The end of the year typically brings about two kinds of activities- looking back on the lessons learned from this and planning for next year. Every business owner that is learning and growing will find they are discontent with part of their business. It’s part of the growth and improvement process. This year we have been increasingly hearing about discontent with online platforms, Etsy in particular. Is 2024 the year you start looking beyond Etsy?
This year has been a challenging year for Etsy. Etsy recently announced that they are laying off an additional 11% of their workforce. Etsy is a publicly traded company, but this also means they are accountable to Wall Street in addition to their buyers and sellers. “There are currently around 7 million sellers on the Etsy platform.*
“Etsy CEO Josh Silverman noted in a letter to employees that Etsy’s marketplace has more than doubled in size since 2019 but said today’s macroenvironment and competitive realities call for sweeping changes.”
No company can double in size in four years without making changes. This is normal and to be expected. The difficult part of that growth is that it comes with a price. Algorithms change and you have to adapt to the new algorithms (if you can even figure out what it is prioritizing). Platform requirements can make you feel like you are chasing a set of rules that keep changing.
These are part of how marketplaces are evolving over time. But all businesses evolve over time. Is your business the exact same as when you started? Many artisan businesses start on Etsy. It’s easy and convenient to use an existing platform. It provides access to buyers to get the journey started. The first several years are spent learning and growing your business. There are already so many other processes to master first. Scheduling, production, inventory, sales- there is a lot going on in the early years as you and your business learn and grow.
Yet over time, some cracks start to appear. We talked about a few of these in our fall article on how to use Etsy and Shopify together. It could be that the types of products you want to sell don’t fit neatly into what Etsy wants you to sell due to delivery dates. Etsy also has very specific requirements for you to remain a star seller. You may have been hit with algorithm changes one too many times. You may feel like you are getting a little lost inside all that tremendous marketplace growth and algorithmic changes. What if you could start building out something you can have more control over?
You may also find something is starting to shift inside of you. The more people you talk to, the more you realize there are a lot of options out there for selling your products. This can include updating or building your own website. You may even see the occasional Instagram post from an artisan sharing that they made the switch. From our vantage point, building out your own site is becoming an increasingly typical conversation.
Having more than one sales channel is realistic and pragmatic. Why wouldn’t you diversify? It helps you hedge against what any given platform changes. It is empowering to be in the driver’s seat of your business. At a certain point, it’s time to branch out and pursue these additional options.
But when you start to think more about it, reality may set in. It starts to get a little scary. Where do you start? What would you actually need to do in order to make this new plan a reality?
How do you actually make sure it gets done and doesn’t sit at the bottom of your never ending to do list?
This is where Deb from Tizzit comes in! She is offering a free training session “Beyond Etsy: The 4-step process to grow a successful e-commerce store.” The session will be live Tuesday, January 16th at 5 PM US EST. Deb has coached artisan businesses for many years, and has the experience to help you navigate this journey beyond Etsy. She’ll share a structured process that will help you move from just wanting to do this to actually getting it done.
If you are ready to get in the driver’s seat for your business for 2024, this will be a can’t miss session!
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/13/etsy-laying-off-11percent-of-staff-citing-competitive-environment.html
