How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
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Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#2I think that's the fundamental flaw with Etsy. By it's very nature, you earnings are time limited. So once you get well known enough and successful, suddenly Etsy does not look attractive any more.
Etsy's move into allowing designed items to be sold is a recognition that to cash out on Etsy you need to have other people make your products for you (as you are time limited) or attempt to price yourself high while trying to sell into a market where people are constantly undercutting each other.
So there is a natural progression to mass made designer items. The moment you begin thinking about higher pricing, you're on the path to selling at your local craft markets or in local boutique shops.
Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#3What took so long?
Regretsy.com (which sadly doesn't exist anymore) was constantly pointing out crafts that were being sold as one-of-a-kinds and originals with a direct link to their alibaba.com source.
Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#4I think that's the fundamental flaw with Etsy. By it's very nature, you earnings are time limited. So once you get well known enough and successful, suddenly Etsy does not look attractive any more. Etsy's move into allowing designed items to be sold is a recognition that to cash out on Etsy you need to have other people make your products for you (as you are time limited) or attempt to price yourself high while tryin…
.. except that the entire sales pitch for "craft", "handmade", and "indie" relies on believing that the items are being made in a particular way, by non-alienated labour. Turning it into mass production is the opposite of what the original buyer's culture wants.
Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#5I think that's the fundamental flaw with Etsy. By it's very nature, you earnings are time limited. So once you get well known enough and successful, suddenly Etsy does not look attractive any more. Etsy's move into allowing designed items to be sold is a recognition that to cash out on Etsy you need to have other people make your products for you (as you are time limited) or attempt to price yourself high while tryin…
You are right but it's deeper than that. The entire philosophy is nonsensical. Notably Etsy didn't restrict their own scalability. It's not like each order was hand fulfilled or something. Etsy is very happy to utilise their capital to scale their business while they restricted their sellers from doing the same. It's funny that this article positions Etsy as selling out, where as what they had before was a manifestly unfair business model for their sellers.
Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#6While aspects like 3rd party manufactures is disturbing, I'm surprised by the notion that successful companies move beyond Etsy.
Etsy seems like a small business incubator. It provides, at a reasonable fee, a working environment conducive to growth. You have forums and other communication mechanism to train with others. You get the ability to have the e-commerce headache serviced. You get a known location that customers arrive at looking for their special things. At some point all of this infrastructure is limiting. You leave the small business incubator for a more custom environment.
Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#7While aspects like 3rd party manufactures is disturbing, I'm surprised by the notion that successful companies move beyond Etsy. Etsy seems like a small business incubator. It provides, at a reasonable fee, a working environment conducive to growth. You have forums and other communication mechanism to train with others. You get the ability to have the e-commerce headache serviced. You get a known location that custom…
I agree completely. I helped a store migrate from Etsy to a custom CMS because they had outgrown Etsy, and they did so in about a year. Etsy would do well to pivot their marketing from Handmade/Craft to Small Business Incubator. Or maybe they have and that's what all the butt hurt is about.
Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#8I think that's the fundamental flaw with Etsy. By it's very nature, you earnings are time limited. So once you get well known enough and successful, suddenly Etsy does not look attractive any more. Etsy's move into allowing designed items to be sold is a recognition that to cash out on Etsy you need to have other people make your products for you (as you are time limited) or attempt to price yourself high while tryin…
.. except that the entire sales pitch for "craft", "handmade", and "indie" relies on believing that the items are being made in a particular way, by non-alienated labour. Turning it into mass production is the opposite of what the original buyer's culture wants.
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Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#9Is there an Image comics to Etsy's Marvel/DC? Curious if there's a place that re-captures the soul of indie crafts? Or if the successful crafters simply open up their own store and etsy remains the primary place for people to become successful crafters.
Re: How Etsy Alienated Its Crafters and Lost Its Soul
#10I think that's the fundamental flaw with Etsy. By it's very nature, you earnings are time limited. So once you get well known enough and successful, suddenly Etsy does not look attractive any more. Etsy's move into allowing designed items to be sold is a recognition that to cash out on Etsy you need to have other people make your products for you (as you are time limited) or attempt to price yourself high while tryin…
.. except that the entire sales pitch for "craft", "handmade", and "indie" relies on believing that the items are being made in a particular way, by non-alienated labour. Turning it into mass production is the opposite of what the original buyer's culture wants.
Exactly this, the products became more and more mass produced instead of the etsy sales pitch of one-offs.