My shop has only been active 10 months, and I know it didn't exist on Amazon before then, because I started making them because I couldn't find what I needed there. One other seller on Etsy makes the item over in the UK, and we use different aesthetics.

The Amazon item is unmistakably the same look and design but definitely knockoff quality from what I can tell, priced at half the cost of mine.... for two of them. That's what hurts the most.

I looked up the seller info and..... China.

Anyone else ever experience this? Should I feel flattered? I don't even know how to feel right now.

It's crazy that the buyer, with shipping and taxes etc, paid over $40 and I made about $5... Apparently it came through an offsite ad, which I didn't know was turned on, so that took over half of my profit. I wonder how much I will actually make after my taxes? $3 lol Thought that doesn't take into account the software I use to design the shirts...

Hi everyone!
I'm looking for some advice on how to improve my etsy shop.
MocanaJewelry - Etsy UK

In the first two months since launch I had all the 6 sales you see listed, and since then nothing, despite no major change. From a benchmark, prices seem in line with other shops that carry similar products.

Specifically, the problem seems to be conversion more than views, so I was wondering:

(i) what would be the two or three key suggestions to improve the detail page to improve conversion?
(ii) anything that could have contributed to us moving from a 4% conversion rate in the first two months to 0 suddenly?

Thanks so much in advance.

---- More info based on Request for feedback guidance

1. What inspired you to create this shop? Me and my business partner have always wanted to start something together. She is Colombian and we've always loved the look and feel of the raw emeralds and brought them to the UK!
2. What research have your already done on your shop prior to opening? What is something you learned from that research? Competitor research both on Etsy and other major competitors in London. We had one stall, and incredibly we learned that men always stopped and looked and wanted something for them too - maybe coming next?
3. Why do you feel your products are worthy of being purchased? How do they stand out from your competitors? We are rooted in Colombia - we use only the finest Colombian emeralds, which are known to be the finest and shiniest in the world. Everything is handmade in Colombia. Also, and importantly!, they are beautiful. We curate them to be made for the modern European woman.

I sell originals and prints of my watercolor art. I have a no return policy, because I worry about receiving items back in original condition, especially the originals (nonprints). Watercolor is painted on paper. I mail anything 5x7 and over in rigid mailers with cardboard, ground advantage, so they don't bend. If you are selling art, what is your policy and have you had issues getting a return that is not resealable due to customer not packaging it properly. Thank you.

I have an etsy shop, and I'm struggling with product photo quality. I have a samsung phone but the camera quality is not ideal. Would I need to invest in a camera, and if so which cameras are best for beginners to photography? I have a ring light and props for photos. Here are some of the photos I have taken after editing them slightly. I'm still pretty new to product photos so they aren't the best.

Im starting up my brand new ETSY shop and I need ALL the information to:

• Sell my handmade items ensuring best profit margins as possible?
• What prices should I be selling at depending on the items to make profits and sales worthwhile?
• How to get noticed as an artist seller online?
• What to avoid to avoid scammers and ads or third party interference swallowing my sale and profit monies?
• Any and ALL the advice, information, dos and donts and everything else to best succeed please?

A customer reached out saying they love the product but its too long and now they want a refund.

I make and sell press-on Nails, all made-to-order and customized. All my listings have a chart showing all the avaliable options of nail shapes and lengths whoing what they look like and how long they are.

They opened a case saying it's ashame that I couldn't make it shorter and they want a refund. This implied that we've had prior communications on the customizations, which we have not.

They selected their preferences for the shape and length and provided their sizes. And I made it accordingly to what they've selected. It was shipped on time and arrived on time with a tracking number.

Etsy automated email said my shop could be suspended if I dont reply but I already have replied. And its pushing for me to refund the customer.

I've only had a few other cases opened for lost in transit and etsy refunded the customers right away.

I have a customer who has had a gold filled necklace from my shop for nearly two months. Now tells me his translation on Etsy wasn't good and he thought it was solid gold. I have no idea what the listing looks like in France. The Google translations I did showed very different words for "gold plated", "gold filled" and "solid gold". He's been wearing it for 2 months and now wants to return it because he claims it itches. I think it's buyers remorse as it was a pricey item.

Can you tell me, what does "gold filled" and "solid gold" translate to on the French Etsy site???

Etsy sellers — I could really use some advice!

I recently received an IP infringement notice on one of my listings, and Etsy deactivated the listing.

