cindylouwho2]

Etsy confirmed & clarified the "forum warning" component of the "Citizen Score":
https://www.etsy.com/ca/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/18738087/page/5?post_id=399962437

it is email warnings only; if they only delete your post but do not contact you, you are fine. And the negative effect is removed after 1 year.
(I have updated the blog post to reflect this)