👇Comment Your Thoughts. Are you for it or against it?

It's a race to the bottom. Now Etsy chides me for "charging too much" for my handmade items with their new "price comparison tool". According to them I should only charge $1-$2 dollars for my handmade items, because they compare me to sweat shop factories who sell crap. It's like they WANT us to sell cheap stuff over quality...

Honestly; Etsy doesn’t care about sellers. They don’t provide support and ban people with no explanation. My advice; don’t rely on Etsy. Use it at your own risk but build up your brand on your own social media and website 😊

Why can’t they create a China only ETSY platform. Why destroy opportunities for US stores.

Etsy doesn't even communicate, in a timely manner, with a shop to tell them why they were suspended or when a problem occurs. The scam emails when shops first open are ridiculous. They need to fix themselves first.

I'm a new seller on Etsy, came from the Amazon world which was a nightmare. Chinese sellers make exact copies of existing products, and sell them for half the cost due to their cheap materials and labor. This change really concerns me!

There are so many China made items on Etsy already it doesn’t even matter at this point. Almost all my best sellers have been copied by Chinese manufacturers and are sold on Alibaba and wish and Etsy. It really pees me off 🤬

For digital content creators, I think this could very well be a nail in the coffin. In America (and European countries), if a "seller" steals your digital creations (ie Digital Art files such as SVG's, 3D Models, etc.), not only can they be taken down from Etsy, but they could face litigation from the original creator. In some other countries (such as China), it's simply not enforceable at all. All too often, I've seen bundled "mega packs" of SVG's for instance, selling for $2. There is no way that a graphics designer is going to create hundreds, if not thousands of vector graphic files that would take hundreds, possibly thousands of hours to create, and sell them for all for $2. On the other hand, someone who has scraped and possibly even bought digital files, who then bundles them and resells them, has nowhere near that time invested. The holes in the bucket is a great analogy of exactly what is happening. And unfortunately, I see this as Etsy putting their shareholders before sellers, which I could be wrong, but this move will provide a short term gain, but a long term loss.

I dont want to compete with 1.5 BILLION more people. Theyre going to oversaturate the market.

Much of the POD merch is from China, so what difference does it make? The sellers who are producing truly "hand-made" items have had to suck it up a long time. Nothing like having a spa gift basket listing removed because you included an imported soap holder for the soap that you spent 2 hours making! Etsy has some serious issues. They are a flawed tool.

Some Chinese company already stole my design and now going to be more copy cats! They have no shame

I think the main problem is.... For us true hand-made sellers on the platform, ALL our supplies are made in China and exported to middle-men in America that offer it to us consumers at 4x the mark-up hence the increased prices that we have to charge for our hand-made items. A Genuine Hand-made Seller from China have a built-in competitive advantage being able to source their raw materials and supplies as a fraction of the cost of what we here in North America can source them for, which means that the market demand is just one direction... no Chinese shopper will be buying an item from North America that they can purchase cheaper in China...only China will gain from this Etsy change.

Its hard even to try imagine any benefits out of this. You have to be dreaming if you think that Chinese people will buy hand made items from Europe or US

Hello Brother, i think you guys should start your focus on trying to help people on how to sale outside etsy.. Example Facebook Ads + Shopify... Why? because with this news Etsy is taking actions that will affect us.... we need to start preparing our self because we all know that this will be something that wont take us anyware... please consider this request.... Thank you

so, billions of possible chances for Etsy to collect the $15.

Etsy has been allowing Chinese manufacturers on the platform for years. My first shop on Etsy was suspended permanently because I was selling a sand art home decor piece that I owned a trademarked brand for and had helped design improvements with the manufacturing agent. I was reported because my sand art listings overtook the Chinese trading companies last year. I believe I had an upper hand due to customer service and language familiarity. Anyway, after this I began to notice just how many sellers were based in China. I have no issues with this as long as they're following Etsy policy, just like the rest of us are expected. The issue is that a lot of trading companies are selling as manufacturers and this violates policy. Other countries can also deeply undercut U.S. sellers using a POD method simply due to currency exchange rates. It will be upsetting if Etsy opens the doors fully in the future, because that would really hurt American sellers.

