Etsy Sucks

[CloverandLilly]

It used to be a great venue to browse for items. 

My shop is done for a number of reasons. 

I have been here since 2006. I rolled with all the changes they made. And believe there were lots of changes. I went from making up to 3000 dollars a month to barely making 300.  

Since new management took over it is a worthless endeavor spending money on advertising. All they care about is enriching their own pockets. 

They destroyed what made it a great community. Now it is an unpleasant buying experience and and unpleasant selling experience.

They don't give you the choice where ads will show up. It might show up at the top of the page or be imbedded in the middle of the page. I think we should be able to know where it is going to show up. We have no control now.

My work is the best it ever has been. I believe it is Etsy's fault for my shop no longer being visible in the search results. They regularly change the code to suit their own agenda with no regard to sellers. 

[LibertyDocArt]

Where else can a store go to?  I have sold one painting in six months of having a store.  I feel like nobody sees my paintings so nobody can buy.  

[Refabrications]

Drive traffic to your personal website. Of course, that means posting on a ton of social media sites regularly to drive traffic to your website.  I plan to give BigCartel(.com) a try. 

[beakndi]

Well CloverandLilly that was a cleverly crafted title. But seriously, it's true to the point that the fees have been raised and their search engine puts me (who charges postage) behind those who do not, but will increase their prices. Where Etsy was once better than Ebay, they have fallen behind in many areas.

[Refabrications]

I concur. I have also noticed this to be the case among all social media and online e-commerce venues in general. The powers that be do not want anyone independently thriving. They want to control all of the money in this slave system. My sales went from 2500 per month to around 300 to 400 per month between here, Ebay, and Facebook combined. It's pretty disappointing. 

[ShadowLightBinding]

Wow, your post shocked me. To go from $3000 a month to $300 that's disappointing and sure frustrating. I am a bookbinder and  I open my Etsy shop 3 years ago but start really pushing to make it work in the past year. I tried advertising through Etsy and trough IG and it did help a little but I still find it very hard to sell.  From when Etsy was truly a USA  handmade and vintage's market, and now that seller outsources their work, the competition is even higher. 

[Minicler]

I agree!
Etsy is getting hungry.
The social contact system of sellers with customers is suppressed.
It used to be a place where artists met their fans. Human ties and contacts were built, and there was a real friendship between the seller and the customer. Statistics were in real time, I felt the heartbeat of my business. I could control what I would advertise and how much I want to spend. This is the past.
They turned it into a money machine.

[matildecanepaArtnow]

Hello, I am a visual artist and have been registered with Etsy for a

long time. Initially, I was able to sell some of my paintings through

their platform. But there has been no sale for some time.

I really don't know what's going on with Etsy and what a successful sale

depends on, because I haven't been able to sell anything for a long time

and the number of visitors has also decreased significantly.

I have the impression that various changes on the Etsy platform are

increasingly leading to a reduction in visitors.

I have changed various offers of paintings several times and offered

them at reduced prices. But so far without success!

Please give me a hint or advice on how I can achieve a better visitor

frequency.

Kind regards MCG

[Tshirtpro]

I been on Etsy for a few years and seen a gradual boost in sales, couple of things concern me. Why is there no direct connection to customer service? They make you jump through hoops and after that want you to leave a message. That sucks to me because eventhough I sell on EBay I have no trouble getting through to customer service. Secondly, they want to add fees for advertising on additional sites? Hmmmm, lets see how that goes and affects my bottom line. Is this pure greed? I have no problem dumping Etsy and rebuilding my other selling sites. Time will tell.

[Bratki]

What other sites? I've been here for a couple of years- almost no sells. I had shop on Dawanda before, but they closed it redirected me here.

[pebbleartSmiljana]

It's so hard to get support that I do it with bad English and I don't understand how ..
100 rounds of hell to chat ... To any word of help.
Maybe it would be easier for them to give me some explanation of what happens when your store literally "disappears" in 10 days and comes from a nice sale at 0 months already ... ????
I'm sure it's not up to the customers, but some tumblings that disable visibility.

[TCMouseDesign]

Wow - has there ever been a way to get actual help from a living human at this stupid company?

[martinjovev]

Hello! I feel your pain. It looks like every big company is turning to the automated customer service. My payment method needed to be verified 3 times in the span of 3 months? One totally unrelated bit of info about the automated service problems. I wanted to leave a positive review to one Lyft driver a day after the ride. I could not find an option to leave it!  

[Avi8rLady]

Etsy has gone downhill fast.  Their customer service (if you are lucky enough to get through by using their buyer support line) is woeful. They actually char you the seller  5% of the postage fee if the buyer has to pay for shipping.  I just finished my taxes and with Etsy's fees and advertising they are taking 20% of my profits! Their utter lack of customer service will have seller's like me moving to different platforms like opening my own website and using eBay mercari.  

I had heard many sellers over the last couple of years tell me how AWFUL Etsy is - now I know exactly what they were talking about. 

[pebbleartSmiljana]

Obviously, this is a common occurrence.
The same thing happened with my shop in mid-December 2021. So far it is literally a downturn: ((
From nice sales and searches I came to invisibility and almost $ 0 profit per month ...
I don't understand what has been happening for 3 months ...?
I don't know what to do because this is my only source of income at the moment ...

[YayaRegenerativeFarm]

The fees from trying to sell on here are depressing, it's like they're trying to drive sellers away. What's more, I've noticed a lot of mass-produced stuff being sold as locally hand-made. It's barely a step up from ebay, and ebay doesn't rip you off. 

[martinjovev]

Hello! I noticed the same! What bothers me the most is that some of these outsourced items do not have original designs. But the designs that come on the items by default from the factory instead. Why is Etsy allowing this? Is this extension to Alibaba? Where are the moderators? 

[FamilyGoodz]

Esty absolutely sucks.  I could not agree with you more.  I spend a lot on ad buys, and lately my listings do not even fall on the first page.  These morons are out of Denmark I believe, and they seem to favor European listings over the USA.  So screw um I am also done with them.  

[GLOBALVIBE]

Etsy is based in Brooklyn NY.

[artquest7]

So sorry to hear this. I loved ETsy when it first started.  There are many disappointing things I’ve noticed. The search engine is deceptive when you want Shops in the USA. I just placed an order and was wondering why it was taking so long and now I see it’s coming from Poland.  I am pissed.  Also, the new people running Etsy have allowed some very dark and disgusting filth into its community.  I actually believe Etsy is now allowing human trafficking and prostitution services. Witchcraft and spells for $6000.  Seriously?  Yup, Etsys new owner is all about the almighty satanic dollar.  Its days are numbered.