Etsy has all my items listed as "Designed by." And they said it can't be changed!

[#1]

My shop is now only "Designed by." I texted Etsy support, and they said there was nothing they could do about it. However, other shops have "designed by," "made by," and "hand-picked." I have tried to deactivate my listings and reactivate every one of them, but they are still listed as "designed by." I literally have inventory, I alter every single item, and I am now lumped in with print-on-demand, and there is nothing I can do. I am not downing POD; I am just not a POD. This is so frustrating despite having no sales for two months! I even sent images of my inventory and tools. What do I do now?

[Former_Member]

Usually when they say 'we can't do anything about it' I assume that means 'they're training the bots'. They're likely doing the method of starting messy and teaching the bots by 'asking' them to sort it all out. If that's the case, it's just a matter of time, and you could even be labelled wrong on purpose while they do that teaching.

The rest of the year with Etsy is going to be very interesting. By which I mean annoying.

[EmeraldGoddessGarden]

Reasonably sure that often when 'they' say 'can't', they actually mean 'won't' .  Coud they fix this...yeah, with proper programming and seller involvement they could, but I am reasonably confident, based on past experience, that whatever it is, is as it will be, until the next shiny new idea gains 'look, there goes a squirrel' status.  

[HeronDesignStudio]

I have the same issue. I make my scarves from scratch. They are all unique and with original patterns. They are hemmed by me, then hand-dyed by me in my kitchen and some of them are hand-dyed and free-hand-painted. Yet all of them are marked Designed By rather than Made By. I have no production partner and never had as I make them all from scratch. I asked Etsy Chat and was told it's a test and there is nothing they can do about it. I find it very insulting and sad as I spend hours handmaking my scarves.

[CBanningAccessories]

Perhaps there should be more categories than Designed by, Made by, and Hand Picked by.

I think POD could be -  Graphics by____, Illustrated by____

For made-from-scratch items like furniture or fashion accessories - Designed and Made by____

 

[GlassyFields]

love it ... "there is no rear view mirror on the clown car" will become part of my vocabulary. Thank you.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@BagmakerSupply  They scan the listings to determine descriptor. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@SugarTaffySoap: Do you have a reference for that? Would love to read one particularly if it details the process and implementation.

Oddly, most of the people who have posted that they have been able to "resolve" this issue seem to have done so by changing the category.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@BagmakerSupply  They're resolving by editing. The "system" is only as good as the information it scans "based on what is provided in the listing".  It doesn't just pick any "descriptor".  The seller provides the information for it. Sellers would need to go in their listings under Details and edit that section and also move to another category, if necessary.

If a seller thinks there's an error they should do the survey for the team, per chat, so the team can correct it if needed.  Chat cannot tell you how to update the listing so you'll have to figure it out on your own by reading all of the material provided. 

[ArtisansArthropods]

There are technical errors that are displaying listings as something other than handmade even when the listings are set up properly to reflect that they are made from scratch without a production partner.  In my case they refused to acknowledge it was a technical error as they always do.  Even went as far as to say there is nothing I can do on my end.  

[digitaldoodlebug]

@ArtisansArthropods 

Exactly. There shouldn't even need to be information filled out (though I did), because based on their own policy designed by is digital, AI art, or has a production partner. If it's not digital, and no production partner it should be simple. But the bugs are amuck. 

[ArtisansArthropods]

Our new listings say "handpicked by" rather than "Made by" despite selecting "made by a member of my shop" and "made from scratch" while setting them up.  I chatted Etsy and Eduardo said there is nothing I can do and that it won't affect my shop.  But don't worry, I was sent a survey to express my displeasure.  

It is really sad to me that in a day and age where inauthenticity is Etsy's biggest enemy, they would go to lengths to mislabel listings that are actually handmade.  It strikes me as a brilliant way to drive all actual makers off of the platform.  

[LBclothingStudio]

I wouldn't worry too much because buyers rarely read any of the details on a listing anyway.  It's obvious when shops get a poor review simply because they never read the details. 

