Etsy News. You Kidding me Etsy? Etsy Loans, AI in your shop and MORE

In this weeks Etsy news we talk about
Etsy Ads issues
Etsy Loans - I dont like this one little bit
Etsy glitches and MORE
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[@createdbyejf]

The targeted loan ads that you mentioned just seem super predatory, not a fan of that.

[@PamDuthie]

Yes that is how I feel too

[@maleaann]

Asking customers if they got their order is ridiculous. In the US Etsy is requiring tracking for orders over $10 and automatically updates, so this is pretty redundant and stupid. As for videos, I work two jobs in addition to running my shop. I don't always have time to do a video on top of everything else. Etsy is getting less and less valuable to me as a seller the more they mess with and change things.

[@the.toxic.phoenix]

They do that AI round up of reviews on Amazon and I really like it. Ugh, it's like Etsy is putting sellers in a bad financial situation and then offering them a Shark loan

[@PamDuthie]

Yes the AI round up isnt horrible, I am a lazy buyer so like it Agree with the loan tho

[@tarabooartarmy3654]

Etsy just keeps getting worse and it’s making it really hard for me to make the decision to come back.

[@9amStudio]

Keep going and trying. This is my 4th shop on Etsy and I’m finally happy with it.

[@PamDuthie]

I know, my heart still loves the idea of Etsy and I am sticking with it. But it is harder to stay positive

[@julietk.1698]

​@9amStudio what did you do differently this time, if I may ask?

[@9amStudio]

​@@julietk.1698 I really focused on the quality of the listing. Before I would just list and list and list more items. Now before I list things, I ask myself what can I do to make this listed item better? am I using all the allotted images, are my photos appealing, do I have a 10 seconds video with the list, how is my description, am I using all tags. and I stop judging my items or products. Because a lot of items that I deemed ugly or not good enough actually sells and resells. I can go on. I monitor when what days and time my products sales. That is when I turn on my Etsy ads. I use to place my entire store on ads and now I focus on a few items to draw new customers and up sales them when they make a purchase. I post my new listing on FB and Pinterest even though I don't have a bunch of followers. Set Goals, Create a check list and think positive.

[@DaveFosterHampton]

davecommerce_012

[@traceygurley1]

Thank you Pam!! I agree with everything you said. -I’ve been using my Instagram reels for my videos. I don’t have videos for everything though. -Etsy bugs shoppers enough already! They don’t need to ask them if they got their order. Can’t they just look at the tracking number we have to enter and check without bothering the customer? -My listings have the AI generated summary. Just like Amazon does now. It’s fine, whatever. I just wish they would fix other problems before creating new ones. -Etsy offering loans, especially for people they put a reserve on. That’s just crappy. -I wouldn’t get a loan from Etsy. If I wanted a loan, I would try my bank. -Personally, I’m so disappointed to see what it has become. I’ve been on the platform for years, with different shops. That’s neither here nor there, they can do their thing and I’ll do mine.

[@tammym7793]

Hello Pam! I just wanted to thank you for the time you thoughtfully put into your videos. You are definitely the most comprehensive source of "Etsy News" on KZbin and I appreciate you💝 Tammy, Cape Cod, Massachusetts USA

[@michelleg980]

My shop has went from $100-$200 a day on average with a 7% conversion rate to dropping overnight to 1.9% conversion rate and I make squat now. This is more than the “summer slump”. Etsy has done something drastic. It’s been a few weeks like this.

[@PamDuthie]

I am so sorry to hear that, you are not alone, lots of people are struggling

[@wobbuffetbuffet]

This was a wonderful summary and I appreciate not having to watch an individual video for each item. :) Thank you!

[@PamDuthie]

Thank you, I am glad it helps

[@loriachaddon8497]

Sigh next move on checking in with customers on orders is probably going to go the way of Mercari and Poshmark and not pay out until rhey say they received it or three days after delivery.

