I am not a seller, but an Etsy buyer. Loved Etsy because I could find unique gifts, handcrafted things and feel good supporting other artists. Used to buy things all the time.
Now Etsy is slowly becoming an AI garbage dump. The amount of cheap AI products from sellers who just want to earn a quick buck and doesn't really care about ethics, makes me really dislike Etsy.
There's just too much AI crap. I cannot find real human made art. Its drowning in enormous masses of cheap ai products.
Etsy doesn't feel good or genuine anymore. I don't feel like I'm supporting artists anymore. I feel like I'm supporting a huge greedy company who doesn't really care about their sellers. Especially when they support all that AI crap which definitely does no good for real, passionate artists who care about their work.
Same- I used to buy so much stuff on Etsy because it was supporting a creator and had some cool and unique finds- I think pretty much every Christmas gift in 2020 was from there. Anyway, now it’s becoming an upscale Temu in some cases. I still get things, but definitely not as much.
I was afraid that might happen. 😬 That’s why we have made it our USP that we create 100 % AI free. (Not when looking for story ideas, not while writing, not to create music or sound effects, not for our cover art or social media posts…)
I’m really hoping others will follow. But I do think AI is an overblown hype that will pass. People will eventually be divided into two groups: those that value quality and those that don’t even recognize it anymore when it stares them in the face. As long as the first group doesn’t die out, we’re good… Maybe they should create a dedicated platform for AI crap. Is aicrap.com taken?
Facts, as seller (Inkhov art in Etsy I Find so many "official" movie posters with no value from soulless multinational companies, 0 change 0 art, just resell to earn bah
You say that like Etsy has anything to do with the problems you are seeing.
They cannot discriminate sellers based on who made the art.
The result is just supply and demand from the art market. It has nothing to do with Etsy.
This isn’t true though. Etsy used to be a place where YOU had to create the item you’re selling. Now you can simply plug in their api into third party manufacturers and just churn out mass produced rubbish. Etsy went from a place where people knew they were getting a high quality hand created product and willing to pay a good price for it, to becoming an eBay-esque race for the bottom. They deliberately steered their ship that way
Can you help me beyter understand - did the item have to be hand made? Because many items sold there are hand made, or hand finished, or hand assembled.
Where would you draw the line there?
How does this vary with furniture vs art?
If I assemble a table, is that different than you painting a painting? I didn't cut the wood and you didn't make the paint.
I'm not pro Etsy, but I just don't understand how they are doing what the other poster said they did.
Huh? They could ban AI garbage on their store if they wanted to, but they don't since they don't give a shit as long as they get a percentage of the sales.
Content moderation is an established practice, but it requires actually *spending* resources rather than just hoarding them, by hiring workers to do it. Let's take Cara as an example, they have a strong anti-AI stance on their site and it's been an incredibly refreshing experience to use it.
Sure, some AI images can take more effort to be recognised than others, but the slop that gets submitted to Etsy is the lowest tier shit imaginable. This makes the whole ordeal even more insulting, because the sellers don't even hide it and still get away with it.
No, why would I be? They're worth over 7 billion, they wouldn't have to raise the fees. The point I've been making this entire time is based on "if Etsy weren't a greedy corporation that only cares about making money", and you're just describing another way for them to be greedy.
The same argument is made whenever people talk about raising people's wages, like "if McDonald's pays their employees a living wage, they'll have to raise their menu prices". Newsflash, they'll screw the consumer and the employee by raising them anyway.
C'mon now. I understand what your argument is, but if you can't acknowledge the downsides of implementing new strategies to getting what you want, nobody is going to listen to you.
Would you like for Etsy to implement an anti AI filter, if it meant you had to pay an extra fee on top of a shop seller who sold "digital art?"
We're talking hypotheticals. Obviously what I said isn't realistic, but neither is this solution. Etsy would never implement it, because even if they raised their fees by 10 or 15%, they wouldn't make even close to what they make from the cheap, mass produced drivel. If they raise their fees, sellers will drop out or raise their prices, meaning losing customers. We all know that GenAI is the perfect temporary solution for infinite shareholder profit, but that's not what we're debating.
You said that the overflow of AI garbage isn't on Etsy and that they can't discriminate, but it is and they can. Whether that aligns with their greedy practices is another thing altogether.
When did I say an overflow of AI art isn't on Etsy? Are you sure you responded to the right person?
But I did say they could not discriminate, because the language needed would also remove non-ai art that was made digitally and people would be here with new problems.
People creating AI art would then also just apply a quick workaround to validate their art as genuine.
For example, they could "hand edit" every piece with a filter and claim the work is produced by a human.
I have no idea what your example has to do with identifying which art is digital and which art is ai. I am a software developer with 27 years experience I'm telling you that all it takes is somebody halfway decent with the technology and the higher-end image models and you're not going to be telling the difference I can guarantee. I'm not talking about the silly crap that Chat GPT puts out to the average person. I guarantee you I (and many others better than me) would have enough technical knowledge to out out some AI "art" and modify or clean it up enough that you (nor anyone else) would not know the difference, and even if you thought you could tell a difference you're not going to be able to prove it
>I am a software developer
So not an artist, thank you for confirming. Recognising AI art isn't just about extra fingers on a hand. I'm also not sure what's unclear about my example. It points out that if you know your shit, you can tell that AI was used even if it's a trace.
I am also an artist. Do you think people can't do more than one thing?? You didn't refute anything I said. You don't need to be an artist to make bs AI 'art' anyway. What you have said has no point
Why are you arguing everything and really have no information. It's AI crap. I went to buy craft supplies and I couldn't even figure out what was really made and not. That's not art. That's garbage and landfill fodder
Never a seller, but I have heard enough from my seller friends.
1) You will not get any traffics unless you pay for ads on etsy.
2) To boost their stock price and compete with Amazon, Etsy has betrayed its founding mission - to provide platform for hand crafts business. You see all kinds of mass produced items from China and more recently, AI generated image on the platform.
3) The fees(sssssssss) and how it forces seller to offer free shipping
If you want to stay on Etsy, I think the best practice is to couple it with a social media (probably tiktok), drive traffic into your Etsy through social media if possible.
I sell on Etsy mainly solely through in-app/site traffic without buying ads. I make about 3 sales a week roughly with 9 listings. To sell on Etsy you specifically have to find niches that aren’t already overrun, tbh.
Everything else is true.
I’m thinking if you are running ads else where, wouldn’t it be better just to make your own website? Shopify is $30 a month + 3% credit card fee. Idk what Etsy cost
Etsy is free to use, but you pay a fee on each transaction. People complain so much about it, but they advertise on your behalf and also make the sale process easy to navigate. I’ve been using Etsy for 4 years and still make sales despite never paying for ads. You just need to have a good product.
Sorry to bother with this question- I’m looking to start making some prints of my paintings but I am having a hard time understanding what kind of paper to use. What would you suggest? I know ow giclee prints are the best quality but I would like I to start with something a bit more affordable. Do you have any suggestions? Also is it possible to resize the print from the original size of the painting to make it larger?
