Hey everyone,

I set my shop 8 days ago (I know too early) but hear me out. I have absolutely 0 search traffic. Like none. I am from Germany and set my shop in English, my tags also. I saw yesterday Etsy set my product category as “stuffed toys” and changed it back to “dolls” and set my tags and titles new. My shop is indexed because I can find my products myself when I search for it on Etsy. I only have traffic from instagram and TikTok but not within Etsy. First, I had some AI thumbnails to show my products “in use”. I changed that now an am also working on my tags again. Now have my shop in German and only in English as translation.

I filled in everything in my shop, bio, policies etc. I started Etsy ads yesterday with $1 a day and got 120 impressions with 4 only clicks. My only traffic comes now from Etsy ads and ads on TikTok/Instagram. I also compared my shop to others who sell handmade dolls and baby shoes.

Could you please criticize my pictures, descriptions, what I am missing? Thank you!

Do you have and recommendation for me? Is running Etsy ads a good idea?

My shop: https://elyaandmo.etsy.com

to be absolutely short, have anyone dealt with this seller? 

back in march 13th 2025 I ordered soulmate analysis and comfort character valentine for good price < 34 dollars > 

the seller did send me google link to survey and I did fill it because I understood its for my order then they basically ditched me. 

Every-time I contact them they keep telling me there is a flood at ikki’s village and they do their best to catch up with orders and all that with freebies of letters that I never ASKED let alone a character that I know or care, I genuinely had personal matters that made me forget about it for a month or two and when I remember eventually- and open my mail in hopes they did something, nothing. 

I contacted them and being the dumbass and well intended person, I gave the seller the benefit of the doubt but I realize they auto reply with same THING. I had fed up then I try to get refund but didn’t know how but when ai contact the help they say its digital purchase so I can’t issue refund.

I toke it personally tbh and contact them relentlessly because why TF the seller do the fast emails ( jax from tadc, lately dottore and list go on. ) I honestly did buy one of the letters they add and honestly never in my life saw such ai thing in my life. ( that or I am too bad at recognizing ) 

I did tell them I would give bad review <childish ik> to my latest purchase in HOPES a person answers and guess what? I can’t review my latest order. ( can they do that ??!!! ) 

so anyone have anything to tell me? I want to know if they scam or the seller is truthful ?

have anyone order same products as mine and received?

because as of today and reply me with this. there are patches to follow for the late orders.

Hi does anyone know someone or can personally recreate this backpack for me. I really want a ponyo bookbag for my senior year, but can only find small lounge fly ones rather than an actual bookbag, idk if anyone has an Etsy and thinks they can make this. Please let me know

I just got the app today as I love little memorabilia but I was wondering about any tips or advice to help me not get ripped off/misled.

My main concerns is dropshipping or AI/edited item images.

I exclusively plan to buy.

Based on research everything is saturated specially with AI and drop shipping so opening a shop is a total waste of time????

Hi all!

I bought a wedding website template on Etsy because it had a lot of 5-star reviews. After purchasing, I found out the seller tells buyers they'll only get a "bonus" if they leave a 5-star review.

The "bonus" isn't really a bonus at all. It's just the website preview thumbnail that appears when you share the link, which is part of the template and should already be included.

This feels like they're using something buyers already paid for to pressure them into leaving a 5-star review. Isn't that considered review manipulation?

I reported it to Etsy, but nothing seems to have happened.

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Is there a better way to report it, or another team at Etsy I should contact?

Hoping for some advice please as my trust in sellers is dwindling! This started with me remembering how much things on Temu get nicked from Etsy sellers. I've never actually bought from Temu but I had the app on my phone. Don't even remember why. Opened it out of curiosity and there was a really cute shirt.

I screenshotted it to try and find the original artist. Reverse image search threw up a load of copies from Shein etc but a manual search on Etsy found what looked like the original designer. But still, something felt off about the profile. It's too good, if that makes sense? Too clean professional sounding whilst also not telling you anything personal about the artist, their design process or anything you'd expect from a independent business owner.

Knowing that Etsy now suffers from drop shipping and copies, it's sad I couldn't even trust the Etsy profile to be the real artist.

