Before Etsy, creative hobbyists had to rely on local reach to sell their items, or craft shows. Craft shows can be expensive, and some are invite-only. Lots of hobbyists simply wanted to make enough money to continue their hobby, or free up much-needed space for more creative projects. Some dreamed of taking their hobby to new heights and venturing into small business territory.
Etsy radically changed the resources available to hobbyists and even small creative businesses who were previously limited to local audiences or who had to set up a whole website in the hopes they might be found by the customers who would appreciate and value creative products and services. Additional website marketplaces emerged to cater to creatives, but Etsy has instilled buyers with confidence by pledging to work between creators and customers if there are issues. By doing this, Etsy helped their shop owners get sales and helped customers get the special products they wanted with peace of mind that they wouldn't be scammed.
Fast forward to the first quarter of 2020 and Etsy is still present, but a number of changes have occurred. The changes feel fast-paced, and it seems with a new direction of pushing the sales aspect. Shop owner can pay monthly fees for little perks, purchase ads to promote listings and shop owners pay more fees per transaction now. The extra fees are pretty understandable given this new direction of providing more guidance and ad opportunities for shops.
Then came changes in how Etsy shows search results to shoppers. If you shop a lot on Etsy you may have noticed. Etsy decided to display shops that offer free shipping on order over $35 before other listings.
What does that mean for shoppers? It could mean they need to click more pages to get to the thing that is most like what they want. Extra time, extra clicking and a lot more perusing. It could mean you find something more easily if free shipping is the point of your shopping spree.
How does it effect shops? Shops with lower-priced items, disposable items, or items with a low profit-margin don't get displayed as prominently in search results. In order to keep getting views they either have to increase their product prices, take the cost of shipping out of their already small profit margins, or suffer with fewer views to their shops and therefore fewer sales.
Perhaps it's just my own opinion, but this move seemed to punish everyone. When I shop, I assume that the search results will be for the best matching items. If I'm shopping on Etsy to help support small businesses and creators, I don't really care about shipping. If that was the case I would be shopping on Amazon or other huge sites that can soak up the costs of shipping much more easily. This move is a nice gesture, and it's a nice perk for shops to offer if they can afford to build the shipping price into their products. For all those hobbyists just trying to support the costs of sustaining their hobby though, this is a huge problem. This makes it seem as though Etsy is hoping to gain either a different audience, or shove out the hobbyists and those trying to turn hobbies into small businesses. This makes sense if they make more money per transaction off large-ticket items than on less expensive items, which they do. Strangely it seemed that supporting hobbyists and people who wanted to take their creativity to the next level was the whole point of the site when it emerged, so these changes may portend a shift in the mentality at Etsy.
There are many people who want to support small creatives and hobbyists, but with these changes shoppers might be less likely to support those who need it without even realizing it. Before shop owner barely had a chance to digest this new change and witness impact to their shops, another change was announced. This time the change is that for a small grace period anyone's listings have the potential to be advertised on many different browsers. At first it sounds great, but after the small grace period if someone clicks on that ad and purchases the item, an additional fee for the "privilege" of having Etsy promote your shop item is taken out of the total purchase price. Once again, shops with lower-priced items and low profit-margins will either be forced to pay that, hoping the people won't click on the ads, or opt out of the program. I imagine that after a little while, people who opt out will also be "punished" behind the scenes with fewer and fewer shop visits, though this is speculation loosely based of what has recently transpired.
Each of these new changes has been herding shop owners into a corner so they feel there is little choice left but to do what Etsy wants them to do, or end up paying for one of the monthly packages that give you credits to use towards paying for some of your shop listing fees and a few dollars towards ad expenses. Again the hobbyists and those struggling to turn a hobby into a small business are the ones with the most difficulty handling these expenses.
Ultimately it is up to you if you decide to continue shopping, or selling on Etsy. It's a very individual decision. Shopping on Etsy still supports businesses that offer creative and unique items and keeps people crafting and creating. That's not a bad thing. Shopping might be a little trickier. Etsy still takes care of a lot of the more challenging parts of selling such as making shipping easily available and slightly less expensive, calculating VAT and providing helpful articles and a way for businesses to contact them to get some personalized assistance. Each business and hobbyist, and small-business-hopeful needs to find out if they can survive the increasing fees, and be successful or if they should try a different marketplace or quit altogether. As smaller businesses and hobbyists leave, however, the items available to people will diminish. It's too early to say exactly how much of an impact it will have on the variety and uniqueness of items available to shoppers.
Do you have a personal experience with these recent changes, or another marketplace you would recommend? Feel free to share in the comments!
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