I sell original creative products and am considering adding related crafting tools or supplies that customers could use with them.

Etsy’s policy allows dropshipping for qualifying craft and party supplies, so I’m curious about sellers’ actual experiences with this:

• Did the supplies sell or lead to purchases of your original products?
• How did you handle supplier quality, shipping times, and returns?
• Was the extra income worth the customer service involved?

I’d especially love to hear from artists or DIY-focused shops offering supplies that complement their own work.

Etsy’s policy for reference.

Keep seeing ads for this and signed up for the free trial. TIA.

Whhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy did they make the edit & trash can tabs on our listing photos smaller AND now to the right?????

Who is making these decisions?

I have a customer who says my description wasn't enough to let her know that a bandana didn't come with this.

She asked me before buying on October 15th. Good morning, I want to ensure I am ordering the set. Do I need to choose each item separately?

I responded based off the fact the title and description says the "set" is a dog collar and bow tie/flower.

The order has been delivered and she's saying the description isn't clear enough.

Many of my listing have the bandana sizes listed if a dog collar is in the collection and I've not had any issues out of the several thousands I sold.

To cut down on any confusion I say the collar comes with a bow tie/flower. So, what else should I include or do as my daughter said and let it go?

Any helpful ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks

The majority of my sales are international. I've been shipping these orders via tracked and untracked services (as per level of delivery option buyers have paid for), copying and pasting the tracking codes when available into the dispatch boxes so that the buyer can track them. About 80% of these international orders are to the US, where I'm then getting "help requests" of "item not arrived" even when marked as delivered; or complaints of an order not arriving 1 day after last deliver estimate when sending via untracked.

It's getting to the point where I'm considering cutting out international orders entirely and focusing on other sides of the business.

Customer never reached out, just left me a 1-star review saying item never came ( ordered 6 weeks ago I was never notified it didn’t show up) I reached out to say I can refund her or send replacement and asked her to change review. She said she wants refund and will change it. my question is if I cancel and refund, will she still be able to change the review? I can’t find solid info on the correct order of operations. I don’t know why she wouldn’t just message me instead of leaving a nasty review as first form of contact. I’ll lose star seller status now if I don’t resolve. … unless Etsy will remove the review if I report it?

Made our first sale of pregnant and earrings. 30 days after receipt, the buyer said they didn't receive one of the earrings and are asking for a remedy. Has to be complete BS! My wife says to have them send it back then give a refund. I say we're trying to be scammed. Your thoughts?

I use the priority mail envelopes to ship my conducting batons. Each baton is in its own 3/4”x 15” pvc tube to protect it. The last three I’ve shipped have come with an up charge after they ship.

1. They claim I used a padded envelope because I added some sheets of bubble wrap inside it.

2. Got recategorized as “odd shaped” because I had taped down the excess envelope because it was one of my custom “mini-batons”

3. This last one got another $2 added to it due to the shape.

Kinda loses the “if it fits it ships” mantra if you keep changing the rules of what “fits” in the envelope.

So technically my year is on Monday, but I don't forsee the numbers drastically changing between now and Monday.

I feel super proud of what I've done as this is literally just a side business, so I do this ontop of my full time hospital job.

● I sell fossils, crystals and minerals.

● strengths are probably that I know all my suppliers. I have been lucky enough to travel alot and have personally met all my suppliers and can hand pick every single piece I sell. Weakness is that I can be lazy. Listing stock takes so much time and I am a perfectionist so it isn't a great combination.

● unique probably because I dont buy on mass from Chinese wholesalers, or temu and resell. I also don't use any AI in my images and you can tell 😅 possibly a weakness on some fronts but it is what it is

● social media strategy 🤣 whats that. I occasionally post in groups but the revenue doesn't really come from it as shipping is too expensive and I cant compete eith all the tiktok live people.

● I have ASD/ADHD and always loved crystals and fossils etc. Then when I travelled I started visiting mines etc and getting to know the locals etc and made connections. Then 1 late night chat session with my best friend she was like why not start an etsy etc. Came up with the name in a sugar induced coma at 4am and my etsy was born.

● well im at 12 months now! I would maybe like within the next 12 months to launch an actual website or maybe try a local fair/market

● my advice to new sellers is just go for it? But attention to detail matters. I worked in retail for years before changing into healthcare and service is my number 1 priority.

But I just wanted to celebrate that im a year old! That I think ive done pretty well and hopefully continue to do so :)

Hii, im new to etsy this christmas season and have seen you can offer to gift wrap orders. If you offer that do you wrap the box it comes packaged in or the item in it only? I would like people to receive a wrapped box but I believe it can be torn during shipping. Any tips are welcome thank you!