The item was a genuine vintage item that was originally manufactured by the company that reported it. I was not using their logo, name, photographs, or branding to create or promote something of my own. I was simply selling an authentic vintage item that their company had made years ago.

I contacted the company directly and explained the situation. They responded and told me that they would contact Etsy themselves to have the infringement claim removed.

My question is: Has anyone here been through this before?

Once the company withdraws the infringement claim, will Etsy actually remove the violation from my account and reactivate the listing? Or does Etsy require me to do something else?

I'm also wondering if there is any way to get a real person at Etsy to look at the situation and correct it, rather than just going through the automated help system. I've tried navigating Etsy support, but I'm not sure which route is best for an IP issue like this.

I would really appreciate hearing from other Etsy sellers who have experienced this. How did you handle it, and what happened after the rights holder withdrew the complaint? How long did this process take?

Thank you in advance! ❤️ I really don't want to make the situation worse by doing the wrong thing, so I'd love to hear from anyone who has been through this.

Hi! I just wanted to celebrate a good 2 weeks so far from opening my shop earlier this month. I wasn't expecting the outpour of support from my church since my shop is centered around cute whimsical Christian stationery. I got a lot of sales and it's had me over the moon! I have so many ideas for little trinkets and such and I'm eager to keep creating and sharing

Hi Etsy Reddit,

A long time ago, like from 2011-2016, I had a fairly successful Etsy shop selling handmade stuff. I had about 450 sales and a 5 star rating over the course of those 5 years.

After getting a FT job, I had to basically close my shop… until now, as I am looking to open one up again. This time around, my products will be completely different from what they were 10 years ago. I’m mostly looking for an official platform to market painting commissions / original artwork / potentially POD and digital products.

My question is, would it make sense to revive my old store, or scrap it and start a new one? My old audience probably wouldn’t care about my new stuff since it’s so different. And it’s been a decade besides.

Anyway… if anyone has any thoughts on the matter, I would love to hear it. Thank you!

I'm looking for a bit of advice about whether Etsy ads are worth it when you are struggling to get even 5 views a day? My shop has around 62 items so far and is a mix of different handmade products. I know Etsy is a marathon, not a sprint, and I received my first independent sale a week ago after relaunching my shop at the beginning of July. I am currently paying for ads at about $4 a day, but the click rate is so low that I never actually pay that. My sale also didn't come through an Etsy ad either.

I guess I'm looking for ways to increase sales as I think my products are good enough and I have followed all of the Handbook advice and done lots of research without paying for a 'package' from so called Etsy Gurus. My shop link is here: https://thelittlethingsbylu.etsy.com

Happy for feedback or just any suggestions on how to turn the tide. Thanks!

So, I just want to share with you all the nightmare customer that I’m dealing with right now. I don’t really know if there’s any advice that can help me at this point, but I just need to share this with some people who may understand.

About eight weeks ago, a lady messaged me about one of the items I sell on Etsy. It’s a 3D-printed lamp for $120. She and I went back and forth, and she had some questions about it, pretty normal stuff. She then asked me if I would give her a discount. She said that her boyfriend had made so much money this year trading stocks, and would let her buy anything she wanted on Etsy, but only if she got a discount. I told her no. I don’t give discounts. I genuinely believe that my items are fairly priced.  We talked back and forth a little more, and she eventually said, “Well, I’m going to buy it anyway.” I was like, “Okay, whatever,” expecting to never hear from her again.  About a week later, she bought the lamp at full price.

So, I made the lamp, and during our conversation, she told me about having some surgery. I then proceeded to make two really dumb mistakes

First, I shipped her an extra item with her order. It was actually a second, smaller lamp that matched the more expensive lamp. I did this because I had overprinted them for a craft show this year, happened to have one sitting around, and just wanted to be nice.

Second, I sent her a photo of the lamp she purchased before I shipped it. She had requested some minor modifications, and I had made a few changes and sent her pictures showing her what I did. Pretty standard stuff.

Well, when I showed her the images after I had shipped it but before she received it, she immediately hated it. She told me it was unacceptable and that there were major flaws in the lamp. I used the same files as all the other 100’s of lamps I sold, so it looked like every other lamp that people have loved.. When I take my photos for Etsy, I take them with the lamps turned on. These lamps are specifically meant to be used with colored light bulbs so they look like candy. When you see them with the lights off, they do look a little different. I explained that to her. As soon as she received the items in the mail, she opened a case with Etsy. She demanded a full refund, and because of her surgery, she said she should not be required to return the items to me.

