Etsy price increases in July, and monthly fee options

Looks like Etsy is increasing their fees, and they are going to start offering a monthly play, pay for service.


https://www.etsy.com/seller-news/2018-june-update?campaign_label=everybody&utm_source=adhoc&utm_campaign=2018_06_14-projectgrace-visionannouncment-12-24months&utm_medium=email&userId=10089163&jobid=15336

Dear Seller Community,

We’re writing to tell you about some changes at Etsy. We’ve been helping sellers on their creative journeys for 13 years now. We’ve focused on making Etsy the best place to run your creative business, and we’ve listened to sellers like you to learn more about what you need from us.

Now, we’re planning to invest even more in bringing buyers to Etsy, building seller tools, and improving your seller experience. To help make this happen, we’re updating our fees, and we’re adding some new features.

Effective July 16, Etsy’s transaction fee will increase from 3.5% to 5% and it will also apply to the cost of shipping. All other fees, including listing fees, will remain the same.

We’re also introducing new optional feature packages designed around the needs of sellers at different stages of growth, so you can access the right tools at the right time for your business.

If you’re happy with the services you currently use on Etsy, you can still access all the tools that are currently available to you without paying a monthly subscription fee. But if you want to do more, we’ll be offering two new plans: Etsy Plus, with tools to help businesses grow and express their unique brands, will be available in July. Etsy Premium, with more advanced tools for larger-scale businesses, will launch in 2019.

Explore our video and website to learn more about what’s changing and look for more information in the weeks to come. We’re excited to see what’s next for all of us as we continue to invest more in growing your business, together.

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Following in the footsteps of eBay…

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That transaction fee is kind of rough. I assume that’s on top of whatever fees paypal or the CC issuer charge? Or is all rolled into one fee?

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It’s in addition to the CC fee. In total it’s about %8.5 now to sell through Etsy with CC payment.

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Ouch! That seems like a competitor-enticing level of $.

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Better get used to it. Sooner or later, there is going to be some form of Internet sales tax…

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All sales to WA and I believe PA already add sales tax regardless of nexus of the seller.

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Etsy does that now?
_

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What is annoying is that increase in percentage is on top of whatever prices increases the sellers have made due to inflation. So they get to collect on both.

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Fortunately the buyers and Etsy have the tax burden, the sellers don’t have to keep up with filing sales tax returns for WA and PA. It might make a few buyers less likely to purchase though.

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As an Etsy seller I am not happy about this increase. 1.5% isn’t going to have that big of an impact, but the idea of 8.5% of my sales going to Etsy hurts. That said, those sales would have never found me without Etsy, so I’m not really sure I have any place to complain. Until you can build up a business that runs on referrals or people can find your business website I think the small craftsmen will have to just complain and keep paying.

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Yeah, its called consumer use tax that everyone should already be filing and paying.

the Real rip off is the % is applied to shipping costs which is mostly fixed by weight or size (especially flat rate shipping)

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That’s what I was referring to with the eBay comment. They hit you for everything.

That’s the part that really killed me. I can accept a hike on sales price, but taking 5% of the shipping cost on top of the sale price hike? That’s straight bullshit. Unfortunately they’ve cornered the market for this kind of thing, so what are independent sellers going to do? Their only choice is to live with the hikes.

Makes me wish I were a smarter developer so I could build a competitive platform and steal some market share by implementing not-bullshit policies.

Exactly. And it doesn’t help that shipping has gone way up this year.