Hi everyone,

I’m a stay-at-home mom considering starting an Etsy shop selling personalized fridge magnets. I’ve noticed a lot of similar stores and would love some advice, guidance, or opinions from experienced sellers in this space.

A few questions I have: 1. Is now a good time to start a personalized fridge magnet business in the UK? 2. If yes, where should I begin? 3. What essential tools and equipment would I need to get started? Any specific specs you recommend? 4. Besides Etsy, I’m also considering Shopify and selling at local weekend markets. Do you think this is a good approach?

I’d really appreciate any insights or suggestions! Thankyou very much. Hope to get some guidance

Hi Everyone,

Finally have an update on my case related to the antique chairs I purchased that arrived damaged.

Etsy replied today authorizing a full refund for the items. However, they said, and I quote,

"[insert sellers name] if you’d like for the order to be returned for your inventory, you'll need to purchase postage directly from the website of your preferred shipper. Once purchased, please add the shipping label as a JPEG or picture file attachment to the case, and type the tracking number for the return in your case log comment."

Per my original post, my end goal here was not to receive a full refund, but a lesser sum to cover the cost of fixing the damages incurred during shipping. I have a number of questions I'm hoping the collective knowledge here can assist me with:

1. Is the case now done? I replied back thanking Etsy for the reply but mentioning what my true ideal state resolution would be, and to ask if they can consider it as an alternative to a full refund.
2. The seller has already said he's going to send someone to my house to pick up the items like, immediately. He uses someone on uShip that is based in my home state (the same person that delivered the chairs to me). Given that I have not closed the case, can he actually do this?
3. The language used by Etsy, to me at least, implies that the seller will send me a label to ship the items back, not that he can send a shipper to my house to collect the items. Is that a fair understanding?

Hopefully now that my case has officially been looked at I'll hear back from Etsy sooner rather than later (they gave a cut-off date of Feb 5).

My main concern here is whether I have to return the chairs to the seller if he does send someone to my house before Etsy replies to my reply. He keeps claiming he's "on the phone with Etsy" and they gave him authorization to do so, but he offers no proof. If the only resolution Etsy offers me is full refund and I absolutely must return the chairs, wherein the refund is contingent on their return, I could still decide to just say screw it and keep them and forego the refund, right?

So, I just want to make sure I can tell the sellers shipper off while the case is still technically open.

Etsy fails to verify my business, despite having all the documents in order and having it verified on Payoneer.

I sent them a support ticket 12 days ago and still nothing from them. I reached out to live chat on Wednesday of last week and they said "it was elevated" and that I would hear from them. Still nothing. Are they this bad/slow with their customer support? Has anyone else had this issue? Any help is appreciated thank you.

I want to shop on Etsy but there is way to much NSFW products that I cant. Is there any way to turn off NSFW products? I really want to use Esty but I literally cant because of how bad this is. It doesn't even ask me if I'm 18+ It just shoves it straight in my face. I have also never looked up anything surrounding stuff like this.

I purchased a vintage item from a seller on Etsy. They sent it out and it’s lovely. They have since messaged me that they found out it was a vintage item that belonged to their grandmother and offered to buy it back if I don’t need it anymore. The item is the sort that could be a heirloom. But also concerned this is some strange scam.

Hi! I’ve been trying to buy a rather costly ring for my girlfriend for Valentine’s day and after around 24 hours, it said my payment failed to process and that my order was cancelled (even though I saw that the charge went through on my card). Wonderful. I spoke to the seller and he said to try purchasing again. I tried to and got a notice that my account was s*spended (to avoid the auto moderator). GREAT. I then reordered under a different account and about a half hour after getting the Payment processing email, I got 3 emails saying “Your purchase was successful: Woohoo! Your order is confirmed. [Seller] will start working on this right away. We'll email you as soon as it ships.” I checked in the app, and it said my payment was still processing. I contacted support and they said my order WAS confirmed but the payment is also still processing? WTF is going on? This is my first time using Etsy so I didn’t know what to expect. I clarified to the support agent that my billing and shipping address are different because I’m a college student, which is the only thing I could think of causing an issue. Help. This platform is so complicated for no reason.

Hi zusammen,

ich bin relativ neu auf Etsy und möchte dort in naher Zukunft digitale Produkte verkaufen. Nun stelle ich mir die Frage, ob Etsy automatisch steuerlich korrekte Rechnungen für die Kunden erstellt und ich sie dann korrekt in meinem Buchhaltungssystem hochladen kann.

Die Frage habe ich mir gestellt, als ich selber ein Produkt bei Etsy kaufen wollte und mir aufgefallen ist, dass ich nirgendwo meine Steuernummer (NIF, da ich in Spanien ansässig bin) angeben muss, was ja etwas seltsam ist. Danach habe ich im Internet recherchiert, aber irgendwie keine richtige Antworten gefunden.