[@PamDuthie]

Oh I really hope not! But you may be right

[@stop08it]

tik tok style algorithim on Etsy?!!! No my god...also emailing customers to see if they've got the item based on THEIR estimated delivery time they tell customers and that can easily be screwed up by shipping carrier delays...what are they doing? It feels like they are in panic mode trying anything and everything with sales, stock prices and profits going down.

[@PamDuthie]

I agree. I want them to improve things - but not to panic

[@gillianmcmurray]

Thanks Pam. I'll look forward to your video about the JP Morgan conference. I listened to it but it just made me sigh a lot 😄

[@PamDuthie]

Yeah me too :D

[@SheeaunMusic]

Thanks as always Pam :) You are my only source of what's going on in Etsy and obviously it's YOU because you're the only one I trust :) Amanda, Ireland

[@KatSchlitz]

As a customer, I didn’t know that the estimated shipping dates are placed there by Etsy without seller consultation. At Christmas I ordered a last minute gift based on that stated delivery date. Of course it didn’t make it. At first of course I was angry with the seller. Then in communication I realized Etsy is doing this, and they lost so much of my trust! I don’t want fake delivery dates! As a seller can you write something about delivery time in the description? Or is that not allowed?

[@SusanClark-ig3rm]

You are spot on with everything.

[@giseletheriault8633]

The thing is that Etsy is only hurting itself. Some corporate decisions don't make sense to us because we don't have all the information but there is some no brainer stuff. Filters that persist at least for the session. Customers get fed-up resetting them and leave. I can pick a color but I can't choose to search for clip art collage, or hand made, or POD art. Push people to use gift mode fine, but don't put all the eggs in one basket. There are really simple improvements they could make that would cost them next to nothing and massively improve the customer experience and make sellers happy including those who do clipart collage. They aren't trying to present themselves as something they are not. If I were a handmade seller this would have driven me around the bend because it is just so stupid.The executive suite has moved from the customer is always right to the opposite extreme where the customer is someone to be manipulated into buying things. Stores still try to trap shoppers in mazes rather than advertising themselves as a place you can get in and out fast. What people want from Esty is to be able to find what they want fast and get out if they choose to. Maybe Gift Mode will be a means of delivering that experience but some people would rather just have more control over their search.

[@PamDuthie]

I agree, there will be things that we just dont have all the information, but like you say some of the things are just obvious to all of us that are missteps or Etsy needs to improve

[@NuriaSaladrigasLarroy]

Instead of all this problems that Etsy is provoking to the sellers, they should solve some big problem like the error when you publish listings and erase all the work you’ve done and force you to rewrite and upload everything again. It’s so annoying and it happens quite often. Sometimes I’ve tried 5 or 6 times to publish one listings and I have had to wait one day to try again because it has been impossible to do it. 😤

[@thegoodlifevibes]

Thanks for the valuble info. That one lady is lucky that it way that kind of Etsy adds. In my shop the PAID ADDS got turned on!!!! Thank goodness I found it. It was at just over $80 & didn't even help either. Etsy adds have never helped me that's why I don't use them. I turned them off and then 3 days later my traffic went from what has been my normal average for a long time, 600 a day to 10, then 4, now 0, my shop dead in the water!!!!! What is happening?

[@michelleg980]

Same!

[@9amStudio]

I started with $1 per day and I advertise 5 - to 10 items. I’m up to $5 - $8 per day now. I finally got 4-5 items as Best Seller. So make sure you don’t advertise your whole shop. Pick a few items and keep advertising them specially if they make a sale. And optimize the listings.

[@PamDuthie]

I am so sorry to hear that! And for the sales crashing, I am afraid you are not alone, lots of sellers (including me) are seeing the same

[@methebee]

AI has a tendency to always show a balance of good and bad. But that means that if most reviews are great and only 2 are bad, it highlights the bad comments more than necessary

[@SandiHagan]

I had a listing taken down because of a video. I'm not falling for that again. No, thank you.

