Etsy 101 for Etsy Shoppers – Things you probably don’t know about Etsy

Let me start out by telling you how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Etsy!

Etsy is a wonderland of unique and wonderful things that are designed, created and made with someone’s heart, soul and often their own two hands.

I happen to be an Etsy seller who custom hand makes 99% of her products and I actually do a little happy dance every time I get an order. My Etsy customers are THE BEST! I have had very few negative customer experiences as opposed to Amazon and eBay. Etsy customers are awesome!

Here are a few things that I know about Etsy from being a seller that I strongly believe all buyers should know as well other helpful advice to make your Etsy purchases go smooth.

1. Star Seller Program

In September 2021, Etsy launched what they call the Etsy Star Seller Program. This program is meant to reward sellers for providing outstanding service by replying to messages within 24 hours, receiving 5-star reviews and shipping on time 95% of the time is all 3 categories. Also, to become eligible for the program your shop has to have been open for 90 days since your first sale, your shop has to have made at least 10 sales and $300 during the 3 month review period.

When a seller meets those criteria, Etsy places a Star Seller badge on their shop to let buyer know that they are an awesome seller.

Sounds good right? Sounds easy enough…just answer your message right away all the time, make sure to communicate clearly what your product is in your listings and manage customer expectations from beginning to end to ensure you earn a 5-star review and ship your orders by the date promised. Well, turns out this is not so easy to sustain.

Let me explain…

It takes an average Etsy seller a very long time to reach that 90 days/10 orders/$300 point in which they are eligible for consideration.

A high performing shop that makes a high volume of sales and has employees working outside of regular business hours could possibly hold up these standards consistently because they receive more orders, more reviews, and more messages so each order, message and review carries less weight AND they have staff to keep up on answering messages and processing orders that come through outside of regular business hours. If a seller gets 50 orders, messages, and review per day and then a few hours late answering one message or gets a couple of 4-star reviews or even a couple of 1-star reviews, it won’t affect their status all that much.

A low to mid performing shop on the other hand, has a lot more to lose. My Etsy shop falls into the low to mid-range depending on the time of the year. For a shop that only gets a few orders, messages, and reviews per month each order, message and review can be worth 5-10% each and one misstep or one 4-star review can cause that shop to lose Star Seller Status for a very long time. Which is what has happened to my Etsy shop.

A shop can put on auto-replies to comply with answering messages within 24 hours but in my personal experience as a seller, that has proven time and time again to irritate existing customers and make potential customers go to another shop where they can get an immediate reply. So, if an Etsy seller really wants to give outstanding service and answer all messages personally, they must be sure to always have internet access in order to answer all messages within 24 hours but that can backfire also because Etsy can penalize a seller for logging in to their shop on a different IP address…but that is a story for another time.

I have done my own testing and analytics of how my sales perform when I am a Star Seller vs not being a Star Seller and have proven that when I don’t have Star Seller status, my sales go down by as much as 50%.

Star Seller status can make or break an Etsy shop that is not a super high-volume shop. This is bad because a lot of sellers on Etsy are single moms trying to keep a roof over their family’s heads and food in their mouths. A lot of Etsy sellers are people with physical disabilities or mental health challenges such as debilitating anxiety and those people can’t work at a traditional job and selling on Etsy is how they make a living.

As a buyer:

• Give Etsy shops the opportunity to make things right if you aren’t happy before leaving a review. Give them a chance to earn a 5-star review from you.
• Don’t be petty and give a 4-star review because you love the item you received BUT it’s not exactly like the one at Wal-Mart or there was a crooked stitch, or the label wasn’t completely straight. You are ordering a handmade thing from an actual person who is likely working out of a spare bedroom in their house, not a factory that mass producing things perfectly.
• If you are someone who never leaves 5-star reviews, please consider not leaving a review at all. No review on Etsy is better than a 4-star or less review.
• Be mindful of when you are sending a message. If you send an Etsy shop a message on Saturday morning, that message might be going to a mom who is camping in the woods with no internet with her kids and will get penalized for not replying to you by Sunday morning.
• Be patient if you get an auto-reply and wait for a reply before moving on to the next Etsy shop.