China also doesn't have the same trademark laws. Chinese sellers may start copying our products and selling them at mass-produced prices. Etsy will probably do nothing to protect its American sellers. It's a sad day for us US-based sellers. Etsy should just change their name to Etsybaba.

So Etsy opens its doors to 1.5 billion potential sellers, who are superb at spotting bestsellers (including custom/personalizable POD) and replicating them at jaw-droppingly low prices. I think this is great for 1) buyers, 2) marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon, and 3) POD services like Printify and Printful. But it is absolutely deadly for individual sellers from America and Europe, regardless of what platforms they are selling on. I think most American and European businesses selling handmade crafts will be dead by the end of 2024. They just can't compete with the Chinese.

It's already flooded with mass produced made in China. My issue is China does not abide by ANY infringement laws and they are known to steal work and now you've just made it so much easier. Thanks Etsy. More reason for a Shopify Store.

Etsy is hurting and China is a HUGE market. But I agree with the concerns you both express, but my greatest concern is IP infringement not on things like Disney or T Swift, but IP infringement on Etsy bestsellers that are created by the small business Etsy seller just like we’ve seen on Temu as well as their ability to severely undercut the POD & craft people that made Etsy what it is…..or was

I have had some success with Etsy my 1st store is about 10 years old and I just started working on a second store . if people want cheap stuff from across the pond instead of investing in our countries people go ahead you get what you pay for.

ETSY did this years ago. They sold non-handmade items from China when I was a seller 10 plus years ago.

I am in the early stages of preparing to open my first Etsy store. After hearing that now China will have the ability to dominate Etsy I am am considering forgetting about Etsy altogether. I have gad extremely bad experiences when buying from China sellers from Facebook ads, Amazon, and other places. Lots of issues with quality, shipping, customer service and in some cases outright fraud. If Etsy opens the same floodgates then Etsy itself will be swept away along with existing Etsy stores. Shame on Etsy!

Net negative…brings more sellers…not more buyers…

This is exactly why my main focus is no longer ETSY. Its my own site, my own ad spend my own email list and my OWN customers! It seems they dont care much about sellers but more just making money without fixing the current issues.

I got a bad feeling about this. The main issue is they are onboarding the sellers, but not the buyers. I have never had a sale to China in my entire selling history.

Well Etsy is dead. There is ZERO chance any small handmade goods that used to be a premium item would be able to sell. No way to out price or out produce Chinese sweat shops.

Etsy is also allowing vendors that are not 1)handmade, 2) vintage, or 3) craft products only to sell there. Basically, they are not enforcing their own policies

I don’t feel it is a good thing to the sellers in terms of the price competition. Forget about POD, think about real handmade stuff. The cost of the materials, the cost of labor and the taxes are much higher here in the US. With new sellers from China with their lowest prices many US seller will leave the platform

It's time to find other platforms. There isn't much out there, but that's what has to happen because Etsy has been a POS since I started a year ago on Etsy. Aren't they having enough problems with an inability to police trademark and copyright infringement like Taylor Swift products, and drop shippers without adding a flood of sellers from China? They have a disastrous CEO who could care less about the sellers that made the platform what it is. They just want $$$ and the company is desperate for more money, legal or otherwise.

Not a good thing of course. Etsy is becoming greedy and desperate. Etsy soon will be exactly like Temu, Ali and the similar. Pitty. Lets hope another platform will appear out of this soon, for HAND MADE items. It is an opportunity and need for that now!

Our sales have dropped by over 75% in the last 12 months, it is pretty rubbish already in terms of being flooded with cheap knock-offs and there are far more sellers than buyers at the moment.

The problems with amazon are now going to be the same with etsy. Stolen art, photos, ect. Cheap knock offs and crap quality. I have returned so much stuff to amazon due to using stolen photos of products and it not being as advertized. Almost everything ive gotten from etsy has been quality. If i wanted cheap chinese crap i would shop on the other sites.

