2023 Board
President - Carolyn Davis
Program Chair - Deb Houck
Assistant to Programs - Elaine Mayer
Treasurer - Rita Marie Smith
Recording Secretary - Kelly Meanix
Corresponding Secretary - Ellen McMillen
Membership - Denise Blake-Elaine Egan
Ways & Means - Jen Burke
Scraps and Pieces From The Textile World
1. The
Etsy Strike, Two Years Later
by Alicia de los
Reyes | Apr 9, 2024
In April 2022, thousands
of Etsy shop owners put their stores in “vacation mode” in protest of Etsy’s
fee hike and other policies. How has the marketplace landscape changed for
indie sellers since then?
A
brief history of the Etsy Strike
Two years ago, Susan
Watkins watched the Etsy Strike unfold on social media and in
mainstream news channels. “I thought, maybe the Etsy Strike will make a
difference,” she said. Her online yarn shop, Izzy Knits, had been on the
platform for four years. She was frustrated with having to offer free shipping
and with constantly failing to obtain Star Seller status, despite prompt
shipping and great customer service. “I had all really positive reviews,”
Watkins says. “You couldn’t find me.”
Thousands of sellers
similarly frustrated with the site participated in the Etsy Strike by putting
their shops on “vacation mode” from April 11-18, 2022. The movement, which
began as a Reddit post by a still-anonymous Etsy seller, focused on unwelcome
changes in Etsy’s policies: specifically, a 30% increase in transaction fees,
mandatory participation in the new offsite ads program (which took an
additional fee of 12-15%), and the requirements of the Star Seller program.
More than 80,000 people signed a petition outlining these and other demands.
The Etsy Strike was
covered by media outlets from NPR to The Verge to the Wall Street Journal. Kristi Cassidy, one
of the organizers of the strike, was interviewed dozens of times (including on
the Craft Industry Alliance podcast). “It was remarkably
successful,” remembers Valerie Schafer Franklin, another organizer. The media
attention made consumers aware of what many sellers considered to be Etsy’s
exploitative practices toward sellers.
It also allowed Etsy sellers to
connect with each other. Participants in the strike organized primarily on
Reddit before moving to Discord, a social media platform. Away from the
heavily-monitored Etsy forums, sellers found a community and support system for
indie, craft-based businesses.
The
ISG is an advocacy group that researches, promotes, and enforces the rights of
indie sellers.
New
Groups Form
Two organizations
emerged from the strike’s Discord channel. Cassidy, the face of the strike,
created the Indie Sellers Guild (ISG) with Chiarra Lohr. The
ISG incorporated as a 501(c)6 in June of 2022 as a trade organization;
the Indie Sellers Guild Foundation incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in February of
2023 to fundraise and support the ISG. Meanwhile, Franklin and others,
including Thera
Langham Knapp, went on to build an alternative marketplace,
the Artisans
Cooperative. They incorporated as a C-Corp in Oregon on May Day in
2023.
Both organizations operate on a
shoestring budget with hundreds of volunteer hours put in by members. Lohr and
Cassidy estimate the total budget of the ISG to be $2,500. The Artisans
Cooperative won $10,000 through an incubator program at Start.coop. They
used this money to pay for legal fees when they incorporated. Their capital
campaign also raised $50,000 (which was double their initial goal) and included
both dollars and sweat equity through their points and tiers system.
Shared
Goals, Differing Methods
Both groups seek to
improve working conditions for indie sellers. The ISG includes makers, vintage
sellers, and craft supply sellers in their ranks, while the Coop focuses on
handmade sellers.
The ISG is an advocacy
group that researches, promotes, and enforces the rights of indie sellers. With
a board of five people led by an Executive Director (Lohr) and a Head of
Research (Dr. Samantha Close), and a membership of roughly 3,000, it has worked with the office of Senator Tammy Baldwin on the COOL
(Country of Origin Labeling) Online Act and offered support
for a rule proposed by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) designed to
crack down on unfair platform fees. In both cases, government
officials reached out to the ISG because, as Lohr says, “There’s nobody else to
talk to.”