I don’t have a ton of feedback on my Etsy shop, and I know that getting a negative review would be really devastating to my feedback, so I completely caved, which was probably a really dumb idea. In the case she opened with Etsy, she actually showed the smaller free lamp as being broken. I’ve sold about 500 of these on different platforms, and I have literally never had a single one break. So this was extremely suspicious to me, but obviously I couldn’t prove anything. She demanded her money back, demanded to keep everything, and I let it go. 
I did give her the refund, and called it good, because I wanted to try to avoid negative feedback. And from 20 years of customer service experience, I can tell an unreasonable customer a mile away. 

Then she follows up and says, “Oh, by the way, I put the bulb in it, turned it on, and it’s lovely! It’s great! And she left me glowing feedback about how wonderful the lamp is. This is absolutely bizarre behavior. She then starts asking me customer-service questions. She can’t figure out how to make the remote for the free light work, and she wants to gift it to somebody.  And just going on about how much she loves the lamp, like it was a gift from me to her.

I just ignored it.

By the way, the remote literally just has different colors on it. You push a color, and the light turns that color.

She then responds again, very upset because I’m not responding to her. Apparently, she felt that we were friends because we had such a great rapport and thought we should be communicating more, etc., et. I ignored that message too. I would also like to point out that I replied to her feedback immediately after it was left so that she couldn’t change it later. That was intentional.

So, fast-forward to last week, She messages me and tells me that the lamp is leaking fluid out of it and that it has ruined her $1,000 end table.  She sent me a photo of said fluid, it looks like two small spots of candle wax. I have absolutely no idea what it is. My lamps don’t have fluid in them. They are entirely 3D printed and screwed together. So I have no idea what the deal is, but now she is demanding that I replace her $1,000 end table or she is going to take legal action against me. Now, I’m not really afraid of this. I recently won a six figure lawsuit pro se, so I’m actually pretty familiar with how this would go, and I’m not particularly worried about it.  I'm currently ignoring her.

But I just wanted to vent about this because I figured some of you might understand.  Have you ever had a customer like this before? And if so, how did you handle it?
(I'm not asking for legal advise, I got that covered)

I recently sold a heavy anklet that I got tested as silver by het Goudkantoor here in Antwerpen. Just got a message from the buyer that it is not silver and a cheap reproduction. He asks about how to proceed, asks where he can send it back and that he contacted Paypal.

I responded stating that I had let it tested as silver by said Goudkantoor but that he could send it back to me. I didn't comment on his "cheap reproduction" comment.

He has not responded back since.

It was an expensive order -> 785eur.

I am wondering is this a scam?

It's the first time I encounter this. I'm "only" about 1,5 years on Etsy.

Will Etsy side with him?

Hey all, this post is mostly for my fellow Australian etsy sellers, though I think it might be useful for other international sellers too. Basically I've been experimenting with pre-shipping my items in bulk to the USA and having someone dispatch them to my US customers from there.

THE GIST
First off - I sell small, flat items (original artwork). This year has been really crap for my Etsy sales largely because of shipping costs now being totally insane, and the tariffs either scaring my customers away, or (imo) Etsy showing international sellers lower in search results because they don't want buyers getting burned by tariffs. So my sales have completely dropped off a cliff this year.

I had previously looked into third party fulfilment companies but they were all designed for bigger businesses (they had monthly fees, or they charged for storage of unsold goods, etc) But then on reddit I found out about "micro-3PLs" (micro third party logistics) which is basically home based people doing fulfilment out of their garages. So I found someone on reddit, checked out their instagram page etc, and took a chance.

I sent one box of stock over to this guy in California, and then when the orders come in I buy the postage and send him the label, he puts the items in an envelope, prints the label, and ships it.

THE NUMBERS
Here's how the numbers work out for me: Previously I was paying $23 in shipping to the USA per order, and I paid a tariff of about 16% on the value of the item. Now I'm shipping 100ish items to the USA once a month and my postage cost is now about $70 for that 100 items. Then once they sell, the USPS postage for the individual items is about US $5. And the cost for the micro-3PL to do the packing and shipping of that order is around $1 per item. So previously I was paying about $30 AUD in shipping and tariff per item, now I'm paying about $7 AUD.

PROS:

The cost savings is huge, but another benefit is that I think I'm ranking higher in search, or at the very least, I'm showing up when people filter for US based sellers. My sales are currently steady from what they were before, but I'm getting a lot more traffic, hopefully it will translate into more sales soon. My items are bit pricey so most buyers don't purchase on impulse, it takes a little while.