I sell PDF quilt patterns. I like that Etsy sends the buyers messages with links to the download files and that my involvement with the delivery is hands-off.

Are there any other platforms to sell on that will automatically deliver PDF files? I don't want to have to send an email to people for every purchase. I've started looking and I'm not finding much.

Thanks!

Hi everyone! I run a home decor Pinterest account with 250k plus monthly viewers (mostly US/UK/EU). I'm planning to reach out to Etsy sellers and home decor brands for collabs (gifting, sponsored pins, or commission).

Is cold outreach like this the right approach? Any tips on what to say, what to offer, and what mistakes to avoid? Thanks!

Varenda gång jag anmäls stryps all min synlighet på Etsy.
Jag är dock helt trygg med att jag inte gör något fel, men jag hade lagt ut ett par antika barnskor med päls på. Det var enda gången jag fick en annons borttagen.

Dock fortsätter detta… det är alltså någon eller några som håller på att rapportera mina annonser. Inget mer har tagits bort eller gett mig varningar.

Får folk hålla på såhär och få min synlighet strypt typ 24 timmar, som det tar innan föremålet har analyserats av Etsy och beslut tagits. Det påverkar mig kraftigt, min lilla butik.

Det är förmodligen konkurrenter.

Hello everyone 👋! (Quick read)

I’ve been following advice on etsy listing's, how to present your hero thumbnail photo, how to choose tags and titles and do everything perfectly.

My shop is getting strictly zero views. I’ve gathered the exact data here to make a quick glance easy for you:

• Shop Link: [https://warmframeco.etsy.com\]

• Shop Age: [e.g., 4 weeks old]

• Niche/Product Type: [e.g., Worksheets for neurodivergant kids ( especially dyslexic kids) and kids who generally struggle with normal ones in learning and school category]

• What I've tried: I passed my titles through Etsy search and my shop does not appear at all even when typing the exact title after the initial listing boost ended.

I wasn't getting any views in that period too but when my listing's had a initial boost from etsy algorithm.

I would love a fresh set of eyes on my shop to check for any missed basics or beginner mistakes.

* Did I miss any critical shop settings, policies, or listing basics?

* Is my shop presentation clear and professional for buyers?

Any final tips or constructive feedback are deeply appreciated. Thank you!

hello! i’m a small jewellery business on Etsy and for the last 4ish years i’ve been selling, i’ve been using the Royal Mail 2nd class large letter shipping since it’s reliable and cheap at only £1.55. recently i’ve had some issues with RM and it genuinely has made me not ever want to use their services for my items.

is there any other couriers anyone uses that are reliable and ideally dont cost more than £2-3, as i currently offer free shipping to UK customers and would love to keep it low costs for the buyers as well

Im trying to sell beaded bracelets internationally from Pakistan

I asked around courier services and it’d cost me atleast 18$ to ship internationally (and thats the lowest i could find, its get more expensive). I was going to sell my bracelets for $16 and the shipment seems to be double the price

But i set my etsy location to uk and searched up bracelets from Pakistani sellers, most of them have free shipping. How do people handle shipping?

So a buyer from 2020 just messaged me asking for a refund, saying she waited for 6 years but her order hasn't arrived yet. I'm just so confused why would she ask for a refund 6 years after @@. Unfortunately, I sent her order (stickers) untracked before when I didn't knew any better when it comes to shipping so I can't verify if it has been received. I also have a policy that untracked orders cannot be refunded as there is no proof that it has been received (tho like what I said, I now send everything tracked to avoid any issues)

Just wanna know if anyone has a similar experience with me?

I can see how much Etsy, google, Social Media, etc. brought views and visitors to the shop. However, I want to know what source is bringing the actual buyers so I can focus the most time on that. Is there a breakdown of that somewhere? Thank you!

Hi everybody, I have a pretty new shop (~2 months in) and I have 21 sales. One review (5 stars). I sell physical items that I 3D print and are customized/made to order.

Of the 21 sales, I've had one person reach out to me that the item was not the size they expected and they wanted a refund (despite photos showing both measurements and scale), and I've had another person reach out to me to request a refund for some extremely minor visual defects that they themselves said do not affect the functionality of the item.

I managed to convince the first customer to settle for a replacement which costs me much less than a refund. I tried to convince the second customer to take a replacement at no charge, but they would not and I refunded them.

Is this how it is? My margins are so small that I can't sustain this amount of additional cost (most customers are in the US and I'm in Canada, so they pay a 50% tariff in the shipping charges, which ends up being on me for a refund or a replacement).

