WHY I LEFT ETSY FOR GOOD

Let me first say, I am in no way telling you to leave Etsy as well. Etsy is no longer for me. I am not sure it ever really way. I didn't join Etsy in the beginning when it was truly all about the average crafter. I joined when it was already wildly popular and filled with thousands of shops. I always felt a little out of place there. As I explored the people I saw were people I'd see in specialty shops or guest creators in major stores like Target. No matter how great my images, description or prices were, it was so hard to find the small time crafter like me. I found it disappointing because I heard this was the place to go if you wanted to turn your hobby into a business. Now it still is, but I don't think it's for the average joe anymore. Now you even have major companies creating lower cost versions of their items, which pushes the regular person to the side. Let's be real here, if people have a choice between Vera Wang and the sweet lady down the street for your wedding dress, more often than not people will choose Vera Wang. That's great for Vera but it's not great for the person trying to add a little extra needed income to their household.

I decided to step back after only being able to make a couple sales after being on Etsy for years. I decided I need to take full control of my business. It is after all MY business. I decided to take free courses on social media marketing, how to manages my taxes and a sole proprietor, how to deal with shipping, so on and so on. I won't brag about where to go. I am still figuring out Storenvy. It's a different set up. You have to search around and find out what's right for you. I may not stay with Storenvy, I may stay there forever. Who knows. I've been on BigCartel which is nice but maybe I am cheap, but I don't want to spend more than I have while I am starting out and I like the idea of not having to pay for a membership to upgrade my store, or pay for each and every item I post plus the transaction fee after that item sells. I don't like how it's so easy to shut down a store based off of a possible copyright violation or a buyer with a bad review that may be false or exaggerated. It's puts stores in a very crappy place and I no longer wanted that to hang over my head every day.

Grace Dobush wrote a great article discussing how these changes have affected crafters as Etsy has grown. Check it out here → How Etsy Alienated It's Crafters AndLost It's Soul.