On Monday, April 18, Etsy
"Etsy's last fee increase was in July 2018. If this new one goes through, our basic fees to use the platform will have more than doubled in less than four years," the petition reads. "Unlike employees or tenants in traditional retail marketplace settings, Etsy can fire or evict us at any time, for any reason, with no recourse. Our fees (the rent we pay as tenants of Etsy's marketplace) can be unilaterally raised any time Etsy feels like it."
The change in sellers' fees from 5% to 6.5% was announced during an earnings call in February of this year. Over the past three years, Etsy has consistently reported earning increases, leading many of the company's 5.3 million active sellers to question why an increase in the cost of doing business on the platform is needed.
Strikers are asking the company to cancel the fee increase, crackdown on Etsy resellers, revamp the seller support system, and introduce the choice to opt-out of expensive off-site ads. According to sellers, off-site ads can lead to charges as high as 15% on sales.
The striking sellers are taking one of two actions in protest: either putting their shops on "vacation mode" or deactivating all of their Etsy listings. According to strike organizers, deactivating listings allows sellers to avoid being penalized by Etsy's algorithm.
"If you put your shop in 'vacation mode', it kind of resets your place in the Etsy search," Kristi Cassidy, one of the organizers, told reporters.
Along with seller action, strike organizers are asking customers to also forgo any Etsy purchases during the strike.
"Etsy has become a downright hostile place for authentic small businesses to operate. For both full-time and part-time sellers alike, the changes on Etsy have brought many of us to the brink of financial ruin," strike organizers wrote in a letter to Etsy CEO Josh Silverman. "We don't want a long, drawn-out struggle, but our movement will only continue to grow unless these issues are addressed."
Meanwhile, Etsy isn't budging. In fact, the company says that the increase in fees will directly respond to the complaints brought by strikers.
"We are always receptive to seller feedback and, in fact, the new fee structure will enable us to increase our investments in areas outlined in the petition, including marketing, customer support, and removing listings that don't meet our policies," said Raina Moskowitz, Etsy's chief operating officer.
Investors were also happy with the fee increase, and analysts claim that the increase will have a long-term positive impact across the board for sellers despite burdening them with extra costs.
"We appreciate the concerns of the sellers. This is their livelihood," said Guggenheim analyst Seth Sigman. "But the offset is the company is using this as a lever to reinvest back into the business. Our view is that it should ultimately lead to stronger market share gains."
Etsy sellers aren't so hopeful. After fees were increased in 2018 from 3.5% to 5%, Cassidy and other sellers say the payoff didn't arrive. Now that they've realized they can successfully organize a strike, the creators are looking toward unionizing. Organizers specifically cited recent unionizing efforts at Starbucks
"We haven't been sure what to call it," Cassidy said. "Is it union? Is it handmade slash vintage solidarity? What do we call this thing? What that looks like, we don't really know, because we're kind of navigating uncharted territory."
