Why I Am Closing My Etsy Shop After THREE Years & 100's of Sales

I closed down my Etsy store last week after 3 years and 166 sales and I want to talk about why for those of you that don't know me my name is Adriana I've been running my handmade jewelry business for the last 3 years and I started my business simultaneously on Etsy and Shopify there are a lot of people who have successfully made their career on Etsy alone that's honestly great I wish that that was a viable route to go down for everyone but there are some serious red flags with Etsy that I just couldn't ignore anymore and I finally closed my store because of them Etsy is a really good place to start whenever you're first getting started but please don't just rely on Etsy everything started off really smooth in the very beginning I was getting sales here and there and getting sales on my website it's a lowcost start you just have like the 60 C fee I didn't mind paying the extra money to get the sales over there I had a ring that kind of went vir on Etsy for about 2 weeks where I was getting multiple sales a day sometimes 10 to 12 sales in one day that was probably a year into having Etsy so was already an established seller I I don't remember how many sales I had at the moment but it was enough to know that I wasn't a fake Etsy account or that I wasn't a scammer I had almost five stars no complaints and they decided to put a hold of my funds which is something that they are allowed to do however when I was getting started I did not know that that was something that they could do I also never would have expected that they would put a hold on someone's account that's been selling for over a year this is a huge deal because a lot of people who are selling their handmade Goods need those funds in order to purchase the materials to make the product that other people are buying and so I had over $11,000 on hold with ety that they would incrementally release like $20 $10 and that went on for about 4 months which was honestly very very very frustrating there wasn't anything I could do about it there wasn't anyone I could reach out to thank God that I had had the revenue from my website to cover the cost of the goods from those sales otherwise I would have had to reach into my own pocket to purchase the materials for those goods this is something that I don't think that a lot of people know about and I don't think that a lot of people would be prepared for it especially if what you sell cost a lot to produce not only could this put you in a really hard financial situation but it could ruin your reputation on Etsy if you're not able to deliver because they're holding your money that was my first strike with Etsy once that happened honestly my mentality around it was never the same I knew from the very beginning that I didn't want to ever rely on Etsy to produce my sales and from the very beginning it's never surpassed the sales that I was able to get from my own website I do want to make a video about how to get sales from social media and marketing and all those things because it is absolutely possible to drive your own sales and not rely on someone like Etsy so if you feel like you need to start on Etsy please please please start a website first so that you don't have to be fully riant on them because you have zero control over your money and they can take it away at any moment and that's not safe for any business owner my second strike with Etsy and honestly the last one I was not going to give them a third after 3 years of being a seller on Etsy and having 166 sales great reviews they suspended my account it had something to do with my social and when I moved from the UK to the states I had to change on Etsy the country that I was in which was fine whenever I updated my address it wanted me to update my social security information in there and I did that immediately so I uploaded a picture of my passport my name uh my social which they already had my social and they still suspended my account I had a banner notification saying you know upload a copy of my driver's license and verify my social security number and I would have an updated email within 10 days about 3 months later I still never had an updated email I have my social security card I know my social security number by heart and no matter what I did I could not get it unsuspended a huge downside to Etsy is that their customer service is garbage everyone that I've spoken to when I've managed to get in contact with a human has always been very kind and that's great and all but their ability to actually help you is slim to none when I reach out to them about my account being suspended and let them know that my my social security number is correct in there they were completely perplexed they had no clue what was going on why it wasn't working and so I had spoken to the person and then they told me that they would look into the matter further and reach out via email with what they found a few days later I did get an email from someone at Etsy support and they told me they weren't sure what was going on to try and add my middle name add my middle initial which I did all of those things I tried every variation of my name and if those things didn't work then I would need to reach out to the Social Security Administration which makes zero sense imagine I reach out to the Social Security Administration and say hey my Etsy account won't verify my social security number is something wrong Not only would I not get a response for something like that but they would probably laugh at how dumb that question is even when I was in England my social security number was verified on Etsy so it was clear to me that this was something on their end that they just didn't want to dig further into it was either a technical glitch or whatever but it was very clear that I was not going to get any support from them and so I decided to leave Etsy it is terrifying to me that some people have built their entire livelihood on this platform that has so little control into helping their makers and sellers not only is their customer service completely limited hard to reach but they honestly do not advocate for their sellers on their platform the platform is meant to be for handmade Goods handmade gifts handmade crafts and they've completely allowed their platform to be overrun by cheap Chinese made products that have been ripping off people's designs I've seen so many small creators that have had their designs pictures everything stolen by these companies that are mass-producing products with silverplated jewelry or fake gold and they don't do anything about it my products are less likely to sell when I have a solid sterling silver signate ring when the photo is right next to the exact same piece it's $5 because it's plated in silver and not solid silver they've just gone so far from what they were originally put out there to do it's just not beneficial anymore to be on that platform where you can be ripped off and another thing about Etsy that I just don't appreciate is them putting restrictions on turnaround times shipping costs this is supposed to be a handmade platform so to put a restriction on how quickly you get your items out the door is just mind-blowing to me most handmade Goods can't be made within five business days they just can't so the fact that they would penalize you for not being able to have your item made that quickly just doesn't make any sense at all and then them forcing you to offer free shipping in order to get a star seller status or whatever it's just gone so far from caring about the sellers and only caring about sales so I closed my shop thankfully I am not at a place where I need them anymore just always appreciated having my stuff stuff on another platform where it could be discovered and my website could be discovered but but I will never ever recommend that people use Etsy solely if not at all and if you do use Etsy please use it at your own discretion know the risks know what can happen be prepared and good luck I do have a video on Etsy versus Shopify so if you want some more in detailed reasons why you should use Shopify over atsy or maybe why you can use both I just love what Etsy used to stand for and what they were initially created for and I really hope that there can be another platform that comes out later that can take all the things that they did wrong and do them right because if a platform like that did exist I would add my stuff on there because you can never have too much exposure and the idea of what Etsy was supposed to be what it originally was is great and I think something like that needs to exist for people who don't want to have a website or don't want the cost of a website or don't want to maintain a website there's just so many reasons why having a website isn't the best thing for everyone but I just don't think that Etsy is the answer anymore so I'll be making a video soon about marketing and how to drive sales to your website as a handmade business as any business really it's all the same so if a video like that would be helpful to you then subscribe and turn on your notifications so you don't miss it and I'll see you next week bye guys [Music]

Channel: Mitera Made Jewelry

Views: 114,882

Keywords: selling on etsy, etsy shop, online business, etsy shop owner, small business, why i closed my etsy shop, closing my etsy shop, suspended etsy shop for no reason, etsy suspended my account, why I closed my etsy shop

Id: kU_TDMGjyH0

Length: 9min 4sec (544 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2024