Some sellers say they were going from strength to strength, but now they have been left unable to pay their bills, with their only source of income coming from Etsy sales.
75% reserve is an absurd ratio. If it’s being held for more than a month, that’s effectively an interest free loan to Etsy. No manufacturer of any size I know of would ever accept those terms without a contract that binds the supplier to purchase a set amount on a regular basis - you simply can’t make money that way otherwise.
Regardless of the advantage of adding tracking to a package, the way Etsy is implementing their policy is clearly abusive to the sellers. 3% (like Amazon) would be reasonable. 75% is highway robbery.
@Hogger85b the article mentions why:
This means the money needed to pay for the product and ship it out is not received until after it is made and shipped.
A lot of sellers don’t want to force their customers to pay for tracked shipping because international tracking can rack up a huge cost.
These are often bespoke items, somtimes the materials must be brought and then customised. If I went into woodworkers shop and asked a bespoke item they may ask.for.more than a 25% deposit
If you want something welded or smashed on with a hammer and you don’t bring me the materials, I want cost of materials + 50% up front for custom work. Shit’s expensive.
Are the customers forced to pay for tracking? Does Etsy have a rule against sellers paying for the tracking? I’ve never used Etsy before so I’m not sure exactly how it works.
I’d feel more comfortable having a tracking number on any package I order.
The article also goes on to show the typical Etsy customer and seller mentality (and as an Etsy customer I can say I also share this mentality. Keep in mind that most of the things sold on Etsy are small artisan/crafted goods and a lot of times the shipping cost can cost more than the item itself, much less tracked shipping):
A lot of sellers don’t want to force their customers to pay for tracked shipping because international tracking can rack up a huge cost.
Steen Ross, from Norwich, has £1,800 held in a reserve on her Etsy account.
She has sold custom costumes to a largely American customer base on Etsy for a decade and relies on her Etsy income to pay rent.
"Most of my sales go to America and about 90% of people don’t want to pay the additional cost of tracking because it’s so expensive, they are happy for me to just provide proof of postage.
“I’m worried that if I raise prices to include tracking, I’ll lose a lot of sales, but if I don’t Etsy won’t release funds from my reserve before 45 days.”
Etsy sellers have shown evidence to Sky News that whilst in a “reserve”, 75% of the amount they receive from orders is unavailable to them for 45 days **or until they have provided tracking proof. **
Seems like a pretty simple solution or am I misunderstanding this? Just ship your products with tracking?
Tracking can be cost prohibitive. Within the same country is usually fine, but what if you’re shipping overseas?
Your options then become “eat the cost” cutting into a likely already thin margin, or “charge to the customer” which discourages buyers.
It seems to me that, given the bespoke nature of so much stuff on Etsy, they should absolutely have a pay-up-front option for items that are being manufactured to order. In any other kind of bespoke trade, putting down a large deposit or even full prepayment would not be considered unusual at all.
Sure, there would be risks associated with doing this as a buyer, but I bet a lot of people would do it for a reputable and trusted vendor. Especially if the alternative is seeing large additional fees added to the order.
Sorry, but I agree with Etsy.
Am I missing something here? I sell electronics on Tindie, and they hold EVERYTHING until the buyer gets their product. I was under the impression that they way places like Ebay do it are the exception.
I always thought Etsy was the “creative” place so was about buying a service to create something more arty or bespoke.
