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

[#1]

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

[minibytes]

Hey all - Jessica Hepburn from Maritime Makers/Etsy Canada consultant is organizing an Etsy Strike to begin on July 16th to protest the latest changes (in a long list of grievances).

Full post: http://ohmyhandmade.com/2018/omhg/featured/etsystrike/

Media points here: http://ohmyhandmade.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/EtsyStrike_OnePageOutline.pdf

[cindylouwho2]

Thanks for that, Kalen! Interesting, but I have a real problem with that terminology. We are not Etsy employees; we are Etsy customers. So we can't strike, but we can boycott. The latter could have much wider traction with media attention etc.

Acting like we are employees just hands Etsy power that they don't really have.

Anyway, I don't really care, because I am happy enough continuing to be a customer for the time being. Etsy still has the cheapest fees of any marketplace. Despite being way down this month due to not putting any work in, I am still up 15% on the year on Etsy, & I was trying to be down 10%. I do feel a lot of the changes & advertising are working to keep more buyers here.

Not looking forward to the upcoming forum & team changes, though.

[nanabrowns]

Thanks for all the info!

Much appreciated!

[cindylouwho2]

If people are most upset about the fee hike, there are some petitions floating around for that.

I would also suggest using their feedback form:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/4420752/Etsy-Announcement-Feedback
& posting in the main Q&A thread:
https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/18737155

[minibytes · Accepted solution]

Me and Jenny will be chatting with Etsy on a call on Wednesday. If anyone has any questions they want us to ask on your behalf please reply in this forum thread before Wednesday at 8am and I'll be sure to ask them on the call.

[cindylouwho2]

Thanks to Kalen & Jenny for doing this!

Yes, I have a question:

Does the "fresh new look" for Etsy Teams & the Etsy Forum involve moving them off-site? Will we need a different login to access the forum and teams in September?

(thank you in advance. Beware of them not actually answering the question when they answer the question LOL)

[WireExpressions]

Hi Kalen & Jenny! Good luck with your phone call. I'm sure I don't need to ask you to ask about fees on shipping. But my vote is in for that one. This is an expensive and administratively time consuming change for sellers (especially the international ones like us). I want to know if they are listening and are seriously taking the negative feedback from sellers and willing to reconsider this fee?

[WireExpressions]

"This practice helps to promote fairness and transparency in the marketplace by removing the incentive for a seller to "hide" part of their pricing by having a low item cost and a high shipping price."

This statement! I'd like to know what percentage of Etsy Sellers are doing this to justify this rationalle?

[lampworkbyjulie]

Me too Kristi. Personally, never in a thousand years, would I ever have thought of that. Only crooked people that try to rip off the system most likely.

[cindylouwho2]

There were callout threads on people doing that most days of the week. It's an old eBay trick. If you sell a lot, it would mean a big savings in fees.

[cindylouwho2]

Apparently there are Canada Post delays due to US Customs issues
https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/18745505/

[MagpieQuilts]

So our fees are increasing and maybe you’re still on the fence on whether or not to keep your shop open or not. But if you are, this is the time to look at your shop with a critical eye (ask a friend to help if this isn’t your strength). I find this to be a huge task, but if it’s broken down into small pieces it’s very doable.

Today, sign out of your shop on your computer and visit Etsy as a guest. Search for your shop and look at it from a buyers point of view. Do your first few pages of items look cohesive? Do your avatar and shop announcement reflect your brand? What sets you apart from other sellers of the same sort of items? Is that clear without having to dig for it? Now, go to your phone or mobile device and do the same.

Now, find a few brands/shops that you admire and give them the same critique. Do you need to change things up? Do you need a fresh updated look? Make notes and changes to your overall shop as needed. We will do items on a later date.

Next step: your about page!

[cindylouwho2]

If people are thinking of leaving Etsy over a fee increase of 1.5%, then they probably aren't going to get any benefits from looking over their shops. (I assume that was Etsy's not-so-helpful suggestion? LOL)

If 1.5% kills a shop's net income, then they may need a bigger rethink than their About page. (And yes, it is added to shipping as well, but you can just increase your shipping profiles to cover that; it's only going to take me 10 minutes, but I realize that people with mostly large items will need to spend a bit longer on that) You have to build a healthy margin into your budget just in case your key supply doubles in price, or the economy collapses, or tariffs are introduced on your core line etc.

This is probably a good time to mention that this will not be the last fee increase in the next few years. They are going to be parcelling out some tools for a monthly fee, for example. Currently they are focused on growing GMS, but they'll need to find more growth in other areas eventually, which is why they keep building tools that cost you money.

Good article here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-21/etsy-s-ceo-wows-wall-street-with-turnaround-that-...
for all of Etsy's faults, it has still been more attentive to seller concerns than the other big marketplaces. So expect that to keep changing too, as they focus more on buyers. Lots of it is going to suck for us; this one is pretty minor in comparison to other types of changes.

