How Etsy Became An On-Demand Corporation

I’m going to post a lot of screenshots, and what I’d like you to pay attention to most is the store names. The name of each Etsy shop is listed underneath the photo and description of the product, right above the price. So for the following screenshot, you’ll note that these are eight different Etsy stores, despite five of the eight clearly being the same products.

These are the top Etsy searches if I search for “toddler gift.” In every category to follow, these were the top searches.

Below, the top searches for “toddler backpack.” Again, you’ll note a very unlikely eight different store names, selling these identical items.

Below, top searches for “personalized stocking.”

You may be seeing a trend. It is difficult to find any on-demand products which aren’t overrun by the same exact images and products, despite supposedly being from different stores.

It is Etsy policy that if someone has more than one Etsy store under the same identification, (for instance, if I opened more than one store with the same ID and SSN), the stores must each have that listed in their public profile.

I initially thought predatory vendors had taken over Etsy. However, I realized Etsy would not be prioritizing them in search, and Etsy would also make them follow this policy - each store would have to have the other stores listed. There is not a single of these stores following that policy.

I had an Etsy store for three years, and I know every time I was not following policy, they found it and quickly, and I was made to immediately follow the policy or have my store suspended.

If there were predatory vendors opening so many print-on-demand stores that actual sellers could not be found in search, Etsy would force those predatory vendors to follow policy. That these are allowed to operate this way, and that they are the only stores which can be found in search, shows that Etsy has done this themselves.

Etsy claims to be a market of small businesses. I ask you if any of the above or any of the below photos look like a gathering of separate, small businesses are running them. Or if it looks more like one giant corporation has created many, many stores to sell print-on-demand products in place of small businesses.

I encourage you to search for anything customizable on Etsy whatsoever and try to believe these are many different businesses.

I have about a hundred of these screenshots, just from the obvious things I could think to search.

Etsy is not a company which sells products made by small businesses any longer. That is a very small fraction of what is even findable in search.

The remainder of these screenshots show they’re now doing the same with digital purchases.

I began this process and only realized what they were doing because I had an Etsy store for three years selling digital products. I tried to ask Etsy what was going on and why fake, AI-run stores were now not only prioritized in search, but the only ones which could be found even if the stores were brand new (and brand new stores run by Etsy are popping up every single day for digital purchases) and found that it was impossible to put in a help ticket as a seller on Etsy. The only option was to post on the Seller’s Forum.

I posted on the Seller’s Forum. Etsy immediately deleted my post, and then a few hours later, began to delete my listings for “not following company policy.” I have since deleted my Etsy store, as I want nothing to do with such shameful and disgusting lies.

Etsy is not a marketplace for small businesses - it is one large business lying to us about what we are buying and from whom.

“Extremely medium reading” lol, I can’t.

Below, I searched “soap.” I thought it was good to have a control group. This looks more like different stores. The images have different backgrounds, are of different quality, are clearly using different methods, etc. The above simply are the same exact products and images over and over.