Etsy started out as a place to buy vintage and handmade items, but it is removing both labels from its listings. The site's slow evolution from cool craft sale to dropship catalog nears its conclusion. Instead there will be descriptions such as "made by," "designed by," "handpicked by," and "sourced by."
Etsy has differentiated itself from other marketplaces like Amazon or Temu, emphasizing itself as a place to find unique items made by an artisan or selected by a curator. But over the years, the company has loosened its rules around what exactly counts as "handmade."
In 2013, the company announced it would allow sellers to use outside production help. Sellers hawking cloth masks during the covid-19 pandemic, for example, could contract garment factories to do the actual sewing, and graphic designers could use a print-on-demand service to make T-shirts with their art instead of having to screen print it themselves.
Etsy sellers went on strike in 2022 to protest increasing fees and the dead letter of its handmade policy. I went there and typed in "leather bag" and this is what I got:
All sweatshop-tier trash.
This was all inevitable once it went public, wasn't it?
Update: It's been a week or two and the "vintage" option is at least there in search filters. So perhaps the news of its death was premature.
Previously:
• Etsy on why it banned magic spells
• Etsy sellers say their bank accounts were emptied in major billing snafu
• Etsy lays off 11% of workforce