[AAANativeArts]

Whether you are going through a POD or buying the tumblers somewhere else and doing your own printing, you should be classified as Designed By if you don't make the tumbler yourself. If you actually make the tumbler too, then it would be Made by.

[Adorabilities]

Doing your own printing on purchased tumblers still falls under “made by.”

[digitaldoodlebug]

@Adorabilities 

Exactly. A tumbler is a supply. As long as the seller is modifying or assembling for the final item then it's made by. No one makes their own fabric or beads or etc (well some do but they all fall under made by)

Etsy has separate questions that may be used in search later that detail how you make it. From scratch, with commercial components. 

[EmeraldGoddessGarden]

I believe these assignments are mostly random...and I say that because.....we use a 3 P listing tool and have for many years.   On the 3 P  side, there are 3 questions that are are always answered the same.  (1) Who Made This 'I did'   (2)What are they 'finished product'  (4) When were they made '2020-2024'.   So every listing has the same answers, same information, and same category, yet some are tagged as Hand Picked while others are tagged as 'Made By' 

I reached out to the 3p tech support, and they have no idea where Etsy is pulling info to determine the designation.  In fact their developers had not even been made aware there was a new listing form with new fields, or that these designations even existed until I told them, and yes, I found that difficult to believe as well. 

[TheRustyRoost]

My products are all hand made, yet labeled as "hand picked by" and I want it changed now. Etsy is wrong for doing this. They are not hand picked or just designed by me they are not even digital designs either. It makes it sound like I am buying my items from other people and I am very upset. This is false advertising by Etsy.

I already changed the listing Details: "Core details: Physical item I did • A finished product • 2020 - 2024 It's made from scratch" 

That "Core Details" has done NOTHING to change the lies of 'Handpicked by" or "Designed by" 

What is the solution @etsy?

[PieceByNumberQuilts]

@TheRustyRoost   Respectfully, I agree with Etsy's label based on Etsy's published category definitions:

Handpicked by a seller

......

• Items from nature: One-of-a-kind natural items that the seller personally found or cultivated, as long as they are permitted by our policies for Plants, Herbs, Seeds and Soil and Endangered or Threatened Wildlife Products. The item might have been mounted, potted, polished, or sliced for collection, display or cultivation, so long as it was formed organically rather than man-made.
  • E.g. A rock; a geode; a shell; a fossil; a plant/plant start; a dried flower

From https://www.etsy.com/legal/creativity   

None of us on this planet can "hand make" genuine acorns.  You might hand select them, sprout them, glue their caps on, but you aren't making these by hand.

[TheRustyRoost]

@PieceByNumberQuilts

I am not saying the acorn themselves are but when I clean the acorns and acorn caps, heat dry the acorns and acorn caps then glue the acorn caps back onto the acorns and hand polish the acorns it is now hand made. The acorn caps do NOT stay on acorns naturally in nature they dry and fall off or else no oak tree would be able to grow if the cap is stuck on the acorn nut. But thank you for your opinion. Etsy is wrong and need to change the labeling. 

[PieceByNumberQuilts]

@TheRustyRoost   I truly understand that you put time, expertise and energy into your products.  And as some who feels my own products are rather breezily classified now by Etsy as “Designed By” when I create everything from A to Z, I get it that this new label feels insulting.  It’s just that both of us have products that fit squarely in Etsy’s new categories that we’re unhappy with, but at least we can see in writing their justification.

[TheRustyRoost]

Etsy need to change this now, it is wrong and false advertising to mislabel products in such a large scale. We have no digital items yet they are listed a designed by. The Etsy "AI" isn't able to tell what is a digital product VS. a physical product accurately enough and Etsy customer support is powerless to change anything upon reviewing the account and actual listing in dispute. Its hurting the customer and shop owners alike. 

[GlassyFields]

too many categories will make correctly designating items even more complex

maybe a checklist where more than one category can be selected

e.g. made by check

designed by check

= made by and designed by

[BagmakerSupply]

The implementation seems to be flawed. Trying to make binary decisions without sufficient information is always going to cause issues. As a small 'defense' of Etsy, there are so many edge cases that there will always be sellers unhappy with how the system automatically makes this decision. But even the existing structure can be improved, particularly the decision making flow.