2. Etsy is not Amazon

Amazon has conditioned us to expected free shipping within 2 days. So many other platforms and stores are also offering free or low-cost fast shipping.

Amazon has also conditioned us to expect rock bottom prices.

This is just not possible with most Etsy shops.

It is EXPENSIVE to sell on Etsy and it is expensive to run an Etsy shop or any other business and combine that with the fact that you are likely buying a handmade thing, most Etsy sellers (unless they are resellers which is not really allowed on Etsy) can’t afford to complete with Amazon on price.

You go to Amazon for cheap items and fast shipping. You go to Etsy for handmade things that are not cheap and shipping is not fast because Etsy sellers don’t have a warehouse full of stuff in every state.

If you order an item that must be made, you will have to wait for it to get made. If a shop has 20 or more orders to process before yours, your item will most likely not be shipped the next day or even in 2 days.

Shipping is expensive and it is cost prohibitive to ship any other way other than via USPS in may cases. USPS is not fast. You will have to wait the 2 – 10+ business days for USPS to get your order to you.

Which leads me to my next point…

3. Etsy sellers have no control over USPS

Most Etsy sellers try really hard to get customer orders out in a timely manner and most Etsy sellers are shipping via USPS First Class Package.

We could get your order processed, packaged, and handed off to the post office same day and it might still take 2 weeks for your order to get delivered because USPS can be as slow as they want. Unless you buy Priority Express shipping, which is very expensive, USPS doesn’t guarantee shipping times. Priority shipping is only supposed to take 1-3 business days depending on where it’s going but USPS can take as long as they want to deliver those packages.

Please don’t open cases or leave bad reviews for sellers who are having issues with USPS and be mindful that when a seller remakes and reships your order because USPS didn’t do their job correctly, that seller is quite possibly taking a loss on that sale just to make things right.

4. Please read the whole item description AND the shop’s policies before ordering

Every Etsy shop is run by a different person or business. Every Etsy shop has different shop policies. Make sure you are reading a shop’s policies before ordering so you fully understand that shop’s return policies, shipping policies and other important information. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to send the seller a message and ask. We greatly appreciate customer’s asking questions first to avoid expensive misunderstandings later.

Please read all item descriptions and look at all product photos. There will be important information that you might need to know such as ordering instructions, size/measuring guides, safety disclosures, care instructions, etc. As I said before, sellers appreciate questions before ordering so everyone is on the same page, and we can avoid an expensive misunderstanding later.

You should also read the shop’s Announcement which is usually at the top of the shop’s page. A lot of sellers will put current processing times and shipping policies there as well.

5. Like and follow your favorite Etsy sellers’ social media

If you there are some Etsy shops you buy from frequently or love, please follow them on social media and share with your friends. This really helps our businesses grow and it helps us be seen more in Etsy search.

You can usually find links to an Etsy shop’s social media in their About Me section or in their Shop Announcement.

6. Etsy Ads

Etsy has a program called Etsy Ads. It’s a way from sellers to pay for ads to drive traffic to their items and their shops. Unfortunately, it is a very flawed system that is very costly for the seller and usually doesn’t result in more sales.

These listings will be marked as Ad by Etsy Seller. When you click on these listings, it can cost the seller anywhere from $.10 to over $1 for that one click whether you make a purchase or not.

Please only click on these listings if you are interested in buying that item. If you just want to just see the item or learn more, you can copy and paste the title of the listing in the search bar and find it as a regular listing rather than an ad.

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Well, there were the important things that I think every Etsy buyer should be aware of.

I would like to finish by saying that I really do love Etsy and Etsy has allowed me the opportunity to be a small business owner, work for myself and contribute financially to my family while working from home and I am eternally grateful for all my customers because without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today, and neither would millions of other Etsy sellers!

Please buy lots of stuff on Etsy and keep supporting small businesses!!