My Etsy shop is sooo quiet now

[WeRD]

I opened my Etsy shop a few years ago and was blown away by the success of it. I managed to leave my 9-5 and live off of it alone. It was great, so flexible and I was making enough money not to need anything else, I couldn’t believe it. Fast forward a few years and the sales have all but dried up. I don’t know if it’s mainly that people just don’t have the extra cash anymore to spend on ‘nice things’. I’ve had to put my prices up a bit due to my increasing costs or it’s hardly worthwhile selling my items. I don’t know what to do 😞 I have a fairly decent social media following but it doesn’t seem to convert to sales anymore. I pay for ads sometimes but it’s not worth it for the number of orders I get in return. Do I need to shut up shop and go back to a ‘proper job’? How else could I save it now? 😢

Easy has changed so much over the years I stopped using it as I became quite fed up of tat masquerading as handmade. So much on there is based on 1 persons ides replicated a billion times by have a go sellers.

Also so much second hand on there now, all priced double that of Ebay. I was looking for a gold ring on there recently, I purchased a beautiful handmade one about 4 years ago on there. Anyway I couldn't find the seller now as there was so many low quality tat if handmade or second hand stuff. I gave up and will approach a jewller for their contacts.

Etsy changed their approach in recent years so there is a totally different quality of products on there. Instead of being little crafty businesses in the main, it's now full of mass produced tat, often the same stuff that clogs up Amazon. It's much harder to find the sort of stuff I used to look for on there - probably the sort of stuff you sell - among all the crap. I suspect other people feel similarly and so have stopped using it.

What about search engines? It’s not all social media. Google ads /ppc may be worth looking into if you leave Etsy.

what about eBay / not on the high street?

Has your item maybe been copied by Temu or Shein? They seem to steal a lot of designs.

Are the items personalised? I'd like to think that sort of thing was dying out due to landfill issues to be honest.

Like a PP I stopped buying anything after their misogynistic support of some appalling sellers alongside their banning of women who dared speak up.

What is it that you sell?

Business have to adapt and change all the time to stay ahead. You might have to change your products.

Instead of a eg. Toilet roll holder business, see yourself has an interior accessories business. What do your customers say?

I used to love very Etsy for handmade things, now you can buy and old crap on there so I rarely even look at it.

If you are skilled at arts and crafts, consider running workshops. Lots on eventbrite, for example. I have a home educated daughter who does art classes with a local professional artist, who is a former secondary school teacher. She runs daytime classes twice a week for older kids aged 10+. Classes are in high demand and usually full. She charges £25 per session per child (2 hours) with around 8-10 children/ teens attending. She offers a photography/ digital media class for teens and young adults one evening per week for the same money. All run from a community hall with low rental fees. There are others doing this locally in cooking, wood working, metal work and all sorts of skills.

Disposable income for etsy-type purchases is very low due to cost of living. We run holiday rentals and bookings are slow due to income. Lots of people are paying me by instalment to budget over the year. Shein and Temu are killing the creative art shops because they knock out gifts for low money. They may not have the quality of a skilled craftsperson but it boils down to price.

I sell in a gallery, other members that have sold with Etsy have all but given up on it, yet they still do well in our gallery, so its not their stock.

I recently bought a 'handmade' pop up card from Etsy, noticed a different logo on the back which i googled.. Turns out the Etsy maker had bought them all in already cut, and the 'handmade' element consisted of 2 bits of glue.
Not impressed!

This may or may not be relevant but .......

at work we are a parcel collection point. Over the last couple of years the Very cupboard has always been stuffed to the gills with pink bags and often overlowed. The Vinted/Ebay cupboard would have a steady but managable flow.

Today there was a grand total of 5 Very parcels and the Vinted/Ebay cupboard is s o full that we are now co-opting the free space in the Very cupboard. Seems like instead of buying new, a lot more people are going on the second hand market, which would indicate that they are being a lot more careful about their money.

I was talking to my sister about it, she buys from Vinted and she says that she will browse website for things she likes and then try and find them second hand elsewhere, or at least cheaper elsewhere. So they may be getting inspiration from you and then buying cheap knock offs.