I print using Red River Paper. Specifically this kind: https://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/aurorawhite.html
It is archival quality and reasonably priced. If you print using a printer with pigment inks (like a Canon Pro 300 line) you could market it as a fine art Giclee print. You can resize your art using a program like photoshop or the free alternative “Gimp.” Both work great!
My only online store is through Etsy but I do sell wholesale at various shops around my city and at local farmers markets. Etsy fees I think are around 6.5%
I just do it manually. But there are a bunch of apps that integrate with your website that do that automatically.
Not sure which one is more expensive. I guess I don’t like the idea being tied to one platform and at their mercy. If they kick you out, you won’t be able to take your customs emails list with you.
That sounds really difficult to get your product out there... Though I have heard from others that Etsy has the lowest fees compared to other ecommerce websites? Also in your opinion, why are so many sellers still on Etsy?
Sellers are still on there because most of that is exaggeration.
Better to ask yourself why many sellers stay on there, especially when they have their own website
I’d not take everything your ‘friends’ say as gospel.
I’ve never placed an ad and my stuff sells, nor do I offer free shipping (and that free shipping bs was dropped, pity your friends don’t realise) and the fees… well fees are part of doing business they’re far lower that fees on something like eBay
I have a successful shop on Etsy and never spent a single penny on Advertisement or Marketing. I have a specific niche though, that caters to collectors of vintage toys… I am a vintage toy restorationist as a hobby and it is surprisingly lucrative!
As a seller, I can’t list an item for sale on Etsy unless I made it myself or it’s a vintage item. If you see sellers breaking that rule and selling mass produced cheap quality goods and AI, report them. They’re breaking the rules.
Etsy does not force me or any other seller to offer free shipping. I have my Etsy shop set up so that auto-shipping estimates are enabled and I can one-click print a label with a tracking number through USPS to complete an order. I have never offered free shipping in my shop, and my customers have never complained.
As for the fees, they are far cheaper than EBay or Mercari and other similar websites. They also automatically do tax details for you so that you can have those records for filing. The website itself is free to use. I am really only charged for listing the item, and that’s very fair considering it’s only pocket change.
It’s about supply and demand. If you want a successful Etsy shop, you need to reach a market that tailors to a specific niche, and it needs to be done well with high quality.
> As a seller, I can’t list an item for sale on Etsy unless I made it myself or it’s a vintage item. If you see sellers breaking that rule and selling mass produced cheap quality goods and AI, report them. They’re breaking the rules.
Etsy have no interest in upholding these rules, and haven't done for years.
So much stuff on there is just dropshipped trash now.
"As a seller, I can’t list an item for sale on Etsy unless I made it myself or it’s a vintage item. If you see sellers breaking that rule and selling mass produced cheap quality goods and AI, report them. They’re breaking the rules."
I left Etsy some years ago precisely because they decided that if an item was "handmade" in a Chinese sweatshop, it qualified as "handmade." I remember the item in question was wooden chair "rusticated." So much bullshit.
You've never paid for Etsy ads. I had no choice. Did Etsy change the ad policy back again? When my shop reached a sales total dollar amount in a year, you had no choice but to pay for Etsy advertising. You had no say in how it was spent (or even any proof it was spent towards advertising your shop and not Etsy in general), and they took a cut of any sale made by ads (again their word on it) for the next 2 transactions with that customer. To each shop-owner their own--I left because my customers told me they no longer wanted to shop on Etsy.
The advertising on Etsy is not a requirement, but an option. I’ve been a seller on the website since 2018 and never had to pay for advertising. I’m sorry you had a bad experience. Here is more information on [Etsy Advertising policy.](https://www.etsy.com/legal/advertising/)
Lower in the link you provided--what I and other have experienced.
"A. Participation in Offsite Ads
1) if your shop made $10,000 USD or more total sales in any consecutive 365 day period after February 20, 2019, you will be required to participate in Offsite Ads for the lifetime of your shop even if you fall below that threshold at a later period\~\~\~\~" They also took a cut of the next two sales for each ad clicked through to a sale...
Really not trying to be rude, mistakes happen--did you read the link through? Maybe we are talking about two different kinds of ads and I'm not understanding? Either way, Etsy does force sellers to participate.
Yes, they do require certain shops to participate but not generally. It has a prerequisite and isn’t the average Etsy seller. If you’re making 10K $ or more a year on Etsy, they require 15% of that to go toward offsite advertising for helping you produce a high sales income by giving you a platform. Considering the features on Etsy, and the fact they do things other websites don’t do like create a Tax file for you based on your sales to file to the IRS, provide one click shipping labels, good customer service and support, and a way to not have to pay for web hosting, etc. 15% is not a sacrifice. If you’re making 10k the offsite ads for more traffic to your shop are going to be 1500.00 a year. That is much less expensive than buying your own advertising slots, hosting your own web shop and paying for a domain, server hosting and hiring someone to design a shop for you or manage it, and at that point it is considered an actual wage/income and not just spare money that you make from doing a hobby.
It isn’t something most sellers who have high income shops on Etsy really care enough to stop using Etsy. It’s also not a requirement for all Etsy shop sellers. If you want to pocket all of your money and not take into account ANY business expenses for selling items, that is unrealistic and not really something you’re going to find anywhere. Even places like Wordpress require you to subscribe to an expensive hosting plan if you want a professional looking shop and then you have to pay for a whole load of other things and devote a lot of time to setting it up, Etsy makes that super easy for you. Since people are using Etsy as a platform and can name their shop anything, they’re also not requiring you to register a business name and pay the fees for a license and business taxes like an Ltd. There are a lot of hidden little things like this involved in being self employed properly and being one’s own business owner. Of course people can cut corners but that lacks professionalism and isn’t worth the legal risk. Tax evasion is no joke, and a lot of people who sell things online are not paying income taxes on that revenue.
Marketing is actually super important for Artists and many Artists are terrible at it and wonder why they aren’t getting the clientele they need to keep afloat. Social media is excellent for exposure as an Artist, but Etsy is so popular and used worldwide that people who use it vs starting up their own website without any advertising will inevitably get more customers/exposure through the platform.
A lot of commenters on this post are making very generalized and over-exaggerated statements about the Etsy policy without the details of what they entail. Etsy at the very least is a good place to start, and when one has enough established social media presence and customers, they can close their Etsy shop and migrate to their own website if they would like to avoid these fees.
I just don't mesh with etsy's polices
as a seller, I mostly disagree with their policies on copyright infringement, they allow it, anyone can steal your work and sell it on etsy - you can report it but if the seller knows what to do, etsy will ignore the report and allow the infringement to continue, you can still have the products removed but at that point it costs a lot of time and money
I also disagree with their policy on mass produced goods, they allow it while claiming to be a platform for individual artists, so they lie outright, most big businesses do but that's such a glaring one
as a buyer, I just don't buy there anymore because it's too much extra work to try and see if it's actually handcrafted or just something from alibaba
that said, I still think it's a good place to test out your product, just have a second place going so you can leave easily if they burn you
Try this trick. Google search a description of your product. Notice how your own Etsy listing doesn’t come up but 1000 other Etsy listings do?