I post useful news on ecommerce, SEO, social media etc. in a thread on my team:
https://www.etsy.com/teams/10713/etsy-relevancy-seo-and-stats/discuss/18383437
if you want to keep up with stuff like this.

[SnowmanCollector]

Nothing to do with fee increases, but I think taking a critical look at your shop from time to time is a valuable thing to do. Yes, it is time consuming and yes, it is hard to be impartial, but it can also be very positive in the long run.

[cindylouwho2]

Oh, definitely! It should be an automatic part of any business.

[WireExpressions]

Fee/cost increases is a part of business. I think what I am most frustrated about is that every time Etsy makes an announcement it is A LOT of admin work to get my shop in line with these changes. This fee increase is a lot of work. Having to rejig all my shipping profiles and listing prices is a lot of work for me. I've looked at my shop and tried my best to stay on top of all of the changes Etsy has implemented yet my sales on Etsy decreased by almost 25% in 2017 over 2016 & 2015. A year where the work I put in to increase sales was overwhelmingly not reflected in the sales. So this is where the bulk of my frustration with yet another change comes from. I'm not concerned about raising my item prices 1.5%. That's a minor increase. It's the 5% + payment processing fee shipping increase and the perception that that puts out that concerns me.

I prefer to keep shipping and item separate. #1, it is easier for my accounting. #2, it's better for me if I have to refund either shipping, or items. #3, I sell locally as well, higher items prices vs my in person prices need to be close, because I do have a number of YYC people who shop from me at both venues.

[cindylouwho2]

I am not changing my item prices over 1.5% because I budgeted that the cost of selling here would go up this year, and my prices go up & down periodically based on demand & competition, so I always have a healthy buffer built in. You sort of have to expect the unexpected.

My 5 shipping profiles only take me a few minutes to change, but I understand that that will be a bigger pain in the butt for people who who ship larger items that are all different weights & sizes. That then becomes a time expenditure you have to account for when pricing initially - CP's fuel surcharge can change a lot in a month! So I am glad my items are all small, lightweight, & ship using flat rate shipping costs, and that is a choice I will probably continue to make when deciding what to sell online, unless shipping options change substantially.



"my sales on Etsy decreased by almost 25% in 2017 over 2016 & 2015."
===================
I am sorry to hear that! I do think it is going to be a lot harder for smaller shops to stay afloat now, especially in the personalization business, since there is a ton of competition and anyone can sign up for a manufacturing partner to do most of the grunt work for them, & ship directly from the factory.

You might want to look at SEO on your listings that are not performing. The repetitive titles are slowly going away (although you never really needed them in the first place - I haven't changed anything in my shop):
http://www.cindylouwho2.com/blog/2018/6/13/etsys-plans-for-search-algorithm-promoted-listings-2018-u...

For example, did you know that Etsy treats "bookmark" and "book mark" as two different things in search? So you could be losing a lot of potential traffic right there.

I hope things pick up for you soon!

[WireExpressions]

Thanks Cindy, for that feedback. I did a bunch of other behind the scenes search stuff last year. But there are a few listings that are not performing as well as they used to that is for sure!

Last year was good for in person sales, so after all was said and done, I made slightly less than 2016, and slightly more than 2015 over all my sales avenues. So if I can focus on some of those other avenues then I can maybe not worry so much about online.

[MagpieQuilts]

Good points! When I first started on Etsy 8 years ago a search for “quilt” only brought up around 100,000 items. Today that is much much more and it’s definitely harder to stand out. Every time I step back and look at my shop with a critical eye, I see lots of room for improvement. And Etsy is my “mall store front”. I still need to do the work to bring people there and not expect that to be solely Etsy’s job.

[SnowmanCollector]

I sell at local shows, mostly around the holidays and I find that for the most part, I do well at that. Etsy is my only online selling platform and I am really finding it difficult to 'stand out'. I sometimes wonder if I am putting all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. I know a few of you have your own websites and I just don't have time to do that, but do any of you use other platforms online? I have been looking at Shopify and using it on Facebook, but I am still on the fence. Thoughts?

[MagpieQuilts]

I’ll see if I can get Kalen to pop in here to talk about Shopify.

[cindylouwho2]

Sheila, are you looking at using Shopify for a website, or solely for the Facebook tie in? If the latter, I think there are easier ways to do that.

I hope Kalen or Jenny could let us know about this top-secret call with Etsy that was supposed to happen last week.

[lampworkbyjulie]

I wasn’t thinking of leaving at all, but thanks so much for the tips Ann. That was very helpful!

[SnowmanCollector]

I was thinking of Shopify as the facebook tie in because a website feels really intimidating. What I really need is a week without the day job and yard work to be able sit down and do some research! Like that's going to happen! lol

[MagpieQuilts]

Mostly the group call with Etsy Canada was about the fee changes. I wasn’t able to be in on that call but both Kalen and Jenny were. I’ll see what I can grab from the notes to pass on.