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Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

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Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#121

Post by BinaryIdiot »

blhack wrote: post #98
mustacheemperor wrote: post #2

The conversion problem on mobile does seem like an issue, but speaking as a former customer of Etsy what drove me away was the selection. Not that it's too small - rather, Etsy is now flooded with thousands of storefronts selling "artisan" pieces that are actually bought on AliExpress or similar and marked up. If they're trying to apply ML to managing customer recommendations, they should figure out how to identify w…

This is tougher than it seems on the surface. A few years ago, I was involved in planning and running a maker "fest". We invited makers, and artists to the festival to show off their projects, and some of them wanted to sell things. A not-insignificant number of participants who wanted to sell things were just reselling things you could buy at Michaels, or buy online (in bulk) for cheap. Sometimes with just a little…

That's a really good point. Even taking mass produced art and modifying it is in a way it's own art and I've seen some really, really good ones.

Seems a bit unsolvable.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#122

Post by pembrook »

anigbrowl wrote: post #112
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing that would decrease their sales and ability to grow drastically. Hand made does not scale.

Scale isn't everything. first if you're a good marketplace you attract more and more diverse vendors, each of whom does low volume. Besides, when the point of the site was unique handcrafted items, selling manufactured stuff undercuts the one thing that makes you different from your competitors. I can't understand the argument you're trying to make. It's like saying that fine art doesn't scale because painters are so…

I agree, re-selling mass produced Chinese crap goes directly against the entire concept of Etsy and everything they supposedly stand for.

However they've sold a classic Silicon Valley "high growth" story to investors that they're now beholden to as a publicly traded company. That growth story can't be delivered on grandma's handicrafts.

Hence the site being slowly transformed into yet another generic online marketplace for drop-shipped junk.

It's ultimately a giant recipe for failure. The company DNA and core brand are at odds with the investor expectations around tech companies.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#123

Post by losteverything »

busterarm wrote: post #109
jasonlotito wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a real shame. My wife has a store on Etsy and is downstairs right now sewing up another handbag. So it's kinda tough to hear that the reputation she's worked hard for on Etsy with the solid ratings, and with the hard work she's put in, the Etsy brand itself is turning people away. Etsy provides just enough to make it easy and worthwhile to use the system, but I wonder if she's legitimately losing sales this wa…

Handbags? Oh my god, why isn't she selling on Facebook? I know a very wealthy woman in Thailand selling custom $400-600 handbags to New York yuppies and literally her entire business is on Facebook. I normally don't advocate this sort of thing but their ad platform and social network are basically made for this kind of business. Custom/Handmade luxury goods for upper-middle class women over a certain age? Facebook, e…

How does one sell on FB?

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#124

Post by asafira »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #2

The conversion problem on mobile does seem like an issue, but speaking as a former customer of Etsy what drove me away was the selection. Not that it's too small - rather, Etsy is now flooded with thousands of storefronts selling "artisan" pieces that are actually bought on AliExpress or similar and marked up. If they're trying to apply ML to managing customer recommendations, they should figure out how to identify w…

Why are poor reviews not enough to combat this? (in the long term)

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#125

Post by semi-extrinsic »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #77
mustacheemperor wrote: post #2

The conversion problem on mobile does seem like an issue, but speaking as a former customer of Etsy what drove me away was the selection. Not that it's too small - rather, Etsy is now flooded with thousands of storefronts selling "artisan" pieces that are actually bought on AliExpress or similar and marked up. If they're trying to apply ML to managing customer recommendations, they should figure out how to identify w…

It seems like tons of things on AliExpress are just resold on Etsy. I was looking at plant seeds on there and just found and bought the exact same ones with same pics and everything without markup on AliExpress, so it isn't just jewelry and handmade items. That left a bad impression on me about Etsy.

You really shouldn't be buying plant seeds off the internet. Invasive species is a big problem, and even if you buy legit oregano (or whatever) seeds, there's a high risk that a couple of the seeds are really something else that's not native to your region.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#126

Post by ramy_d »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #121
blhack wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is tougher than it seems on the surface. A few years ago, I was involved in planning and running a maker "fest". We invited makers, and artists to the festival to show off their projects, and some of them wanted to sell things. A not-insignificant number of participants who wanted to sell things were just reselling things you could buy at Michaels, or buy online (in bulk) for cheap. Sometimes with just a little…

That's a really good point. Even taking mass produced art and modifying it is in a way it's own art and I've seen some really, really good ones. Seems a bit unsolvable.

Maybe if they were required to mention categorical suppliers it would further inform consumers

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#127

Post by WillPostForFood »

asafira wrote: post #124
mustacheemperor wrote: post #2

The conversion problem on mobile does seem like an issue, but speaking as a former customer of Etsy what drove me away was the selection. Not that it's too small - rather, Etsy is now flooded with thousands of storefronts selling "artisan" pieces that are actually bought on AliExpress or similar and marked up. If they're trying to apply ML to managing customer recommendations, they should figure out how to identify w…

Why are poor reviews not enough to combat this? (in the long term)

Every poor review represents a failure and an unhappy customer. You want to stop that before it happens.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#128

Post by dang »

gech wrote: post #89

Is there a deficiency in some cultures (Chinese, also maybe Jewish) that lends itself to profit above quality?

This is race trolling. We ban accounts that do things like that, so please don't do anything like that again.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14251703 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#129

Post by ReverseCold »

contingencies wrote: post #46
eliudnir wrote: post #36

I ordered a rustic pipe desk from Etsy a while back and the seller was not able to deliver the item on time. He/she communicated the issue so it wasn't that big of a deal for me. I had a prearranged vacation coming up while waiting for the item to be finished and sent, so things took a little bit longer then expected on both ends. When I finally got back home and put the desk together, I noticed that there were items…

This is why centralized marketplaces in general are, in my opinion, on the way out. In the future people with something to offer will be able to offer it without being routed through one-size-fits-all platforms who want to control your options for communication, payment, reputation, shipping, etc. in a "my way or the highway" attitude. If one takes this perspective, then Ebay, Taobao, and Etsy are all anachronisms, t…

Centralized is never on the way out. It just makes everything so easy.

I don't like it, but saying that anything centralized is on the way out is just wishful thinking.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#130

Post by ahoka »

blazespin wrote: post #86
danso wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of this: "Your brilliant Kickstarter idea could be on sale in China before you’ve even finished funding it" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12724096 That said, there's still vibrant opportunity in the other direction, i.e. finding items off of Alibaba, claiming to not only have made those items but that they are best-in-class/first-of-its-kind, and attracting people who don't bother double-checking on…

Yeah, what we need is a patent system that only gives 5 years, maybe some lower barriers in terms of how it's enforced. Maybe where a jury is asked 'does this feel like a knockoff of what the patent was generally describing or does it really do something new.' The risk of going afoul will be enough to keep people innovating. I'd really love to see a common sense approach to patents.

Import tax from China would solve these issues.
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