08/25/2023
I've been on Etsy pretty much from the beginning, and have within the last 6 years or so started to truly take it seriously and treating it like a business instead of a hobby. In the beginning, Etsy was focused on handmade, handmade designs, and providing human support for both customers and sellers. It even made the great decision to allow POD {Print on Demand} to integrate into its platform to allow handmade sellers another way to expand their products. I myself have taken that opportunity and ran with it as well. In the last few years, some of the changes that Etsy has made were NOT in the best interest of sellers.
1. Payment Reserve: They've introduced a 75% payment reserve that was moved down to 30%, and have randomly applied this reserve to shops without really giving a reason. This percentage change to the reserve was stated by Etsy to a news outlet that the 30% would be the minimum, but not the set-in-stone reserve amount. The payment reserve itself isn't right or a good idea, but neither is this unknown that we're now presented with. I myself have been on this reserve with next to no reason or chance to fix the error reason I was given, which was on a tissue box cover that I made years ago before learning about copywrite and trademark legalities before I had the chance to update it. Their reason wasn't explained well at all. This reserve issue and the possibility of having the reserve re-placed on my account has made it necessary to add an additional 75% to the otherwise more affordable products, whether from my main dept MagickallyEclectic or one of my POD Depts MagickalSeasons or MagickalLotusBoutique. There's even shops that were supposed to be automatically opted out due to them being digital shops per direct Etsy information, and they're dealing with the payment reserve themselves because of a shipping label that they don't need with the items being digital. Most of the time, we don't even know how long this payment reserve will actually be held on our account. That hinders our way of being able to do business sufficiently.
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