Closed all my shops this morning. Had to pay over $80 to close. Good riddance

Because All Etsy cares about is MORE SALES

China sellers have taken over Amazon . Some how they get a prime badge even though their stuff takes weeks to get to you. I accidentally bought something from one .

VERY CONCERNED!!!😡😡😡

No, you are not the only one Scott. I think the same. A clean up is needed

If Etsy removed all the sellers who broke copyright, It would potentially suffer a tremendous monetary loss because there are a ton of those shops on its platform. Etsy does go through the motions and "cracks down" on some of the sellers to make it look like they are policing, but in reality, hypothetically, if those shops make up just 10% of Etsy's yearly revenue, their stock price would drop significantly if they were to remove all the shops breaking their policy. Etsy is about making money, period.

The writing has been on the wall for years now lol. I bailed earlier this year and am loving life!

Etsy absolutely needs to fix what is already wrong before flooding the market more.

Competition isn't solely determined by price; factors like quality, innovation, and customer experience also play crucial roles.

I have a question, even if it has nothing to do with this video conversation, and I totally agree with Scott Volker. I ship orders every day. As of two to three weeks ago, I did not get any item reviews, and my customers asked me where to leave the 5 stars. Is there anyone who has the same experience? Please let me know why it suddenly disappeared. Thank you.

Looking forward to seeing how Etsy navigates these challenges!

A lot of things needs to be fix!

This will be the end of Etsy. When I came to this marketplace in 2016, it was very cozy. There was a spirit of small family workshops and soulful products. Now Etsy has become a faceless gray mass, with the same stamped goods made by an assembly line.

Although I can speak Mandarin, my ability to sell in to China is only theoretical. There are too many cultural, political, and economic beriers. More Chinese "sellers" joining Etsy will be a one-way street. I have heard sellers from China have been on Etsy for a while, but making this onboarding change will potentially open the flood gates to misery. As others have pointed out, China is not a market to sell in to. Only sellers from China will join Etsy. No one in China will pay the shipping/import fees/palm-greasing (yes, sometimes a bribe is required to get something through customs (personal experience)). Then there is also the contraband list and virulent anti-Western sentiment there. Easy for something shipped there to run afoul of either one. On the other side, because China claims "developing nation" status with the WTO, nations like America subsidize anything shipped from China. All other costs aside, this alone makes the playingfield unlevelable. Just looking inside China, factories can masqerade as sellers of hand-made goods by calling near-slave labor employees "makers" and the shop boss the "designer." It is also common practice to not pay factory employees for months at a stretch. Talk about keeping costs down! On occasion, workers demand their unpaid wages, get paid a token sum, then are told to resume work or get nothing more. Then of course there is the IP theft China is famous for. Why develop anything if it can be copied? Why not copy if there is no consequence? Suing is pointless, as the Chinese courts are extensions of the Party, and the Party serves only its own interests. Bad idea, Etsy. Do better.

I think the problem is at the end of the day they still profit. It's like having drivers on the road. There are good and bad drivers. Either way the police, emergency vehicles, car insurance etc. is still getting paid through circulation.

Leaky bucket, exactly the issue. Things need fixing, and I'm not seeing them put that effort in as much as I'd like.

Fix Etsy first, then vet.

This is going to always be an issue anytime you build your business on a platform you don't own or have control over.

Generally How can I open another couple of niche shops on Etsy EASILY... they need to make this an option on my 'verified account' so that I can still operate on Etsy without having to come up with different emails, banks, etc. I want to use the same information, just another niche store, example: Bathroom stuff, office stuff, pictures, or digital downloads - all from my same back account and email. Is there a way that I'm missing here??

It's already happening..I am seeing shops that are clearly full of Temu stuff!!

What we all need to do is if you see a copyrighted image is to report it. Etsy can only catch so many of these items. Etsy does rely on us to help them and report all copyrighted products. Good or bad time will tell whether or not this is good. Remember report violations if you see them they do take action. been doing it since the beginning of etsy.

I had the pleasure of going to a fashion college in Taiwan a few years ago. I had never met such amazing, creative young people before. Their frustration was they had no platform to show the world. I would love this opportunity for the young but the theft of ideas from big brother is a real concern.

