things change - let’s actually get back to human [e-] commerce again

Writing this is intended to get things off of my chest, to help me process things, to help me think “out loud”, to educate others, to remind myself, to stop stewing and start doing. Also, I recognize that this is very inside baseball.

A few things that I know, just so that we are clear and on the same page (just riffing here):

1. Change is Inevitable (Who Moved My Cheese?)
2. People change, systems change, code can and will change (and not always correctly).
3. A majority of one’s eggs in one’s basket is unwise.
4. Change can take time, or it can turn on a dime.
5. Pivoting is required, strengthen your ankles.
6. Its not what you know, its who you know.
7. People will do business with people they like, know, and trust.
8. Never Assume.
9. Never forget your why.

what happened was

I received an email from Etsy Thursday afternoon prompting me to update/verify my contact/legal information.

This helps us meet changing local and global regulations and create a better experience for buyers, so they keep coming back knowing Etsy is a trusted place to shop.

Ok, right. Let’s just get this out of the way before the already-here Christmas retail season gets into full gear. 

I login to my shop dashboard and begin to follow the prompts. Next, next, next, update required. They need an updated “Government ID”, I assume this is because my address is new (I recently moved). 

Alright. All good. I have the “Driver’s License Update” card provided by PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, i.e. massive government department). I’ll just take a picture, upload it, and move on. 

Snap. Upload. Wait.

Robot email arrives.

Hi Aaron,Congratulations on your successful sale on Etsy! As you are now selling regularly, Etsy is required to verify seller identity to enable the continued use of Etsy Payments, and we were unable to verify your identity with the document you provided at onboarding.

I added the bold for emphasis. Also, not just 1 successful sale on Etsy, but 790. But, ok. Whatever. Why should we be accurate. They need me to re-upload. So I do so. 

Upload. Wait.

Robot email arrives.

Hi Aaron,It looks like we need more time to verify your identity using the info you shared, so we’ve placed your shop in temporary Vacation Mode (emphasis theirs!). This means you can’t receive orders from buyers right now, and your listings won’t appear in search results on Etsy until your identity is verified.As a reminder, identity and fraud-prevention checks help us protect the integrity of our marketplace and comply with laws. 

...”protect the integrity of our marketplace...” Are you kidding me? I’ve been a verified seller since January of 2021. 790 sales. Still the same guy here.

...”we need more time...” Sounds like a you problem, not a me problem. Take all the time you need, but seeing as I was good before, why do I have to be put in “Etsy Jail” because YOU need more time? I was not guilty before, but now I am? Based on what? Your AI can’t process what I provided? Again, sounds like something YOU need to work on.

...”This means you can’t receive orders from buyers right now, and your listings won’t appear in search results on Etsy...” Really? Now? At the beginning of the absolute most important time of year for a retailer? NOW? YOU need more time NOW and so YOU decide to halt all business to my shop in order to “protect the integrity of...[your] marketplace.” Awesome.

...”until your identity is verified.” Why am I assumed guilty immediately? I simply moved from one address to another. I still pay taxes. I still receive orders. I still actually make what I sell with my own two hands (which is becoming less and less common on Etsy). I’m still ME.

Also, robot emails always come from noreply@etsy.com - i.e. we don’t care, don’t even try.

The second to last line of this email:

We may reach out for more info within 1-3 days, so keep an eye on your email.

Ok. I’ll do that.

And I’ll pay my bills with the Monopoly money I have laying around.

I’ll “keep an eye” on my email. Like a desperate puppy, waiting for master to give me a treat.

Oh, and since they put my shop in Vacation Mode I can’t change the message that appears. It says I’m busy working through orders. Yeah, I am, but NO I’m NOT on vacation. What is a vacation?

I do dig through the “help” section of Etsy and get to the point where I can send an email. And even that is met with an automated reply! Ridiculous. And it includes this line:

Hello,Thanks for contacting Etsy.Please take the time to carefully review the following information. If you do not find a solution to your concern, reply to this email and an agent will get back to you as soon as possible.

