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Being on Etsy is like the relationship with my passive-agressive mother, you never know exactly how to please her or when she is going to snap for no reason.

Etsy needs a new competitor that will come to takes its place. Give sellers what Etsy us we to be

Etsy, we really need a live person to talk to when we have problems

It’s incredible how basic this is and how obvious Etsy is failing the most basic thing. We live in daily fear that our hundreds or thousands of hours of work disappear overnight due to a simple error we don’t have a chance of fixing because we cannot find out what we did wrong! This is a real, TOTALLY UNNECESSARILY and UNACCEPTABLE abuse of sellers. The frustration is unbearable. It is, quite frankly, CRUEL!

If Etsy pushes for sellers to have good communication with its buyers to make people want to come back, Etsy can do the same with its sellers

I totally agree that Etsy needs to offer more support to sellers!

Even customers notice the difference in Etsy. From one of my regulars: "I really want to support real, working artists. I have almost given up on Etsy as it has so much mass produced junk on it now, but stay because of artists like you. Thanks for helping me find a gift as special and unique as my niece is."

It’s not just potential competition. We can deal with that, it’s the fact that Chinese sellers steal your designs (even your pictures) and make the items cheap. But not just cheap but a race to the bottom. Etsy advertises as a platform where you can find unique handmade items. That hasn’t been the case for a long time. They will just end up being a crap platform. They also require sellers to have perfect customer service but they have the worst customer service of any platform. Get your own website and start sending traffic there. The AI pics are crap, you can see it right away. There is nothing handmade about AI generated.

Hey, it’s Vlad! Thank you so much for making this video! TagPup is as handmade as they come; we print our own fabric, sew our own collars, and engrave our own buckles. And yes, I have looked into fabric weaving machines-lol, not yet, but maybe in the future. I’m very fortunate to have my business, and I’m also fortunate that I get to continue to sell on Etsy. News about successful Etsy shops being suspended causes two things: New sellers won’t want to invest their money to grow and introduce high-quality products, which will leave Etsy with either low-quality products from China, as you mentioned, or low-entry products, such as tumblers. Big sellers are either changing their selling channels and moving on to other platforms, or taking their marketing dollars elsewhere, which will hurt Etsy's bottom line. If they used to advertise their Etsy shops on Instagram or Facebook, well, now they’ll change that link to either their Shopify store or Amazon listings. Why? Well, the risk is just too high to promote something that could easily be suspended.

I am very disappointed of Etsy too. So much of my work is destroyed by deactivating my old and some bestseller listings. It's all 100% handmade by me, all pictures and descriptions are made by me. I should be the perfect products for Etsy... but they don't even answer in person or give me a realistic reason. This is so frustrating and not fair at all. Wonder if it makes sense to invest more time, if everything can be destroyed for no reason in a second... ? 😢 How can they do this with us? What a sad change of the Etsy-Story...

Hearing all the horror stories of sellers having their shops closed or suspended with no explanation beyond a template email is one of the things that has really given me pause in working with Etsy. But I come this channel and you guys always make it seem like there is a solution. Here’s hoping Etsy initiates a Sellers Support Team with live people!

With all of these “unfair” business practices without a regulatory framework, surely they are in breach of standard business practices?? Sellers are customers as well - as they are paying for a service - if they don’t have a standard of service, why hasn’t anyone started a class action lawsuit against them? Etsy is breaking consumer protection laws by not providing specific terms of service… they are more akin to a domestic violence abuser rather than a reputable company!

Etsy biggest issue is the massive amount of even obvious copyright violation products

They have so many rules they impose on sellers but I think we should demand a customer service number.

I want to open a new shop but I'm scared that Etsy will auto shut down that store AND MY OTHERS. They're just not supportive of sellers. And when you actually talk to someone through chat, their information is totally different from the seller handbook. Why is so much money being spent on ads when the sellers are totally unsupported? We are the ones making Etsy money!

Etsy will dig their own grave, this kinda service quality wouldn’t last in this era of rapid change. They’re taking their position for granted, giving their future competitor the key to succeed by not doing what Etsy is doing. Our voice is valuable to you and your current and future competitors.

i have worked in customer service and absolutely nothing can take the place of being able to speak with a real human being to resolve any and every issue. This is not something that ai can ever replace

One more thing - if this is what it takes to “let them know” about this issue, then the failure is utterly complete. If they don’t already know about these issues, I call total BS. The goal is cruelty.

