Thousands of sellers on the popular global marketplace Etsy have thrown their support behind an online strike to protest what they describe as unfair and costly changes to the platform.
Sellers began their one-week strike on Monday, opting to either put their online stores on "vacation mode," effectively hiding them, or declaring their support for the effort.
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition with a list of demands for the company, among them the cancellation of a 30-per-cent transaction fee increase that also came into effect Monday.
Etsy announced in February that it would increase the transaction fee it charges sellers on the total amount of an order from five per cent to 6.5 per cent.
At the time, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said active sellers increased their sales by 23 per cent on average in 2021 compared to 2019.
Etsy previously increased its transaction fee in July 2018, raising it to five per cent from 3.5 per cent.
Kristi Cassidy, a seller from Westerly, R.I., who helped organize the protest, says nearly 23,000 sellers who have signed the petition agreed to participate in the strike in some form as of Tuesday morning.
"It is taking off like you wouldn't believe," Cassidy told CTVNews.ca in a WhatsApp call on Tuesday.
FRUSTRATION OVER FEES, CHANGES
Cassidy, who joined the platform in 2006, currently makes and sells gothic Victorian steampunk wedding dresses, a style she describes as "wearable art for people who refuse to be ordinary."
Despite singing its praises in the early days, she says she has seen Etsy gradually change over time, focusing more on growth and profits.
Founded in 2005, Etsy serves as an online platform for people to sell handmade and vintage items. Based out of Brooklyn, N.Y., it currently has 7.5 million sellers and nearly 100 million active buyers worldwide.
The petition, addressed to Silverman, describes the marketplace as resembling more of a "dictatorial relationship between a faceless tech empire and millions of exploited, majority-women craftspeople."
Supporters of the strike also have pointed to Etsy's record gross marketplace sales last year, as well as the company’s recent acquisitions.
"As individual crafters, makers and small businesspeople, we may be easy for a giant corporation like Etsy to take advantage of," the strike petition reads.
"But as an organized front of people, determined to use our diverse skills and boundless creativity to win ourselves a fairer deal, Etsy won't have such an easy time shoving us around."
Beyond the transaction fee increase, Cassidy and other sellers have expressed frustration with additional fees charged for offsite ads and payment processing, the company's Star Seller program, auto-reply messages, support tickets and resellers peddling mass-produced items that are described as handmade.
"Any change that favours cheaper products over more expensive [ones] is going to hurt the people who are actually creating the handmade products that the platform claims to be about," Cassidy said.
After Etsy announced its transaction fee increase, Cassidy decided to take to the discussion website Reddit, where the strike began to take shape and the idea of an Etsy sellers' union took hold.
Emma Kasper, a seller from Montreal who has been on Etsy since 2017, currently makes and sells pins and stickers through her store.
Kasper joined the weeklong strike, putting her store on vacation mode.
Although Etsy isn't her main source of income, her frustrations with the platform include the number of resellers on the website, as well as its free shipping offer to American buyers on orders of US$35 or more.
The latter, she says, can be expensive for sellers, while those who do join the program are promoted more often.
As someone with a smaller store, she says she would like to see Etsy promote sellers like her.
And with more people supporting small businesses through Etsy, which at one point in the pandemic saw a surge in sales of homemade masks, Kasper says the company seems to be moving toward an Amazon-type model.
In 2017, Etsy also laid off 15 per cent of its workforce.
"I guess it doesn't affect my livelihood very much, but I do find it quite frustrating, especially with their record profits," she said.
NEW FEES TO INCREASE INVESTMENT, COMPANY SAYS
In a statement, a spokesperson for Etsy said sellers' success is a "top priority" for the company.
"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," the spokesperson said.
"We are committed to providing great value for our 5.3 million sellers so they are able to grow their businesses while keeping Etsy a beloved, trusted, and thriving marketplace."
Kasper says, given the amount of money Etsy has made throughout the pandemic, it doesn't make sense for them to charge sellers more in order to improve the platform.
For example, she says, it is much harder now for sellers to speak to a real customer service representative.
"They made customer service for sellers worse and then they want more of our money to make it better again, which I don't really understand," Kasper said.
Cassidy said the company's statement doesn't really answer the demands of those on strike.
However, seeing the number of people who have thrown their support behind it shows that a “huge” portion of sellers agree the way the platform is treating them is "outright wrong," she said.
"They need to start really being that 'Keep Commerce Human' brand that they claim to be, and that means listening to us."
With files from CNN
