Sellers fear Etsy is planning to introduce monthly subscription fees after they learned of a new survey the marketplace conducted last week. Some wondered if it would be similar to eBay monthly Store subscription fees.
The survey suggests Etsy is considering charging a monthly fee (likely optional) in addition to listing fees, and give sellers access to various features depending on which “tier” they subscribe to. (Additional information about the survey is also available on the AuctionBytes Blog.)
The survey also suggests Etsy may be considering removing certain functionality for those opting not to pay the hypothetical monthly fee. For example, the ability for sellers to offer discounts may only be available to subscribers.
The survey offered various scenarios for sellers to consider, from a free monthly plan limiting sellers to listing 5 items/month at 40 cents/listing all the way to a $50 plan offering unlimited listings that comes with a 20-cent listing fee that is paid only if an item sells.
Some tiers described in the survey would include sales forecasting tools and a smart pricing tool.
Additional perks Etsy might offer to entice sellers to move to a paid subscription plan include the following:
- $5 monthly credit for Etsy Ads or Offsite Ads;
- Discount for purchasing supplies on Etsy;
- Access to Discounts and perks (custom shipping boxes, business cards);
- Access to Custom Web Address;
- Advanced shop customization;
There are several factors lending credence to a possible fee increase, including a statement by Etsy Chief Financial Officer Rachel Glaser during the company’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts on Wednesday, when she said, “We’ll continue to look for ways to drive a fair exchange of value for all 3 of our marketplaces.”
The term “fair exchange of value” is the exact term Etsy uses when discussing fee hikes, such as it did when discussing its April 2022 rate hike when it raised commission fees from 5% to 6.5%. In its Form 10-K filing from one year ago, Etsy wrote:
“Effective April 11, 2022, we increased our seller transaction fee from 5% to 6.5%. As part of our long standing principle to provide a “fair exchange of value” for the fee Etsy earns on marketplace transactions, we reinvested most of the incremental revenue generated from the transaction fee increase into marketing, seller tools, and creating world-class customer experiences.”
Sellers discussing the survey in industry boards also cited the activist investor firm that gained a seat on Etsy’s Board this month – the same company that had pressured eBay in 2019. A seller discussing Etsy’s survey about possible new subscription fees wrote, “The Elliott Management person came on board to raise site income by a lot, and to raise it fast. How do you think that’ll happen if not through fees? It sure as hell won’t happen through sales!”
Some sellers said it was premature to worry about fees that hadn’t been announced – and it’s true that marketplaces may survey sellers about features and policies that are never implemented, or at least not immediately implemented.
What most if not all sellers seemed to forget was that Etsy introduced subscription plans in 2018, which we wrote about at the time. Etsy still has a help page describing Etsy Plus.
A consultant named Handmade & Beyond published the following YouTube video in 2020 where he dove into the features and benefits of Etsy Plus:
none of these ‘seller benefits’ help the seller , more than pad the marketplace’s bottom line:
“$5 monthly credit for Etsy Ads or Offsite Ads;
Discount for purchasing supplies on Etsy;
Access to Discounts and perks (custom shipping boxes, business cards)”
BUT, nothing is , what could best be described as, downright robbery like paid promotions (ads)
and should be made ILLEGAL, as it is is totally unethical, to say the least, for sellers to be charged for listings, then charged AGAIN to have them visible to buyers!
I have greatly limited my shopping on sites where the first few listings say anything like ‘sponsered’
and if still do shop at (marketplace name redacted) I skip over any listings that say so….even if they coincidentally happen to have the lowest price or best offer (which is even more of a waste of the seller/ad buyer’s money)
Completely agree. I scroll past “sponsored” offerings and do not ever buy them as I don’t want to reward that behavior.
It SHOULD be illegal to sell ads on any platform the seller is already paying to be on. It’s an obvious conflict of interest, and disincentivizes maintaining and improving all the other ways buyers have to find products.
Smoke and mirrors. I’d love to leave it there, but I can’t. First of all, I not only remember the Etsy Plus rollout, I subscribed. Mainly because I had wanted more visual control over my shop, and liked the credits for listing fees and etsy ads.
So to these “new” perks Etsy is hoping to implement don’t sound new and are, at best, vague. Etsy plus already offers a $5 credit for Etsy ads (if not offsite, it’s still better for me), and a little more customization on visuals and a few other minor aspects of the selling page.
Discount for purchasing on Etsy? Who will pay for that? Will Etsy?
Access to custom web address, um, have they heard of Pattern? That’s been around for years…and I thought was very bad and very user unfriendly for the price.
Discounts and perks, also already existing, for things like cards, packaging and tax help even.
So what’s new about any of this? Reminds me of all the help Etsy has offered to sellers over the years, most of which many original makers on the site had long known about and used. Don’t need Etsy to tell me how to run a business.
The survey I got mentioned an upper tier store that gave you access to API’s and the ability to offer coupons and run sales….touting keeping commerce human and proclaiming Etsy is a place to purchase special and unique gifts is a BIG FAT LIE!!! Josh needs to be shown the door, because all he has done is cheapen the site….