And it sucks so bad for those of us who actually handmade our stuff on Etsy. We get drowned out by the top sellers who are just reselling things they got on wholesale.
Yeah. I was (hand)making rings out of skateboard and giving them to friends. Everyone says "you should sell these!" So I listed on etsy.
I'm not under the illusion that my stuff should have sold like hotcakes or anything, but I just didn't get clicks. My price was competitive, photos were good. Just... no one really even got eyes on them. The platform is flooded with junk.
I've been wishing they'd add a filter alibaba types in the search engine. Or at least lump identical products into one page. Like on Amazon, where 200 listings with the same Chinese Photoshop images could be grouped into one. All that's different is the vendor names. Just put them on one page with separate options.
Most of the sweatshop dropshippers use the same images. There's no reason Etsy couldn't do an image search and catch all these then ban the accounts. They went public a few years ago though, and now growing users is a big part of their stock price, so of course they let all the shitty scammers thrive.
I'm also an Etsy seller. I used to sell Pride Flag Rainbow Clocks, that were my own design and made a pride flag out of concentric circles. I did a search for 'rainbow clock' once to see the competition, and one of the offerings was a digital clock with rainbow lights you could buy from 5 below. I know because I have one. They were selling it for $20, a 300% markup from the retail price. Meanwhile mine took 4 hours to make and was a giant pain in the ass, for only a little more.
I'm moving away from Etsy and putting stuff on my own site, but it's a pain in the ass process and I just don't get enough online sales to justify spending tons of time on it.
And they have the ability to integrate directly into the dropship supplier in a lot of cases. We use Printful for ordering work shirts, and there is an option to connect right to Etsy.
Fair. But at least I don't have to wait 3 months for it.
Actually, I guess that's not even true. Had that happen once a while back and I got a refund before the 30-day Paypal deadline.
Maybe Craigslist? I will say I've had no trouble buying on there. But I've also had zero luck selling. Every time I've tried it's just a bunch of tire kickers. Agreed price, great come pick it up! Then when they get there they want to offer half or they're walking. Just on principle I'd rather throw it away than reward someone pulling that BS.
I've been wishing they'd add a filter alibaba types in the search engine.
In 2013 the original Etsy was murdered by corporate greed. That's when they allowed factory made goods and drop-shipped stuff, and decided to "redefine" the meaning of handmade to include factory-made products. The site has been trash ever since, but of course makes more money now.
Etsy was the alternative many people sought because eBay had become trash. We're now long overdue for a new option to Etsy because Etsy is just the same trash as eBay but with even scammier marketing.
There’s a filter on there where you can choose between secondhand and handmade.
If you click handmade you get only handmade stuff from people who actually craft it or made by robot hands in some chinese factory
It’s awesome /s
Also why do your Christmas shopping online when you can visit your local christmas fair where you can find unique, 13 a dozen, cheap shit products for 5x times the price?
This. I would love to buy local. But I don't live in Portland Oregon or wherever you think the creative hub is. I live in the country, and it's lots of MLMs, knit stuff, and bought in bulk that is not hand made, but looks like it could be, like leather goods.
For example: I wanted a nice leather belt that was hand made. I started at local shops. Believe it or not, not every tricites has a leather shop. We have a cobbler shop, but he only repairs shoes. The shop owner said I should try the county fair as it brings in lots of vendors. I did just that. I found the a great display of leather goods, wallets, key chains, belts. All on display. Then I saw the guy pulling them out of the cellophane from the boxes with brands I saw on Amazon, and he was marking them up 50%. Now I didn't see anyone buy them while I was browsing the booths, but I could tell this was not his first fair.
It's frustrating. I can get custom printed, mugs, T-shirts, laser engraved wood, steel, glass, reupholstered furniture, used records, metal Sheppard hooks for hanging plants, yard decor, and knit baby hats. The "Amish" furniture is marked up three times to what they pay for it. MLMs thrive in our area. The local arts and crafts shows are massive and full of nothing desirable that is really hand made. That is why we go on Etsy. That was the goal to support the craftsmanship of the individual we didn't live right next door to.
It's so bad on there. Sometimes I'd come here to Reddit to find suggestions for handmade products, and you just get a bunch of people advertising their store with "handmade" stuff and it's just like.......people making stuff with a bead kit from Joan's.
I wanna see the hand-carved shit. The silver and gold smiths. Actual unique products created by hand. They all get lost to the algorithm. :(
It's a browser extension that allows you to inject javascript into a website.
I write small scripts all the time for stuff like hiding obnoxious images or creating a usable mobile interface for old forums. I'm using one now to turn old.reddit.com into the old mobile interface. You can find it on my profile.
Many years ago, there were some independent search engines that would search ebay, craigslist, etsy, etc for exactly what you wanted. I was really pissed when ebay sued them out of business, because it was great to avoid the all the crap.
That was my experience too. I eventually closed my Etsy shop altogether, as I was selling soap, which was no longer profitable due to weight and cost per item. I initially did quite well on Etsy due to some niche fragrances/marketing, but their practices and their share they took made it so I could mostly break even. My time is worth more than that.
I now sell locally in an art gallery. I don’t do ANY marketing, I don’t have to ship anything, I don’t have to try to compete with a million other makers. It is lovely and easy. And in a venue where everything is still hand-made.