Insane.

Etsy recently started this campaign of “Keep Commerce Human”, as-if a publicly traded company can do such a thing. What is so human about any of this!?

I replied with the following:

I just want to hear from a human. All of the responses I have received so far regarding the upload of my documents has been automated and is extremely concerning. I make all of what I sell, I have been on Etsy since 2021 as a verified seller. To have my shop put into vacation mode at this point in the retail season is extremely concerning and very discouraging as a seller. Please just have a human get in touch with me so that we can get things resolved as soon as possible. Thank you! Aaron Aiken

Not expecting anything from them.

Maybe they will send over a reply, but I’m not counting on it.

Etsy is dead to me.

If my shop comes back up tomorrow, great. Sales I get through Etsy, awesome. They’ll be fulfilled. But will I prioritize optimizing my shop for their search algorithm? No. Will I prioritize adding new products there before sending out an email to my list? No.

The juice is just not worth the squeeze anymore. Especially when they can shut down your tiny little lemonade stand at the drop of their hat.

now it is my turn to change

Lessons learned. Always. I’ve known since day one of doing this business part-time beginning in 2021, then full-time beginning late last year, that having a majority of my revenue come from a single source was a bad idea.

I still do some I.T. consulting, and it is solidly my background, and know that having a single point of failure is terrible architecture. Redundancy is a must, always. Business changes. Processes change. The market will change. How will you remain operational?

Just like Etsy will come and go, so too will other aspects of my business.

I recently had to work through a major back issue that kept me away from my workbench for two solid days. NOT GOOD. And it was a reminder that I need to have other streams of [less physically demanding] income for when the inevitable surprises come up.

Etsy claims they want to keep commerce human, but I strongly disagree. The reality is, they lack the courage to truly commit to that vision. If you genuinely want to keep commerce human, here’s a simple request from a seller’s perspective: allow me to contact my customers outside of Etsy without violating your Terms of Service. But that’s not an option because, for Etsy, commerce isn’t about real human connection—it’s about their stock price. End of story.

My attitude towards Etsy hasn’t always been like this. When I didn’t rely on sales from my leather work as a primary source of income they could do whatever they wanted. I didn’t care. I was pulling a solid healthy salary from a company, doing leather when I had the time, appreciating the sales when they came in. But ever since taking this full-time, coincidentally, Etsy has been nothing but an absolute pain to deal with as a full-time “maker”.

my recommendation to Etsy

Take into consideration account age, sales, reviews, etc. If something like this fails in the future, send an email that says:

Hey, our AI system sucks and can’t quite recognize what you uploaded. But, based on your account and the fact that you are already a verified seller, a human specialist is going to reach out to you at the email or phone number listed on your account. Your shop will remain open through this process. If you don’t hear from us within 30 minutes here’s a case number to use when you call us.

Send me that and I won’t jump ship.

From an IT perspective: consult your users.

From a human perspective: treat me like a human.

But, since that will never happen...

“what are you going to do about it?”

Another IT lesson to apply is identifying “next steps.”

I’ve sat in my fair share of executive meetings, have participated in and conducted AARs (after action reviews), and so on and so forth...this point in the meeting is what actually matters:

“So, with all that you know, with what you have learned, in order to keep things moving forward, in order to keep us operational, which is a very human thing to do, what are your next steps?. In other words, what action(s) are you going to take in order to show us that you are serious about the things you’ve said up to this point and to keep something like that happening again in the future?”

1. More in-person events
2. More emails, more social media (yes, yes, I know)
3. More Markdown, HTML, CSS, etc.
4. Less marketplaces

Put simply, and this is not financial advice, but if I were to offer my future-self (which is stacked, by the way) financial advice, it would be thus: diversify.

And so I shall.

Stay tuned, please, and support the craftsman you know.

Cheers, 
~ Aaron