Another thing Etsy needs to know is that many CEO's have stepped down. The good side of government is looking into fraud, and many other things. That said, Etsy may not get away with everything.

Yes! We want reliable and accurate live support for sellers!

I think the worst thing is not being able to get exact reasons for getting banned and to be able to speak with a person. Most people are honest peope trying to sell legitimate products people want. Dont make us all suffer and become disgusted with the etsy platform. 😢 And not just being able to find out WHY you got banned but also getting the option to rectify your mistake!

I agree we should be able to call and talk to a person. We have made you very rich Mr. Silverman please show us a modicom of respect.

Can we point out the fact that Etsy allows pornographic filth to be sold on their platform now????? How us parents now need to make sure our children are nowhere around while we are scrolling Etsy bc of the possibility of something filthy will appear??? I am talking FULL, CLOSE-UP NUDITY. Since when has that been allowed? Straight up pornographic images & products. SMH

I opened a brand new POD shop with my 3 of my own designs (non AI) Followed every rule I have read or heard. Trademark checked my 3 designs. Made sure that all my Bank details, credentials were correct. Was suspended by the bots within 24 hours. I filled out the appeal and got the fatal message that my store will not be restored, and that every other attempt to contact will be ignored. The kicker to all of this is, my other store of 3 years is still active without issues.

I’ve started selling on Mercari. You get to keep 100% of the sale and no listing fee. Doing just as much on there. If it weren’t for them I’d really be hurting now. Traffic has tanked to basically non-existent since January.

Etsy is moving every single new listing to "Inactive". I have contacted customer support several times and am not getting responses. I'm afraid if I relist them, my shop will get cancelled. I have been selling on Etsy since 2013 in the handmade niche but just started creating POD products. It's pretty much impossible to add new items that I do TONS of research on ahead of time and make sure my items are properly niched but still different enough to be unique. In the Inactive file, there is no "deactivation" note or anything. Just moving items out of "Active". I seriously HATE Etsy now. They won't even give you the courtesy of a response.

Regarding eBay being a "cheap" platform. I used to be a full handmade on Etsy only seller. After some search algorithm changes on Etsy I was forced to branch out to other sales platforms. Today, my eBay handmade sales DWARF my handmade Etsy sales by the thousands.

I am following you for a long time and I always listen to your podcasts, the speech you had in this episode about the shutting down the shops and being unable to call the Etsy team is just Banger!!! You said the exact same things that millions of sellers think!!! As an Etsy seller of more than 4 years I still experience so much stress of not doing something very silly mistake to be banned. We should really got a top notch customer service because we, the sellers build the ETSY. Thank you so much for this episode!!!

Not a fan of Temu either. A lot of people I have talked to who has bought something was disappointed with their purchase, cheaper does not mean better.

When the big layoff happened before Christmas, it was inevitable that CUSTOMER SERVICE was going to take a long hit. The stockholders need to have some blame for this. Greed, greed, greed!!!

OMG you are 35 min into the podcast and you are STILL, STILL saying, "we are gonna talk about this, we are gonna talk about that" JUST TALK ALREADY!

Email guide - this video has been very informative and i love how thorough you guys are. I am just starting out and not really getting sales yet but i also feel that I'm just getting the hang of making decent digital products so I believe it's just a matter of time and I'm realizing that I really need to focus on nichong down more to get my things seen.

yes, I have purchased Amazon Basic I did not know that always lot to learn from you two. Thanks for a great video

I do not use AI for my designs, but I do use it to help with listing descriptions. I really feel for POD sellers with the AI element. I have a graphic design degree and former career as a designer - I’ve said this before but it’s the zillions of low-effort shops with crappy AI designs that bother me that create noise and distractions for the dedicated hard-working sellers.

I opened my shop sometime ago, but have not listed any items as yet. I hae been rather hesitant to continue due to all the rumours ad changes, however after listening to you, I will give it a go! THANK YOU!

I appreciate the hard word you guys do to give us good stuff

When I opened my handmade shop in 2011, I had to take a photo of my DL and send it to Etsy. I remember that I also had to take a photo to PROVE that I was the maker. I had another shop already, which was open with no proofs at all.

