Etsy sellers to strike over fee hike

American e-commerce giant Etsy could face a possible strike from the sellers, who had warned of consequences over the increase in fee. A number of crafters have already protecting the platform by putting their shops on vacation mode for a week that comes to an end on April 18, 2022. Kristi Cassidy, the organizer and others are urging the customers to boycott Etsy for the same reason and for the same period as well. For now it is not clear as to how many sellers have taken part in the action. A petition has been submitted to the CEO Josh Silverman, which has signatures of nearly 54,000 sellers.

The company is hiking the fees from 5 percent to 6.5 percent. Although the fees does not sound like much, but the organizer has noted that the essential fees will more than double in less than four years. Moreover, Cassidy along with other sellers have complained of some of the Offsite ad programs that the company terms as mandatory and charges extra fees for the items that are sold through that system. The program also pressurizes the sellers to keep up with unrealistic shipping and support goals. Meanwhile, there have also been reports about the unreal expectations of the company. Etsy expects the shopkeepers to respond within 24 hours but Cassidy observed that the company sometimes takes weeks or sometimes even months to respond to urgent requests.

Cassidy has also noted that the AI system of Etsy sometimes shuts down the honest sellers and allows the resellers to go unchecked. The sellers who are on a strike have demanded that the company should revoke the hike in the fees and allow everyone to opt out of the Offsite Ads and also reduce the number of dodgy resellers. The resellers have also demanded for an automatic fast track for appeals for the AI decisions as it limits their ability to do business.

Meanwhile, Etsy has defended that it has hiked the fees to roll the extra money in to the business instead of boosting profit margins.

Photo Credits: Techcrunch