[@bubbles2868]

Sorry, I'm not going to do videos on request. If I didn't post a video to begin with, there's a reason for it. I also would never use Etsy's shipping labels either. There living in a different world if they think their shipping rates are good. I use a different shipping prgram and can ship for much less. I am in fact about to shut down my Etsy shop, because Etsy has gone too far out of hand and they do absolutely zero for the sellers in their platform that make them money. Supposedly they do off site ads for you, (forced) but not once have I ever located one of my products on line, anywhere, even using my own SEO words and descriptions as they are on the product. Interesting. Etsy is just not worth my time or energy anymore.

[@mariannwest8909]

Do you mind sharing what shipping program you use?

[@lindascrofano5120]

My shop is on vacation at the moment as we are moving. Honestly, I may not open it up again. I may just stay on My Community Made and reopen my own website. If I wanted to sell on TikTok I would just go sell on TikTok. First they tried to be Amazon and now they are becoming a micro managing social media site. 🤦‍♀️ And… those folks whose money on reserve being offered loans is just BS. Sigh

[@kellykilfeather]

I know that Etsy *say* they are estimating based on fastest ever received for US sellers… that is not quite true. I am in the U.K. and they have *absolutely* been doing this to my shop since at least mid March. Maybe I’m in a test, but I’ve had conclusive proof of it from buyers who got in touch worried that their item was lost in the post when their ship date was still a week away. It happened enough times that I had already realised what Etsy were doing before they announced this new change. It was pretty obvious. And it’s horrible.

[@PamDuthie]

Oh dear, yes indeed it is horrible

[@kellykilfeather]

@@PamDuthie the worst part is that I used to get customers messaging saying ‘hey, I know your processing time says this, but is there any chance you could get this to me by x date?” And the answer is usually “yes”. If I know, I’ll do all I can. But now they don’t tell me when something is time sensitive because of the false sense of security those estimates give, and most don’t even clock that there’s a two week gap between the earliest and latest dates on the estimate, they only look at the first date & just presume it’s a narrow date range. I’ve even seen order confirmation emails from Etsy to customers that show a different set of dates to what is on the listing page. And the customer notices and gets confused as it doesn’t match what they’d just seen with their own eyes. And they’ve been doing some really weird stuff like clumping orders in my order queue…. Say I get 20 orders between Monday and Wed, with a 7 day processing time, they’ll all be clumped as due to ship on the following Monday… and I know the ship dates are wrong but I haven’t the mental energy to work out which ones are being moved to a too early ship date. Feels like Etsy is cattle prodding me going “work faster,”.. shaving days off our processing time by blithely ignoring it

[@Bearded.Crafter]

In regards to the AI review thing. I've not seen it on my shop yet but I don't like the idea of it. As you say people are lazy so will only look at this but if I have 100 5 star positive reviews and 1 negative review the AI will highlight the negative in it's blurb. Does that make sense? We dont' know how many reviews it consolidates or how far back it goes.

[@PamDuthie]

That is very true, it will pull out the negative and weight it more highly than it actually is - good point

[@VeniceK]

That one about checking if you got your order, I’ve received that and that was because the seller shipped without tracking, so I’m assuming they don’t send that to everyone.

[@PamDuthie]

I hope not! But it is still a pain as many sellers cant use tracking

[@TraceyPoland]

🤦🏻‍♀️ no Etsy no

[@PamDuthie]

Exactly

[@julianeemmamorgan3182]

Hey Pam, you look good today, thanks for the infos

[@jen_joinandpeace]

I sent Etsy a message that said they need to finish the incomplete stuff instead of continuing to put out new stuff. Like why does the Etsy app still not have shop sections on the listing creator?

[@PamDuthie]

I agree, they do need to finish things

[@jengibs]

I'm having to switch from physical products to all digital because I can't afford to make items and pay to ship them and then Etsy keeps my money on lockdown for a month. I'm going broke even though I'm making sales. So, I guess it's all digital products from now on.