Etsy used to have much more detailed policies, they changed the whole 'seller handbook' structure back around 2015/16 I believe and they stripped out a lot of specifics making the policies much more vague and open to interpretation. At the time, they explained this change by saying they "want to apply the policies with discretion based on individual scenarios". So yeah, that has worked out about as well as one would expect.

Thank you for all this information. I greatly appreciate it.

Great video guys, thank you. 🙏 I can’t agree with you more that us sellers need to be able to speak on the phone to a knowledgeable human being at Etsy, as and when is necessary. Hopefully not that often, but having the option to do so is paramount.

Guide for email. Thank you guys so much!❤

Your information was very helpful and would like the roadmap guide and email info. Thanks!

Thanks so much for this podcast. I had my shop banned as soon as I received my first sale. Thankfully I stayed on it and was able to resolve it. Very frustrating having to chat through emails. Email and roadmap. Thank you I appreciate you sharing this information with me.

thank you for being honest and trying to get Etsy's attention they need to be better w customer service. how can they continue to ask us for great customer service when we can't even get a strrait answer from a real person when we need help.

I think Etsy lost some sellers when the seller could not use the money awaiting deposit into their bank accounts to BUY from other sellers. I didn't realize this until I had $250 that had cleared, awaiting deposit the next Monday (& not available to my bank account until Tuesday, ima). Looking to purchase a gift, that money was not mine for the entire weekend plus Monday. I missed out on two OOAK items and their respective shop sales. Still cannot find another one of those items, even on Ebay, for any amount. Really preferred the PayPal option, as I had ready access to the money for postage.

Yes I agree, the compotition on price is horrible. Etsy wants us to give discounts, coupons free shipping. How can we do that when we already have to compete with sellers that somehow do all that and price there items below a cost price what is that about.

Guide and roadmap, Ive been a seller on Etsy since 2008 but had to put my shop on vacation mode last year when I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. So I've been off the sight mainly for almost a year. Etsy has never been my only sorce of income, I have a website and sell at conventions.

Thanks for this guys! Very informative!

2 accounts created, all information, tax, id and bank account valid, and banned within days. Followed all KZfaq tutorials I could see to ensure that there was no reason to be banned. No reason given, appeal ignored, and outright stated that they couldn't tell me why it was banned, so there was no way to fix whatever imaginary problem their bot had found. Can't talk to a real person. Etsy simply aren't a trustworthy or reliable business partner, and not worth considering. I would never use them even if they did change, due to that experience.

My shop got banned a day after I started it and I never got an answer as to why. I gave up on it for a while, came back and it said it was suspended and I could appeal. So I did. It's been like 3 weeks. I'm probably just going to give up on Etsy altogether because it's beyond frustrating. I've been buying from Etsy for the last 10+ years but will probably find alternatives now.

Yes...guide and roadmap thanks 🙏🏼

Guide and roadmap Thanks!

I have been selling on my Maxie's Gems shop since 2014; I make most of my money selling locally, but Etsy has been a nice little side business. Sales have bombed since the pandemic; and I am not pleased with the increased fees, the off-site ads fee and that allowing production partners makes it difficult for small sellers to compete; also have experienced frustrating glitches. The reduced sales may mean that I am not keeping up with the trends and my creations are not desirable. At any rate I am taking a break at the end of this month to decided what to do. I will have my eye on this topic.

I started a shop with my own designs, not AI designs, my own work. Etsy received a complaint from another seller who had stolen my designs and claimed they were theirs! As a result, I was banned!! I could prove they were mine. Etsy should investigate first, and look at the evidence before imposing a sanction....Very poor...

I had 2 shops that were doing well! Etsy decides that one shop was not following their policies so they closed BOTH down. This was 2020. It took me years to become a 5 star shop, learning everything from scratch. I haven't been able to recover since! Thank you Etsy! ~The Crafty Shelf -Handmade Family Jewelry.

Thanks for this, Guide & Road Map please :)

The platforms need to work together to get rid of fraud. I had images stolen and put on Amazon. Alerted Amazon and Etsy both and they were all helpless Hannah on it and actually threatened me saying it was against amazon terms to falsely report. So I dropped it. That shop eventually disappeared probably probably for not fulfilling orders. I mean they didn’t have my art to print the mugs. I guess they only listen to customers not sellers.

