Every day our team is working to ensure that Etsy is a trusted and safe place to shop and sell and we take that responsibility seriously. As Etsy grows, so does our commitment to maintaining a safe environment for our vibrant community of buyers and sellers. In the last year the Etsy community has nearly doubled in size. While all this growth is exciting, it means we’ve also seen an increase in customer issues and fraud. That’s why we introduced payment account reserves in January. To better protect the Etsy marketplace, we’re making a few changes to how we determine when to place an account reserve on a seller’s account.
What’s a reserve?
A reserve means that we’ll set aside a percentage of a seller's earnings on each order they receive for a short period of time after their first sale before it's available for deposit. This allows us to confirm that they’re able to keep up with customer demand and provide a great experience to shoppers on Etsy by shipping on time and providing excellent customer service. Funds in reserve will be held for up to 45 days or until the order is shipped and in transit, just in case there’s an issue with the order.
What’s changing and what’s not
We’re making updates to how and when we place a reserve on a seller’s payment account so that we can continue to protect the reputation of the Etsy marketplace. Payment account reserves affect only a small percentage of sellers, but we still wanted to let our entire community know what we’re doing to keep the marketplace safe.
When we launched payment account reserves, we updated the Etsy Payments Policy to outline the different risk factors we use to determine when an account reserve is needed. Those factors include how recently a seller made their first sale on Etsy and whether they have earnings above a certain threshold.
The factors we look at are not changing, but we’re making updates to both the specific timeframe and earnings threshold we use. Sellers may have a reserve placed on their account if they recently made their first sale and have earnings above a certain threshold. Now, we may also hold a higher percentage of funds in reserve than we’ve communicated previously.
To strengthen our protection against fraudulent account activity, we’ll no longer share the specific earnings threshold or timeframe we use to determine if a reserve is placed on a seller’s account after their first sale.
If you have a reserve put on your payment account, we’ll send you an email that outlines those details. You can learn more about payment account reserves in Etsy’s Help Center.
