This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Well back, we had an episode about an Amazon seller, somebody who is selling their products on Amazon, and they had a competitor posting lots of fake reviews, which of course is unethical and unfair and actually harmed their business. Today's caller has been dealing with a similar problem, similar but different. It's not on Amazon, it's on Etsy. They're experiencing some competition that they feel is kind of out of bounds. And that's because when you sell on Etsy, Etsy is supposed to be the world's largest handcrafted marketplace, and everything you sell there is supposed to be handmade.
Now there are some loopholes and workarounds and such, but you'll be surprised or you won't be shocked to know that not everything actually is handmade there. There are a lot of sellers who are secretly or not so secretly mass manufacturing goods, even sometimes selling under multiple shops to evade detection. And it's an interesting conflict for the company, Etsy, because they're making money on all of these transactions, right? You could say in some ways they're not really incentivized to take care of the problem because they're like, hey, if we've got people listing items and they're paying our fees, why would we kick them off, you know? So our caller is wondering, hey, what can be done about this?
Like I've got some competition, I'm not afraid of real competition, but people who are kind of skirting the rules or outright breaking the rules, that seems unfair. How can I compete with these unfair Etsy sellers? That's the question from Jamie. You'll hear the full version and my answer coming right up. [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]
Well, as I said, Etsy may not be totally incentivized to remove every seller who doesn't fully comply, but you can in fact report them. And they do have a policy that says everything listed for sale must be handmade, vintage or a craft supply.
So handmade items are items that are made and or designed by you, the seller. So they do try to uphold this value generally. And I think where people get in trouble with it is when they're mass manufacturing and they have a ton of listings, like I mentioned. So in that situation, if you come across somebody, any Etsy listing has a button to report. And presumably there's some moderator somewhere looking at those submissions.
And I suppose they probably look at listings that get a lot of reports more than just one or two, but it's a start. And otherwise, as I said to the Amazon seller, the guy who had all the fake reviews being posted, it can just be an annoying thing. Sometimes it takes a long time, sometimes nothing changes. So in the long term, I think despite the annoyances, it's better to focus on what's within your control. And also if you are selling handmade items, if someone is selling mass manufactured items, are they really competing with you?
Like you know your products are better. So as I said, I know it can be frustrating, but I think it's best to just keep making what you're making and focus on what you're doing well. That's what I think. Listeners, let me know what you think. If you have some experience with this or some advice, sidehustleschool.com.
You can also ask a question there and access show notes for every single episode over the years, nine plus years. In fact, it is. We'll continue to feature updates from listeners as they launch and grow their projects throughout the year. Much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
You are listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