I am sorry, I really do hope that you turn it around. Would part time work be an option so you can still give time to the shop but have a regular income?

You probably aren't allowed to post a link etc... but do you have a uniquely named item one might be able to look up in case there are interested parties on here? :)

I buy less on Etsy than before. It’s not zero. There are still sellers that meet my needs, but it’s getting harder to wade through the junk.

I wanted to find someone who could make me a simple shelf recently. I was hoping to find something already designed, but I as also willing to look for sellers who were close to the very specific item I wanted and then ask of they would do a custom in my dimensions. I quickly realized most of my searches were just bringing up resellers and worst of all overseas drop shippers of the same products. I got frustrated and ended up buying something from Amazon instead.

This.
I assume people are doing this and so I avoid any Etsy products

OP, are you selling on eBay too? I rarely go on Etsy due to the prices, even though the goods are more unusual, I'm on eBay every fortnight looking for clothes and gift ideas.

We don't all do this. It's really not ethical imo.

I've stopped using Etsy as I found the quality of some items weren't as good as I expected. I also found it could be cheaper going direct to company websites. I also will likely google an item and then go from there. As others have said too I'll try to shop local so places like market place etc too.

I've also cut back on shopping for things I want due to cost of living.

Did you see increase of sales during Covid? I'll be honest I spent a small fortune online when I was furloughed but not so much any more. For one I don't have the money and 2 the extra money I do have I prefer to use socialising.

If we knew what you sold it may help to steer you in the right direction.

I have also noticed people are now buying cheap to change things up often.

Not sure if your products are personalised or not. But if they aren’t, you should look into selling wholesale via Ankorstore or Creoate. It’s free to list and you can set your minimum order quantities to ensure you are still making a profit as it will be reduced per item so the buyer can resell at your RRP.

I set up on Ankorstore and was very surprised. Our products ended up in stores across U.K., Belgium, France, Switzerland without any advertising - just by having a profile on the platform.

Brother was trying to source a specific type (not brand) of leather handlebar tape for his bike and apparently dozens of Etsy advertised products were 'Out of Stock' or discontinued.
He gave up on it in the end.

I bought a necklace from Etsy and it snapped after few days, so she sent me a new one after loads of questions and photos of the broken chain. That snapped too after a couple of days and I haven't used Etsy since. It seems like people are selling crap these days.

I got a bit burnt on Etsy when I bought some amber earrings, one fell apart after a couple of weeks, shop owner wouldn’t exchange or refund but offered to sell me a “ repair kit”. Her talk turned quite nasty when I tried to say that wasn’t good enough. Couldn’t leave a bad review as I’d already left a good one. All I could do was complain to Etsy who issued me with some vouchers. So now I only buy “ low risk stuff” like jersey headbands at £7 a go.

I’ve stopped using Etsy due to the price. They take such a huge cut that I don’t think it’s fair for the sellers

plus I’ve had a few issues and Etsy were crap to sort them. Had a seller proper ride to me recently and when I stated I hadn’t got the order she refused to help.

Same!

The only thing I buy from Etsy are teeth white strips- it’s way over priced otherwise. People are looking for deals now.

@minipie thats highly illegal. Etsy will catch on. They use software to find this type of stuff

@Tatonka Tatonka · Today 20:08

I think Temu will ruin all business as people just want cheap tat
ove
Do people actually buy from Temu? It scares me. I once clicked on an advert for a weird orange plastic thing that looked like Dominic Raab's head with octopus legs because I wanted to know what it was (turned out to be a fidget toy and it was susposed to be The Rock (WTF?). It was quite repellent and then I got endless and I mean endless repeats of this advert whereever I browsed - and I have my browsers set to do not track/no personalised advertisting etc. So I just assumed anything you look at on Temu will dog you to the end of time so I steer clear of it!

@WeRD I still buy stuff on Etsy but when I do i really search for exactly what I want. Maybe just leave the shop ticking over but look for other avenues as a primary source

that link @Whatsgoingonwithmyhead posted looks nice to the site HOlly.
separately, I LOVE that tattoo blanket in the photo she is sitting on as it appears on this thread. searched on the site and can't find it - anyone know where it is from?