The fight between sellers and Etsy Inc. has gone public, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday (April 11), as sellers are frustrated by the fees charged by the Brooklyn, New York-based eCommerce company.
Etsy’s marketplace hosts a number of artisans selling crafts, handmade and vintage items and other goods. The report said more than 15,000 of the 5.3 million Etsy sellers have signed a petition to oppose the hike in fees on each transaction to 6.5%, up from 5%, according to Kristi Cassidy, an Etsy shop owner and organizer.
Cassidy said she and others are going on strike effective Monday, the same day the fee increase starts.
“We are hoping to get Etsy’s attention that we are fed up,” Cassidy told ReCount.com.
Etsy executives said new revenue is key to upping its investments in marketing and seller services.
The pandemic handed Etsy a big win for investors. Etsy’s sales jumped 16.5% year over year to $4.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, while active sellers were up 72% to 7.5 million and active buyers spiked 17.6% to 96.3 million.
“We must and are competing against the biggest names in eCommerce and all of retail,” CEO Josh Silverman told investors in February. “But we believe we have a real opportunity to win.”
However, Cassidy insists Etsy’s strategy fails to fit the way many artisans do business. She said sellers who make their products by hand must limit their orders to the number they can produce. As a result, she said, more advertising does not always equal more sales.
At the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February, Etsy canceled balances owed by sellers in Ukraine on its platform, totaling almost $4 million in listing fees, transaction fees and more.
See also: Etsy Wipes Out $4M in Ukrainian Seller Balances
“The events unfolding in Ukraine weigh heavily on us all,” Silverman wrote in a blog post explaining the company’s decision.
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