Etsy CEO Admits New Program May Impact Sellers' Search Exposure

by: Rexford

Please tell him that I am experimenting too--with my own web site. I have actually gone beyond the experimental stage.

I have no time for a company that wants to play games and experiment with my items amd their placement in search. If I pay a fee I expect exposure.

Little eBay lives. He can shove his star down a dark hole.

by: The End

Etsy CEO Josh Silverman is a complete mess.
Driving artists away at record pace.
Only Wall Street is dumb enough to back this abusive stock.

by: 1 Angry Artist

By now many sellers have read the scathing analysis of the star seller program that was published here and on Etsy forums.

That article was the best I've seen that fully describes the insanity of the program and why it is meaningless in serving as any kind of metric for grading sellers.

In the case of my two shops- almost all the information they are using is completely incorrect.   And there is no way to get them to change it either.

So what will happen to me and others similarly situated who have been there for ages and are tried and true excellent sellers with a great track record?

Instead of being REWARDED and CELEBRATED we will be treated like screw ups and our listings will be suppressed all because of Etsy's usual dumb mistakes.

It is no wonder that so many are leaving for other venues.  

Sadly- Etsy blokes don't care.  There are millions more where we came from that they can rip off.

by: The End

"Impact" is another word for HURT / DAMAGE.

by: pennyemporium

the word phrase you are looking for is "pain point".

(falls over laughing, yes, this is one of etsy's newest catch-phrases for it's latest insanity....)

by: The End

Selling on Etsy was fun and PROFITABLE until CEO Josh Silverman came along.
We must pass a law Blocking these morons.
Oh sure, they're smart enough to know how to STEAL OUR MONEY.
Now WE have to be smart enough to pass legislation PROTECTING Our Money supply and barring this criminal conduct  permanently.
It's a Method of Operation criminally carried out against us. The pool of A$$HOLES these "CEO" types come from is Meant to remove OUR Money.
WE MUST FIGHT BACK !
The only way to put them out of business is to Destroy the "nest" they come from.
Bain Capital is the Origin.
Snuff it.
Meanwhile we're calling on ALL SHOP OWNERS who Can close their Etsy shops, to do so for 6 months or more. Bite the bullet and go back out to get a job, and know that the pressure Will move the CEO out.
There are NOT enough China and Other low budget countries to replace us.
DO IT NOW ! ! !
FIGHT BACK to cleanse Etsy of the scum.
BEWARE of people HERE. Anyone defending Silverman and Etsy's latest money grab are the lowest of the low.

by: felyne

They can go scratch. I've had my shop on vacation for months and they keep billing me $2.00 a month. No resolve. A few times they credited me. Time to close. It's a shame. They're preparing for The Great Reset. It will only get worse.  

by: an American in France

This makes me really angry. My highest-selling items are digital (beading patterns). I sell an average of 40-60 per month, but the price per item is pretty low, so I risk not making the $$$ cut to reach Star Seller status. That’s discriminatory. At the end of the last (first) period, I was $2 (yes, a measly $2!) short of their minimum, though I had a large number of sales.

by: dmg61

I sell on Etsy daily. A good amount of money. They say no star for me because two parcels were sent without delivery confirmation. Really? I want proof of that. When I went to the blog on the star program, it crashed my computer. Three times. I refuse to go back to that blog. They did send me a survey and I left them a scathing review about the star program, told them it was an unneeded extra, something that already failed on eBay. Connection, anyone? Also, they rate you on answer inquires. We get a lot of SPAM on Etsy. We're supposed to answer that?? Another stupid program to fund CEOs.

by: epuise

Once again... a 'Buyer's Opinion'... less than 5 stars...
Costs you sale... and, money.

by: all in the family

Make sure to share all those thoughts with everyone you know. It's quite interesting to see customer faces when they see - with delight - that I have an etsy store, and then watch them while I explain how this ceo is destroying the best part of what this marketplace is supposed to be. Been doing that for a while, and now some customers seem to have already heard the news. Well, good for artists and makers. Let etsy have the re-sellers. We've got choices and they're getting better all the time.

by: fusgeyer

This new program sucks. I have an amazing track record with Etsy. I provide excellent customer service, based on actual reviews and a solid 5 star rating. However, my customers do not usually send me questions, as the products I sell are self explanatory. I don't qualify for the "Star Seller" program because I do not have customer emails to respond to, therefore I cannot possibly meet the 85% of ontime responses required. So, those using Etsy for print on demand and those selling cheap shit from overseas will get featured and I get screwed. Time to seriously reconsider whether Etsy is in my future.

by: Rexford

"while I explain how this ceo is destroying the best part of what this marketplace is supposed to be."

It's the eBay way.   Yes, I said eBay.   Etsy and eBay are the same as far as I am concerned.

What was the Etsy board thinking by ever letting anyone from eBay into Etsy.

Little eBay lives.

by: gyanarthi

ETSY has not responded to my message about their having the number of messages and my response times wrong... they say 2 of 3 messages  were responded within their 24 hr limit... While actually I have 6 messages in this period and all have been responded to in less than 24 hours...
I can live without their badge... and as far as reduced appearance in search goes.. I can't see how that matters when there are sometimes hundreds of pages of items on a search item..So they'll move me from pg 45 to 98? Big Deal!!! I haven't gotten any help from ETSY since they went public.  I have a lot of one of a kind items.. folks will either find me or they won't. I'm looking for other venues...

by: Stone Cutter

It will take quarter after quarter of missed earnings before "the board" decides to change their CEO/management...this Q3 guidance...already, not so great, while Wall Street analysts feel that Etsy stock is overpriced at 50x earnings and has further to Fall. A falling stock price will unload Silverman in a heartbeat! Silverman is a huge disappointment. He has NO creative thought processes...none! Companies like Etsy need to acquire other companies in order to grow their business, while Etsy's technology is pathetic with slow processes, the inability for buyers to "check out", and a plethora of bugs that should be easy to fix (I worked in engineering). Everything turned to shit as soon as Etsy went to "the cloud" a few years ago. Talented engineers do not work at Etsy. Reviews on Glassdoor.com say that once Silverman took over, the company began hiring junior engineers instead of paying for better talent. Ultimately, this is Etsy's demise..their bad engineering that turns buyers away.  

by: Freeeeeeeee

Its got nothing to do with metrics.  Its got to do with improving their profits.  

by: 1 Angry Artist

None of what the sellers do matters. The only thing the Etsy honchos care about is the bottom line and let's face it, they are all doing pretty well for themselves.

All of their BS about helping people is just that.   The majority of sellers are women who do not make anything close to a living wage from their shops.

Etsy is as bloodthirsty as it gets.  Nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.   And that's their good quality.

by: WhatsUp2656

@epuise @gyanarti - Don’t worry. Since they started this ?wonderful? plan my sales have gone south! I meet their criteria. I have had the impression that Al has it upside down?

I figured out wayyy back. When you don’t need to communicate you end up with a lower score. My TIP: Write to each of your buyers at some point thanking them for their purchase and welcome questions. It turned mine to 96%.

I believe you get the sales until you’ve reached that 10K so they can take more money & then your sales go way down. I thank my STARS every day that I’m not on eBay!

Angered/nasty buyers: Buyers need to realize they can be sued for being spiteful. It’s our living & when you can prove your sales went down because of them you can sue them.

IF you think selling on Etsy is awful, you could be one of the sellers on eBay with a plethora of issues.