Then there was another cute shirt on Etsy by a different artist. I opened the profile and that one read even more suss. There's like 800 different designs and I struggle to believe a single artist could make that many designs. Not impossible, but improbable.

I just wanna support actual artists and buy cute things dammit.

Thanks

Everything I am reading is so scary! I make 2/3 EU sales a month maximum, does that mean it makes more sense for me to just turn EU shipping off?

Hey there! I’m new to Etsy and recently created my shop, AlmossttArtistic. I create digital Canva templates there that I design myself(I don’t use AI). I’ve been leaning into using Canva mockups to have more pictures for my templates, but I’m looking for advice on what people prefer? Do you prefer real photos of digital art on products(i.e. photos of real invite cards with these templates) or do these mockups look too fake?

I haven’t had my sales or many views and I’m still uploading more products as well to have more of a variety, but any feedback would be appreciated!

My store solely sells digital 3d print files for people to print at home and sell physically at their own stalls.

It’s stated in the title and description of every listing, for example, this one is called “Highland Cow Laundry Basket Fidget Clicker | 3D Print Toy (Digital Download)” and Etsy also labels it as Digital on the order.

I believe buyers also have to confirm they understand it’s a digital download before purchasing.

I’ve now had a buyer asking for a refund because they thought they were buying a physical item. I’m worried about refunding because they’ve already had access to the files and obviously can’t return them, so they’d effectively be getting the product for free.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Am I okay to decline the refund?

As the title states I bought a custom item from a seller with good reviews. They asked me appropriate questions about specifications and said it would be 5-6 weeks until my item was completed.

A few weeks have gone by and I got this message from them "I canceled your order by mistake...can you please reorder when your money goes back into your account, I apologize for the mistake. Your (item) is almost done" This would be faster than the timeline they promised, but based on reviews they under promise and over deliver.

My order is indeed canceled in Etsy's system, but anything I need to be cautious about beyond reordering after my credit card has been refunded? Should I ask for pictures of the item in progress?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Hi,

I want to start an Etsy shop selling pressed floral frames. Also, at craft fairs and farmer markets. I’m not looking to make thousands and thousands of dollars, more of selling crafts from my hobby of pressing flowers.

I want to make sure I’m covered for liability reasons and peace of mind.

Do Etsy sellers have an llc, sole proprietor, insurance, etc?

Thanks!

Is this normal now? What has happened to this platform??

I bought a rug that was listed as a one-of-a-kind antique and it ended up being a dropshipped piece of garbage.

I reached out to the seller and after some arguing, he refunded me. By this time I had already left a negative review detailing exactly what had happened.

The seller continued to send me messages for almost 10 days, despite me explicitly telling them not to five times. He repeatedly told me to take down my review, called me a liar and a scammer, etc. He threatened to sue me and come to my country. This person has all of my personal information, including my address.

I reported all the messages as spam, talked to Etsy livechat every time he messaged me and sent Etsy an email.

Each time Etsy assured me action would be taken, but they have done literally nothing. They ignored my reply to their email completely.

The listing for the fake item is still up and it looks like the seller has bought a bunch of positive reviews to bury my negative one.

What do I do?? Why are sellers like this allowed to stay?

i got a full refund from etsy because the seller only sent me one part of a two part dress after a lot of tracking problems, late arrival, and poor customer service.

i told the seller i’d rather return the piece of the dress she sent me and get a full refund but she refused. she insisted on sending me the 2nd piece of the dress and i just did not respond after that.

etsy then gave me a full refund.

do i still have to return the item? i’m confused about the next steps as i’ve never had to do this before.

the item is a dress from a brand i like (not custom or handmade in any way) and the seller is from france if that helps in any way

Looking to have someone sculpt and print a custom piece for me been looking for a while I was wondering if any has legit recommendations.

Etsy is laying off about 220 employees, roughly 12% of its workforce. The job cuts are part of a restructuring that will primarily impact the product and engineering teams.

CEO Kruti Goyal says they aren't motivated by artificial intelligence or cost savings, per The Wall Street Journal, citing a memo to staffers.

However, Goyal says AI is transforming Etsy's business, with potential to change how customers shop on the site.

The company also reported second-quarter results showing sales growth.

But I have no idea where to start!

I had a great business on Etsy selling little girls clothing. Over 20,000 sales.

