Q&A: “How can I compete with unfair Etsy sellers?”

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Oh, hey there, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Thanks for tuning in today. We had an episode recently with an Amazon seller who had a competitor posting lots of fake reviews.

Unfortunately, that's kind of a common strategy of some Amazon sellers, and that caller was wondering what to do. Well, today's listener has been dealing with a similar problem, unfair Etsy sellers. Now with Etsy, the problem here, you know, when you sell on Etsy, everything you sell is supposed to be handmade. That's the whole pitch, and that's the whole like unique selling proposition, as they say, of the platform. But shockingly, not everything is.

Many sellers secretly, or not so secretly, mass manufacture their goods and even sell under multiple shops. They do this to evade detection. So our caller is wondering, as an honest Etsy seller, what can be done? Detailed question and my answer, coming up after this quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]

Hey there, my name is Jamie, and I'm a big fan.

I've been selling on Etsy, which describes itself as the world's handcrafted marketplace. But many of the sellers appear to be cheating. They're selling mass manufactured products in large quantities. Some of them operate multiple storefronts that sell the same thing with slight variations or sometimes no variations at all. If it's made in a factory in China, how can it be called vintage or handmade?

Like I said, these sellers appear to be cheating, but they're good at SEO and seem to be crowding out honest sellers such as myself. Is there anything that can be done? Thanks to you and the team for the show. I look forward to hearing your answer. [Music]

So I took a look on Etsy's seller policy, which conveniently is not that hard to find, on their website.

It says, you know, pretty black and white here, everything listed for sale on Etsy must be handmade, vintage, or a craft supply. And they've got detailed descriptions of what each of those things mean. Like vintage, it has to be 20 years old or older. Handmade items are items that are made or designed by you, the seller. So this seller policy reads.

Now, of course, that's not always what's happening. So that's what our callers saying. Like some people are not honest. They are kind of, you know, working the system to their benefit. So what can you do?

Well, first thing is you can report them. Like every single Etsy listing has a button to do that. Presumably some moderator somewhere looks at those things. I imagine they look at listings that get a lot of reports, you know, as opposed to just, you know, one-offs. But, you know, it's a start.

I think otherwise it's kind of like what I said to the Amazon seller. This is just an annoying thing. You know, it's frustrating, no doubt. But big companies don't always delist sellers who are breaking the rules. So they have these rules, but they don't always enforce them.

Or sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes there has to be some kind of media coverage before they take action. So in the long term, you know, it really is better to focus on what's within your control. You can't always control these other dishonest sellers. But if someone is selling mass manufactured items, maybe this is another way to look at it.

Are they really competing with yours? So I would focus on hyping up the handcrafted actual legit handcrafted quality of what you're making. Jamie or anybody else out there dealing with this, you know, that's what is within your control. Promote that. And a lot of buyers on Etsy, they don't want the mass manufactured stuff.

That's why they come to the platform. So they are more inclined to want what you have to offer as long as you can craft the messaging accordingly. So good luck. I know some things are frustrating, but just keep moving forward. And if you listeners have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.

Let me know what's on your mind. We'll continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Thanks again for tuning in today. New episode coming out tomorrow. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.

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From the Onward Project.