Anonymous
You don’t want to sell on Etsy. If you’re an Artisan or Craftsman and make a product, and you what to work from home and sell online to make a little extra money or subsidize another income, look elsewhere to sell. It’s a bait and switch gimmick. When you first start they give your items good placements in search and advertise your items. After you’ve done well for some time they drop the ball. I started selling on Etsy in 2012 and my sales increased every year with 2018 being my best. Then in June of 2019 Josh Silverman announced that Etsy would be cutting back on Google Ads in an effort to get sellers to pay for more ads. Since I had never paid for ads before and was selling all I cared to make I didn’t think I needed Ads. That’s when my sales crashed and continue to drop. My sales for the second half of 2019 were 23% of the same period for the previous year. And that’s long before COVID-19. When Etsy didn’t get the participation they wanted they implemented the Off-Site Ad program. Shops that have ever sold $10K in any 365 day period pay an additional 12% on every sale brought to them by Etsy through a Google, Instagram, Facebook, etc ad. Shops under 10K pay an additional 15% , but have the option to opt out of the program. But I opted out and I’m not getting sales. The fee is in addition to the already sales fee of 5%. That’s 17-20%, and it is charged against the whole transaction (item price + sales tax + shipping cost ) and then there is the processing fee of 3%. When figured against the item price only for some it can be as much as 25-30% or more. You may want to consider this if you are thinking of selling on Etsy. It is obvious to me that if I don’t buy into the program I won’t be able to make it on Etsy. My item is time consuming to make and I can’t give up that much money to advertise fees and if I raise my prices I can’t compete. I once made pretty good money selling on Etsy to subsidize my S.S. Now my Etsy shop is dead. I’ve been reading the Etsy forums for some years and since this Off-Site Ad program started I’ve seen many shops close and are no longer with Etsy.
2 years ago
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Etsy has a 2.2 average rating from 584 reviews

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