Danke für alle antworten.

Feeling down tonight. I’ve put so much work into our small business and we were doing so well. Since we opened our store in the summer we have just over 250 sales. We are based in Canada but I’d say about 80% of our sales are from the United States. It’s so frustrating that this economic war has nothing to do with general population has such a big effect on us. 😕

Hello! I ordered some jewelry and pins from a popular, well-reviewed shop on Etsy on January 24th. The seller is based in Canada and I am in the US. The seller created a label with Chit Chats the day after I placed my order, then the tracking said "awaiting item" for four days. The order was then dropped at a Chit Chats facility before being transferred to another shipping partner, YunExpress. The next day, it was transferred to yet another partner, OSM Worldwide, who currently holds the package with the last update being on February 1st.

I was confused about all the transfers and started to look into what might be going on, and then found out about the huge dropshipping issue on Etsy and looked up some of the items from the shop with reverse image search. Sure enough some of the photos on the listings are exact matches for products on Shein and Aliexpress.

My question is how do I know if my seller's photos were stolen, or if she is using photos from Shein and dropshipping? Why would the package be transferred to YunExpress after being dropped at a Chit Chats in Canada? I don't want to hurt the seller if she is not dropshipping/had her photos stolen, but I definitely want to support individuals, not Shein or Aliexpress.

Is now a bad time to start an Etsy shop, given the current situation in our country? In other words, how are sales?

I ordered shoes for my wedding on Jan 22. Seller marked them as shipped Jan 28. Yesterday they reached out asking for a phone number which I provided and asked for a tracking number since it wasn’t showing on the order. They assured me it had shipped even though there’s no tracking information. There’s a bit of a language barrier (I’m in Canada, they’re in Greece) but it read like they shipped it but the post office takes 1-2 business days to provide a tracking number. Today they sent me a receipt for postage (dated today lol) and a photo of the tracking receipt with my address. Both my street address and postal code are wrong. A “C” instead of a “G” and a “A” instead of a “4” respectively. The shipping address in my Etsy account is correct. This is a computer receipt so it’s typed wrong, not an issue of subjective handwriting. Since it was marked as shipped last week, it says it should arrive Feb 4-11” which I doubt as it was only dropped off today. What are the odds it arrives? I’m nervous because it’s wedding shoes, so if I need to order a different pair I need to do it sooner rather than later.

[Etsy] What are people using as 3rd party mailing list management for collecting emails and sending out newsletters or emails about new product launches?

Just sense checking this, I'm 99% this is the case, and you need to use a 3rd party list management or email list solution ...

UPDATE: Confirmed correct in comments :)

It’s been months since I first started trying to set up my Etsy shop, I kept running into this issue where I would get stuck at the ‘approve set up fee’ step, and I would get stuck on a loading screen after clicking approve. I’ve spoken to customer services who say the same things every time when none of it is working. I’ve tried again today and it’s still happening. I can’t set up a shop and customer service don’t seem to know what’s happening. I’ve tried using different browsers, tried using different devices, tried using a different card, ensured the details are the same as my account bla bla bla, I’m not using any blockers or VPN, all my details match, I’ve tried typing them in manually instead of auto fill, nothing. Still stuck on a loading screen. Has anyone had this problem and actually fixed it?

Hey everyone, I’m in the process of opening my Etsy shop, but my ID verification with Persona has been stuck for over a week now. I haven’t received any updates, and I’m not sure if this delay is normal. Has anyone else experienced this?

Should I contact Etsy support, or is there something else I can do to speed things up? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.

I’ve been struggling trying to print labels from Etsy to Rollo printer. I read somewhere that Etsy doesn’t support Rollo but people have found a way to print labels from Etsy. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance!

Ok so on Etsy I messaged a seller on Etsy that lives in Poland to paint a 1/4th scale statue figure of Darth Talon for my mini star wars collection I have going on and this is actually the first time I purchase something from Poland and I am antsy, anxious and a bit frustrated. The figure did depart from Poland so Idk how long my package will arrive in Florida which is where I live. I ordered the figure on the 24th of January so Idk if my package will arrive today on Monday Feb 3rd 2025 or Feb the 7th 2025 this Friday.

And the USPS tracking says Origin Post is preparing shipment

Well after having some problems vinculating a debit card, I've finally created my shop. I'm really excited about it, but also since I'm starting at 0% I'm not sure what should I expect and how should I continue growing. I'll keep making content that's for sure. What did you do when you 1st started?

I know this is all recent and information is pretty sparse about the logistics behind the new Trump tariffs, but as a Canadian seller sending 80% of my orders to the US this is keeping me up at night.