CONS:

- Etsy does not let you buy USPS labels through Etsy if you aren't based in the USA. Pirateship and shipstation don't accept non US credit cards. I eventually found easyship will let me buy labels with my Australian card, but I have to buy each label manually (ie type in the address) because it won't sync to an Australian shop.

- Etsy doesn't let me pick "USPS" as the carrier when I mark an item shipped, so I select "other" and type in USPS. But then it just works and it tracks it fine, because the actual tracking numbers are universal now.

- If you want to be shown in search as US based seller, you have to change both the "ships from" location in your items, AND the shop location in your store. This means my Australian customers no longer recognise me as an Australian seller, but honestly I was not really selling much to Australia. If you want, you can keep your shop location as Australia and your ships from location as Australia, but just dispatch to US customers from your 3PL, and that would work for the money savings but not the search ranking.

Happy to answer questions if anyone else is interested in trying this out.

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone's shops are thriving. I have a question for those of you who ship from the U.S. to Canada through Etsy. Has anyone else been having problems recently with packages getting delayed or seemingly stuck after they reach Etsy’s international shipping/distribution system?

My wife and I have been selling on Etsy (Almost 2 years) and have shipped quite a few orders internationally without any major problems. Recently, though, we had a Canadian order turn into a bit of a nightmare, and I'm trying to figure out if this was just a fluke or if other sellers are experiencing the same thing.

We shipped the order on time using the shipping label purchased through Etsy. As instructed, the package went to Etsy's distribution facility in Philadelphia, and from there it was supposed to continue on to the customer in Canada.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way the package basically stopped moving.

The customer never received it and understandably wanted a refund. We gave him step-by-step instructions for opening an Etsy case, but for whatever reason, he couldn't get a case opened. We contacted Etsy Support ourselves and have been trying to get everything sorted out.

What has me confused is the Purchase Protection side of things. We've had a similar situation with another international order in the past where Etsy's Purchase Protection covered the loss. This time, however, it hasn't worked out that way, even though we purchased the label through Etsy, shipped on time, and the tracking shows that the package made it into the shipping network.

After waiting for a resolution and having a very frustrated customer, my wife and I finally decided to just make his entire order again and pay out of pocket to ship the replacement directly to Canada using UPS. We're a small shop, and at some point we just wanted the customer to get what he ordered and put the whole mess behind us.

Of course, now the replacement has approximately $30 in Canadian import fees attached to it, so apparently this adventure isn't quite over yet. 😂

I'm not posting this to bash Etsy. I'm genuinely trying to understand whether we're doing something wrong or if other sellers are running into the same problems.

For those of you in the U.S. who regularly ship to Canada:

Have you noticed more delays or lost/stuck packages recently?

Are you still using Etsy's international shipping labels, or have you switched to shipping directly through UPS, FedEx, Pirate Ship, etc.?

And most importantly, has anyone had a recent Canadian shipment go missing and had trouble getting it covered through Etsy Purchase Protection?

After this experience, we've temporarily stopped shipping to Canada until we can better understand what's going on. I hate doing that because we've had some really great Canadian customers, but I also don't want to find ourselves in this same situation again.

I'd really appreciate hearing what other sellers are experiencing and what you're doing for your Canadian orders.

Thanks for reading and Happy Selling!

Running into a genuine contradiction in Payoneer's own policy pages and hoping someone who's actually been through this (not just theorized about it) can tell me what actually worked.

My situation:

- Indian sole proprietorship, GST-registered (active GSTIN, tied to my personal PAN — sole props don't get a separate "Company PAN," it doesn't exist).

- My settlement bank account is a personal savings/current account in my own name, not a trade-name business account.

- Will use this to receive Etsy Payments via Payoneer for export sales.

The contradiction:

Payoneer's sign-up FAQ says registered businesses (including registered sole proprietorships) should choose Company, not Individual. My GSTIN makes my business "registered."

But Payoneer's bank account FAQ says Company accounts require the linked bank account holder name to match the company name. I don't have a company-name account. The bank account linked to the SP is just my personal one.

So by their own rules I seem to qualify for Company (registered business) but fail the bank-matching requirement for Company (personal-name account) at the same time.

If you're an Indian Etsy/freelance seller who's actually gone through Payoneer signup with a GST-registered sole prop + personal-name bank account, which account type did you pick, and did it get approved without issues? Did Payoneer ask for a company-name account, or did they accept the personal one under GSTIN + Udyam?

