Etsy Seller Charged 32 Percent Commission

by: ThebigR

etsy is hands down the leader in fees charged. If you sell on multiple sites it is very clear to see the ones that don't see it don't sell anywhere else. The cost a year to generate a sale is a real scary number to look at when selling on etsy...  

by: postbuster

I've said it before,
but sellers should also check the double charge for shipping fees.

Again:
The way they do this is one line shows item price including shipping cost.- They charge a percentage.

The second line shows just the shipping cost. - charged percentage again.

No doubt that they are hijacking funds through a false Ad campaign, but if we're talking about bottom lines, then every extra charge matters, and it certainly doesn't belong to undeserving shareholders.

Etsy is eBay's more evil little sibling.  Vile to the extreme, and allows ebay to use the excuse, ''Someone else is rotten too.''  

THAT'S Collusion!

by: AddyUp

Etsy UK was on a recent complaints program where a number of people felt they were duped into buying what they thought was hand made quality furniture items which in reality was just mass produced furniture from a store. And they paid around three times the price for the privilege.
People had used etsy to buy this because of the covid lockdown. The general complaints made were that it wasn't made clear these were just mass produced items as etsy was supposed to be "hand made" and as they are happy to collect the fees they at least should distinctly mark the item ads as not "handmade" something like mass produced or factory made.
The programs conclusion was basically that they collect the fees and don't care.

by: fashionista

etsy drunk the ebay kool-aid, except they gulped it in gallons.........my store was recently closed, no real explanation, I wrote over and over (since you can't call) received the same reply over and over, "read etsy policy ......"
I was actually hung up on when I said my store was closed and I had a question, he said "I can't talk to you and hung up immediately"

since I've always included my email with my thank you note, I've had several buyers contact me directly to purchase more,  all have said "f... etsy"  I was surprised,  but I guess their greed is going to be their downfall.

The offsite ad thing is a scam

by: Chicago48

One word:  Shopify.

by: Eagle

I had the off site charge on two orders of the same buyer. They were rings and not sure what the deal was but she bought a size 11 on first order and a size 10 on second order. Anyway, I canceled the first order for the size 11 and Etsy still charged me what was the equivalent of $15 to cancel the first order and I paid the high fee on the order customer kept. That was the day I closed my Etsy store. It was in completion with my website on google for search terms anyway. Both landing on first page results with one listed above the other. Etsy was only 10% of our total sales during the best year at Etsy so I've never looked back. Life has been so much better since then!

by: Jester

I sell on Amazon, Ebay, Mercari and, a few others. I tried Etsy for 6 months and I didn't like their clunky hard to work with listing and fee platform. It did not fit my business model.

by: Rexford

"That's because of a 15% Etsy Offsite Ads fee on top of the regular fees Etsy charges - including on shipping - and for payment processing."

The Offsite Ads scheme by Etsy.  Won't use it and if it is every forced on me I will close my store and move the hundreds of items that I sell on Etsy to my website.  The stench of eBay is all over Etsy and it is a slap in the face to sellers who flocked there to get away from eBay.   Of course most of us knew that the minute they went public and became beholden to Wall Street that they would throw their sellers under the bus.

Watch eBay carefully on this one.   Monkey see monkey do, and when it comes to new fees, eBay never misses an opportunity.

by: felyne

Redford, that's the first thot that crossed my mind:

"Of course most of us knew that the minute they went public and became beholden to Wall Street that they would throw their sellers under the bus."

by: felyne

Sorry, I meant, Rexford.  

by: Junkminer

This burns me so much!!
I got charged for two pieces sold to the same buyer at the same time. Not sure how that makes sense. I hate this program so much. These are items that are going to sell any way, very hot category and all they needed was a little time. Instead I have to pay $50 each item for the please of selling them a little faster. Mind you they are OOAK and can't replaced, so faster doesn't mean more volume it is just bad business.  I wouldnt mind a 5% commission on things that need help but so far they are just cutting the selling time a little on things that are going to sell anyway. The first item that I got whacked by the ad fees on was an Eames footstool. Super desirable and guaranteed to sell at my price within a reasonable period of time. I don't need advertising help with that! And I don't have the margin to give away on a competitive piece like that either. I could have sold it on ebay and saved money. Never thought I'd be saying that.

by: Disgusted

The reason I stopped selling on Etsy was the fees.  They can charge the extra 15%  on whatever and whenever they want. No way to opt out.  Money grabbing scheme.  

by: fusgeyer

Etsy's forced 12-15% commission on the highest dollar earners is a money grab, nothing else. If you can opt out of the offsite ads, do it. NEVER promote your Etsy shop on social media if you are being forced into the offsite ads. Any click on your social media links will result in Etsy grabbing their fee.

Also, check your sales on Etsy. There is a megaphone icon next to all sales that Etsy says resulted from ads. This will give you a clear indication of how well or not well Etsy ads are doing for you.

