What I Hate About Selling on Etsy
#1 Not location independent
I have a love-hate relationship with Etsy.
I love selling on this platform, but sometimes, I wish it was a bit more seller-friendly.
Well, I guess when in Rome, do as the Romans do. You want to sell on someone’s platform, you’ve got to play by their rules.
However, allow me to share a few annoying facts about this platform. I can guarantee Etsy will be a much more powerful marketplace if they can address these issues.
Location Dependent
Yes, you read it right. It’s not location-independent.
This may not impact you if you never want to work abroad.
But in this day and age, everyone wants to launch an online business because of the freedom, especially location freedom.
While you can create digital products anywhere in the world and sell them on Etsy’s platform, you cannot change your store location—unless it is in the same country.
I opened a printable store last February and have over 850 sales so far. I can see the potential and have no plan to close my store.
But I’m moving to Australia (from Canada) next month.
Normally if you have a business, it’s an easy switch. All you need to do is change the location, payment information, and bank account details.
Well, not for Etsy.
You have NO OPTION to change countries.
If I want to continue with this business, I will have to either:
- Keep my store as a Canadian store and get paid into my Canadian bank account.
- Start a new store. From scratch.
Both options suck.
For the first option, I must continue paying Canadian tax as I have incorporated Etsy as part of my business.
As a non-CCPC (Canadian Controlled Private Corporation), my tax rate is significantly higher than a CCPC.
Paying more tax means my net profit will decrease. Not to mention other unnecessary costs such as keeping a bank account for the business only to pay a monthly fee to “keep my money.”
The second option isn’t great either. Because starting a new store from scratch means I will have no sales record and lose all my reviews. This really hurts because we all know customers read reviews before they make a purchase.
I’m literally in a lose-lose situation. What would you do if you were me?
You can’t keep your brand
If you have already built up your brand while marketing your Etsy store, good luck to customers finding you, as you can’t keep your own store name.
Etsy has this policy that you can only use the same store name once, whether it has been used by someone else before or it was your old store name.
Even if you have trademarked your brand name.
While building a brand on Etsy is uncommon, some of your returned customers may recall you by your store name.
If you have built your name outside of Etsy, you also want to have cohesive branding. Having different brand names can confuse people.
You can get away with adding something universal after your brand. For example, if I’ve branded myself as Sarina Creative, I can add Sarina Creative Co. in the end, but sometimes, this is not available, and you are forced to pick something like Sarina Creative Lab, for example. It’s not the end of the world, but…it’s ugly.
Etsy should allow the same owner to recycle their store names.
You can’t sell your business
Unlike Amazon FBA, you can’t sell your Etsy business.
I’ll have to abandon my store in Canada if I choose to open a new store.
What happens to my store then? Nothing. It will remain dormant and collect dust in Etsy’s digital space.
It makes no commercial sense.
Wouldn’t it be more attractive to sellers if they could choose to sell their businesses when they can no longer manage the shop?
This will motivate sellers to work harder and build up their stores. It will also incentivize Etsy, which makes money from sales commissions.
How about seller experience?
Oh well, that is kind of… non-existence.
As a merchant on Etsy, I often felt frustrated because I couldn’t reach customer service.
Etsy has a live chat feature, but it’s only available to “Star Sellers.”
Since I became a Star Seller, things have been easier. But how about new sellers? If you are new to Etsy, it will take you a few months to become a Star Seller. I suppose sellers have the most questions when setting up a new store. Etsy provides no onboarding support.
And even if you are a Star Seller this month, it doesn’t mean you are a Star Seller forever. To retain the status, you need to achieve a certain amount of sales every month and fulfill all of the metrics, such as responding time and having 4.8-star reviews and up.
If a few customers decide to give you negative reviews, you will be saying goodbye to your Star Seller status for a while. This means you will also lose the live chat feature.
You only have two options to contact Etsy if you are not a Star Seller: Email or Etsy community.
The community is great if you have general questions, but it won't work if you need anything specifically tailored to your situation.
So your next option is to email Etsy. Etsy is getting better at returning emails; you usually get feedback the next day. But I used to wait 3 days for an email and while I had 5 questions, only one got answered.
Final thoughts
What I’ve mentioned was only the tip of the iceberg.
I haven’t covered others, such as tax collection for Canadian sellers, email scams, sudden store suspensions without reasons, etc.
While frustrating, I had no choice since I’m still relying on this platform to bring me sales.
I can change platforms, but other platforms also have downsides. At least Etsy still has the lowest fees among other marketplaces and can help you reach 97 million buyers.
So, I’m not done with Etsy yet. The only thing I can do is occasionally go off on a rant and write about it on Medium.
About the author
Hi, I am Sarina. I’m a dog mom who can’t shut up about making money online, investing, Australia (I really love 🇦🇺) and my dachshund. I wanted to find a way to make money even when I retired, and I found Etsy. Join my FREE 7-day Launch Your Etsy Store challenge, or sign up for my newsletter to get practical tips to grow your Etsy business and increase your income.