Etsy had started to advertise its customer’s products and charge a fee of at least 12 percent for the very sale the customers made. These ads would appear on high traffic sites such as Google, Facebook, and Pinterest. This would become a requirement for shops that have a turnover of at least $10,000 every year. Such a change would result in a potentially huge disruption for sellers that would also lead to higher prices.
Sellers have already started to voice complaints against this issue and have called it “BS money grab”. This program goes live next month and all the sellers who have an income of $10,000 or more would be automatically included. Even the sellers who make lesser than 10,000 dollars would be included, though with an option to back out if-then intend on. Such sellers would be charged a hiked fee of 15 percent.
This fee would be deducted from the total cost that includes shipping charges. Etsy had always charged a 5% fee from all the sellers using its platform. Etsy would continue to charge this fee in addition to the advertisement charges. Etsy had stated that this advertisement would be a plus point for the sellers. They would not be charged a fee until they make a sale. They said that advertising is essential to any business and would always help the business to grow.