I have purchased many items from Temu last year, but they ship everything in plastic bags, even the things that are fragile! Also, the price is not that low for the quality, sometimes you can find better quality here in the US for the same prices they have, or cheaper (example, some socks I bought from them). I stopped buying from them after noticing that.

I totally agree when I first open my Etsy shop I got suspended and I got the generic email and I kept having to email them and after five days, they reinstate it by account but I never truly knew why it was suspended. yes thank you for speaking up for us because they do need a live person that we can call or that they can call us. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to get a hold of someone and you can’t especially a human.

email guide , and 100k road map, cheers guys good work

Temu can be good for some things, like I ordered a set of kitchen scissors. However, their lack of quality is their weakness. I ordered a couple tshirts, much like the onese listed on Etsy (same image), however the design was cheaply printed and the shirt was cheap as well. Not a Bella and Canvas shirt. Etsy sellers need to emphasize the quality of their items as well as the "small business/independent artist" stance.

No beginner seller can compete in a race to the bottom on price. That’s ridiculous. And that is the message I’m getting, sale,sale, pay for advertising ,pay for advertising

Guide & Roadmap. Thank you! :)

Email Guide and Roadmap Thank you very informative

I’ve bought Amazon basic batteries.

email GUIDE - thanks guys great info as usual!

Hello, new here, subscribed :) I have been an Etsy seller since 2007, so been around since the beginning! Just this year my sales really slowed down! Also, had an experience with two shops, took my design and pictures, reported to Etsy and they shot them down, so that's good form Etsy, but it is been hard and looking to learn more, thank you :)

I had opened a shop. Everything was verified, no copyright products, followed all the rules and not even a month old and I was suspended. No warning what so ever. Bad taste in my mouth. Not sure I want to work with a business that treats their income like that.

Etsy really needs to have personal support for the sellers. I mean I can actually get a human on TikTok shop now and I still can't on Etsy? I can even get Amazon Merch on Demand to answer me personally now!

Roadmap and Email. Thank you both for this wealth of information.

Guide & Roadmap Please and Thank you so much! ❤️

Email. Thank you. Traffic is way off from the site since January.

Email.. I'm totally new to the etsy seller world but been a buyer for years. Recently attempted to start my own shop just to be suspended with no email explaining just a single sentence. It's a guessing game and I still don't know if it's permanent or temporary but it's at least a relief knowing it's not just me. They are just playing with my emotions I just hope it all gets straightened out. Thanks for sharing all this detailed information, it's more guidance than I've ever had.

Great content, guys... I'm just starting up, and am gathering as much info as I can. Dismayed at what I'm hearing about Etsy, as it was going to be a lynchpin in my plan.

I have been shut down twice due to tax id issues and shipping both weeks before the holidays. Took me weeks to get them to understand my items are handmade and my last name is hyphenated. Did get to a real person but to late to recoup the holiday profits, ended up opening up an ecommerce company in case it happens again. Thank you for all your informative Etsy updates

I keep paying Etsy, but get no sales. Can't keep going in the hole.

I would love your Roadmap. Thank you for sharing this information. We live in a crazy world.

I have to comment again. So……..on point, having a real person to talk to and an educated support person. It was the most frustrating thing I went through not talking to a live person. You hit the nail on the head! Everything I went through in the beginning of opening my shop was horrible because I couldn’t speak to a live person. I really wanted to just shut it down and leave the platform. If that can be fixed it would be helpful.

Opened my shop Jan1 this year. Etsy traffic? Not only no sales, but no TRAFFIC. ZERO visits. But I get emails regarding purchasing advertising every day. Note, I am an artisan, not POD or digital downloads. Artisans are not supported at all.

