Etsy Enlists Sellers to Power Its Valentines Day Ad Campaign

by: COVID-19

Fake "holiday" invented to sell saccharine junk.  No thanks!

by: Rexford

Not feeling the love Etsy.  Get rid of the recycled eBay execs and we can talk.

by: OnlyPollyPocket

"Maybe Etsy should compensate sellers when they participate in sitewide marketing campaigns like the Valentine's Day "Make It Meaningful" promotion that uses an Etsy-branded graphic. After all, it's Etsy's job to drive traffic to its site - that's why sellers pay listing and commission fees."

AMEN!!!!!!!

by: pennyemporium

more misery coming from Etsy in the future, here's a thread regarding a current "test" along the same "seller unfriendly" lines:
https://community.etsy.com/t5/Marketing-Your-Business/Is-any
one-else-seeing-quot-find-similar-items-quot-on-your/td-p/132956390

from a seller's listing, Etsy is redirecting buyers AWAY to other, usually cheaper listings, using a link superimposed over the seller's image photo.  in the thread there is a screen shot of this "test".  

unbelievable!

by: Ina

Etsy seller @CindyLouWho_2 warned sellers to never use social media to drive traffic to Etsy, stating on Twitter that a buyer who clicks on such a post may later see a retargeting Offsite Ad - and if they purchase after clicking that ad, the seller will be charged the Offsite Ad fee.

Retargeting ads aren't bad in and of themselves. But if Etsy sets up its ad campaign to advertise to buyers who have shown an interest in its site and a particular item or seller (ie by clicking on a tweet), CindyLouWho's premise is logical.

by: fairsfair

I totally agree. The policy is outrageous, I would like to actually know what I am paying my ETSY fees for if not to market my goods???
Why is this policy enforced (if you sell over $£12,000)? If you sell over $12K PA you are pretty successfull at selling anyway??  
If it's so good give us the choice. The fact that we have no control over what is advertised and what is not is ridiculous. How can I cover these costs if I don't know what will be advertised? How can I trust that they have in fact EVER been advertised?
Some of my stock was bought prior to this ruling and so unless I blanket add that 12 % (which is a hugely outrageous figure on my high priced items) I will make a loss.
I have been encouraged by Etsy to up my prices to include this cost - is this price gouging?? The previous link to the lawsuit was very interesting.
All such a shame when the sole reason I joined Etsy was because it was a great alternative to the Greed of Ebay - now though, it seems the tables are turning.............  
I have done a long piece on this on the Etsy forum but heck, there are some real nasty pieces of work on there - much worse than Ebay..................    

by: Chicago48

If this campaign is only for Valentines' and not afterward, the sellers can pull their listings for a month and relist when the ad campaign is over.

by: Disgusted

I finally no longer sell on Etsy as of today.  Do not like  the policy of a 15% charge for google ad that I did not sign up for.  Their discretion if it really came from Google or anywhere else. Etsy wanna be eBay wabbabe Amazon.  No more original thinkers anymore,  
I am hoping for a surge in flea markets in my area after this covid goes down or away.

by: pace306

Another scam

by: Vox29
Web Site

This is all understandable, but I drive shoppers from my FB page to my site, not Etsy. Etsy is a secondary marketplace as far as I am concerned, and if the fees for advertising go up, so will my prices. I am in my rights to do with my listings what I want. If Etsy needs promotion it had better learn how to treat its sellers right.

by: Stone Cutter

And on the Etsy forum, I read of sellers who are "intentionally" not producing/selling more than $10k of merchandise per year, in order to NOT pay these additional offsite fees. Heaven forbid that Etsy creates a marketing campaign that encourages sellers to increase sales instead of decreasing sales. There will be a time that Etsy's website will be a bunch of new sellers with very few sales, as good producing sellers will leave...making Etsy's site filled with amateur sellers.  

by: Flying Childers

The white collar thugs who run Etsy have given up any pretense that it is still all about vintage and handmade.  For all intents and purposes, they have de-platformed those shops who specialize in those items.   They removed both categories from the main marquee and potential buyers have to really look to find those items.

You see it's so much more profitable to just become another marketplace that sells cheap factory made goods.   They must have made millions off of the covid masks because they couldn't get them placed front and center fast enough last year when it all started.

The site is overrun with cheap goods from Ali Baba and Ali Express that are hugely marked up by sellers who label them either handmade or vintage.   All it takes is a quick search on either of those two sites to find the exact same items on Etsy.     Sellers on the forums complain all the time and report the offenders to Etsy but nobody cares.  The money is too good.

As far as their advertising scam- this is probably one of the worst ripoffs they have ever concocted and I think that it is probably illegal as are most of their scams.  At some point sellers need to start reporting these issues to their states attorney generals but even then it is doubtful that anything will be done.

The people who run Etsy are the elites. They give their political contributions to all the right people so they are protected.

Meanwhile, the sellers are making less money than ever.  This from a company that claims to want to "keep commerce human."   What a crock.

by: pennyemporium

@Stone Cutter:
''And on the Etsy forum, I read of sellers who are ''intentionally'' not producing/selling more than $10k of merchandise per year, in order to NOT pay these additional offsite fees.''

i have also read of sellers opening an additional etsy shop to avoid the ''mandatory success penalty'' BEFORE they hit the 10K mark, and allowing opt-out of off-site ads.  as long as a seller discloses on each shop that the other shops exists... it's etsy legal.  

it's a weird way to run a business....

by: Bob

@ Flying Childers This user has validated their user name.
Mon Feb 8 19:48:25 2021
''The white collar thugs who run Etsy have given up any pretense that it is still all about vintage and handmade.  For all intents and purposes, they have de-platformed those shops who specialize in those items.''  

So true.  I have been wanting to sell on Etsy as a second venue.  I tried Bonanza for a while.  No sales happening there, and when I eventually got kicked off for complaining the management was very immature in their responses.  Any how, items that I successfully am selling  on EB for over 15 years are on Etsy and it's obvious that most items are massed produced and not handmade by the Seller as was the original format.  So why don't they just fess up and allow Sellers to sell what ever commodity item that they have. Etsy will grow and Sellers will come to Etsy.