Email a copy of 'Etsy to Kick Off 2nd Annual Labor Day Sale on August 31' to a friend
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Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
Hello, I don’t know where to Post question and arguments since comments are disabled from your posting: https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2018/02/10/sellers-choice-2018-marketplace-ratings-etsy/
Major question remains: How and where to Report Etsy platform itself? etsy infringements? Either in Europe or from elsewhere? No one dares to talk about this.
I had been selling on Etsy marketplace since 2013 and left mid 2017.
I think Etsy was a good marketplace, where few competent sellers and nice buyers used to deal together, Several worldwide vintage sellers told me Etsy marketplace was a great selling platform before 2013 yet, and I do agree with them. Through 2013/2014 many sellers got to know marketplace and opened shop(s), so that competition got harder. Unfortunately, some “greedy hucksters” came to play around, creating specific “teams”, suggesting also their “Apps”, all this pointing to “diversion of traffic by fraudulent means” but likely approved by a few etsy management team members.
From late 2013, I and many other sellers noticed “strange activities” while looking at our respective “followers” and “reviews” boards. We noticed a few (new) sellers were following massively all our respective “followers” and especially all “buyers” who left Purchase Reviews.
With development of mobile apps, it got worse. Many sellers and I did stop following other sellers, removed “new” followers, did hide our sales… Note that on 2013/2014 etsy also decided to show “buyer profile” on reviews. Then, many buyers never left reviews anymore, since they suddenly received inappropriate solicitations/spams from other malicious competitors or/and from their partners.
Last but not least, as if by magic, only a few sellers got regular sales, even daily sales! and no matter what price range, while many and many other etsy sellers never got/get views and barely got sales, even if their stuff yet was/is of interest, (quality, price, top reviews…).
There is effectively an “Hidden market”. Since Development of mobile apps the situation is getting worse. They manage dedicated servers for their so-called “top sellers”, as money is money, the more you earn, the more you can Pay for their “extra services”. However, few buyers on etsy told me several times, “I can’t find what I want. They always suggest me “similar” things via email newsletter”.
And worse still, the day (by oct/nov 2016) I got to know while crawling the way, their dedicated search engine; as Bing works, and noticed several photos of my items that were systematically linked, (once clicking on Bing images), pointing to “other competitors” images from etsy category – search pages, But none of my items ever showed up on those result pages, whereas my pictures were “highlighted” on Bing search engine in particular. Otherwise, it is well-known how much they manipulate listings relevancy. I disclosed such abuse to etsy support, but no response. I noticed the same situation related to etsy items/img pinned on Pinterest boards. Late 2016, as if by chance, I had to deal with two “nasty” buyers…
Early 2017, etsy announced their Unfair “Etsy Payments Requirements”. Knowing that etsy does consider “customers are the kings”… It was immediately clear to me that in case of any eventual unfair further “issue” with buyer(s), they would have blocked my funds account and would have refunded buyers, without requiring them any evidence of “eventual” issue. A too dangerous scenario! So, like many other sellers, I set my shop on vacation until I finally closed it by mid 2017.
Last, I did properly remove; delete anything there though; as listings descriptions and all images. But I did not count on their continual infamous policy. More than ONE year later, so on 2018, etsy is using again my images, that are still hosted on bing search engine, so that items/images always link to their platform. Message is: “sorry, that’s unavailable. Here are some things you might like instead”. Of course! They suggest other products below message.
I sent etsy message and asked them to delete/remove definitely all my data, I received nonsense, evasive response. The same way, many of my former listings/Images previously pinned on Pinterest are always linked to etsy platform, worse still, my own former etsy pins link to etsy!!, even if I did or do modify link on my OWN pins, links do revert to etsy link. I also asked a few pinterest members to remove my etsy pins, but some did not! How strange!. Oh, Yes! they are part of “etsy community” and certainly take some advantage of…
They Rule the world with other major selling platform companies on the web, plus their hidden but powerful Apps, and the little ones have no other choice than “dying in silence”.
Major question remains: How and where to Report Etsy platform itself? etsy infringements? Either in Europe or from elsewhere? Seems no one dares to talk about this “Liberal infamy” . SLG