How do tariffs work in other countries when it is a business from outside the country sending direct to the end consumer? Does the buyer have to pay them when they take receipt of the package? Is this going to be a surprise charge for my customers? I can only imagine the barrage of one-star reviews that will follow. :(

Update: Apparently, I didn't phrase this well, because some people seem to think I want a full refund and the product - I don't. What I wanted was accountability & an offer to at least try to fix a mistake that has caused me frustration and my gift-recipient disappointment. I had it in my head that the seller should have just done those things, but in the end I had to tell her that I wanted a discount. Which she gave me. So I'm as happy with the situation as I can be given that I can't undo the delay & all. I literally just asked for a $10 discount, so I don't think that's unreasonable at all. And I got an apology, which I didn't even realize was my main source of frustration until I got it.
So a note to any sellers - even if you think the customer is a PITA, maybe just try apologizing if they're disappointed in your work. Looking back now, if I'd gotten an apology sooner, I'm not sure I would have even raised the issue about a discount.

Hi, I'm trying to figure out if I'm being unreasonable here?
I ordered a custom-made beaded watch band in November as a Christmas present. It arrived, looks gorgeous, but it won't attach to the watch on one end. Three people tried & it's just will not attach. So I contacted the seller to get it fixed. This is when everything really started going downhill.

First, she gave me an address to ship it back to (since I no longer had the packaging at this point), but didn't offer to pay the return shipping cost. I figured I'd already sunk enough money into it at this point & I was going to the UPS store for another package anyway, so I paid to send it. Whatever.
It's been a while, so I contacted her to see if she'd received the item & was working on it. Turns out, delivery was refused on her end (she says it wasn't her, but I don't understand who else refused it? Again, whatever, moving on). So now it's sitting at my UPS store and I have to go pick it up. No idea why they didn't return it to my address or even contact me to say it was returned, but I don't blame the seller for that part.
Anyway, I let her know what happened and this time she did send me a prepaid shipping label to send it back. But it's through the post office. So now I have to go to the UPS store to pick it up, re-label it, and take it to the post office to send it to her.

Here's where the disagreement really is - she offered to pay me the shipping charge, refund my purchase, and be done with it all. But I still want the product I ordered. I just want it to work.

So she's willing to fix the band and send it back, but she hasn't offered any sort of discount or refund other than the amount I spent at the UPS store.
I know she put time & effort into making a custom product, and I normally wouldn't devalue that (I did choose to pay the original cost), but shouldn't I be compensated for all of the time & effort I've had to spend to fix her mistake in not checking that it worked before she sent it? Not to mention it being ridiculously late as a Christmas present at this point?

TLDR: I bought a custom watch band that didn't work on arrival. Am I entitled to a discount for all the effort I've had to put into getting it fixed?

Does Etsy ever explain why they lock a person out of their account? I have a personal and a business account on Etsy. I was locked out of both with no warning or explanation. Today I receive an email from Etsy stating that they were unable to bill me for my listing fees. All of a sudden, I'm able to access my business account - surprise surprise... they wanted their money. I'm still not able to access my personal account and I've never received any explanation. Just wondering what experiences others have had.

So ill put this situation in order

- I bought a necklace from a seller (they have 350+ sells) (they have good reviews and review pics so they seemed trust worthy) (bought on jan 7)

- The product is international shipping "Shipping through Etsy as in buying the label (which is from USPS) on Etsy and when you purchase the usps label on Etsy" is what the seller said to me. and that they use global postal shipping tracking which is what Etsy gave them.

- I put the tracking number that the seller gave me in 3 different tracking websites. it says 'delivered in 2 days'. It says it was shipped from where the seller's location and delivered to the same state as the seller, but different city. (last updated on Jan 11)

- So then I find that very strange, because on Etsy, the tracking updated on Jan 14.

- I asked the seller about this and they said the tracking takes a while to update when it is being transported to a different country etc. The seller tells me to wait 2 weeks and it could arrive.

- I contact etsy support because the tracking number not updating anywhere else besides on etsy. i feel that it is very strange, and it never happened to me with other international orders. Etsy gives me an instant refund. I ask etsy why a refund was given when I put that I still want the item. They said its because the tracking could be fake since it shows delivered on the other tracking sites.

- I contact the seller and they wrote, "Mine says disbatched out of the US and it usually doesn’t update from there once it arrives at the destination country which can take 1-3 weeks"

Im just unsure because I then assumed the seller somehow edited the tracking on etsy, because how is it updating on Etsy but not on 3 other tracking sites?