I use AI, in a similar fashion to how you described your wife using it. But I’ll be honest, as an artist who went to FIT for fashion design, and then later got a degree in marketing, and someone who also was a commissioned portrait painter and photographer, with a healthy splash of crafting as a hobby… I have not found AI to be any less work! I’ve gotten pretty efficient with prompts but even then I’m looking at, on average, 50-100 rolls of the dice, to get anything even close to what my original vision was. And after that, I’m spending at least a few days, usually having to correct all sorts of AI weirdness, pixel by pixel, on 3-4 different design and photography softwares (Ps, AI, Canva, etc.), and at no little cost to me. Not to mention the fact that AI isn’t free, either… at least not in the way I use it. However, like your wife, I do all of that just for elements that are unique. The rest still involves me creating all of the other elements, choosing fonts, a layout design, colors, text, and then piecing all of it together, in order to bring my original vision to life. So, as far as I’m concerned, there’s just as much creative vision and hard work that goes into every one of my designs, than if I were to have not used AI. And frankly, with the majority of Etsy listing looking like homogenized advertisements for Creative Fabrica, or the product of the same closely followed YT design tutorials (using the same 4 fonts, in the same layout), the use of AI seems much less of a problem, than the lack of entirely original designs on Etsy, is.

I think the scariest thing is to work with a new company and starting a new business and to hear that there is not a human to answer questions cause they don’t want to tell how to fix something is mind blowing. I am little scared to have platform on Etsy. I do totally agree to have a back plan, build email list and to have more then one platform just in case. Nice content. Thanks!

Guide Email Thanks for all your help guys! 🙏

I guess I won’t be opening an Etsy store. Thank you

I've tried to open a shop six times. All six times they were shut down within a half an hour and each time they sent me an email withing 24 hours telling me it was permanently banned.

Very good discussion here, well organized. Alarming that dialogue with Etsy is such a problem. On a sidenote, I personally feel Etsy should not charge a processing fee for new shop, a freebie now and then is ok. Transaction fees , Etsy Ads fees, discounts to buyers, shipping fees, like a small break is a small break. Photo ID sounds like a true annoyance, have mixed feelings about this too. Other corporations do not do this, feel Etsy is over the top with some stuff. However, this video is quite excellent. Hope CEO people respond. Thank you for this.

As I recall, the original purpose of Esty's was for small-time artisans to have a national/international platform to sell on. Then it opened up to mass production, antiques/second hand, then large national/international corporations. Is Esty still a good place to sell for OOAK items? Antiques? Collectibles? Repurposed items? Craft supplies, esp. vintage supplies of better quality and rarity? TEMU seems a good thing for buying supplies for us crafty types, like buying from the Michaels stores, JoAnns, Darice (RIP,) Craft for Less, etc., but the prices are better which means a little more in profit.

They closed my shop and did not give me a reason for it. It’s frustrating after 6 weeks of hard work. I email them and tried to get a hold of them but did not get an answer, they are cold and customer service sucks. Its just plain horrible and should be boycotted. How can you learn from a mistake if you don’t know what you did wrong.

Email Guide, Road Map, and SEO Guide Please.

Love the outlet of etsy for a business, but no live support was my concern months ago. Thanks for allowing me this opportunity to express this concern.

Guide for Email. Thank you!

As a customer/purchaser - I DON'T WANT TO PURCHASE ITEMS THAT SHIP FROM CHINA OR OTHER COUNTRIES!! How can I tell when a seller is from another country - so I can avoid these sellers?

I don’t know if other shoppers do this, but I learned years ago when shopping on Etsy to make sure I’m only buying within the United States. I learned that lesson the hard way. I always turn on that filter so all these shops coming in from other countries will not even show up for me.

I appreciate your video giving us etsy news!!

ive been exploring AI for my designs, then adding my mark. Great episode man!!!

Maybe Etsy is run by AI and the only human is the CEO? We need human support Etsy! We need critical thinkers that can trouble shoot issues and not algorithm’s hims that act on black and white data input to ban and punish sellers.

Thank you for your honesty. Most influencers are not honest about Etsy. Selling on Etsy is an absolute nightmare. I LOVE Ebay. Maybe you can influence Cody to create an Ebay tool. Etsy is woke and not committed to their sellers. I see shops that sell Pizza, Taco etc. CHILD PORN symbology all over Etsy but they won't let me post a simple retro flower shirt. WTF!

Thank you! ☺️

just starting an etsy store and i am scared that hard work will be taken away for no reason. I would love to be assured that I can be able to work out problems to continue doing business.

Printify has an Etsy pod store.