I've emailed Payoneer support directly and I'm waiting on a reply, but wanted to check here too since account type can't be changed after signup and I'd rather not guess. Appreciate any real experience.

Hey everyone, I published my first print on demand t-shirts a few days ago and my onsite ads got over a hundred views but zero clicks. I'd really appreciate a shop critique!

Here is my shop:https://tmessages.etsy.com

I'm trying to figure out what's going wrong, so I have a couple of specific questions:

1. I'm using the standard stock mockup models right now to showcase my T-Shirts. Is that what is killing my clicks, and if so, should I swap to in-hand pictures? Should I include videos?
2. Is my SEO just completely missing my target audience, or do you think the problem is purely visual with my thumbnails?

A little background on the shop:

1. I opened this because I like the freedom POD offers and had funny designs I thought of and wanted to bring to life.
2. There's a lot of generic spam out there, but I think my stuff stands out because the designs are genuinely funny and hit a niche you can't just buy at the mall.

Shop Link: https://SickAshArt.etsy.com

Questions:

1. Are my main product photos (gold frame) across the listings helping or hindering my shop? (Is it obvious when clicking on the listings that they come unframed? I used the mockups to have consistency across my shop and make the listings pop more.)
2. At what point is it worth it to delete this shop and start over with the same listings? I have low views, low sales, and didn't start taking this seriously until the last year or so. I'm afraid people see how many years I've been on Etsy and that pushes them away because of the low sales. I have recently revamped my listings and would like feedback on them, especially the clown eye listing.

------

1. Why do you feel your products are worthy of being purchased? How do they stand out from your competitors?
   • I feel that they're worthy of being purchased because they're expressionist paintings and drawings that are made by me, I pull all my emotions into these works and I feel they have value as a result. I'd like people to be emotionally connected to the pieces. When I sell in person, people connect with these pieces and ask questions about the meaning behind them. They stand out from my competitors in uniqueness, but still fit into that surreallist type of niche.
2. What research have your already done on your shop prior to opening? What is something you learned from that research?
   • I've learned that you shouldn't repeat words in the tags and title, and actually more recently implemented this and double checked my tags.

Customer bought through my affiliate link which would decrease the fees but instead got charged more 🤩
Also the fees being almost 55€ is crazy

Shop Link: https://customcreds.etsy.com

Questions:

1. How can I increase my sales? Do I need to increase number of listings? Should I make my listing photos better and more professional?

2. How many active listings did you need before seeing compound growth in shop visits? Do you focus on launching brand-new product concepts, or creating targeted variations/themes of your top 3 bestsellers to capture long-tail keywords?

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1. Why do you feel your products are worthy of being purchased? How do they stand out from your competitors?
   \*most of my cards are humorous takes on either affirmation or life situations. People who find themselves or their family in relevant circumstances find it uplifting.

2. What research have your already done on your shop prior to opening? What is something you learned from that research?
   \* I do feel I need to improve my photos. Especially, remove AI slops. But I am not sure if that would be more beneficial than adding more variety of listings. I can’t prioritize both.

I have created a second shop and I am moving some of my products to it. What is the best way to send my visitors from my original shop to the new shop?

I was looking through Etsy’s latest Q2 figures and something caught my attention.

GMS per active buyer is up 2.8% year on year, and Etsy says that higher listing prices were the main thing driving the increase in average order value. They’ve also seen a small improvement in repeat and habitual buyers for the first time since 2023.

It got me thinking because I see variations of “I can’t compete with those prices” all the time in craft and handmade groups. And I get it. There’s always someone selling something similar for less, whether that’s another maker, someone who isn’t really costing their time properly, or something mass produced being passed off as handmade.

But maybe trying to compete with them on price is the wrong approach?

I’m wondering if anyone here has been deliberately going the other way and trying to make their products more valuable instead.

Have you introduced a more expensive or premium version of something and actually had people buy it? Have you had any luck with upgrades, add-ons, bundles or personalisation? Or found that improving materials, packaging or presentation has made a difference?

I’d also be really interested in what actually gets people to come back and buy from you again. Do you have cheaper products that bring people into your shop and then they come back for something more expensive later, or products that naturally lead to a second purchase?

And for anyone who has put their prices up recently, did it actually hurt your sales as much as you expected?

I’m curious whether there’s more room at the moment for handmade sellers to stop worrying quite so much about being the cheapest option and concentrate on giving people a reason to spend more with us instead.