SIDE NOTE: they seller also changed their city... they are still in the same state but different city. is it common to change locations?

we are a little seedshop called LittleIslandSeedCO located in Eastern Canada, we sell... seeds! I started out alone but my cousin (and bff) joined me just over a year ago. We are absolutely obsessed with Micro Dwarf Tomato as they are really enjoyable to grow year round on grow racks with supplemental lighting, we have now collected over 90 varieties between us. A lot of them are offered in our Etsy shop now; https://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleIslandSeedCo We also have a lot of other garden seeds and quite a few heirloom varieties.

It feels like it took absolutely FOREVER to get from 1,000 to 10,000 sales! Its an exciting milestone and not one I ever thought I would get to when I started with one listing in 2021 for a plant I was super passionate about a few years ago (cucamelon) and I think I made one or two sales that year. Haha. I started listing a few more things in 2022 and one thing led to another. To be honest I still have zero idea of what I am doing day to day and some days are really hard. I have tried to be consistent in listing and focuses on just making clear and easy to read listings with good pictures of the actual product. It remains a hobby and is not a full-time job for either of us, but it does help fund our gardening adventures and it looks like this year we will be able to offer our first own Micro Dwarf Tomato variety!

10,000 sales! I don't think I was able to post for the first few milestones and it might be never until we get to 100,000, but 10,000 is way more than I ever thought I would achieve!

Should be a simple question for experienced sellers. 3 years ago I opened an Etsy shop. Didn’t have a single sale after 4 months. I was selling products in an already way over saturated market. I didn’t realize that then. Anyway ran some cheap ads, but nothing worked so I just stopped paying attention. Shop got shut down. Fast forward to today. I make several different products now and have a lot more understanding of how it all works, and I’m not creating products that already had 2 million others doing it. So my question, should I reopen the same shop, or create a new one (which would mean creating a totally different shop and business name)? I’d like to keep the same business name, because I’ve built it up locally and have cards/flyers and logos already from selling locally. I just don’t ones if it’ll look bad reopening a shop that got shut down. Will it show the time it was open before (around 5 months) with no sales? That might look extremely bad.

Thanks for any advice. Have a great Sunday.

so if you go onto your purchase history and check out your ongoing packages, ive noticed that for packages that have no tracking it changes from "shipping without tracking" -> "no tracking for this order", however ive also noticed that recently (for me atleast) it takes abit for etsy to write off the packages as delivered, not much of a delay maybe a few hours to a day

i have gotten a no tracking order which took afew days after the est delivery date to change the text before and this one i have rn got labled as 'no tracking for this order' on the last day that etsy estimated it, if that makes sense?

my question is the following - does the text change only when the "estimated etsy deliver date" rolls around and it isnt garenteed to be delivered or is it actually their way of saying "delivered" to these types of packages?

Hi everyone,

I am turning here because customer support has been useless. I am in France and just recently opened my shop, my location is set to France correctly but at the bottom of the finances pages it says "German VAT".

Has anyone had a similar issue?

I am also very new at this and wondering also why i am paying VAT for february when i have not made a sale yet. Isn't VAT supposed to be a % of your sales? I am paying 3.46 euros when i have 0 revenue and my prices for my products are not even above 1 euro. Can anyone help me understand how this works?

Thank you,

I just ordered a pretty expensive item from a seller on Etsy, seeing that they were located in NC, and relatively close to where I live. But upon ordering, I realized that the item ships from Turkey. And when I found their actual website, it has zero mention of being in North Carolina, and in fact, has a single address listed that just so happens to be in Turkey with a phone number listed in Turkey as well. I tried messaging the seller, to which they responded that they have warehouses in both the US and Turkey, but I've come to the conclusion that that is a lie. And upon scrolling their reviews, I found it pretty strange that many of the same buyers left several reviews within days from each other. I messaged the seller about the cancellation within minutes of ordering and he is saying that he won't cancel the order...

Hello, I placed an order in December last year and the package is late, I contacted the seller and they didn't respond so I contacted the post to investigate myself.

They said the package is lost so I sent another message to the seller and they didn't reply when requesting help.

I've never had this happen before, as in ive never lost a package or had to contact a seller like this, so I don't really know what to do. There are two options that I have found online, either open a case with Etsy or file a charge back with my bank. I'm unsure which of these to do?

Are either of these options ok to use or is there one better than the other? According to etsy, I can't use both options apparently, it's either open a case through etsy or file a charge back with my bank. If I do one I can't do the other according to the site.

I just want my money back for the things I didn't get

So I bought something kinda expensive on Etsy on the 27th realize it hadn’t been shipped by a 30th so I contacted the seller which took a while to respond so I decided to check his store only to find out that all of his items were deleted and the account nonexistent contact the seller about it again and finally got a reply, saying that they were going to ship my product in about 5 to 7 days and that they don’t know why Etsy closed their store and that they’re working on it checked again today and now I can’t even message them as the account is closed. It says that my package should be shipped out by Monday. Should I open a case now or wait.?