[@PamDuthie]

I am sorry to hear that, but I totally understand, especially if your payments are in reserve

[@glendabrown6659]

Videos are good for high price or vintage items. But I will not waste time doing a video for a button

[@PamDuthie]

Yeah it is harder to justify the time to make one for smaller items

[@kymhocaluk5688]

Thank you Pam❤🇨🇦

[@PamDuthie]

You are always welcome

[@aduibar4595]

It's a spyware.

[@AkerlandDesigns]

Weird stuff happening. My listings get deactivated when there is only 1 left in stock. Customer service wasn’t sure why. I’ve had random things deactivated with no reason. 😢

[@Justno-hm3vk]

Regarding the videos, I am NOT amused!

[@PamDuthie]

Yeah it seems a strange thing

[@lovetoyoutube5412]

I added three listings and chose not to add it to my ads, I went back in to add photos and all three had the add to ads marked. So y turned it off again. Gonna be checking this regularly. Don't new listings get a bump anyway?

[@PamDuthie]

Yes new listings get a bump - but honestly it is very short in most cases, a few hours at most

[@sandyjacksonadams7771]

What's wrong with videos? I have collage videos of customers showcasing the items I make on my website page. My customers love the idea. One in particular was so touched. She thanked me for posting a picture of her bearded dragon sitting on one of our pillows. Klarna is a credit company. Etsy offers that for high-end items; rings, furniture, etc sales to customers wanting credit.

[@PamDuthie]

Aww lovely that customers are loving your videos. I agree, I think videos are great and yes Klarma has been about for a while with buyers buying. I was not so bothered with that, loans for sellers when there are not enough sales, just seems a little predatory to me

[@backyardpatch]

I am working on Videos, but it takes time to make them. A collage doesn't really work for me and is not any easier to make

[@44DHernandez]

Seems like making videos is a whole job in itself. That, on top of creating your products, seems like quite a bit of added work.

[@lynninlow1719]

You mentioned in another talk that the inactive items are still being charged renewal fees. Did I understand that correctly?

[@PamDuthie]

Yes I think I saw something like that, it may have been a glitch as it seems OK now, but worth checking

[@nice2nettles]

The more Etsy news I hear, the gladder I am I went with Folksy.

[@ecouturehandmades5166]

Folksy is still out there? Hmm....

[@ecouturehandmades5166]

@Pam, what are kippot called in the UK? Folksy doesn't know what they are (maybe a good niche for someone there).

[@PamDuthie]

I am looking more into Folksy, I think it should help our UK sellers if we can get enough buyers there

[@PamDuthie]

Honestly I have only ever heard it called a skullcap here

[@nice2nettles]

@@PamDuthie I only listed my first items 2 days ago and haven't started promoting it yet, so no sales yet obviously. But the community there is very friendly and helpful, if that's anything to go by. And they have actual staff available to talk to, rather than bots. There's a lot of great stuff on there, it deserves to be better known.

[@user-mw3hs1mr9n]

Well not all of us can do videos on are devices. So bit unfair this. I think more photos than 10 is better. The videos l see don't really cut it. Another algorithm shift well l had full up and running Etsy vintage shop in February and over night gift mode etc it's totally dead after few years hard work. So l have now been taking listings down and selling items off elsewhere where as my shop is ruined. Like many sellers. Etsy following up customers l don't agree with it will chase them off . And here in UK items are not always scanned off by postal services like one order now . Not good atall. Etsy must be starting to loose revenue with all these many shops which were regular incomes no longer taking anything. I mean when you go from 1,500 approx a month to 200. Seriously something is seriously out of wack for Etsy and sellers .

