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? 😢

I'm afraid I think this is it.

There have been some threads lately asking why clothing quality has gone down so much and everything is cheap polyester. Temu, Shein and all those are the reason. They are absolute behemoths and nobody can compete with their prices and the speed and volume of their manufacture. They have new stuff out every day. There may be many people who won't go near them but mammoths like that will affect the industry at large and ultimately they're setting the benchmarks. It's just too tempting to get something for pennies...even if it's shit, who cares if it was only a fiver?

Etsy's USP was that it was handmade stuff sold directly by the makers. It's lost that USP, both because it's now got loads of mass produced stuff and because there are lots of other places to buy handmade stuff direct from makers - so it is on the decline and will die out i think.

This. I find Etsy is now full of crap!

Actually its not if done within the law. Cant remember the exact wording but an item has to be placed at a higher price for 28 days with a certain period (may be the previous 6 months) before it can be "reduced"

I work in a major supermarket and they do this all the time.

After Eights before Xmas is one they do every year. For October they go up £1 from their regular price for a month. Then at the start of November they get the red label with "£1 off!" on it, and people think that they are getting a bargain, but what they are actually paying is the full price that they normally cost the rest of the year. Its how black friday works toom those "bargain" TV's that are only £200 reduced from £500 were probably only £500 for 28 days in order to be able to advertise a huge "reduction". All perfectly legal as long as you follow the rules.

My daughter just ordered a personalised painted horse name plate off Etsy, so if that's what you do - you have our custom 😃

It is a perfect storm really.

People sick of buying stuff AND disappointed with Etsy AND too skint to buy stuff anyway.

Honestly, OP, you can switch it up, change platforms etc but - be really honest here - was your product a discretionary purchase that no-one actually needs? Because if so, unless you have phenomenal margins, or insane volume you are going to struggle.

The pp’s teach-a-course suggestion was a good one.

I bought some very pretty daffodil shaped scented tea lights from Esty yesterday, first purchase from there for ages. They are for a birthday gift and I am now worrying they will be crap! I have never and never will get anything from Temu, it all looks like bonkers tat to me. Like many people I don't do impulse shopping now, I always have this undercurrent of worry about money these days and this stays my hand.

i think it’s because people have less disposable income to spend on non essential items. It’s getting harder to get by each month just paying regular bills!

Unfortunately there's so much fake stuff on Etsy it puts me off. I will pay for genuine handcrafted items but too much on there is available on Amazon, temu etc. Same goes for craft fairs, I even saw a made in Indonesia sticker on an item the woman was pretending she had made .

I always check sellers have their own website now, fake goods sellers won't bother

I used to love Etsy, and used to buy quite a lot from there. It's a shame it's moved so far from its original usp.

The last order I placed never arrived, and I was denied a refund. So I'm done. Besides, it's non essential stuff. I don't have the disposable income at this point.

I buy from Etsy quite a lot and what usually stands out to me is the photos. For example if I’m buying jewellery I would like photos with the item modelled on a person, so I can see the scale.

If it’s a home item then the reviews with photos will get me buying.

There is so much less diversity though, and more poor quality stuff, which I try to avoid. So you need to make it clear that yours is good stuff, through the photos and descriptions and reviews. Good luck!

Also have you tried Folksy? Obviously depends what you’re selling.

I did try Temu, but the stuff was literally unusable, so no way I'd order from them again. Hopefully more people will be the same. You haven't saved anything if you have to buy twice, after all!

Do you have an email list OP?

Don’t build your business on rented land, get people on your list. You want to sell from your own website ideally. Only way you have control and won’t have your business taken away from you (e.g. by a platform going down or changing the algorithm etc.)

Can you add an upsell/ downsell?

I think delivery services put people off too. I admit, I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon Prime, which I never thought I would, because anything from Royal Mail / Evri / UPS (shudder!) either turns up late, or broken, or doesn't turn up at all.

Same as previous posters - I always used Etsy a lot as I loved buying from small independants and hand made things but nowadays it’s so full of mass produced crap that it’s really hard to shift through and find the nice stuff.
Im not sure if there’s a way to combat that as a seller unfortunately :(

I've steadfastly ignored Temu so far. The idea of it churning out all this crap all the time depresses me.

https://www.hopeandstory.com/our-story/

I've bought from the company/website above before and found them good to deal with as a customer. Not sure what deal the small business brands on the website receive, im guessing they may charge for advertising or take a fee on sales. Might be worth looking into depending on the product you are making and selling.

Good luck op, hope things get busier for you soon.

Same. I seem to see a lot of mass produced stuff on there now and that makes it harder to find the unique stuff I want for gifts. I have been looking but not buying as a result.

Look at transferring to your own Shopify store. Much better than marketplace style options. Certainly better to advertise your own brand rather than an Etsy bolt on.

Ps Shopify is free and sooooo easy to setup.

Definitely agree with the rented land advice up thread.

Honestly I can't find the stuff I want in Etsy any more, it's all mass produced rubbish and all the local makers are lo's sin a sea of tat.

Also echoing pps haven't got the money for non-essentials. I brought a couple of gifts last year on there but that was it.

Ohh I didn’t realise they were persistent!

I was already halfway through setting it up but going to have to up my game and get on it with shopify and all the others to try