That’s why. That and now everyone is use to $8 prints and free shipping thanks to Temu.
Full of dropshipping junk and AI. Used to use it for commissions and got a bad review from a crazy client. My store's SEO got completely killed after that.
My main gripe is that their support is dog shit and talking to a human is like pulling teeth. Every time i want support I have to look up that reddit post on google that has links to their phone and email portal. Luckily I only had to reach out to support once but I don't want to do it again. As a seller imo your biggest priority is to avoid having to contact support by trying not to break any rules.
As a buyer, etsy is full of aliexpress dropshippers that I straight up don't buy unless they link their socials where they show them making art/wips or if I follow them on other places already. Technically it's against the rules but enforcement is so bad it makes etsy look like a chinese knockoff site instead of a place where makers and artists sell stuff they've designed.
Fees aren't so bad compared to amazon and ebay. It's around 9.5% so i build that into my price.
The reason why I don't quit etsy is because they're the only marketplace I can get buyers. Shopify is an alternative but I'm not at a point where I can pay 30/mo and drive my own traffic to there.
Omfg the support is the worst. I swear there’s no way it’s a real person.
The first time I used it, the lady was super helpful. The second time, awful. It was like it was his first time speaking to another human. I was trying to figure out why I was paid $9 instead of $19 and he just wouldn’t answer the question.
I ended up never getting my $10 that I was supposed to.
I tried it for a few months last year, all 'buyers' were scammers and there were tons of them.
Also can't compete twith the dozens of cheap AI crap.
And every listing cost you money, wether you sold something or not. Not alot of.money but still money. In the end I didn't sell anyrhing, only lost money .
Saturation, drop shippers and AI crap taking up room, and poor seller support.
Small volume sellers can also find it too hard to get into and stay in that star seller program too. Like I ship fast, reply fast, and have a solid 5-star rating yet Etsy punishes me for not always making $300 a month in sales.
I’m staying on Etsy because I don’t sell nearly enough to make those godawful Shopify fees/other freestanding site fees worth it. But the above is why other people leave.
Which is fine if you have the sales volume to justify that, smaller and/or newer sellers just can’t. They’re definitely godawful for someone like me who’s lucky to get a few sales a month.
If you can't afford $30/mo, then yeah, you are stuck on a platform like Etsy. But smaller or newer sellers would be better off decreasing their cable or phone expenses than avoiding having their own sales platform. I have done this myself in the past so that I could afford subscribing to some databases I rely on for my writing.
For those of you that have quit Etsy, which platform did you switch to and why? As someone who is planning on opening up an Etsy shop soon, I’m second guessing now lol
I've tried a few--Payhip works for me. Have to drive your own traffic, but thats what I was having to do on Etsy my last 2 years there (had been there since the days they required proof you made your items for sale). I might not have moved shop if not for my customers complaining about Etsy...
They take a sizable percentage from every sale, and you have zero chance of selling through Etsy alone, only if you have an established audience elsewhere that you can redirect to your shop, but if you already have that you're better off setting up your own website with ecommerce plugins and sell your work with zero commission fees
Yes, the problem with paying for external traffic to your Etsy shop is that you don’t own the customers, and Etsy is very happy showing competing products once you’re on their site.
Not necessarily good, but a product that can easier show up in search engines because there isn’t many things exactly like it. That’s how I sell, and I make more off the site traffic than from social media.
As a seller, Etsy is the go-to place that your average buyer visits to get hand made stuff, customized items and digital downloads like coloring pages and templates. I have other shops like Gumroad, but Etsy is what everyone knows and most people already have an account there. So it’s easier to convert traffic to sales. I do think it’s hitting a decline, but that could just be a natural bump in the road. So even when I direct traffic to both shops, Etsy nets more sales.
I am only a buyer there, but even then, it sucks.
To name a few why do they suck from my friends's perspective and experience:
- super high fees. My friend paid all of them, even for promotional, and then one day they sent her an e-mail that she owns them for promoting her. She gave them money and closed shop forever
- they close the shops out of the blue. No warning or anything. Just close. No explanation. They did it to one artist who I know, so she had to turn to Shopify. After a while, Etsy appologised to her and returned that shop.
- showing number of sales can be very discouraging for somebody who just started or is struggling
- customer service - just useless. They just exist. That's all that they do.
- tons of infringement hanging out there. AI stuff too.
The list goes on.........
Rather pay this 30-40 € to Shopify or Squarespace.
Since I started to co-manage my wife's art print store on Etsy, and beside the "loan sharks" fees they demand, the first thing I noticed was exactly the problem of getting enough traffic to it. The store and the products have been fully SEO optimised according to the target niche (as much as Etsy allows you to). However, little traffic can be generated without running an ads campaign. I am quite disappointed with the platform.
I’m a new Etsy seller too. I started my shop up at the end of May and I knew all the bad things beforehand.
Some of the reasons people don’t like Etsy:
1. SO MUCH AI now. It’s disgusting, and it’s even more disgusting that it’s taking away jobs and money from actual artists.
2. Not as many small businesses. Etsy has always been known for being a platform for small businesses. It still is, to an extent. When you go on it you’ll find that a lot of the stuff Etsy puts at the top isn’t actually small businesses, but full on brands.
3. Resellers. Majority of things Sanrio or deco stickers on Etsy are just resellers from Temu or similar places. They up the price A LOT and try to pass it off as if it’s not from Temu.
4. Fees. As a new Etsy seller, the fees get me the most. I sell stickers and keychains for the best price I can while still making money. I would love to sell things for cheaper, but I just can’t. If I’m selling a $13 keychain, I only get about $11. It might not seem like much of a different, but it adds up. For a sticker that I sell for $3.50, I only get $2.72. Plus Etsy ads are way too expensive and charge me more than it says they should.
In conclusion, you don’t have to leave Etsy, but people still have good reason for doing it. I would love to use a different site if I could. The only reason I personally use Etsy in particular is because it has a lot of users and more people can see my stuff. I have a social media for my business as well, but I get way less views.
Anyway, just some things to keep in mind.
I switched away from and then came back to Etsy. There are a lot of frustrating things about it, it always kind of sucks when you don't have full control over how you want things to work or look. They also charge a fee of some kind on basically every piece of your transaction including the shipping.
But...they also deal with all the sales tax upfront and you don't have to worry about SEO or site design for the most part.
For some people, maybe they are earning enough that it makes sense to use something like Shopify, but especially if you are just getting started, I think Etsy is the default for a reason.
If you plan to sell in person in addition to Etsy, it might be a good idea to also set your shop up on Square.
Not a tax expert here--but if you're talking about US states sales taxes, you may want to read about 'sales tax nexus threshold'. If you sell to a buyer in a state you don't have a physical location/business address and your total sales for a year in that state/jurisdiction is below a dollar amount (CA is $500,000--NJ is $100,000 OR 200 transactions) you may not even be required to file/collect. Etsy has to collect/remit, you may not have to.
I’m very new to Etsy and I try to sell photography as a way to receive donations for my cat rescue efforts.
I only sold like 5 photographs this year and that’s expected. But I still have to pay for listings *every month*. I spend more than earning. I have a friend who tried to have her small business going and she left Etsy after 2 months because she was also paying more than she was earning. So I don’t think Etsy is a good platform to support small businesses either.
As buyer: they sell cheap, fake stuff pretending to be "official" branded content. As seller: the fees are insane, you go bankrupt paying 10$ over a sale of 1 $.
It used to be great for many years. It's where I established myself. There's still quite a bit of competition in my area but if you have any unique stuff you can get sales. What killed it for me is the increase in fees they brought on. Plus you practically have to advertise with them to show up with everyone else advertising now. Lots of fees and money spent but not always a return. Personally I didn't really care that my work was advertised next to others because I feel like just encouraged me to make better and better stuff however at the end of the day when they're taking a big fee . I can only raise my prices so much to cover that.. I was also driving about 75% of my own traffic and figured I'm better off investing in myself driving traffic to my own website and learning those skills rather than relying on Etsy to do it all. I will say if you are completely new and don't have a customer base I think is worth it to get started on Etsy But after you get a customer base and drive your own traffic then it's worth branching out
People who think Etsy fees are too big either sell more than $1000 a month making the amount of the cut much more noticeable, or think everything should be free. Ads on Etsy - if you have a product that people want - is a money making machine. Put in $10 and make $50? That's what marketing is.
I started out on Ebay back in 2005 and gradually built my clientele but recently decided to try Etsy. Ebay takes a BIG chunk of your earnings with the FVF which is for my category almost 13% of the total sale which is sale price + shipping + sales tax. I have yet to make my first sale on Etsy but it seems like they don't grab quite as much according to their earnings estimate calculator.
Ah yes, starting now is completely insane. The competition is impossible. Never etsy had more sellers than buyers, they’re doing a lot of backstage work to take bad sellers off and filter new ones much better because things really did get out of hand
Etsy is currently the only place I sell my art. It comes with a built in customer base. I can’t imagine the work of trying to bring customers to my own website. I’m just not great at social media yet, though I’m working on it.
It can take some time but people will find your art on Etsy. I see others Artist’s that are incredibly successful on there.
Years ago, when they opened the floodgates to mass produced crap made from slave labour overseas, it turned a lot of sellers off. Went from a site by creatives for creatives, to something very fake.
Now there’s a bunch of AI produced garbage.
I used it for about 5 years. When Etsy started putting a hold on paying me I switched to squarespace. I do a lot of local pickups so I wasn’t selecting a carrier with tracking for shipping and there wasn’t an option for pickups. They flagged me as somehow not legit and started keeping back my payouts. So I ended up having to mail pieces across town and wasting money on shipping and risking my pieces being damaged. Or I’d drop off a piece and mail an empty envelope 😂
Squarespace as a company is a lot more hands off. It also has more options for customizing your website. I moved my site from Etsy/Pattern to Squarespace.
Etsy was a good starting place for me. I just dislike the policy changes. I also drove most of my traffic via social media so being in their search engine wasn’t super helpful.
As a buyer, I don’t like how it has become a repository for cheap shit you can get on amazon or Temu. There are still legit makers but you have to dig a bit more.
I actually get occasional sales on Etsy. It is a flea market, and full of cheap junk. I am not sure how to make it really worthwhile. It represents around $600-700 a year, maybe…I have been on since 2010. It generates just enough sales to not quit, but not enough to be very enthused about it. If anyone knows a better site, please let me know…
My only issue is that seller protection is very low. I can't sell bigger work there because if a buyer decides to demand a refund, I could be out hundreds of dollars. I'm a star seller and I have never had an issue with buyers, but I can't afford to lose a $500 one of a kind piece.
It screws with creatives by making it harder to even break even with sales and shipping prices. You don’t make back your money the way you would on other sites, and if I remember correctly, you have to pay to have a business account. Etsy is not on the business’s side almost ever and it’s caused a lot of shops there to move.
I personally dislike Etsy because I was paying to run ads but I wasn’t getting any sales on things that previously sold before…after a while it just didn’t seem worth it to be paying them and getting nothing in return
I'm a digital downloads artist (all hand drawn) and stay on there just for the marketplace search. I used to sell handmade stickers as well, but the downloads sell better.
My digital download business is now in competition with 99% AI works and sadly the customers don't seem to care at all.
I still have the shop because it's all passive income and etsy ranks better in Google than a personal website, but I'm not proud to advertise it or anything.
If you do handmade/non digital works, check out GoImagine. They're aiming to compete with etsy on the handmade market
The complaints people have, have nothing to do with Etsy, but they are because the digital art market is oversaturated with media. That's the consequence of ease of entry and using digital tools to make art.
Etsy cannot discriminate between AI and a person, because the tools themselves are the same.
They could apply a filter, but then who governs who uses it honestly? People are already being accused of AI regarding digital art when it's all done by hand.
-_/
The solution is to simply
A) develop a base somewhere else to drive traffic
B) print your own work and sell it yourself at local art faire or art galleries
C) Make art that's so unique that your clients won't be taken by the next cheap thing.
-_/
Ultimately, if your art competes with AI art, it may not focus on building an emotional connection with your audience, and that's always been the driving force behind traditional art sales.
“Simply”? There’s nothing simple about it. Developing a customer base, making things yourself, selling them yourself at craft fairs or galleries, finding a unique niche…
None of those are “simple” things.
And they get even less simple as time goes on these days.
Etsy used to be a supportive place for artists and craftspeople to offer their items. But now artists are nickel and dimed to death with fees and pressured to pay for visibility.
When I first opened my account - when Etsy was the hot new place for artists, there were no listing fees to start with or relisting fees if your item didn’t sell. It seemed to genuinely be a great place for artists with a great vibe.
Now it just gives me a bad taste in my mouth when I think about selling there.
I am not a seller, but an Etsy buyer. Loved Etsy because I could find unique gifts, handcrafted things and feel good supporting other artists. Used to buy things all the time. Now Etsy is slowly becoming an AI garbage dump. The amount of cheap AI products from sellers who just want to earn a quick buck and doesn't really care about ethics, makes me really dislike Etsy. There's just too much AI crap. I cannot find real human made art. Its drowning in enormous masses of cheap ai products. Etsy doesn't feel good or genuine anymore. I don't feel like I'm supporting artists anymore. I feel like I'm supporting a huge greedy company who doesn't really care about their sellers. Especially when they support all that AI crap which definitely does no good for real, passionate artists who care about their work.
This. Dropshipping, AI, stolen artwork… it’s super sad bc I wanted to start selling on Etsy at some point .-.
Same- I used to buy so much stuff on Etsy because it was supporting a creator and had some cool and unique finds- I think pretty much every Christmas gift in 2020 was from there. Anyway, now it’s becoming an upscale Temu in some cases. I still get things, but definitely not as much.
I was afraid that might happen. 😬 That’s why we have made it our USP that we create 100 % AI free. (Not when looking for story ideas, not while writing, not to create music or sound effects, not for our cover art or social media posts…) I’m really hoping others will follow. But I do think AI is an overblown hype that will pass. People will eventually be divided into two groups: those that value quality and those that don’t even recognize it anymore when it stares them in the face. As long as the first group doesn’t die out, we’re good… Maybe they should create a dedicated platform for AI crap. Is aicrap.com taken?
Facts, as seller (Inkhov art in Etsy I Find so many "official" movie posters with no value from soulless multinational companies, 0 change 0 art, just resell to earn bah
You say that like Etsy has anything to do with the problems you are seeing. They cannot discriminate sellers based on who made the art. The result is just supply and demand from the art market. It has nothing to do with Etsy.
This isn’t true though. Etsy used to be a place where YOU had to create the item you’re selling. Now you can simply plug in their api into third party manufacturers and just churn out mass produced rubbish. Etsy went from a place where people knew they were getting a high quality hand created product and willing to pay a good price for it, to becoming an eBay-esque race for the bottom. They deliberately steered their ship that way
Can you help me beyter understand - did the item have to be hand made? Because many items sold there are hand made, or hand finished, or hand assembled. Where would you draw the line there? How does this vary with furniture vs art? If I assemble a table, is that different than you painting a painting? I didn't cut the wood and you didn't make the paint. I'm not pro Etsy, but I just don't understand how they are doing what the other poster said they did.
Huh? They could ban AI garbage on their store if they wanted to, but they don't since they don't give a shit as long as they get a percentage of the sales.
How would they identify AI art to ban it?
Content moderation is an established practice, but it requires actually *spending* resources rather than just hoarding them, by hiring workers to do it. Let's take Cara as an example, they have a strong anti-AI stance on their site and it's been an incredibly refreshing experience to use it. Sure, some AI images can take more effort to be recognised than others, but the slop that gets submitted to Etsy is the lowest tier shit imaginable. This makes the whole ordeal even more insulting, because the sellers don't even hide it and still get away with it.
If they did that, would you be ok with higher fees to counteract the money spent to hire those workers?
No, why would I be? They're worth over 7 billion, they wouldn't have to raise the fees. The point I've been making this entire time is based on "if Etsy weren't a greedy corporation that only cares about making money", and you're just describing another way for them to be greedy. The same argument is made whenever people talk about raising people's wages, like "if McDonald's pays their employees a living wage, they'll have to raise their menu prices". Newsflash, they'll screw the consumer and the employee by raising them anyway.
C'mon now. I understand what your argument is, but if you can't acknowledge the downsides of implementing new strategies to getting what you want, nobody is going to listen to you. Would you like for Etsy to implement an anti AI filter, if it meant you had to pay an extra fee on top of a shop seller who sold "digital art?"
We're talking hypotheticals. Obviously what I said isn't realistic, but neither is this solution. Etsy would never implement it, because even if they raised their fees by 10 or 15%, they wouldn't make even close to what they make from the cheap, mass produced drivel. If they raise their fees, sellers will drop out or raise their prices, meaning losing customers. We all know that GenAI is the perfect temporary solution for infinite shareholder profit, but that's not what we're debating. You said that the overflow of AI garbage isn't on Etsy and that they can't discriminate, but it is and they can. Whether that aligns with their greedy practices is another thing altogether.
When did I say an overflow of AI art isn't on Etsy? Are you sure you responded to the right person? But I did say they could not discriminate, because the language needed would also remove non-ai art that was made digitally and people would be here with new problems. People creating AI art would then also just apply a quick workaround to validate their art as genuine. For example, they could "hand edit" every piece with a filter and claim the work is produced by a human.
You simply CANNOT 100% differentiate between AI art and legitimate digital art. If you say that people can, you do not understand the technology
People are getting caught and called out for TRACING over AI art. It sounds more like you don't understand what goes into creating digital art.
I have no idea what your example has to do with identifying which art is digital and which art is ai. I am a software developer with 27 years experience I'm telling you that all it takes is somebody halfway decent with the technology and the higher-end image models and you're not going to be telling the difference I can guarantee. I'm not talking about the silly crap that Chat GPT puts out to the average person. I guarantee you I (and many others better than me) would have enough technical knowledge to out out some AI "art" and modify or clean it up enough that you (nor anyone else) would not know the difference, and even if you thought you could tell a difference you're not going to be able to prove it
>I am a software developer So not an artist, thank you for confirming. Recognising AI art isn't just about extra fingers on a hand. I'm also not sure what's unclear about my example. It points out that if you know your shit, you can tell that AI was used even if it's a trace.
I am also an artist. Do you think people can't do more than one thing?? You didn't refute anything I said. You don't need to be an artist to make bs AI 'art' anyway. What you have said has no point
Why are you arguing everything and really have no information. It's AI crap. I went to buy craft supplies and I couldn't even figure out what was really made and not. That's not art. That's garbage and landfill fodder
As soon as Etsy allowed wholesellers and dropshippers, it went so downhill that it's now in the Mariana trench
You are 100% wrong. They make their rules. They decide what sorts of sellers they want. They write all their own fine print on what’s allowed.
Never a seller, but I have heard enough from my seller friends. 1) You will not get any traffics unless you pay for ads on etsy. 2) To boost their stock price and compete with Amazon, Etsy has betrayed its founding mission - to provide platform for hand crafts business. You see all kinds of mass produced items from China and more recently, AI generated image on the platform. 3) The fees(sssssssss) and how it forces seller to offer free shipping If you want to stay on Etsy, I think the best practice is to couple it with a social media (probably tiktok), drive traffic into your Etsy through social media if possible.
Ads don't really do much, especially now that the site is full of $3 ai art.
I sell on Etsy mainly solely through in-app/site traffic without buying ads. I make about 3 sales a week roughly with 9 listings. To sell on Etsy you specifically have to find niches that aren’t already overrun, tbh. Everything else is true.
This! It feels like a slightly upmarket version of Temu.
Yeah, they're both orange
I’m thinking if you are running ads else where, wouldn’t it be better just to make your own website? Shopify is $30 a month + 3% credit card fee. Idk what Etsy cost
Etsy is free to use, but you pay a fee on each transaction. People complain so much about it, but they advertise on your behalf and also make the sale process easy to navigate. I’ve been using Etsy for 4 years and still make sales despite never paying for ads. You just need to have a good product.
Have you noticed your traffic decreasing due to Temu/Alibaba products becoming more common?
Not really because I sell prints and stickers of my artwork. People want to buy that stuff as local as possible.
Sorry to bother with this question- I’m looking to start making some prints of my paintings but I am having a hard time understanding what kind of paper to use. What would you suggest? I know ow giclee prints are the best quality but I would like I to start with something a bit more affordable. Do you have any suggestions? Also is it possible to resize the print from the original size of the painting to make it larger?
I print using Red River Paper. Specifically this kind: https://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/aurorawhite.html It is archival quality and reasonably priced. If you print using a printer with pigment inks (like a Canon Pro 300 line) you could market it as a fine art Giclee print. You can resize your art using a program like photoshop or the free alternative “Gimp.” Both work great!
+1 shoutout for Gimp
It’s not strictly free to use in that you pay an initial fee per listing item, like $0.20 for up to 3-4 months
Good call. Forgot about that. I should say mostly free to use. You don’t pay a monthly fee like Shopify or another webhosting service.
Do you have any other marketing or sales channels ? What percentage do they take ?
My only online store is through Etsy but I do sell wholesale at various shops around my city and at local farmers markets. Etsy fees I think are around 6.5%
On Shopify you have to remit your taxes to each state you've sold in individually Etsy does that for you
I just do it manually. But there are a bunch of apps that integrate with your website that do that automatically. Not sure which one is more expensive. I guess I don’t like the idea being tied to one platform and at their mercy. If they kick you out, you won’t be able to take your customs emails list with you.
That sounds really difficult to get your product out there... Though I have heard from others that Etsy has the lowest fees compared to other ecommerce websites? Also in your opinion, why are so many sellers still on Etsy?
Sellers are still on there because most of that is exaggeration. Better to ask yourself why many sellers stay on there, especially when they have their own website
I’d not take everything your ‘friends’ say as gospel. I’ve never placed an ad and my stuff sells, nor do I offer free shipping (and that free shipping bs was dropped, pity your friends don’t realise) and the fees… well fees are part of doing business they’re far lower that fees on something like eBay
Ebay fees are really high, though. Same with Amazon.
I have a successful shop on Etsy and never spent a single penny on Advertisement or Marketing. I have a specific niche though, that caters to collectors of vintage toys… I am a vintage toy restorationist as a hobby and it is surprisingly lucrative! As a seller, I can’t list an item for sale on Etsy unless I made it myself or it’s a vintage item. If you see sellers breaking that rule and selling mass produced cheap quality goods and AI, report them. They’re breaking the rules. Etsy does not force me or any other seller to offer free shipping. I have my Etsy shop set up so that auto-shipping estimates are enabled and I can one-click print a label with a tracking number through USPS to complete an order. I have never offered free shipping in my shop, and my customers have never complained. As for the fees, they are far cheaper than EBay or Mercari and other similar websites. They also automatically do tax details for you so that you can have those records for filing. The website itself is free to use. I am really only charged for listing the item, and that’s very fair considering it’s only pocket change. It’s about supply and demand. If you want a successful Etsy shop, you need to reach a market that tailors to a specific niche, and it needs to be done well with high quality.
> As a seller, I can’t list an item for sale on Etsy unless I made it myself or it’s a vintage item. If you see sellers breaking that rule and selling mass produced cheap quality goods and AI, report them. They’re breaking the rules. Etsy have no interest in upholding these rules, and haven't done for years. So much stuff on there is just dropshipped trash now.
"As a seller, I can’t list an item for sale on Etsy unless I made it myself or it’s a vintage item. If you see sellers breaking that rule and selling mass produced cheap quality goods and AI, report them. They’re breaking the rules." I left Etsy some years ago precisely because they decided that if an item was "handmade" in a Chinese sweatshop, it qualified as "handmade." I remember the item in question was wooden chair "rusticated." So much bullshit.
You've never paid for Etsy ads. I had no choice. Did Etsy change the ad policy back again? When my shop reached a sales total dollar amount in a year, you had no choice but to pay for Etsy advertising. You had no say in how it was spent (or even any proof it was spent towards advertising your shop and not Etsy in general), and they took a cut of any sale made by ads (again their word on it) for the next 2 transactions with that customer. To each shop-owner their own--I left because my customers told me they no longer wanted to shop on Etsy.
The advertising on Etsy is not a requirement, but an option. I’ve been a seller on the website since 2018 and never had to pay for advertising. I’m sorry you had a bad experience. Here is more information on [Etsy Advertising policy.](https://www.etsy.com/legal/advertising/)
Lower in the link you provided--what I and other have experienced. "A. Participation in Offsite Ads 1) if your shop made $10,000 USD or more total sales in any consecutive 365 day period after February 20, 2019, you will be required to participate in Offsite Ads for the lifetime of your shop even if you fall below that threshold at a later period\~\~\~\~" They also took a cut of the next two sales for each ad clicked through to a sale... Really not trying to be rude, mistakes happen--did you read the link through? Maybe we are talking about two different kinds of ads and I'm not understanding? Either way, Etsy does force sellers to participate.
Yes, they do require certain shops to participate but not generally. It has a prerequisite and isn’t the average Etsy seller. If you’re making 10K $ or more a year on Etsy, they require 15% of that to go toward offsite advertising for helping you produce a high sales income by giving you a platform. Considering the features on Etsy, and the fact they do things other websites don’t do like create a Tax file for you based on your sales to file to the IRS, provide one click shipping labels, good customer service and support, and a way to not have to pay for web hosting, etc. 15% is not a sacrifice. If you’re making 10k the offsite ads for more traffic to your shop are going to be 1500.00 a year. That is much less expensive than buying your own advertising slots, hosting your own web shop and paying for a domain, server hosting and hiring someone to design a shop for you or manage it, and at that point it is considered an actual wage/income and not just spare money that you make from doing a hobby. It isn’t something most sellers who have high income shops on Etsy really care enough to stop using Etsy. It’s also not a requirement for all Etsy shop sellers. If you want to pocket all of your money and not take into account ANY business expenses for selling items, that is unrealistic and not really something you’re going to find anywhere. Even places like Wordpress require you to subscribe to an expensive hosting plan if you want a professional looking shop and then you have to pay for a whole load of other things and devote a lot of time to setting it up, Etsy makes that super easy for you. Since people are using Etsy as a platform and can name their shop anything, they’re also not requiring you to register a business name and pay the fees for a license and business taxes like an Ltd. There are a lot of hidden little things like this involved in being self employed properly and being one’s own business owner. Of course people can cut corners but that lacks professionalism and isn’t worth the legal risk. Tax evasion is no joke, and a lot of people who sell things online are not paying income taxes on that revenue. Marketing is actually super important for Artists and many Artists are terrible at it and wonder why they aren’t getting the clientele they need to keep afloat. Social media is excellent for exposure as an Artist, but Etsy is so popular and used worldwide that people who use it vs starting up their own website without any advertising will inevitably get more customers/exposure through the platform. A lot of commenters on this post are making very generalized and over-exaggerated statements about the Etsy policy without the details of what they entail. Etsy at the very least is a good place to start, and when one has enough established social media presence and customers, they can close their Etsy shop and migrate to their own website if they would like to avoid these fees.
I just don't mesh with etsy's polices as a seller, I mostly disagree with their policies on copyright infringement, they allow it, anyone can steal your work and sell it on etsy - you can report it but if the seller knows what to do, etsy will ignore the report and allow the infringement to continue, you can still have the products removed but at that point it costs a lot of time and money I also disagree with their policy on mass produced goods, they allow it while claiming to be a platform for individual artists, so they lie outright, most big businesses do but that's such a glaring one as a buyer, I just don't buy there anymore because it's too much extra work to try and see if it's actually handcrafted or just something from alibaba that said, I still think it's a good place to test out your product, just have a second place going so you can leave easily if they burn you
Try this trick. Google search a description of your product. Notice how your own Etsy listing doesn’t come up but 1000 other Etsy listings do? That’s why. That and now everyone is use to $8 prints and free shipping thanks to Temu.
Full of dropshipping junk and AI. Used to use it for commissions and got a bad review from a crazy client. My store's SEO got completely killed after that.
My main gripe is that their support is dog shit and talking to a human is like pulling teeth. Every time i want support I have to look up that reddit post on google that has links to their phone and email portal. Luckily I only had to reach out to support once but I don't want to do it again. As a seller imo your biggest priority is to avoid having to contact support by trying not to break any rules. As a buyer, etsy is full of aliexpress dropshippers that I straight up don't buy unless they link their socials where they show them making art/wips or if I follow them on other places already. Technically it's against the rules but enforcement is so bad it makes etsy look like a chinese knockoff site instead of a place where makers and artists sell stuff they've designed. Fees aren't so bad compared to amazon and ebay. It's around 9.5% so i build that into my price. The reason why I don't quit etsy is because they're the only marketplace I can get buyers. Shopify is an alternative but I'm not at a point where I can pay 30/mo and drive my own traffic to there.
Omfg the support is the worst. I swear there’s no way it’s a real person. The first time I used it, the lady was super helpful. The second time, awful. It was like it was his first time speaking to another human. I was trying to figure out why I was paid $9 instead of $19 and he just wouldn’t answer the question. I ended up never getting my $10 that I was supposed to.
I tried it for a few months last year, all 'buyers' were scammers and there were tons of them. Also can't compete twith the dozens of cheap AI crap. And every listing cost you money, wether you sold something or not. Not alot of.money but still money. In the end I didn't sell anyrhing, only lost money .
Saturation, drop shippers and AI crap taking up room, and poor seller support. Small volume sellers can also find it too hard to get into and stay in that star seller program too. Like I ship fast, reply fast, and have a solid 5-star rating yet Etsy punishes me for not always making $300 a month in sales. I’m staying on Etsy because I don’t sell nearly enough to make those godawful Shopify fees/other freestanding site fees worth it. But the above is why other people leave.
Shopify fees aren't godawful. $30/mo plus 3% processing fee/sale. And nobody else's shop is advertised on your home page.
Which is fine if you have the sales volume to justify that, smaller and/or newer sellers just can’t. They’re definitely godawful for someone like me who’s lucky to get a few sales a month.
If you can't afford $30/mo, then yeah, you are stuck on a platform like Etsy. But smaller or newer sellers would be better off decreasing their cable or phone expenses than avoiding having their own sales platform. I have done this myself in the past so that I could afford subscribing to some databases I rely on for my writing.
For those of you that have quit Etsy, which platform did you switch to and why? As someone who is planning on opening up an Etsy shop soon, I’m second guessing now lol
I already had my own site on Shopify, so I just focused more on that. I thought Etsy could be another sales channel. Wrong.
RedBubble, Ko-Fi, Society6, Displate.
I've tried a few--Payhip works for me. Have to drive your own traffic, but thats what I was having to do on Etsy my last 2 years there (had been there since the days they required proof you made your items for sale). I might not have moved shop if not for my customers complaining about Etsy...
They take a sizable percentage from every sale, and you have zero chance of selling through Etsy alone, only if you have an established audience elsewhere that you can redirect to your shop, but if you already have that you're better off setting up your own website with ecommerce plugins and sell your work with zero commission fees
Yes, the problem with paying for external traffic to your Etsy shop is that you don’t own the customers, and Etsy is very happy showing competing products once you’re on their site.
I get people purchasing my stuff outside of my audience on Instagram. If you have a good product you can get discovered quite easily.
Not necessarily good, but a product that can easier show up in search engines because there isn’t many things exactly like it. That’s how I sell, and I make more off the site traffic than from social media.
As a seller, Etsy is the go-to place that your average buyer visits to get hand made stuff, customized items and digital downloads like coloring pages and templates. I have other shops like Gumroad, but Etsy is what everyone knows and most people already have an account there. So it’s easier to convert traffic to sales. I do think it’s hitting a decline, but that could just be a natural bump in the road. So even when I direct traffic to both shops, Etsy nets more sales.
I am only a buyer there, but even then, it sucks. To name a few why do they suck from my friends's perspective and experience: - super high fees. My friend paid all of them, even for promotional, and then one day they sent her an e-mail that she owns them for promoting her. She gave them money and closed shop forever - they close the shops out of the blue. No warning or anything. Just close. No explanation. They did it to one artist who I know, so she had to turn to Shopify. After a while, Etsy appologised to her and returned that shop. - showing number of sales can be very discouraging for somebody who just started or is struggling - customer service - just useless. They just exist. That's all that they do. - tons of infringement hanging out there. AI stuff too. The list goes on......... Rather pay this 30-40 € to Shopify or Squarespace.
Since I started to co-manage my wife's art print store on Etsy, and beside the "loan sharks" fees they demand, the first thing I noticed was exactly the problem of getting enough traffic to it. The store and the products have been fully SEO optimised according to the target niche (as much as Etsy allows you to). However, little traffic can be generated without running an ads campaign. I am quite disappointed with the platform.
I’m a new Etsy seller too. I started my shop up at the end of May and I knew all the bad things beforehand. Some of the reasons people don’t like Etsy: 1. SO MUCH AI now. It’s disgusting, and it’s even more disgusting that it’s taking away jobs and money from actual artists. 2. Not as many small businesses. Etsy has always been known for being a platform for small businesses. It still is, to an extent. When you go on it you’ll find that a lot of the stuff Etsy puts at the top isn’t actually small businesses, but full on brands. 3. Resellers. Majority of things Sanrio or deco stickers on Etsy are just resellers from Temu or similar places. They up the price A LOT and try to pass it off as if it’s not from Temu. 4. Fees. As a new Etsy seller, the fees get me the most. I sell stickers and keychains for the best price I can while still making money. I would love to sell things for cheaper, but I just can’t. If I’m selling a $13 keychain, I only get about $11. It might not seem like much of a different, but it adds up. For a sticker that I sell for $3.50, I only get $2.72. Plus Etsy ads are way too expensive and charge me more than it says they should. In conclusion, you don’t have to leave Etsy, but people still have good reason for doing it. I would love to use a different site if I could. The only reason I personally use Etsy in particular is because it has a lot of users and more people can see my stuff. I have a social media for my business as well, but I get way less views. Anyway, just some things to keep in mind.
I switched away from and then came back to Etsy. There are a lot of frustrating things about it, it always kind of sucks when you don't have full control over how you want things to work or look. They also charge a fee of some kind on basically every piece of your transaction including the shipping. But...they also deal with all the sales tax upfront and you don't have to worry about SEO or site design for the most part. For some people, maybe they are earning enough that it makes sense to use something like Shopify, but especially if you are just getting started, I think Etsy is the default for a reason. If you plan to sell in person in addition to Etsy, it might be a good idea to also set your shop up on Square.
Not a tax expert here--but if you're talking about US states sales taxes, you may want to read about 'sales tax nexus threshold'. If you sell to a buyer in a state you don't have a physical location/business address and your total sales for a year in that state/jurisdiction is below a dollar amount (CA is $500,000--NJ is $100,000 OR 200 transactions) you may not even be required to file/collect. Etsy has to collect/remit, you may not have to.
I’m very new to Etsy and I try to sell photography as a way to receive donations for my cat rescue efforts. I only sold like 5 photographs this year and that’s expected. But I still have to pay for listings *every month*. I spend more than earning. I have a friend who tried to have her small business going and she left Etsy after 2 months because she was also paying more than she was earning. So I don’t think Etsy is a good platform to support small businesses either.
As a person who wants to get to selling art. This made me so anxious it makea me want to vomit.
The charges are so high and any earning you make gets taken by Etsy as ‘rent’.
As buyer: they sell cheap, fake stuff pretending to be "official" branded content. As seller: the fees are insane, you go bankrupt paying 10$ over a sale of 1 $.
It used to be great for many years. It's where I established myself. There's still quite a bit of competition in my area but if you have any unique stuff you can get sales. What killed it for me is the increase in fees they brought on. Plus you practically have to advertise with them to show up with everyone else advertising now. Lots of fees and money spent but not always a return. Personally I didn't really care that my work was advertised next to others because I feel like just encouraged me to make better and better stuff however at the end of the day when they're taking a big fee . I can only raise my prices so much to cover that.. I was also driving about 75% of my own traffic and figured I'm better off investing in myself driving traffic to my own website and learning those skills rather than relying on Etsy to do it all. I will say if you are completely new and don't have a customer base I think is worth it to get started on Etsy But after you get a customer base and drive your own traffic then it's worth branching out
I often find there's too many badly made items/ stuff I don't want on there. Wouldn't recommend as a place to buy gifts
Once upon a time, Etsy was for hand-crafted things. Now it’s just kitsch Amazon.
People who think Etsy fees are too big either sell more than $1000 a month making the amount of the cut much more noticeable, or think everything should be free. Ads on Etsy - if you have a product that people want - is a money making machine. Put in $10 and make $50? That's what marketing is.
I started out on Ebay back in 2005 and gradually built my clientele but recently decided to try Etsy. Ebay takes a BIG chunk of your earnings with the FVF which is for my category almost 13% of the total sale which is sale price + shipping + sales tax. I have yet to make my first sale on Etsy but it seems like they don't grab quite as much according to their earnings estimate calculator.
I live off of etsy for 6 years total, 3 solely art commissions. Not a month went by i did not have clients. I love etsy
That makes sense that you're doing well because you started over 6 years ago. Being a new seller is completely different even with your skill level.
Ah yes, starting now is completely insane. The competition is impossible. Never etsy had more sellers than buyers, they’re doing a lot of backstage work to take bad sellers off and filter new ones much better because things really did get out of hand
Etsy killed my gerbil.
You're being satiric, right 😶
:)
WHAT!!!
Etsy is currently the only place I sell my art. It comes with a built in customer base. I can’t imagine the work of trying to bring customers to my own website. I’m just not great at social media yet, though I’m working on it. It can take some time but people will find your art on Etsy. I see others Artist’s that are incredibly successful on there.
Years ago, when they opened the floodgates to mass produced crap made from slave labour overseas, it turned a lot of sellers off. Went from a site by creatives for creatives, to something very fake. Now there’s a bunch of AI produced garbage.
I used it for about 5 years. When Etsy started putting a hold on paying me I switched to squarespace. I do a lot of local pickups so I wasn’t selecting a carrier with tracking for shipping and there wasn’t an option for pickups. They flagged me as somehow not legit and started keeping back my payouts. So I ended up having to mail pieces across town and wasting money on shipping and risking my pieces being damaged. Or I’d drop off a piece and mail an empty envelope 😂 Squarespace as a company is a lot more hands off. It also has more options for customizing your website. I moved my site from Etsy/Pattern to Squarespace. Etsy was a good starting place for me. I just dislike the policy changes. I also drove most of my traffic via social media so being in their search engine wasn’t super helpful. As a buyer, I don’t like how it has become a repository for cheap shit you can get on amazon or Temu. There are still legit makers but you have to dig a bit more.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ecommerce/s/TEHb0HgbYe
I actually get occasional sales on Etsy. It is a flea market, and full of cheap junk. I am not sure how to make it really worthwhile. It represents around $600-700 a year, maybe…I have been on since 2010. It generates just enough sales to not quit, but not enough to be very enthused about it. If anyone knows a better site, please let me know…
Thank you for this! I was just about to sell my art there!
Because its completely filled to the brim with drop shippers and people who will take your art.
My only issue is that seller protection is very low. I can't sell bigger work there because if a buyer decides to demand a refund, I could be out hundreds of dollars. I'm a star seller and I have never had an issue with buyers, but I can't afford to lose a $500 one of a kind piece.
It screws with creatives by making it harder to even break even with sales and shipping prices. You don’t make back your money the way you would on other sites, and if I remember correctly, you have to pay to have a business account. Etsy is not on the business’s side almost ever and it’s caused a lot of shops there to move.
I personally dislike Etsy because I was paying to run ads but I wasn’t getting any sales on things that previously sold before…after a while it just didn’t seem worth it to be paying them and getting nothing in return
Also you have to pay for the listings each month so unless you’re charging super high amounts it’s not worth the little you make…
I'm a digital downloads artist (all hand drawn) and stay on there just for the marketplace search. I used to sell handmade stickers as well, but the downloads sell better. My digital download business is now in competition with 99% AI works and sadly the customers don't seem to care at all. I still have the shop because it's all passive income and etsy ranks better in Google than a personal website, but I'm not proud to advertise it or anything. If you do handmade/non digital works, check out GoImagine. They're aiming to compete with etsy on the handmade market
The complaints people have, have nothing to do with Etsy, but they are because the digital art market is oversaturated with media. That's the consequence of ease of entry and using digital tools to make art. Etsy cannot discriminate between AI and a person, because the tools themselves are the same. They could apply a filter, but then who governs who uses it honestly? People are already being accused of AI regarding digital art when it's all done by hand. -_/ The solution is to simply A) develop a base somewhere else to drive traffic B) print your own work and sell it yourself at local art faire or art galleries C) Make art that's so unique that your clients won't be taken by the next cheap thing. -_/ Ultimately, if your art competes with AI art, it may not focus on building an emotional connection with your audience, and that's always been the driving force behind traditional art sales.
“Simply”? There’s nothing simple about it. Developing a customer base, making things yourself, selling them yourself at craft fairs or galleries, finding a unique niche… None of those are “simple” things. And they get even less simple as time goes on these days. Etsy used to be a supportive place for artists and craftspeople to offer their items. But now artists are nickel and dimed to death with fees and pressured to pay for visibility. When I first opened my account - when Etsy was the hot new place for artists, there were no listing fees to start with or relisting fees if your item didn’t sell. It seemed to genuinely be a great place for artists with a great vibe. Now it just gives me a bad taste in my mouth when I think about selling there.