I think Etsy is advertising itself and passing the buck to the sellers on its platform.
The ad will mention the seller's products but also say Etsy. So free advertisement for Etsy.
Very underhanded!
Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
41–50 of 181 posts
Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#42Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#43I'm one of those sellers who is being forced into Etsy's new ad program. It is frustrating and obnoxious, but I can't say it is surprising given the policy changes they've been rolling out the past few months.
It seems to me that online marketplaces like Etsy find their early success by bringing buyers and sellers together and just letting them do their thing, but as the marketplace becomes more established it's relationship with sellers inevitably turns adversarial.
I feel like we need some form of regulation to limit how marketplaces like Etsy can dictate how their sellers conduct business. Amazon has a program that allows "business" customers to place an order and pay the invoice 30 days later. Since Amazon only pays out every 2 weeks, this means I can be made to wait up to 6 weeks to be paid for an order. There is no way to opt out of this and I would be penalized if I refused to ship these orders.
Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#44> If a shopper clicks on an Etsy-funded ad featuring one of your listings on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Bing and makes one or more purchases from your shop within 30 days, those sales will be attributed to Etsy’s advertising and you’ll be charged an advertising fee on the total value of that order. This kind of stuff is why tracking is so pervasive. Etsy is relying on being able to uniquely track a s…
In this case though, it is to Etsy's advantage if the tracking is inaccurate, and generates a high false positive rate. I wonder what the data on incorrect tracking is (i.e. Does it lead to more false positives, or false negatives)?
I imagine it will be pretty accurate, because if the user was using adblockers/tracking protection etc. they would likely not see the ad in the first place.
Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#45On the one hand, this would be great if it was all opt-in. On the other hand, this is nutty for any business running on low margins or with limited supply (and a sufficient customer base that they don’t need advertising to sell out). A lot of small business owners aren’t great at marketing, and having a push button solution is great. Forcing your larger sellers into something that might not even need is borderline pr…
Well it's a good strategy to nudge mass produced high-volume low-margin goods off your marketplace. And the mom-n-pop ones can always opt out.
The system has no opt-out if you've ever gone above $10K in rolling 12 month sales.
Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Margins aside, anyone selling hand-made goods has a very limited stock and can't really scale up production. What is the value of this advertising to a seller who is already selling at the rate they can produce goods?
The value in that case might be the teaching moment when they realise they should have raised prices a long, long time ago.
Says who? It's possible that the sellers have goals other than profit maximization. Maybe they're happier simply providing as much supply as they are able at a price that feels fair.
Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#47"If you’ve made more than 10,000 USD (approximately 7,800 GBP) in sales on Etsy in a 12-month period you’ll benefit most from offsite advertising. So, you’ll be required to participate for the lifetime of your shop and you’ll get a discounted advertising fee."
It sounds like the sort of thing a 1930's Chicago gangster would think up.
It's like when Mikey No Thumbs shows up once a month to pick up a fat wad of cash in a plain brown envelope. And you'd better not be light this month. We know how much you sell.
Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well it's a good strategy to nudge mass produced high-volume low-margin goods off your marketplace. And the mom-n-pop ones can always opt out.
The system has no opt-out if you've ever gone above $10K in rolling 12 month sales.
How many sellers are doing more business than that though? I figure Etsy has better numbers on that than we can speculate.
Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#49> If you’ve made more than 10,000 USD (approximately 7,800 GBP) in sales on Etsy in a 12-month period [...] you’ll be required to participate for the lifetime of your shop
That's not exactly what I think when I read "biggest sellers". That seems like a remarkably low cutoff.
Also, if you don't need/want to grow and/or you have low margins, this could wipe you out. 12% revenue of _any_ orders within a 30 day period of an ad click[1], effectively at Etsy's discretion (how can you challenge that someone clicked, or disagree with how hard they are pushing your products - especially noting that they have a binding arbitration clause[2]), could be a huge percentage[3] of your total sales.
[1] "If such advertising includes your listing, a buyer clicks on it, and then places any orders from your shop within 30 days of that click, you will be charged an advertising fee on these orders" https://www.etsy.com/uk/legal/fees/
[2] s.11 https://www.etsy.com/uk/legal/terms-of-use#etsydisputes
[3] Up to $100/order - "There is no limit to the number of Offsite Ads fees you may be charged on Attributed Orders, but the total Offsite Ads fee you’ll pay on a single Attributed Order will not exceed $100 USD." https://www.etsy.com/uk/legal/fees/
Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees
#50[flagged]
I see you rely on electricity, internet, Windows (booh!), 435 different NPM modules (counting transitivity), and the continuing existence of humanity. You should really try to reduce dependencies. Have a look into passive computing and selling to higher animals, maybe?
The same people complaining fail to advocate for change. You don’t like Etsy policies go elsewhere.
This is not rocket science.
You don’t like the fact that big companies abuse consumers, small businesses, and their employees, you can vote or collectively organize for change.
The HN community rails against unionization and collective bargaining often but loves to complain when a policy change like this occurs.
Make it make sense.