From subway walls in Brooklyn to double-decker buses in London, Etsy is spreading the word that it has gifts for holiday shoppers. It revealed its outdoor advertising campaign (or "out-of-home" ads) in the following post on LinkedIn on Monday:

"Are you feeling festive? We're particularly spirited since our marketing team 'decked the halls' across New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and England with our latest out-of-home ads.

"To celebrate their hard work, our employees spotted and captured snapshots of Etsy's campaigns throughout those cities. The delightful ads serve as an inspiration to shop for meaningful gifts from small sellers during this ... Read More

USPS has been delivering packages on Sundays for Amazon since 2013. How much does Amazon pay for the privilege? We can't tell since it operates under a Negotiated Service Agreement with the USPS to which the general public is not privy (shipping services are competitive services, not market dominant).

Regular shippers can get Sunday delivery through Priority Mail Express (which costs more than regular Priority Mail) for an extra $12.50. 

But each year, the Postal Service offers selective 7-day delivery in high-volume areas in the leadup to Christmas. Traditionally that applies to the four Sundays before Christmas. (Check out the FAQs from 2014.)

We went ... Read More

Amazon probed sellers about free shipping in a survey this week. It wanted to know why sellers didn't offer it and if they would consider offering it in their area if they switched to lower-cost regional carriers.

Amazon asked sellers who didn't offer free shipping on their 1-2 day delivery orders why they did not, and it provided them with numerous responses from which to choose.

Not surprisingly, Amazon offered some compelling reasons sellers might not want to offer free shipping, including the following: not wanting to raise the price of their item to absorb the cost of offering free shipping; and selling ... Read More

A seller sought help on the Etsy discussion boards after she discovered 13 of her listings set to expire on November 30th never expired - they were still visible in her shop even when she was not signed in to Etsy. 

The seller was concerned that shoppers might be able to purchase the listings even though they were not supposed to be active anymore. 

Another seller said it was a known glitch that had been going on for two years and said the original poster's listings were still for sale. 

"The big problem is that Etsy is not taking responsibility for this, ... Read More

Etsy sellers were dismayed when they had trouble finding their item descriptions on Thursday on their product pages, though they reappeared for some sellers on Saturday. Some sellers thought it was a test and referred back to other incidents when Etsy had moved descriptions and then returned them to their usual spot on the page.

In one post on the Etsy discussion boards titled, "My descriptions have disappeared," a seller wrote: "My descriptions have vanished - they are nowhere on the page. Just a huge white space. Is it just me? I do have another Etsy ... Read More