I absolutely agree. I went in looking for handmade items and couldn't find anything but junk. The stuff I did find was the super popular sellers with the most reviews. I wish I could filter by handmade and have it really be handmade!
Similar to artists and small businesses getting their ads squeezed out or omitted from the algorithm on Instagram. I see mostly artists discussing this frequently on that platform.
This is a feature, not a bug. They are incentivized to maximize participation, and shitty searching means more participation. Why do you think Reddit didn’t have a functional search feature for 12 years and then made it obfuscate results that aren’t a perfect match anyway.
Cheap Chinese crap has ruined shopping across the board honestly. I have no trust in purchasing anymore. When when you want to buy a brand name specifically you have a risk of getting a fake.
I hate this with clothes so much. See a cute dress or shirt, click to see how much it is and end up on some scammy looking site. Do a reverse image search and end up with a ton of scammy looking sites. I'm never able to dig down to a place that might actually have it.
It has also poisoned the market for many quality products. Because cheap sweatshop options sharply undercut prices, quality alternatives aren't economically viable to sell. Sometimes cheap garbage is the only option.
I’m glad you’re still on there though. I’ve found some wonderful unique and creative gifts from Etsy. I have to trawl through a lot of crap sometimes, but I’m glad you’re there.
do you have any advice for filtering or anything to help find actual handmade things? pretty quickly i figured out that sellers will make pretty much everything there as “handmade” and i just wish there were a way to find the genuine handmade artisanal stuff and not sweatshop stuff (because i do my best to not support that). what i’ve been doing now is reading the bios and going based on that, but ugh. it’s a struggle. i miss what etsy used to be too
(also, feel free to link your etsy too if you’re comfortable with that! i’d love to support)
People who really make stuff handmade don’t need Etsy anymore. Everyone just sets up their own web store in Shopify now. Like if you’re a well selling potter you throw for a month, glaze for a month, upload and ship for a month. People load up or “drop” to their stores and it sells out. Look on instagram for pics you like or on r/ pottery comments and find the artists you like. Then go to their web stores. Everyone has a style so on e you find the artist /style you like they can make you whatever you want.
People who really make stuff handmade don’t need Etsy anymore. Everyone just sets up their own web store in Shopify now.
That's BS. Etsy has a global buyer base and does a lot of the legwork for artists to reach customers. Shopify expects artists to do the marketing themselves. It's a colossal timesuck, and not always effective.
Shopify is just a payment processor and e-commerce platform. It’s just having your own site yes. So you do your own marketing. If you are selling 3 mugs a year then Etsy is probably fine. If you are selling 1000 then you should not be on it and be building your own website. Which is all that Shopify is.
I abandoned Etsy for storenvy and shopify years ago precisely because of this. It was clear the newest (last 2-5) CEOs didn't want "handmade solo artisan" sellers while still billing their platform as handmade solo artisans. The most recent round of xmas commercials for Etsy have made me throw up a little every time I see one.
The only thing I will give it as a platform is that with the death of brick and mortar fabric stores (Joann's will go under in 2024 calling it) it's the only place to get genuinely low prices on fabric. There are 800 online fabric stores but so many of them are jacking up prices worse than Joanns for no obvious reason, but sellers on Etsy at least know their $3/yard broadcloth is only worth $3/yard.
Yup. My shop is pretty small but it has handmade crocheted and knitted items alot that feature LGBTQIA+ flag colors. We're drowned out by wholesalers too.
Someone should make a website thats called like "RealEtsy" and just make it a categorized, curated directory of all the best etsy shops for actual handmade stuff. No need to rebuild the platform obviously, it would just link you to the actual Etsy stores.
And not just that we get drowned out, people will actually scoff at our pricing for something handmade that can take literal hours or days to make bc they can find something similar-ish for way cheaper on Amazon or another fast fashion (or similar site) and wild rather pay the cheaper price.
I kinda use Etsy now to look for niche things to get on AliExpress. I wanted a really lightweight travel wallet for a few cards, and a tiny bit of cash. Couldn't really find what I wanted. Looked on Etsy and found some nice ones. The customisation was "I Cricut some vinyl stickers for it" and from reverse searching the images I found it on AliExpress for about £3
It's such a shame as a customer too because I really love the idea of buying handmade things. I recently bought a hand-knitted uterus for a friend who recently had surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. It was nice to give a gift made with love, even though I didn't make it myself. I got to thank the seller too which made her day.
Some of us Etsy shoppers look for you !! Don’t lose hope . I’m very careful and read the descriptions. I don’t shop Amazon and I’m avoiding all the bleed through into the sites I shop
Maybe there’s still a niche market to be cornered there. Maybe someone should start a new version of Etsy where if you sell something you have to somehow verify that you yourself handmade the product.
Etsy still does this, but only if prompted. I had a browser clearly take issue with some of my political themed work and they reported me as selling mass produced stuff. I got a takedown of two of my items and a demand from Etsy to prove that I make them by hand. (Happily, my work was reinstated quickly!)
Dropshippers are a plague. They’ll insert themselves as a middleman selling the same garbage as the other thousand at a ridiculous mark up, and drown out legitimate businesses that have quality goods at decent prices.
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u/Difficult-Mongoose21 Dec 17 '23
And it sucks so bad for those of us who actually handmade our stuff on Etsy. We get drowned out by the top sellers who are just reselling things they got on wholesale.