Obviously just an educated guess, but it appears that the category is a factor - perhaps the first factor - and maybe some listings are assigned a type based on the category and the remaining factors are never even considered.

However it appears that the core details' questions need to be expanded as @GlassyFields suggests. And the types should probably be 'Designed By', 'Made By' (if you are using someone else's pattern for example), 'Designed and Made By' (if you are using a pattern you created), 'Designed By ShopName Made By ProductionPartner' (for POD etc).

Even though we design and / or have custom manufactured many of the supplies we carry we are always going to be saddled with 'Sourced By'.

[TheRustyRoost]

@PieceByNumberQuilts 

I understand your opinion on my acorn with glued cap product and I disagree. I disagree with Etsy too. My product of the glued cap acorns is not my only issues with the "creativity standards" changes and Etsy needs to hear it. They have mislabeled multiple items for many people as evident on numerous Reddit threads and here on Etsy's own community forums. @Etsy needs to hear it. I do not make digital download items like PDF designs, my products are all physical items that really shipped to customers yet Etsy AI has things labeled designed by. Per Etsy description " Designed by: Sellers’ original designs that are produced or printed by a third party OR offered as a digital download" Etsy is inferring that I do not make my own product and could be using a 3rd party or AI is wrong. This will confuse customers.  The labels Etsy AI picks are inconsistent for similar items across Etsy. So there are more than 1 single issue with Etsy's new label system than the hand made vs hand picked. Etsy is false advertising with these labels and it needs to be changed. Etsy's AI programs should not be the only way they identify products. There needs to be customer service available to review options to change the category of a listing individually. Instead Etsy is just saying fill out this "survey" for weeks now with no changes made.  

"Designed by a seller"

Sellers’ original designs that are produced or printed by a third party or offered as a digital download.

Items ‘designed by a seller’ include only:

• Digital downloads of sellers’ original designs: Original content created by the seller, sold as a digital download.
  • E.g. A digital file of a seller’s unique graphic design, audio, text document, or scanned copy of physical artwork
• Sellers’ original designs produced by a production partner: Original designs created by a seller and produced with the assistance of a production partner. Sellers must disclose that an item is made by a production partner, and provide accurate information about where the item will ship from.
  • E.g. A unique dress designed by a seller and reproduced at scale by a production partner; a coloring book designed and illustrated by a seller and printed and bound by a production partner; a graphic logo created by a seller and printed onto a phone case by a third-party printer
• Seller-prompted AI creations: Creations that were generated using AI tools (e.g. AI image generators such as Dall-E) based on a seller’s original prompts. Sellers must disclose within their listing description if an item is created with the use of AI. Read more about our stance on AI creations here.
  • E.g. A fantasy scene based on a seller’s original prompt or inputs, produced by an AI generator; a custom portrait of a buyer’s pet generated using AI tools

The following are examples of items that do not qualify as ‘designed by a seller’:

• Selling a bundle, collection, scan, or PDF of someone else’s work as a digital download, except in the case of qualifying vintage items (see “Handpicked by a seller”)
• Using a pre-existing design or choosing from a production partner’s readymade templates, except in the case of items personalized by a buyer (see “Sourced by a seller”)
• AI prompt bundles

[GlassyFields]

@TheRustyRoost 

Actually, the false advertising statement struck.

And complicated by ... who is responsible. A shop owner who is correctly describing and categorizing their items which are then mislabeled by Etsy ... now it seems Etsy is responsible for misrepresentation ... false advertising.

Assuming that these categories will be used by search to direct customers to items that may be misclassified will make the issue even bigger.

It seems that Etsy's normal stance is to stay out of mitigation and yet here they are opening themselves up to NAD on a grand scale.

It seems like it would be better to make the shop owner responsible for describing their item and should there be a intentional or unintentional misrepresentation, the shop owner is responsible.

With an unknown set of criteria (to shop owners) to categorize listings, will a NAD case penalize the seller ... or Etsy?

Wow ... a lot to think about.