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Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

mashable.com

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Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#51

Post by mattzito »

tomnipotent wrote: post #21

Etsy is buying advertising on other sites, to the benefit of their customers. In the event that traffic converts, they take another 12/15% on top of the existing 3-4%. This sounds like business the stores wouldn't be getting otherwise (so it's incremental), and all at the cost of what you'd be to an affiliate network anyway. Forced participation if you do more than $10,000 is ridiculous, but I otherwise fail to see w…

It’s really hard to know whether it’s actually new sales. For example, if my Etsy storefront ranks in the #1 position for “artisanal doorstops”, etsy can buy that keyword, users I would have gotten organically now go through the ad, as it’s a higher position. Now I’m paying for the customer I would have converted organically.

But it gets even more insidious when you think about people who have multiple stores on different platforms. Let’s say you also own artisanaldoorstops.com and it goes to a Shopify site. Sure most of your business comes from Etsy, but you’re working hard to build your own brand and reduce your dependence on Etsy. Now, with this change, any success your standalone storefront has will be undercut by Etsy buying ads against your own store AND TAKING MORE OF A CUT.

Tangentially, this is the same thing opentable does with restaurants, they will sign up a restaurant and then buy AdWords for the name of the restaurant. I’ve seen stats that upwards of 25% of restaurant bookings can be redirected from the restaurant website to opentable simply via a top position ad spot. It’s the same scenario and it hurts restaurants significantly.

Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#52

Post by stordoff »

IAmEveryone wrote: post #27
mreome wrote: post #25

Earlier 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.

To what end? They're still at capacity, Etsy take a bigger cut, and they might not be particularly interested in making more money. Some sellers (I suspect especially on a marketplace like Etsy) might be happier making a product _everyone_ can afford to buy.

Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#53

Post by benignslime »

MicahKV wrote: post #43

I'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 rela…

Have you compared the price to say, hosting your own website, finding your own marketing platform, finding a payment provider, and managing logistical challenges, all for 12% of the gross income of your product?

I can see why people would be frustrated, but you're getting a whole lot for using their service.

Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#54

Post by alharith »

MicahKV wrote: post #43

I'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 rela…

> I feel like we need some form of regulation to limit how marketplaces like Etsy can dictate how their sellers conduct business.

I halfway agree, and halfway feel the opposite: We need to restore teeth to our existing regulatory bodies, and we need more competition. We need to reduce barriers to entry, and stop the anti-competitive behavior behemoths like Amazon have been exerting for years now.

Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#55

Post by bryanrasmussen »

mreome wrote: post #18
wjossey wrote: post #10

On 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…

Especially given that Etsy is supposed to be primarily for hand-made goods. Their top sellers are very likely already selling items at the speed they can make them, why would someone want Etsy to take a cut of their sales for advertising when they can't actually sell more?

supposed to be but probably isn't https://www.dailydot.com/irl/etsy-reselling/

Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#56

Post by faintrain »

MicahKV wrote: post #43

I'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 rela…

What are your options?

1. Build your own. 2. Collectively organize with other Etsy shop owners to advocate with Etsy leadership.

These type of policy changes aren’t a surprise anymore, no? We’ve seen them from Apple, Facebook, Shopify, Twitter, Amazon, EBay, etc for more than a decade now.

Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#57

Post by adrr »

mreome wrote: post #18
wjossey wrote: post #10

On 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…

Especially given that Etsy is supposed to be primarily for hand-made goods. Their top sellers are very likely already selling items at the speed they can make them, why would someone want Etsy to take a cut of their sales for advertising when they can't actually sell more?

That was the original model but that doesn’t really scale. It’s primarily another channel for mass manufactured stuff that your can find on aliexpress.

Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#58

Post by benignslime »

wjossey wrote: post #10

On 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…

> A lot of small business owners aren’t great at marketing, and having a push button solution is great.

Is that not what Etsy is demanding users pay for? This platform offers a whole load of things these sellers would have to pay for anyways, all in one place.

Re: Etsy sellers are furious over new mandatory ad fees

#59

Post by reaperducer »

epa wrote: post #14

Its win win for store fronts.. prices will just go up to compensate.

It's not a win for the stores if they sell less because they had to increase prices.

For some reason you assume that the stores don't already know their customers and haven't already maximized their prices.

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