Sellers often feel caught between marketplace enforcers and those deserving of a crackdown. Nowhere is that more true than on Etsy, where mass merchandise is prohibited except in the Supplies category.
Last year, Etsy made a transformational change when it introduced Creativity Standards, although it said it was only reorganizing existing policies into clearer categories and clarifying what was allowed on the marketplace
Etsy reminded sellers of this when it released its 2024 Transparency report and held a livestream interview with Trust & Safety executives on Wednesday. It’s clear from comments made by sellers during the livestream, that some sellers are still feeling stuck between Etsy’s takedown bots and dropshippers’ listings for mass merchandise.
Last summer, Etsy changed the designation of items from Handmade, Vintage, or Supplies, to the following four options: Made by a seller; Designed by a seller; Sourced by a seller; or Handpicked by a seller. At the time, some sellers said it signaled Etsy was becoming more tolerant of mass produced goods, and the following comments from last week show sellers still have grave reservations:
Etsy wants to be Temu.
The drop shippers are rampant.
Why it is allow to buy necklaces from Alibaba $3-6 and just print a sentimental custom card and sell $ 30-40.
Hard to keep not lose business to the Temu folks. Also, designing for POD (Print on Demand) should be done without Al because if we design by hand or on procreate it’s not the numbers game AI promotes.
What is being done about fake listings? Scammers selling $1,000 items for $40 and shipping for free from overseas?
We’re sharing this message as a small business that feels hurt and unheard. After so many years as a committed Etsy seller, the least we ask is to be heard by a real human.
While those making such comments may agree with a seller who wrote, “Etsy is really very unique and creative marketplace,” that belief may also make their concerns feel even more urgent.
Conversely, sellers also made comments about Etsy bots removing their listings and accusing them of violating standards, while being unable to reach customer service to dispute such takedowns.
At the part of the fireside chat where executives mentioned Etsy would begin testing a listing-levels appeals process (as opposed to only account-level appeals that currently exist), sellers applauded the move (with some using emoji to describe their approval):
Oh yay for listing level appeals! I haven’t had an issue, but I know many others have so hopefully that’ll be awesome for all of us!
Looking forward to the APPEALS!
Yay listing appeals!!
Appeals on listing level- there is hope for me! for my 2 100% hand knit listings
Also see Wednesday’s news story, “Etsy Tests a New Listing-Level Appeals Process.”
Sellers expressed other concerns including some about AI, such as a seller who wanted to see items categorized into Handmade, POD (print on demand), Vintage, and AI. “I don’t want to see pod and AI,” the seller said. Another wrote, “I wish that Etsy would split into POD and non-POD.”
Other comments about AI included the following:
Etsy Ads changed everything for me when I was starting, but I cancelled them all when I started being priced out by sellers generating similar products for pennies with AI.
Please reevaluate your AI stance Etsy, it will kil your handmade marketplace in the long run. And that would be a shame.
Among the comments were also suggestions for improvements, such as the following:
Can we get a way to see what’s in abandoned carts?
I wish you could sort Etsy searches by the different categories, like if it’s designed or made by the seller.
I would love Etsy to add a rule to their policies that they can help sellers with feedback that is inconsistent about the content of the review and the star given.
I would love an option to bulk edit our processing times for all profiles at once. I go on trips often and have to go through each profile every time.
It would be helpful to have a tool telling us how much you are going to take off me in fees when I work out a pricing for a listing.
Etsy made the fireside chat available for viewing on the following YouTube video, though the chat comments were only available during the stream: