Don't Sell on Etsy in 2023 (The Truth)

[@shawnshalest_hws]

Entrepreneurs! Get More Information on the HWS Success Society Here: www.workwithshawn.com/hws-waitlist

[@dccreations1361]

Swear to God this is an ad for Etsy. Lol

[@Patriotgrl01]

Yes, they absolutely can shutdown your shop without warning. All of a sudden, with no warning whatsoever, they suspended my shop. No reason, no warning, no email on why, until I figured out I had an overdue bill.....despite having my form of payment on autopay...it has been a very discouraging experience so far and makes me want to close the shop altogether.

[@gusmonster59]

Yup. Esty has ZERO customer service for their sellers.

[@DominicMagnus-sv4pf]

Hello, I could understand your challenge that you could have faced on Etsy, so far Etsy system has actually be changing or getting developed with a new feature whereby if your shop isn't with terms with their policy, there is high possibility it might get suspended. I'm dominic an Etsy professional and a freelancer and I know how the system works and i try as possible to keep up with current trend of Etsy. Do you still sell on Etsy if I may ask?

[@thejarfancystudios4638]

⁠@@gusmonster59absolutely none!!!!! But I bet the buyers get it and have noooo problem at all! Keep on telling the truth no matter what!

[@Elliehugdahl]

Etsy is a great host to get your business out to more people! It should not be your end game ✨

[@shawnshalest_hws]

So true!

[@maureenchandlerreid7916]

Etsy shut me down before I could even get started. Suspended my account within 24 hours of my opening a shop. Created 1 listing on feb 19, 2024. I went back next day to create another listing and found it suspended. No email explaining why? I appealed. Waited 2 weeks, said I’m still suspended. No explanation why. They said I could appeal again. It’s march 12. Still waiting to see if they’ll reinstate me. I’ve read all their rules. I don’t get it.

[@LunarNoire]

Same happened to me last. Took 2 weeks to get a human to speak to and that’s only because I went on their social medias asking for a person to contact me. They reinstated my shop and said it was a mistake from the bits possibly. I was too scared to list up there again because of that. I still have my shop. I tried listing up there again last year 4 items and it caused me so much anxiety not knowing whether or not my sho would be suspended again because of bots, that I ended up just deactivating my listing after a few weeks and haven’t listed anything there since. I’m looking at other sites to possibly list my handmade items but haven’t really found any that is known for handmade. Besides Etsy fees there is the allowance of mass produced cheap goods being sold up there super cheap saturating the marketplace. People have gotten so use to that and expect people who actually do hand craft their items to sell them for the same or similar prices. In addition to all of that, there is the marketing of OTHER shops directly in your shop. Seems all marketplaces do this and to me it’s like McDonald’s showing “similar items” or “items you may like” from Wendy’s directly in their app 🤦‍♀️. Etsy has built in customers BUT that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do any work to get customers to get found. You STILL have to market in some way your shop to let ppl know you exist because there are so many ppl up there. No different than marketing your own website imo. At least with your own site you have more control and don’t have to worry about whether or not you’ll be shutdown without explanation and ripped off in fees.

[@glenngutshall5507]

Yeah, Etsy is great... Right up until they wander in one day out of the blue, suspend your store with no explanation what-so-ever. They don't even say "thank you" for the listing fees and advertising fees that they've billed you for, but refuse to provide the services those billed for services... No, you'll get some email saying that they refuse to reinstate your store, no explanation for why they even decided to do it and NO they won't even discuss it any more. So all you hard work will be right down the tubes! All these KZbinrs out here shilling for them won't tell you that and I bet you this comment won't even get posted.

[@olgapivovarova4123]

That’s happened to me

[@twelv]

😊 very verrrrrry true

[@thejarfancystudios4638]

I 💯 percent agree! I’m an ex five star shop SELLER! ..was successful for years until they changed so drastically it’s sickening! WE HELPED THEM GET THEIR SUCCSESS! WITHOUT THE SELLERS YOU MAKE NOTHING! ETSY GOT TO WHERE THEY ARE BECAUSE OF THE PREDECESSORS THAT PUT THEIR TIME, MONEY, BLOOD, SWEAT, LOTS OF TEARS, AND EFFORTS , SUPPLIES, AND OUR CREATIVE MINDS THAT GAVE THEM THEIR NAME! WE BRANDED ETSY! Not the other way around!

[@thejarfancystudios4638]

We need to KEEP TELLING THE HARD TO HEAR TRUTH! I totally agree! They should not have the right to do what they did to you …. No more than a landlord putting a tenant out who has always paid their rent on time and are great tenants! They’d loose in court as long as the tenant shows his track record!

[@LennyTim]

Etsy is great, but after 11,000 sales I realize that getting in early is half the battle.

[@displacegamer1379]

I don't think anyone should be complaining about Etsy fees. Everyone who sells on Etsy pays the same fees. This means everyone also needs to mark up their prices to be accordance to the fees. If the fees are an issue on Etsy then it means your pricing your product too low. You need to increase the price of your product so that you are making the appropriate amount of profit. If you're not making profit from your sales and everyone else is selling around the same price as you in the same niche then it also means that they are not making any money or they are doing something that allows them to make more profit from that sale. In the case of the latter, You need to find a way to make your cost lower if you want to compete with that marketplace. You will be surprised on how much you can increase a product's price before people stop buying it.

[@gusmonster59]

There is a lot more to Etsy than the fees. They treated their sellers like crap. I used to sell on Etsy. I had a shop for 5 years. Never again. This is a cheerleading video and does not tell you ALL the downsides of Etsy.

[@displacegamer1379]

@@gusmonster59 sorry you have a bad experience. I'm currently selling on Etsy and have been for years.

[@HemantChandSharma]

Thank you for always guiding me back to the right path. I really do not know where I would be without you, other than lost! Your support and teaching have gifted me with perspective and direction I would not have otherwise had, and I thank you.

[@shawnshalest_hws]

OMG! Thank you so much for this comment. It's so good to know that my videos are helping.

[@danimotherofchickens479]

Etsy can shut your shop down for any reason, at any time. And often do specially if your new.

[@Patriotgrl01]

This is so true. My shop was just suspended yesterday for having an overdue bill, despite having my form of payment on autopay. I paid the bill, but still had to repeal my suspension and now I have to wait 14 days for them to review it. My store is new, and I'm contemplating on just closing it and go elsewhere.

[@yu_dina]

Yes, happen to me as well. I didn't even list any product yet. It's just ridiculous. Etsy banned my account permanently 😖

[@myfamilymunchies]

@@yu_dinathat’s just crazy. Etsy suspended my new shop after just 5 days and when I appealed they rejected that and I don’t even know what I did wrong. Just awful!! Sorry this happened to you.

[@monvici]

Being self-employed isn't free. After fees you have extra cost like taxes etc, but I guess it's that worth. Working for another person isn't for everyone.

[@TTsPlace14]

Same I gave up on Etsy.. both of my shops were shut down… 1 was 8 months old the other one was 5 weeks old and both were permanently closed by Etsy…

[@kellybrown8638]

As a buyer, I have made two purchases. BOTH of these sales were with scammers. Why would ANYONE, buyer or seller, bother with this company? NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. Appently NO safeguards to prevent scammers. This company is a total waste of time!

[@Skyjuice70]

Your title says, 'Don't Sell on Etsy in 2023 (The Truth)' and then you say at 6:43, "So is it worth selling on Etsy? Absolutely yes."😆 I mean, damn, I've got duped into watching a lot of misleading videos on KZbin over the years but I think yours take the cake. You're enticing your viewers to watch your video on why they shouldn't sell on Etsy only to tell them at the very end of the video that your title was just click-bait. I get it though, Etsy has millions of sellers and if you can grab even just a small percentage of them under false pretense, then you've made some coin. I'm not here to bash you but somebody gotta call you out. You have a lot of knowledge on the workings of Etsy but It's unfortunate that you choose to write misleading titles to get people to click. Why not just be truthful from start to finish?

[@jacobboskiii5198]

Is it really that big of a deal to you?

[@Skyjuice70]

@jacobboskiii5198 Yes, I believe being truthful is a big deal.

[@MissLida]

It's called sarcasm lol. She used sarcasm in her title because she knows this is something a lot of people are saying right now. The whole point of the video was to prove that it's still possible to sell on Etsy.

[@thejarfancystudios4638]

😂😂😂 click bait

[@TheTikTok10KChallenge]

@@MissLida Sarcasm is so called humour; good for comedy shows but not marketing or business practices. In business, is called SCAM or "BAIT AND SWITCH" Any form of deception is deceiving by definition.

[@Bponyi]

I can’t stand Etsy . There bots keeps removing my handmade product. I’m so glad their stock is failing

[@awlthatwoodcrafts8911]

While it's true that listings and shops can mistakenly be taken down by Etsy, there's typically an understandable reason. It still may be mistaken, but when you consider that automation, i.e. a bot, tagged your shop or listing, you'll find that the bot found something that matched what they're searching for. It could just be a word or a phrase in your description. For you to say that Etsy will just shut you down is misleading. If you are truly in the hand made business and you're making your own things, that also don't violate any copyrights, you shouldn't have any worry about being shut down, especially by mistake. And don't blame Etsy for not telling you why they shut you down. Read the rules front to back. Get to know them intimately and then don't break those rules. Mistakes can still happen and you do have recourse but you make it sound so scary and I think that does a disservice to those who want to get on this platform. You provided a lot of useful information but I think you could have given a little more detail about shops and listings getting shut down.

[@shawnshalest_hws]

Hi! You made very valid points. And I do believe that Etsy has its challenges with dealing with bots and fraud in general. I do still believe that they could provide better customer service to their sellers. A prime example is if you sell children's apparel. The rules are vague. I had a listing that was taken down because kids hoodies cannot contain strings in hoodie. My listing had a combination of kids hoodies (with no strings) and adult hoodies with strings. The Etsy automation could not handle this and the listing would get flagged. It took me lots of trial and error to figure out I just needed to separate the listings. Prior to separating them I tried putting all kinds of notes and pictures on the listing to indicate that the kids hoodies did not have strings. My point here is that there are always corner cases where a human conversation will fix things. I think Etsy is an excellent marketplace. They can't be perfect. My business is far from perfect...lol Thanks so much for providing your feedback. Hopefully some other Etsy sellers will jump in on this tread and share their opinion. Shawn :-)

[@kaistockman6443]

I had some listings that didn’t post and I had no idea why. Then I figured out my listing had Amber in the title. I sell jewelry making supplies and I was listing beading cord and the color was Amber. So someone might not even think what they’re listing is going to be removed. It was just annoying for me because each time it takes over a week for them to put my listing back up.

[@gusmonster59]

No. Etsy will shut your shop or remove your listings without warning or explanation. If Etsy, or any online platform, is going to shut your shop or take down your listings, they ought to tell you WHY so you can fix. Getting a robo response and not being able to talk to a human customer service person is no way to do business or keep sellers. Loads of handmade seller re-sell licensed characters item 9which is illegal) with no consequences. No to mention, Etsy has now allowed reselling of non handmade items with no effort to shut down those shops. Even if reported, those shops stay open. Telling someone to 'read the rules' and follow them is ridiculous when you have done that and still get shut down because the robot said so.

[@thejarfancystudios4638]

You think you know but have YOU sold on Etsy? I’ve had listings taken down bc of copyright and they sent me an email that explained why! They’ve suspended my shop because of of insufficient funds and explained why! And more! Now what they’re doing is letting a bot take down a perfectly great shop that is successful and relying on AI automation and killing the people behind the shop! Leaving them empty handed after all the work they put into what they do? I’m in the same boat and have thousands of dollars in unused supplies I’m trying to sell and even that isn’t easy! You can read front to back but if a real person didn’t take down the shop, HOW IS THAT FAIR TO THE SELLERS WHO ARE AND DID MAKE THE ETSY NAME WHAT IT IS! Oh a bot came along and saw a phrase or word an mistakenly destroyed my small business? This you think is fair? Or it’s ok as in doing business unethically? If Etsys policy states the can take your whoop you worked with for … 🤔 3years! They take it down then won’t answer you bc they don’t care about ethics, hard working people, good business practices or cannot justify their action. Well they can put their hand book somewhere the moon don’t shine!

[@TurkishManufacturersUnion]

İt's really really really hard to find a support staff just to ask why they suspend you. They don't give a reason. My all family is carpenter too and we all stoped to sell on Etsy. A bunch of time wasting

[@ampzamp]

u girl are an incredibly articulate communicator! :)

[@susanfoss8122]

Thank you for this informative video! I buy on Etsy fairly often and I have had questions about it from the seller's perspective. You answered many of my questions and some I had not thought to ask. I subscribed to your channel and will watch before taking the dive into Etsy. Thanks for sharing your expertise!

[@shawnshalest_hws]

Thank yo so much. And welcome to the family. I really enjoy selling on Etsy and I recommend it to new handmade businesses. It's just good to know what you need to look out for. Shawn :-)

[@MoonyBVT]

I was about to get into Etsy, until I bumped into your channel lol (I still plan to, just will make sure I'm aware of all the things you mentioned first!). You seem very knowledgeable in what you're saying. I'm really into making my own personal things, SEO, etc., and you kept shutting down all my internal thoughts the moment I thought them 😂. I'll definitely subscribe and drop you some credits if I do get my selling business going good 😊

[@wMoreno0601]

My shop was suspended with no email explanation. I appealed and said they couldn't tell me why and they perm closed it. No reason at all. I didn't copy anyone's designs or used copyrighted material. Nothing. And they won't give me a single reason. It's very discouraging. Who the hell wants to sell with them when they don't even help you become a better seller? Na f*** Etsy.

[@Jhihmoac]

IDK...I've known people that sell wonderful things, and have had their shops shut down - while others have absolute garbage and their sales go through the roof! People are funny these days! It's almost as if _"What's good, is the new bad, and vice versa!"_

[@whynot7802]

I havnt recived my order for over 3 months and the seller's store is closed.their customer service is HORRIBLE! They dont reply to emails or messages.they take your money but dont give a shit about u

[@createdbykeela]

3 years later..unless your prices are $50 and up..not worth it

[@scsleevejourney2339]

Can you help me with a question . If purchasing a business and Etsy is a part of it is there a way around not being able to change the Etsy owner of the store ? Many thanks

[@foxmulder4308]

Etsy is one of the best sales sites on the internet, and big surprise ONE OF THE BEST STOCKS TO OWN !

[@Mojofoe]

I don’t know about this. At the end of 2021 they were at 300 a stock now it’s a 75.

[@taoyang-rd4hp]

I have a lot of products I can't sell. Can you help me?

[@PerlaAbdie]

I wished I knew, they took 30% of the total purchase plus my shipping settings “didn’t work”, so I ended paying them. Now they have just retained another 30% off because “I have failed to follow their policy” which is pure BS. For get it. Too much work for nothing.

[@Businedu]

FIRE🖤

[@the_night_sky777]

I stopped buying on Etsy because each product is grossly overpriced.

[@ceel1389]

By reading alot of these comments, it appears that the sellers have had to mark up their prices to cover all of Etsy's fees. I have been contemplating opening my shop on Etsy, but am not sure I will do so due to that and lots of the issues that I am reading here in everyone's comments. With my handmade crafts, it will be hard to sell them if I am forced to increase my prices just to make a profit. So far, I have been able to sell by word of mouth. I am more than likely going to seek other avenues of selling my crafts to continue marketing my craft business.

[@lovepuppy4627]

Are they overpriced or are you used to people not being paid for their labor?

[@ayoubakirech1890]

If Etsy paid you one million dollars you shouldn't talk about them like this .. Big dislike

[@iamsimoneinkk]

hey so im still waiting on a shipment and tried writing the case and the seller says he isn’t responsible for 3rd party shipping and closed my case , is that fair? i been waiting a month on my stuff , its gauges i had ordered ☹️

[@shawnshalest_hws]

This is a hard one. It happens in my shop. As a seller, when we give it to a carrier we don’t have control at that point. We have spent money and time making the item and to no fault of our own the carrier loses it. BUT you as a customer has paid your money for an item that you didn’t get. All you want is what you paid for. Which is understandable. It’s a lose lose situation. What I do in my shop is remake the item. I take the loss because my ultimate goal is good customer service. Not every Etsy seller can afford to do that. Etsy does have protection for cases like this where iEtsy will refund you without taking the money from the seller. Ask the seller if he can use Etsy’s buyer or seller protection.

[@Sean-EmeraldImportco]

If it's international shipping it will take 30-35 days to get to the US. However I've bought froma seller in India and they never mailed the product and had to wait 60 days before PayPal finally refunded me. And etsy is impossible to contact I believe this is on purpose, because if you can get a hold of them then they won't have to give you a gift card or reimbursement. It's crappy but that's corporate business for you. Good luck!

[@Liz-ic6jb]

That's terrible and wrong. I'm an Etsy seller and I will take the loss. Dispute with your credit card company and leave a bad shop review so people know about this seller.

[@tracyireland7447]

Awful customer service.

[@veronicaramirez5686]

What products are not profitable to sell on Etsy?

[@me-oi4or]

Hi there, I'm planning to sell wooden crafts on Etsy, but I live in Afghanistan. I was wondering if it's possible for my relatives living outside of Afghanistan to create an Etsy account for me, and if I can use that account from Afghanistan without the need for a VPS. Your advice would be appreciated. Thank you, Ali

[@shawnshalest_hws]

Hi Ali, unfortunately I'm not sure if that is against the rules or not. Maybe if the Etsy shop is owned by a person in an approved location you would be considered a production partner. But this is just a guess. Maybe someone who has experience in the area will jump in on this post and tell us their experience. Shawn :-)

[@me-oi4or]

تشکر خیلی زیاد

[@DominicMagnus-sv4pf]

Hi Ali, u see that you're interested in selling hand made product on Etsy. I'm dominic an Etsy professional and a freelancer would you like to be open to suggestions in going about it?

[@usmarine4636]

ETSY is a terrible platform!!! Beware !!!!