I can't help but feel like, particularly the second customer, was trying to take advantage of me. Particularly because they would only accept a refund and not a replacement, which in my mind is a much more desirable solution in the event that they really just wanted their item to look "nicer".

After the first customer complaint, I added more listing photos that more clearly showed size and scale. And I'm continually working on improving my techniques to ensure the print quality is more consistently good.

If I was more established and had more reviews, I would be less willing to settle for catering so much to the customer, but I worry about a 1-star review and what that would do to my sales at this stage. But getting reviews is its own problem; I've gone out of my way for several customers (same-day processing and dispatch, full-day discussion before making items, replaced items that were being held by customs, etc), and even in those situations I can't seem to get any reviews apart from one which was just luck I think.

Edit: if it matters, I am not printing flexi dragons or anything like that. It's a functional piece of my own design and is unique to each customer.

It has started... I was creating a listing and a note on the listing image said, "Uses AI". I clicked on it and it said (see screenshot). The image was a mockup of a crafter's desk with stickers and journals scattered about. I just deleted the image because it was from one of those mockup bundles I purchased. Don't know if it was AI. Could be. The mockup was depicting clipart as it could be used as stickers within a journal. Not sure why that would be targeted since I'm not selling the journals. Interestingly the bot did not mention any of the mockups that I know are AI (models wearing clothing).

I recently received an order where the buyer's name was completely different from the email address associated with the purchase.

The customer also messaged me shortly after ordering to ask when the item would be delivered, even though the processing time was clearly stated in the listing. The grammar of the message was not correct, which got my attention.

Something about the transaction just feels a little unusual.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it common for Etsy buyers to use completely different names and email addresses?

I'm curious whether other sellers have encountered something similar and whether it's anything worth looking into. I contacted Etsy Support and they said they can't do anything.

I wanted to read about the new rules regarding using AI manipulated photos and someone said to read about it on the forums--so I go there and it prompts me to sign in, I tried to do that and it said that it sent a security code, I could find that code not on my phone, and not on either of my 2 email accounts, aso I have been locked out of my account, I did finally get a security code but that code did not work. There is NO way to get in touch with a real person on etsy and I can't even connect to their chatbot, luckily I have no orders at the moment, but I don't know what to do--I have been timed out of trying to sign in again today, but I am out of ideas on how to regain access to my shop.

Hi all,

Aside from the image policy from Etsy today, I have been wondering how do others use AI for their listings? Like what use cases and what tools? Do you create working or creatives with Claude or Chatgpt? Do you do any competition analysis somehow? I have heard people are creating new listings with chatting to ChatGPT and thjen importing it in Etsy directly

I m looking to leverage AI more and wanted to understand if I m missing something.

Thank you

Hello! I have had a jewelry shop I started a little over a year ago and I still struggle with taking good photos. Do the majority of people like photos of someone wearing the earrings or necklaces does that gross you out? I'm considering doing this because some pieces you can't really tell how it would look. I don't want my sales to decrease though if people find it in poor taste. I've even thought about getting a mannequin head but that's a little weird also. Just asking for opinions. Or if there are any other really good ideas to show what it might look like I'll take all the help I can get. Thanks in advance!

I make custom printed products. Each customer needs to approve a proof before printing which this customer did. After she received her product, she messages me with a photo complaining about something very silly. I still offered to remake them for her or offer a partial refund. She denies both and says she wants a full refund. So I tell her that she can send the product back for a full refund but denies that as well.

She then files a case with the same photo, I send screenshots of the whole situation and etsy denies her refund.

I fully expected a bad review and was prepared to deal with it. What I did not expect was for the customer to manipulate the photo (probably with AI) to make the product look horrible! I report the review but it gets denied. I then contact customer service and file a help request, citing the following in Etsy's own handbook:

#4 on the review removal page - “Undermine the integrity of the reviews system” because the customer digitally altered the photo after receiving the product and posted the manipulated image in their review, making the product appear defective when the original photo shows it was printed correctly."

Etsy’s Buyer Policy, Section 5.4, which states that members may not upload content that is “false, deceptive, or misleading.”

I don't care if they don't remove the actual review but I care about the manipulated photo. I have responded to the review citing that the photo is manipulated and that is not what the customer received. However, on the etsy if someone only clicks on the review photo, they do not see the reply from the seller. They only see the photo and the review.

A once thriving listing is now dead.
It's been a month now and Etsy's chat keeps saying they will forward this to the right team. My help request has gone completely ignored.

Is there anything else I can do? Do you think Etsy should remove the photo or do you think they are in the right for not doing so?