The group is also
running the ISG Virtual Convention April 13-14, which will
include webinars on running a successful indie craft business; interviews with
alternative marketplaces, including the Artisans Coop; and research from a
survey of over 1000 sellers on what sellers want from marketplaces.
On the other hand,
the goal of the Artisans Cooperative is to offer an alternative marketplace to
makers. The Coop has launched its marketplace in beta in October of 2023. It currently has
approximately 300 member-owners, including 176 sellers, according to Knapp,
with plans to open to nonmembers down the road.
This marketplace is
special in that its members own the business themselves; leadership and work
are distributed among a recently elected board of seven directors and “a small
army of 80-plus people who are running the Coop together,” Franklin says.
The
goal of the Artisans Cooperative is to offer an alternative marketplace to
makers.
Hopes
for the Future
Neither group expects or
even wants Etsy to go away; in fact, many members of both still sell on
Etsy, including Cassidy. Cassidy says that in her ideal
world, there would be a legitimate government organization where sellers like
her could go to report “getting screwed over by a tech platform.”
Lohr agrees, adding,
“I would rather see Etsy
pressured to fulfill their values promise,” which is, of course, “Keep Commerce Human.”
The ISG hopes to create
this pressure by developing a Marketplace Accreditation Project, which Lohr
describes as an “ideal contract” between platforms and sellers. Several
alternative marketplaces, including the Artisans Cooperative, goImagine, Indie
Untangled, and others, have already applied for accreditation.
Franklin, of the Coop, also hopes for
marketplace diversity, rather than the Coop becoming the next Etsy. She has run
a leatherwork business with her partner for fifteen years and knows the
vulnerability of putting all of your eggs in one platform’s basket. “If any one
of these [alternative platforms] did well, I would want to be on at least two.”
The
ISG has worked with the office of Senator Tammy Baldwin on the COOL (Country of
Origin Labeling) Online Act and offered support for a rule proposed by the FTC
(Federal Trade Commission) designed to crack down on unfair platform fees.
Etsy
Today
After the strike, Etsy
modified the Star Seller program to require five sales (instead
of the original ten) in a 3-month period. The transaction fee remains 6.5%, and
offsite ads are still required for shops making over $10,000 in a 365-day
period.
Susan Watkins, who hoped
for change after the strike, decided to close her Etsy shop in 2023. “I wanted
to own my effort,” she says. Her shop is now exclusively on her own website,
and she also sells locally at fairs. She lost about half of her sales when she
got off Etsy, but she says, “I’m happier.”
Etsy’s fees and policies
remain well worth it for many sellers. As Susan
Sanford, an Etsy shop owner since 2006 (with a two-year break), says
of the platform,
“There’s a lot to bash,
but there’s a lot of good.” Etsy provides her with an online presence she
otherwise would have to pay for on her own, collects taxes for her, and comes
with a built-in audience.
That audience is
enormous. Etsy brought in $2.7
billion in revenue last quarter, and 92 million people made a
purchase on Etsy in the last year.
The
Future for Indie Sellers
At the same time, new
handmade marketplaces are popping up, including some from big box stores. Michaels MakerPlace launched in March with a cheeky ad full of handmade objects singing
“R-E-S-P-E-C-T.” Its motto: “Respect the Maker.” A recent Google search for
“sell on Etsy” brought in a sponsored ad to sell on Walmart Marketplace.
It’s hard to imagine a return to the
early days of Etsy, which once was a B-corporation that organized meet-ups in
different cities (remember Street Teams?). But both the ISG and the Coop, which
are small but well-organized, with strong online presences, and thoughtfully
considered internal organization, promote a future in which commerce is more
human.
Alicia de los Reyes
contributor
Alicia de los Reyes is a
freelance writer who loves to make things. She has her MFA in creative
nonfiction from the University of New Hampshire and her work has appeared in
the Billfold, the Archipelago, Sojourners Magazine, and others. See more of her
work at aliciadelosreyes.com.
2. “Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams” at the Baltimore Museum of Art. March 24th, 2024 through July 14th, 2024.
