Was Etsy too good to be true?

[iCraft Admin]

This is a really thoughtful article on the evolution of Etsy and why they became what they are today. Etsy doesn't seem to embrace handmade anymore or the people that contributed to their early success. The "New Etsy" is very different from the Etsy we knew in the beginning.

I wonder - could Etsy grow and remain what they were before or at some point it becomes impossible for a company of that size to balance profits with social responsibility? The pressure to turn profits drove Etsy to expand into mass-produced items, adding unrelated categories (vintage, supplies etc) and forcing sellers to absorb the shipping cost.

If those changes are good for Etsy as a business, would sellers complain, but stay and try to adapt to the changes on the "new Etsy"? Or would they leave, as Etsy becomes an unsustainable option for many of them?

Is the "new Etsy" really good for buyers? I can't imagine that mass-produced items that pollute Etsy now enhance buyers' experience.

What are your thoughts?

Shared content:

Was Etsy too good to be true? As a stockholder, Jeni Sandberg loves Etsy. As a vintage homegoods purveyor selling midcentury glassware and linens on Etsy’s platform, she can’t help but feel like she’s being played. In July, the company announced it would be encouraging sellers to offer free US shipping on all orders over $35. Or rather, it announced that sellers who didn’t offer free shipping would be de-prioritized by the site’s highly competitive search algorithm, which — on a platform with more than 60 million things to buy — can be the difference between regular sales and functional invisibility. Read full story

[MsRainesSewingRoom]

Etsy, well this was my experience, I came late to Etsy when some of the changes were already done. So I don't know about the early days except for talking to members who were. They all talked non stop about how it use to be and how great it was. Then their were the big sellers who really made Etsy what it became and a lot of them were very angry, and felt they were being pushed out now. When I got there the constant changes and pretty much no customer service for sellers or buyers and what there was, was not good made staying hard. The tipping point however for me was that Friday when Thousands of dollars was mistakenly taken from sellers credit cards and bank accounts, and Etsy staff were MOA for over a week,
no contact, no explanation, no updates what so ever. It was the most ridiculous situation, even though luckily I was not part of the people who's account was affected, I now lost total trust in the platform, and sought another platform and closed my shop there. In my opinion they made changes that they were not prepared or ready to make properly with out mistakes and issues, I also and not just me started to suspect some manipulation was going on as to views and visits to our shops, as numbers started making no sense and not adding up.

It became quite clear that they no longer cared about the sellers big or small, and didn't care if we left or stayed, there was after all many lined up to replace us. I think it was a shame because it was at one time a great platform, and great community.

Just another note on the money taken, Etsy made it the only way to do business on Etsy was to give them access to your Bank account in order to be paid, or a Credit Card, they got rid of pay pal. So in order to do business with them you had to risk having your account mistakenly debited and that didn't sit well with  anyone after what happened.

I and many others believe that Etsy and Etsy alone will be their own undoing.