Etsy Exploits Retargeting to Get Ad Fees from Sellers?

by: Vigilant Eye On eBay

Nothing more than seller exploitation, it wouldn't surprise me at all if eBay wound up incorporating this unearned revenue generating model in the near future.

In the past (i.e., before the venues became publicly owned corporations), sellers paid a commission for any sales that a site had directly generated for them and not for advertising that promotes the venue and its other sellers at large.

Despite any drops in the gross sales volume of products, it never ceases to amaze me how eBay and Etsy continually manage to increase their annual gross revenues through the use of both overt and covert seller fees.

by: MainelyVintage

Ina, regarding your comment:

"I have visited the seller's Etsy shop many times over the past few years, and I've purchased some of their items in the past.

"I didn't pull the trigger yesterday to make a purchase, but if I seek out the seller's shop now or in the future, will Etsy take credit for the sale and charge that 12% Offsite Ad fee since I clicked on the Google Ad? If so, is it fair to do so?

"I may be making another purchase from that seller in the future - but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Etsy might charge them an additional 12% fee if I do."
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If you wait a month before purchasing (without clicking on an ad) the seller will not be charged.

I have hundreds of items listed on Etsy and I am not a fan. I did raise my prices and take some other steps to cover the de facto fee increases. I have always been careful in my vintage buying, not to spend too much for inventory, so selling is still profitable.

by: postbuster

etsy is like an annex for ebay.

Two similar platforms who pull the same trick at different times, beta testing abuses to practice on society for just to build wealth for the few and undeserving.

When people cant even afford to pay their bills, hell, even shipping labels because corporations keep skimming more off of the top.
All while executives can pay any average persons annual expenses ten years in advance.

This is the kind of research that our fees have been paying for.
It far beyond cruel and negligent behavior.  
It resembles the kind of treatment from places like North Korea.

Soulless children abusing the system that supports them.

by: pennyemporium

@Ina,
''Immediately I wondered whether Etsy would charge the seller a 12% Offsite Ad fee on top of the standard 5% commission fee if I were to purchase the item.''

YES, the seller WILL be charged that ''success fee'' of an extra 12%.  you are absolutely correct.  

ANY item you select from that shop, no matter if you buy the original linked-item or not.... ANY item in that shop within 30 days will be charged the ''success fee''.  even if you buy 500 items in the 30 days... ALL will be slapped with the fee.  

by: plcombs

If a buyer clears their History-cookies from the browser and then buys something afterwards, the Google Cookie should be gone and ETSY earns no extra commission.

Etsy, should not be doing this of course without a seller agreeing to it beforehand, i's a fee scam, plain and simple. Or at least opting in as part of their own pricing and marketing strategy.

Google Remarketing is a fairly cheap way to generate traffic and nowhere near the extra 12% in most cases...

by: Carl

@plcombs
Unfortunately, the potential buyers IP address is likely to be logged on the Etsy servers once they click the ad.
It will look for the same IP addresses buying the item for a match within those 30 days.
Etsy know people will clear out their cookies..etc.
They would stand to lose too much money if not done via IP.

by: acertainblue

This is terrible. Once I got wind of it, I opted out of Offsite Ads (my shop easily makes less than 10,000/year). I had stayed in it to see if it would help sales. Interestingly, after a rather dead 5-6 days or so, there was a flurry of sales, although those could be down to people getting funds near the beginning of the month, or down to cycling. I can feel that my shop is being cycled on/off for the last month, especially. All most discouraging. But no, I'm not giving Etsy 17% & a bite of shipping fees, etc. Highway robbery.

by: Chicago48

Some smart platform will see all these Etsy complaints and figure out it's time to start an "Etsy v. 2.0".  AMZ has handmades, but it's dead in the water from what I read.  I doubt anyone knows how to find that category.  Poshmark would be perfect for a handmades category or separate site.

by: pennyemporium

@acertainblue:  yes, the sellers in Etsy have all seen the Ebay tricks migrate slowly over to Etsy.  those ''lights on, lights off'' periods are simply recycled Ebay ''rolling blackouts''.  i get it too, ''lights off''; a week with no views or sales, ''lights on''; a sudden flurry for 2-3 days of lots of sales.  

not related to rolling blackouts, but another casualty to the ''opting out of the offsite ads'' choice, is that your Etsy items will deliberately NOT be fed to google for display on their google shopping pages.  (this is different that being found in the organic search).  if you are not paying Etsy for the ''success fee'', then they will punish you by not allowing your listings to be shown on google shopping.

nice business partner we have, isn't it?

by: treasurehunter777

It is one thing to charge for a service and another not to get what you pay for. I found my items not being promoted on Google search even though I am being charged 22% final fees on items I sell. Everything was great until February 2021 then no more promoting of my goods. I listed a new vintage rare scarce never before item and even after 8 days it still did not show up on Google when use to be items would show up in a day or two. My daily views and visits dropped by 90 %.  Needless to say I am very disappointed. I turned OFF Etsy off site ads and I am going to start cutting my inventory on Etsy.  You would think Etsy knows, when I sell Etsy makes money.  I am a long time Etsy seller and played by all their rules including Free Shipping on all my items.