Etsy is letting China producers for a while now and personally by business is going down ever since. Etsy never cared about the sellers and never will.

No Scott you not the only one. I agree Etsy needs to be fixed.

My biggest concern is that they are allowing sellers to copy products and sell it..even copywrite items.

Honestly it seems they need to create a pool of employees that audit shops monthly, to verify copyright and trademark as well as mass produced cheaper products. It’s a double edge sword, but it would be something to get rid of scam shops, etc.

Do you have an official source/article for this information? If you do, could you please let us know, we'd like to read it.

I think it is time to move to other places to sell. Would love a video of all the options out there. If there is one please ley me know. So long as china follows the rules there is nothing we can do, Sad because this is where ebay fell out and many of us lost our business years ago. China does offer products that work within etsys rules Etsy wants to complete with ebay, aliex, aliba,and temu. They just want more money. Sadly it will chase many of us sellers out of the market. nothing we can do. They have been on etsy already they are just making it easier for more sellers to arrive on the platform. Reason i left etsy when they opened the doors the first time.

Balancing growth with maintaining quality is always a challenge. It's crucial for platforms like Etsy to navigate these waters carefully, especially regarding global expansion and the integrity of handmade products. Your thoughts on this topic are really insightful and reflect the broader concerns in the industry perfectly.

we're not going to be able to compete in prices.

I bet the sellers in China out weigh the buyers and low ball the pricing to boot. Yeah!

Well, I can’t wait for the next Etsy to come along.

Boy, oh boy ... Etsy is just full of surprises. You certainly can't put all your eggs in their one basket is the message they are sending. Don't count on them 😮

This is excatly my experience , new fake accounts 2 times sale my design with my own font and thumbnail even is obvious same thumbnail i have the best seller they didnt do anything i called them report them for different time periods for both person stealing my designs and selling for 1.90 usd , in the process just im discucted by etsy and told them you have buyer protection you should have seller protection they dont care REALLY about sellers

I just joined etsy, but maybe time to jump ship

ofcourse it is a concern. Quality will go down while racing for price competency with China.

Yes! Being a handmade jewelry seller it’s frustrating because people are selling premade jewelry from China. Needless to say, selling from there and wholesale, they can sell lower cost than us sellers hand making items in the U.S.

I am a huge Etsy user but only digital items. I also have a huge issue with Etsy opening the doors to Ali, Temu, etc. I am a paper artist making cards and album and Ali has ruined the paper-crafting industry with many local scrapbook stores closing. Almost everything on Ali that will be sold on Etsy is stolen from real brands and is being sold illegally. For some reason, if you sell a knockoff Disney bag or sweatshirt and a number of other brands, you get sued. But for some reason, anything from Ali or Temu is fair game. Etsy allowing illegal counterfeit products to be sold is wrong and goes against everything Etsy stood for when they first opened. My 2 cents.

I don't think Etsy is remotely ready to take on China sellers for all the reasons you've mentioned. But, I'm even more concerned with seeing a LOT more scammers. I have a unique perspective on scammers and you would be shocked to know how many scams are actually based out of China.

Since when?? I did Etsy better than 10 years ago and like EBay you couldn’t compete with someone make $1 hour. No point in staying…I closed out and never listed there again. But eBay and Etsy get their listing and selling fees, so that’s all that matters.

I agree, its going yo be more commercial Chinese manufacturers

I think it's a trending thing amongst most of the platforms including KZfaq, no customer support,

"Chinese" sellers = Temu, Aliexpress. people forget there are crafters in China as well. And normal people doing arts and crafts. China is not just mass producers.

PODs on Chinese sites are Disney, Taylor Swift and other similar products.

Etsy has become a corporate Monster that does not give a Sh*t about it's sellers. Their Support sucks and nobody at the corporate level listens to there true customers which are the sellers...??? Would someone on the Board LISTEN Please

Time to head over to Michael’s marketplace 😊

The answer is simple: greed.

The answer is yes, absolutely. It will.

I’m glad I decided to go to art storefronts

You're a little behind on the news my friend, this happened many years ago, every year more and more cheap stuff made from across the ocean in the East... I can't compete with cheap mass produced stuff, every year my sales go lower and lower.