This money grab, plus the hold on funds for certain accounts that can be up to 180 days, is going to drive legitimate sellers away, and the only ones left will be those reselling imports as "handmade and vintage" or those who are blatantly infringing on copyright. They can only count on seller fees to support the company for so long. If sellers start leaving enmass, their revenue will plummet. Sellers make up 80% of Ety's revenue Think about that.

by: ThebigR

etsy seems to monitor this site my account was just closed down they just don't like it when someone posts the truth..  

by: HappyOne

As a hobby seller I am not looking for any more work for less reward. Nothing like a penalty/punishment for being successful. Almost every month I put my shop on vacation after 3 weeks and $800 in sales to prevent going over the $10,000 12 month “magic” lifetime 12% selling penalty. I hate to say it but I have been listing more OOAK items on Ebay too. The 20¢ additional listing fee on every sale from a variation listings adds up. Buyers looking for “true” handcrafted items are becoming more and more disappointed as a Walmart or Hobby Lobby China import with a speck of new paint or bow is being touted  as “handcrafted”. The goose laying the golden egg is almost gone.

by: Vox29

I notice that their television ad promotes objects I would never buy as a buyer, and would never sell. I make and sell jewelry but the earrings are atrocious in the ad. So is the wallpaper, the jellyfish lamp, and the fish vase. If this is what Etsy wants to promote, they have proven they have no sense of taste.
I pulled all my listings off Etsy after getting blocked in their community, for statements I hardly would think were controversial by any means. I plan to close the account permanently, because I have no desire to pay excessive fees for a transaction. When marketplaces try to emulate eBay, they do so at their own peril. Less sellers = less choice for buyers. QED.

by: Silver Ice King

Ebay already has their own version of this extra fee.  Its called Promoted listings and although it is voluntary, many times Sellers start feeling if they do not participate and at the recommended rates that their items will not sell.   Many times they are right on target with that feeling.  

Ebay has completely outdone Etsy though when it comes to the processing fees and holds as Etsy gets the money to the Sellers much faster than Ebay even though they use the same processor, Adyen!!!  This is just more proof that the problem with not getting your funds quicker is all on Ebay and not on your bank or the ACH system.  It is strictly Ebay finding another way to steal money from the Sellers by keeping control of their money longer so they can make more money on the float.  This is why Mangled Payments still has so many problems, because Ebay offshore programmers had to figure out how to write the code for a program that was designed to delay the payments to the sellers while also making Ebay the Seller of Record which makes it that much harder to fight and win Chargebacks which Ebay also collects a nice little $20 charge on.  If they had used the backend processing that Adyen supplied your payments would come in much faster.

But Etsy has not really been outdone as they have had a couple of incidents where for some reason their system overcharged Sellers accounts big time and as I remember they also happened over long Holiday weekends so that Etsy has use of the money all that much longer which I still believe was needed to fund their payroll that just happened to be issued at the same time.  I know Etsy got out in front of that story very quickly which also reeks of beforehand knowledge that this was going to happen and got the magazine to make it sound like they had already fixed the problem and refunded everybody all of their money, which of course was no where near true.  I'm really not sure that all the sellers got all of their money back even as of now because i do not consider a credit issued to your account as having gotten your money back.  I consider that as a business having gotten an interest free loan  by converting overpayments to the company as long term loans from their customers because many of them will never use it.

Etsy changed and started becoming Ebay Jr when they hired Silverman who was an ex Ebay employee and has quickly shown that he and Wenig seem to have been calling and sharing ideas with each other.  Although much of my inventory would qualify to be sold on Etsy there is no way I would ever consider listing on a site that actually in many cases makes Ebay look like they are the not all that greedy in comparison.  I have no problem paying a commission to a site when my items sell on there, but when they start feeling that they should be earning as much or more than I do as the seller who sourced the item, purchased the item and then did all the work necessary now to list the item, there is no way I am going to pay the site even close to what i am earning on the sale.

I sure am glad that i have found a couple of other sites where selling is much easier than these sites and also a lot less expensive.

by: Rexford

Junkminer    Correct.   Google is happy to show our items in organic search for free.  Etsy wants us to pay for something that Google was giving us.

by: cvsharkey

Only option: Close the shop, open a new shop & opt out immediately.
I found that once your shop is disqualified from opting out--you can NOT go back. Even if your shop stops selling at the volume that is mandatory for being forced to opt in--it will forever remain in.

'm sure even the option to opt out will soon be cancelled.

by: 1 Angry Artist

The only way Etsy gets away with their thuggery is because the Demo Commies are running NY State which is HQ for Corruption Central.

If NY had an honest Attorney General, the Etsy execs would be doing time in white collar prison.  

Sellers and buyers are getting double and triple fees which only makes sense when you don't want people to know how much they are really paying.

If Etsy really wanted to be honest, all they have to do is charge a set fee on all transactions including postage, listing fee, etc. instead of breaking it up into little percentages.  

This will never happen.  Etsy is hugely successful.   Their investors are making millions and billions off of the sweatshop labor of older women of every race, creed and color.  Etsy hypocrisy knows no bounds.