Etsy’s Identity Crisis: Fulfilment Center or Meta-Brand?

Cecile Raley Designs has been on Etsy since 2009. I didn’t even know what Etsy was back then, but someone in my craft group suggested that I start a shop on their site, and so I did. It took a good year and over 70 listings before the shop started really thriving. Since then, though, it hasn’t stopped. In the last several years, however, we have been asking ourselves if our continued success is really due to Etsy, or if it is just that our own brand is growing. Many of our new buyers come through other social media, and despite us not having products for sale anywhere else, about 50% of our revenue is generated by direct sales.

If you have bought and sold on Etsy for as long as I have, then you will have noticed how much has changed over the years. Sellers still join Etsy daily, but many of them no longer sell handmade goods in the sense that Etsy originally intended. More and more jewelry sellers on Etsy are not the makers of the jewelry. They are resellers, or they mass produce in their own small factory overseas. And while I have been told that Etsy works hard to keep these sellers off its site, this proves almost impossible in real life. An international seller doesn’t have a US tax ID and can just re-open a shop under another name every day. Additionally, sellers of supplies such as findings, chains, as well as loose gemstones do not have to produce the goods they sell. As a result, Etsy is overflowing with international sellers offering their products at a cheaper price than their US counterparts are able to.

And while Etsy’s official story is that they want sellers to be the designers of the product (as we are, for instance); and advertises its handmade goods even on television these days, there are reasons to think that Etsy’s policies actually discourage such sellers from offering their products on Etsy.

There are subtle ways in which Etsy is pushing for fast and easy order fulfilment that undermine its official meta-brand, or brand of brand’s mentality.

1. Etsy pushes for free shipping of all goods above $35, thus forcing sellers of bulky or fragile items such as pieces of metal work, or larger pottery, to overprice their items to include shipping. As a result, they filter out of searches for cheaper products (everything under $50, let’s say). On Amazon, you pay an extra fee for ‘free’ (or lower cost) delivery, but it is an annual fee for Prime, whereas on Etsy the seller has to figure out how to add shipping costs and remain competitive with hand made products.
   
   
2. Etsy rewards shops for on-time shipping with a seller badge. And while this may look great, on the back end the shortcomings of this policy are obvious. We can only change the shipping date once – up to three weeks. So, if a buyer wants us to hold shipment because they are on vacation, they are international and still shopping, or they are holding gems for a custom order, we cannot mark the product as shipped or shipped on time. In short, the extra service to clients can actually make us look bad because we may have to forfeit our seller’s badge.
   
   
3. Etsy doesn’t allow products to be shipped later than 6 weeks after purchase. In other words, the longest shipping profile I can add to an item is 6 weeks. For us, this is largely enough time, because we can then push shipping out 3 more weeks by changing the shipping date. However, we do not like to put a 6-week shipping profile on our gems because if they are not turned into a custom order, they can ship right away. And once they are bought, all we can do is push the shipping date 3 weeks out. So we look as though we do not ship on time. Sellers of products that take more than 6 weeks to make (i.e. furniture, and most jewelry) can expect to be penalized by appearing lower in the search or not getting an ‘on time shipping’ badge, thus making them look as if they are late with shipping.
   
   

Now, you might ask yourself why Etsy is doing this, when it is obvious that handmade products can easily take longer to make and can be expensive to ship (also because many Etsy products can be quite expensive).

In my view, the reason is that they are emulating Amazon in the hope of increasing revenue by offering some of the same services. But when it comes to the prestige that should be added to buying a hand-made or personalized product, this is a mistake. It makes Etsy look cheap.

Amazon is a fulfilment center, and it aims to do just that: Amazon makes it fast and easy for the buyer to receive and return the product. Shipping is fast, overnight in most cases (at least here in NJ), because Amazon relies heavily on fulfilment centers that stock the goods, that pack at night and deliver to targeted areas using its own vehicles and drivers. You can track the product to your doorstep, you have direct and easy access to the shipping department if something goes wrong with shipping, but you have no contact with the seller as the latter is out of the game once he or she has delivered their product to the fulfilment center.

Most Etsy sellers neither sell the quantity of products needed to make use of a fulfilment center, nor do many Etsy sellers want their handmade or fragile products stored in warehouses (opals and pearls, for example, can easily break if stored in unheated locations). Lastly, a more upscale Etsy seller also relies on packaging as part of their brand, so the plastic bags and cardboard boxes that Amazon uses don’t help sell the product.

It is just a fact that a handmade product cannot be shipped quickly, unless it is pre-made, for example. At CRD we stock ready-made jewelry, as well as make custom pieces. Anything ready made that needs no customization, as well as any supplies, can ship quickly, though not always on the same day, certainly not for a delivery early next morning!!!

Everything on Amazon signals speed and simplicity. For example, there is no convo system. Getting in touch with a seller on Amazon is not easy to do. Amazon handles all returns, refunds and exchanges. In Etsy this is done by the seller.

The convo system on Etsy is one of the primary drivers for the sale because it encourages open communication between buyers and sellers. Etsy promotes more individualization and distinction of sellers than Amazon, but this in turn undermines its ability to control the speed of delivery by Etsy sellers: the speed of manufacture, shipping, but also the speed of communication. Etsy now penalizes buyers for not responding to a convo within 24 hours, but as you can imagine, this is not easy for small shops as it means we must have coverage for every weekend. When I travel, my office is in my phone, and that is as convenient as it is annoying.

So what distinguishes Etsy from Amazon? Etsy, in my view, is a Metabrand. It represents makers, designers, inventors.

Unfortunately, however, Etsy isn’t prioritizing handmade because it doesn’t want to make allowances for what handmade means – handmade means difference and personalized and customized.

Amazon, by contrast, does not represent any brand or type of brand. It is a well-honed delivery machine that requires a large infrastructure and a coordinated delivery system. And for any product that’s mass produced rather than personalized or customized, it offers great advantages. They just don’t make any sense if the priority is craftsmanship or artisanship.  

Etsy's popularity grew exponentially over the 2020 lockdowns, as we all loved buying pretty, unique products while we were stuck at home with nothing else to spend our money on! Thankfully, that period of time didn't last and Etsy is struggling to hold onto its place in the market. It can't maintain full control of every product made by every seller and still advertise itself as a facilitator of handmade goods. Both buyers and sellers are suffering for it.