The world of e-commerce is changing rapidly, and even some of the platforms that made their reputation as more “organic” venues are now fiddling with their policies quite a bit.
Case in point: reports today that ‘crafty’ seller Etsy is instituting mandatory advertising changes in order to broaden the visibility of its overall platform.
As Jacob Kastrenakes writes at the Verge, Etsy has embarked on a plan to advertise for the sellers, and then charge them for it, in the type of process a libertarian might describe as “Soviet-style management.”
Apparently, this is optional for the smaller sellers, but mandatory for Etsy’s top sellers making sales of over $10,000 per year or more.
However, as Kastrenakes’s story reveals, many of these top sellers are those who can least afford to undergo big changes in their business model.
“How much of a jerk would I look like if I started to offer ‘free shipping,’ yet they see my price went up 3 dollars?,” says Noelle Short, who makes charms at CharmedandDangerous, referencing Etsy’s past suggestion to offer free shipping for higher-ticket items. “My customers aren’t stupid.”
Critics point to the installation of Josh Silverman on the board as a driver for these types of changes.
Proponents of the new system point to 2019 revenues that nearly doubled what was brought in just two years before.
“There is concern among sellers about how Etsy will determine when it deserves a cut of their money,” Kastrenakes writes.
A lack of transparency also disturbs some sellers.
“We never receive any TRANSPARENCY regarding their decisions on individual shops,” wrote a frustrated Etsy seller on Reddit several months ago. “Whenever I hear stories about people having their shops closed, some of these people say Etsy does this to them “without prior notice” or ‘without explanation’ …This I find very triggering. (If you have a history of domestic violence, you’ll be familiar with the walking-on-eggshells anxiety of wondering, “what will I do next to piss them off/punish me?”) …That’s what Etsy’s one-sided, no-prior-notice actions do to a person. Yesterday I couldn’t eat, got headaches, my daily routine messed-up. By the end of the day I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to be on Etsy anymore and whether it’s worth it.”
For a company that built its model on selling handmade and vintage items, Etsy seems to be trying to move more toward an Amazon-like model of quantity over quality and dominance over cooperation. Signs like these can point to greater changes in online retail, which makes up such a big percentage of global trade. Think about this as you evaluate your retail sector portfolio.