[@PamDuthie]

I have been trying to give advice on making videos when you cant make videos - sites like Canva can do pretty good videos just from photographs. I have even done some fun stop motion animations with it. But I get not everyone wants to do videos, I am just trying to share how I see the wind blowing I am sorry to hear your shop is struggling but I totally understand. This does seem the worst year on Etsy for a lot of people and I agree that Etsy may well be chasing customers off

[@paintingtheskykingdom9005]

I am curious do you know about the new GRANTS that Etsy is giving a seminar on Wednesday for small business application? I’m not sure if I will keep following you …… too much bias

[@PamDuthie]

I havent been able to find anything about recent grants, do you know what seminar it will be? Sorry you feel I am biased, can I ask where you see the bias, I am not disputing, I am human and we all have our own bias, it is just for most subjects lately I have been getting hate from both sides of the argument so I feel perhaps I am trying to explain both sides a little too much

[@paintingtheskykingdom9005]

When i opened my etsy page online there was a pop up asking if i was interested in attending a seminar and filling out an application for the small business grant they are

[@paintingtheskykingdom9005]

Im having trouble replying on my phone, it was a pop up and the info session is this wednesday. And there might have been people mentioning it in forum although people were complaining about the loan there too (dont apply? If you don’t want it?). I can write more later

[@paintingtheskykingdom9005]

It’s in partnership with hello Alice. Small Business Virtual Forum: Uplifting Creative Entrepreneurs. You can find information about the application in the seller handbook under Resources and Funding Opportunities for Sellers in the US..” there are criteria to meet. you have to apply by June 21. I don’t have a business license so I’m not sure I will qualify -- but all the qualifications are listed there. sure if the virtual forum is about both the loan and grant or just one of them. I’m going to try to fill out the application maybe for both. The grant is for 5000 ( with that I could buy a nice printer, and invest in a few other things I really need. right now I can only sell originals for example. There will also be coaching. It’s to help those with potential to grow their business that lack funding.

[@PamDuthie]

@@paintingtheskykingdom9005 thanks, I guess it didn't show to me as I'm not in the us. I will have to dig around. I hope you get it

[@kimberleeg7758]

Offering loans is predatory. History books will show that we are in an economic depression. Customers are feeling it just like sellers. If you were to get a loan at 6.5 - 12.5%, and your shop tanks, you are stuck with that debt. If it's a variable loan, you better believe Etsy is going to get into big trouble. Why not offer small grants, paid by Etsy, to real handmade businesses? $500 can go a long way for a small shop. Better yet, get rid of these resellers and drop shippers so real handmade businesses have less competition and less undercutting. Etsy has way too many hands in the cookie jar. Sorry, Etsy, but your shareholders are going to suffer just like the rest of us until we get out of this depression.

[@shoreitupshop]

The whole shipping situation is stressing me out. I work full-time, and Etsy is not my primary job, so I struggle every night and weekend to hurry and push out orders before my ship-by date. I'm tired. 😥

[@Laura-je2uw]

Then just prolong your shipping time. You can choose what shipping time is convenient for you.

[@Psychic_Petra]

Sorry but lol How Etsy's algorithm get more worse, if it was or is Worse all ready all around....

[@PamDuthie]

:D hey I speak Scots, I didnt promise perfect grammar, but just wait, more worse is a polite way to say it :D

[@Psychic_Petra]

@@PamDuthie Hahaha I top you, English isnt my main but dutch is :) And yeah I just looked on what the plans are, and really, even more close with stopping now to be honest. As for now, whatever I try, I am not getting seen, If only the best selling/best looked at or whatever in my Niche for tarot, then i gonna completely die..... A well :) Love your grammar, never change it

[@Psychic_Petra]

@@PamDuthie By the way i didnt correct your grammar. Just stated they're algorithm is worse and doesnt seems it will get better. Soooo Sorry If i miss the correct words in my answer :)

[@aduibar4595]

Then chinese can rip it off and use ss their own

[@jenniferm8759]

its Ehhtsy not eetsy. Girl get your prouncing right.

[@LunaandEmber]

Aww I love her accent

[@Serendipity_Glows]

IKR! 😅 Awesome videos, but that drives me NUTS