I think this is yet another Etsy management mistake. The lure of commissions on billions of yen has blinded them to the dangers of doing business with the Chinese. China does not have an entrepreneurship class like America. Everything made in China is either directly controlled by the government or heavily regulated. The individual making a product and selling it from their home does not exist there. Questions: 1. Etsy can't answer questions from its current sellers in English. How many Etsy customer service reps speak Chinese? 2. We were told Etsy couldn't service the millions of current sellers because they only had about 2800 employees. How many can they afford to hire to attend to day-to-day business in China? 3. China does not present a market for Western goods because the average Chinese consumer does not have the money to afford or products plus shipping. What is Etsy's estimate for the existing sellers' market in China? 4. Further, how many Westerners read, write, and speak Chinese in order to take advantage of that market? 5. How will I service my customers in China? 6. How am I going to do business in China as a sole proprietor knowing I have to deal with import/export laws, import fees, etc.? 7. How is Etsy going to enforce anything done in China except to shut down the offending shop? And then just watch it's mirror image open up again in just a few hours. A $15.00 fee isn't going to stop that abuse. Here's what will happen. They will set up hundreds of sweat shops in China to stock their version of Printify here in the West. The same for all their jewelry and other handmade items. Etsy is opening a huge can of worms thinking China will allow the U.S. to make a profit in China. Just as China put restrictions on American companies to change policies in order to stay in China, they will eventually do the same to Etsy. And it will be their advantage, not ours.

One of the biggest questions should first be, are people in China going to be primarily Sellers? Or are they going to be Buyers? For starters, they mass produce stuff at at a very low production cost. Are customers going to willing (or able) to buy a product in the U.S. for $30+ with shipping, when they can buy something similar for $5-$10? The other thing to worry about when it comes to cost is the fact that they can produce stuff at a low cost and flood the market selling things so cheap that U.S. Sellers won’t be able the compete with the prices. I’m worried that the only thing that Etsy is seeing is the possibility of a half billion shops opening up at $15 a pop!

Yes, Etsy needs to fix the issues first. Also, yes I am concerned as this allows a seller group that traditionally offers products for fraction of costs. This could sink the profits as sellers begin to lower their prices to compete. Third this will allow for businesses that cannot be monitored to sell or sneak in products which break the rules. I am disappointed in Etsy for allowing this.

Etsy’s making this change because they want and need more profits.

In the end everything becomes a Chinese garbage dump.

Don’t let Etsy become EBay 🤔

I sell and also buy on etsy and honestly i always buy from seller of my country, because this is the choice that i make to buy from real handmade products. i just don't understand why people would choose to buy from china even if it is cheaper. I hope I’m sure there will be enough smart buyers left who will prefer a local craftsman

Etsy support is not there, and the AI is bs. Two of my designs were marked as hate speech when there was literally nothing like that incorporated in the designs. Trying to track someone down to say hey this was processed wrong is not an option because you are just met with generated responses. It's frustrating as a seller.

Has Etsy actually started Onboarding new sellers from India? Please help me I want to open a digital products shop on etsy from India

As a Etsy seller I disagree with Etsy allowing this to happen because now it takes away from us as independent creators to earn business this is not good

Is there a place like Etsy?

Yes, Etsy is a bit inconsistent in enforcing their policies.

I think Etsy made a mistake. Headed to go imagine and more big Etsy sellers need to head here too. TEMU will still designs and legalities are costly fights!

Is this going to be a good thing? How is that even a question.

Had Chinese company steal my photos and counterfeit my handmade products. Killed my shop.

It feels like etsy is trying to become as "Amazon" as it can while still trying to keep the "handmade" aesthetic and brand. I see a lot of China sellers being banned for copyright issues....and if they they're not, etsy will have to justify why Chinese sellers aren't shut down and other sellers are. With that being said....i see plenty of shops selling products with IPs on them I'd bet they don't have rights too.

Oh so make it cost $15 to start an Etsy shop and then open it up to China… open enrollment to bring in millions for Etsy.