This year, I have decided to ditch Etsy.
I actually made more sales on Etsy than I did with my own website. I had more traffic, more views, more sales but also more stress, more anxiety and more fees. Etsy is not the same website it was when it started, hell, it’s not even the same website it was when I started QLS in September 2020.
I will argue that, as a market place, it’s dfinitelty got it’s advantages. You don’t need a website that comes with it’s own costs and maintenance, it has all the tools you need to sell items, send items, and a built in audience. Starting out, it was a good option, to get some traction and get some sales and customers under my belt and get my name out there. And perhaps that is still true today, depending on what you sell but over the years it’s become more of a chore than it should be.
Queer Little Shop doesn’t exist to make loads of money. That would definitely be nice – don’t get me wrong – but primarily it exisists as a creative outlet that also helps pay for my kids extra ciriculars and my own hobbies. I’ve not raised my prices much since tht first year because I know that we queer people are usually earning less as a community. Profit made goes on groceries often. I work a full time job that pays the bills but does not feed the soul. QLS aids in that and Etsy was destroying that.
Over the past few years I’ve seen Etsy completely gut it’s support system both for sellers and for buyers. Giving buyers automatic refunds for almost everything isn’t really the support they think it is for customers. There’s not thought to the issue, no sanctions to the seller, and it doesn’t stop another buyer from having the same issue. At the same time it’s impossible to get in touch with anyone, accounts are suspended without thought, trademark disputes happen without due process or even legal standing (see recent issues with Tubie Life/Tubie tape), support doesn’t seem to really exist for sellers at all. No email, no phone number, just an AI chatbot.
It’s also added more pressure onto sellers – the star seller scheme seems like a good idea in theory but reaally it just adds to the pressure for sellers of handmade items to sell as if it were etsy. More and more buyers are expecting items made by hand and often made to order to be delivered within days regardless of the time frame we put down on Etsy because Etsy has encouraged this for years now.
Add onto this the hundreds of stores that are just the same recycled designs on print on demand products (and I use print on demand for t-shirts, it’s not a dig on those services), there is an influx of AI and a lack of moderation around AI. There are hundreds of scammy youtubers selling courses or making videos about making six figures selling on Etsy. The term handmade now being so loose as basically as long as it was in someone’s hand at some point, Etsy are going to allow it.
I found selling on Etsy caused increasing amounts of anxiety and stress every winter in the run up to Christmas, coupled with my fibromyalgia and my seasonal affective disorder, it made the entire process miserable. There was no joy in making badges and stuff – hell, I will happily churn out 100 badges in a sitting for a bulk order and sit and cut things by hand while watching the telly or sitting with the kids at bedtime and draw on my lunch break and run a stall at pride for 8 hours – but selling on etsy isn’t worth it. Even now, in the summer, as we go into Pride season – my busiest months – I am just not inclined to return to it to the point when they suspended my account earlier in the year and gave me a timeframe to fix things (late dispatch times but I can’t fix that issue if my shop is closed) I just let it lapse.
I will continue to sell on this website, and look into some other platforms perhaps. You can find me at Pride events in Wales and markets in Aber – I post on social media where I’m going to be.
I doubt I will be going back to Etsy, unless some major changes occur. I don’t need it and I don’t want it.
Crossposted this both to QLS and my Queer Little Family blog.
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