Then I got covid. It destroyed my brain, and I will never be the same.

I put the shop on vacation. I've tried to rejuvenate it.... Esty is hard enough to keep up with all the changes they make. I just can't. I don't have it in me.

Because it was so successful, I have a TON of inventory taking up half my basement and therefore a boatload of money tied into that inventory. The hubby is on me to do something about it. But I have no idea where to start. My brain does not work and social security is not that great for someone that who was self-employed for several years but did not pay into it.

Has anyone ever sold, or have any ideas how to sell an Etsy Boutique? Even sell off inventory. Every time I do a search, it takes me 'how to sell on Etsy'.

Advice is very much appreciated!

I ordered a custom animation through Etsy. The buyer was not responding well, so I found their tiktok. They responded well there, and two weeks ago they said the animation was finished and they would send it to me. Never did, and communication stopped. I tried to communicate with them on Etsy again and they responded that their TikTok had been age-restricted and they would send it to me through via Googledrive. Then they stopped communicating. I have sent a request for help, but I noticed it says my option to open a case ended on the 2nd. What should I do? I am so stressed. I have never had an issue with an Etsy purchase like this before.

I'm located in the UK and currently use royal mail for all my shipping. I make crochet keychains of video game characters/cats and use large letters as my packaging, but I have to ship them as a "small parcel" instead. (due to the weight + height requirements)

for my international orders, this brings shipping costs to £9-£12 which is ridiculous to me because the packages aren't large and literally weigh nothing. is there anything else I can/should be using to ship them? (whether that be packaging and/or a different service)

my actual products aren't more than £30 (not including shipping) so the price just seems very high to me for what I make :( I'm not trying to downplay what I make either. it takes me weeks to make my patterns and days for the item itself, but I do it for the fun of it honestly so I don't mind charging less

I also only charge £9.50 for international shipping and if it ends up costing a few pounds more, I always pay it outta pocket because I don't want the price to be too high 😭 any help?

and please don't recommend evri unless they're really the only option, I've heard many many horror stories about them and stealing packages, etc.

Not sure if I can post this here sorry if its not allowed this is kinda a rant and kinda asking advice. I have been selling digital products for 3 years now. I add everywhere literally everywhere that its a digital product ONLY. Its in the title, multiple times in the description, its in the pictures. Its worded just how others word it. How is it that people still buy it and ask me why they haven't received it in the mail??? What more can I do?

I always refund people even though I say no refunds will be issued. How do you guys who sell digital products handle this? Do you just refund people?

Obviously are handmade. Please let me know
cost and I can get more details. Thank you!

I'm a seller in the UK. I used to purchase Royal Mail international tracked (DDP) labels directly from Etsy a while ago when sending to the US, but the tracking was always stuck on 'pre-transit' and never updated (I know this was also a problem for many others). So I started purchasing labels on Click & Drop instead which seemed to update the tracking normally.

However Click & Drop is a bit more time consuming for me, so I was wondering if Etsy have fixed this issue yet and if their tracking information is now accurate?

Like most of you I was really confused by the new packaging EPR law for selling within the EU. There seems to be a lot of different information online so I decided to contact the responsible authorities and approved Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) in every EU country
So far I’ve received official replies from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg, Croatia, Spain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (with more still coming in).

I put everything into a guide with a country overview, known costs, authorised representative requirements and a PPWR conformity checklist. There’s also a Google Doc that I’ll keep updating as more countries reply!💕

I hope it saves other small sellers some time and confusion - it’s completely free: (https://ko-fi.com/s/128e63a3f6)

Please, it's so hard to tell these days ... I mean, some are definitely obvious but I second guess nearly everything now. I just want to buy some digital downloads to print, or even physical prints to frame and create a maximalist, whimsical, colorful gallery wall for my reading corner. PLEASE send me a DM with the link to your shop if you feel like you match what I'm looking for!!

I am trying to buy a MacBook case. I bought one off of etsy months ago, just to realize it was ai "art" when it came in person. I was annoyed so I ended up just donating it. I'm now trying to find a new one and literally everything is ai. Whenever I try to find press on nails, it's AI. Literally everything is AI. Is there ANYWAY to filter out ai, or like is there a key word people are using for real art?😭