Etsy Makes All Listings Auto Renew - Sound Familiar?

by: The End

Ya, just UNcheck the box.
Etsy is getting to be a pain in the a$$.

by: purpleiris

Etsy is beginning to look more and more like eBay all the time. Could we please get some people who actually know our business on the board of directors instead of a bunch of Wall Street crooks?

I have never sold on eBay and for very good reason. Unfortunately, the hostile takeover of Etsy was the beginning of the end for it. I was trying to be hopeful and hung on as long as I could, but shut down my shop a week or so ago because I refuse to do business with any company that only sees my business as a means for them to get richer than they already are.

Yes, it's business and one is in business to make money, but there are such things as unethical business practices and these crooks running the eCommerce show are notorious for them. They are killing small businesses left and right and they just don't care because they're getting richer.

by: The End

@PurpleIris :
Notice how Etsy traded our Gold stars for Ebay's Black Stars.
And now the Idiot Buyers are able to return things for up to 180 days on Etsy. And supposedly our own shop rules can override that rule.

by: DingDong

What a mess. Let the seller handle their business with options since they are the ones with the inventory.

GTC (Good Til Cancel) or Auto Renew has something to do with Google searches that the items have time to index and get established.
BUT
Both eBay and Etsy had the well known site names that you knew you could get your items from. Instead of worrying about Google searches, they should of worried about their site searches so that buyers CAN find the items that they type into the sites searches.

Both sites are going to loose big time.

by: purpleiris

"Instead of worrying about Google searches"

Actually, they should have been worrying about the Google search ranking of Etsy listings when they designed their own search to begin with. Had they enforced the same basic SEO rules as Google from the get-go, instead of encouraging sellers to game the system (Etsy search via titles and tags), listings would be more easily found both on and off Etsy.

Now they have a mess to clean up and it requires reversing what they've been teaching their sellers. Yet, they just keep trying to throw band-aids on it in their feeble attempts to avoid the inevitable.

by: rover

Yep - another money grab by the corporate crooks at Etsy. And now the Idiot buyers are able to return things for up to 180 days on Etsy. Too much catering to moronic returns fraud monkeys. The main site where I sell antiques (Ruby Lane) gives buyers 3 days to ask for a return unless sellers choose to have a more generous policy. Putting the seller firmly in control of their own merchandise. Thats how it should be.  

by: hawk

small business's and hard working people make these venues super rich on a volume basis , then they get shoved in the toilet when they are done abusing the small sellers. what's new in world history ??? nothing !!!

by: Flying Childers

It never ends with these people.  The deceptions, the con, the rip offs just keep coming.  Meanwhile, search continues to be a hot mess.

In some ways Etsy is worse than EBay as they pretend to have a human element and to care about the sellers and their shops.

The truth is that what they really want is for us to do all the work- find the item, make the item, list it, pack it, ship it, deal with the customer and then give them ALL the money.

We artisans and vintage sellers should be grateful that we are allowed to make whatever is left after Etsy takes its cut.

Another thing I don’t understand is why they make their fee structure so complicated.  They nickel and dime us to death with 3% here and 2% there- why not charge a straight 15% across the board commission?  They must think we are stupid and can’t add.

by: Flying Childers

Another thing- We have been told by the experts that copied listings show up better in search than listings that are renewed over and over again.

From what I’ve read, the robots don’t like renewed listings with no sales and that it’s better to create a new listing by simply copying the old one.  You lose all the visits, etc. but at least you supposedly have a better chance of being found.

Why would Etsy insist on doing something that they know is harmful to search?

by: Alura

I've been on Etsy 8 years, closing my previous shop last year.  This year I opened a new shop to test  a theory.  
Anyhow I sell antiques, if etsy auto renews I risk getting a sale of something that isn't available at all.  
Which means once I sell an item I have to immediately kill the listing.  It's a great inconvenience.  
If something accidentally sells, then I have to disappoint a customer and issue a refund.  Will that disappointed person be able to still leave feedback?  I hope not because what etsy did was out of my control.
This is going to be a conundrum for large sellers especially.
We should be allowed to opt in or out permanently.  I'd opt out for sure.

by: GracefulAntiquesVtg

So at the suggestion of a higher up on the site I CHURNED both of my shops off of Etsy and/or in the process.

I have been a seller since 1996 and online since 2002.
Never have I seen such gall and I have been on most every venue on the yearly Sellers Choice Awards here. Including 2 ebay shops once upon a time.

Both of my business names from Etsy still show them on Google as on People, Shape and Real Simple with glaring Deal Alert or Don't Miss These Deals.

So if I get this correct they are auto renewing sellers traffic to whatever or whomever they desire.

This has forced me to deactivate items on both shops and hope to God I can remove them before the renew kicks in.

OOAK and Vintage does not sell in 4 months always.

Gone to Bonanza Marketplace for now and having fun building Hand Picked lists.

This Bad Citizen is now FREE again!

If anything ALL sellers are smarting up to what is going on with ALL the baskets.

IMHO they need US more then we need them.
Sooner or later they may grasp this truth.

I take them ALL now with a grain of salt what they say.

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purpleIris is Spot On the assessment of the situation with Google IMHO.  

by: Fahrenheit451

This is all so silly. Auto renew has always been the default setting for a listing. Next to it is a checkbox called Manual. I suggest you all learn to use it.

As for the black stars, I prefer them to the gold stars. Black stars are easier to see. QED.

by: BargainzBabylon

@Fahrenheit451  - Exactly. This is not a new innovation, it's been like this since I've been selling there (admittedly that's just since late in 2015). Current listings will keep their settings (at least according to Etsy), just make sure the auto-relist button is un-ticked when you create your new listings.

This is a tempest in a teapot - my only complaint is why Etsy is suddenly announcing this now when it's nothing new? This just confuses people.  Maybe it's just Silverman following eBay around again. .  

by: Freeeeeeeee

It has been the policy for some time.  As for eBay, I don't hesitate to cancel a listing if I want to as nothing you do on either site registers with their algorithms except a quick sale.  #middleman

by: iheartjacksparrow

Alura writes: "Which means once I sell an item I have to immediately kill the listing."

Wouldn't you do that anyway whether or not auto-renew is in place?  

by: purpleiris

Come to think of it, it has been set up this way for a long time now. While I recently shut down my shop, I did copy a bunch of new listings just weeks prior and checking the "Manual" box has always been a part of listing.

So, why are they mentioning this now? Is Silverman just trying to look busy?

by: GracefulAntiquesVtg

The majority of people who don't read their etsy emails will have no idea this is happening.
--------------
This is why it is a big deal.
Single working moms, Senior Citizens, Small business owners will be hit with fees before they know it.

It just causes confusion as Babylon says.
These fees add up quickly.  

by: Life During Wartime

As others have noted above, this is nothing new.  There were buttons on the listing form to select auto vs manual  renew the last time I created an Etsy listing, more than 2 years ago.  

by: purpleiris

If they're mentioning this now, it makes me wonder if they're taking the option off of the create listing page and putting it somewhere else to apply to all listings. While I no longer have an active shop there, I would prefer to keep the option on a listing-by-listing basis.

I will only pay a certain amount in listing fees for lower-priced items, but don't need to worry about it so much on higher priced items. So I could save myself the hassle of having to manually renew those.

by: Marie

@alura
Are you sure that Etsy would auto relist a listing that has a zero quantity available?  I've never had that happen.