Today’s post is a follow-up to Wednesday’s post. Yesterday, Etsy's CEO Chad Dickerson wrote a lengthy 'note' to the Etsy community concerning the recent furor over the items offered by the unnamed shop. I had hoped to offer it here as a reassurance from the top to sellers of handmade on Etsy. Unfortunately, as you'll see if you read it, it offered nothing of the kind.
Instead, all I can offer to you is the response I made in the Etsy forums today, since he invited it at the end of his letter:
DelectablyDiva from DelectablyDiva says
I read Chad's letter yesterday, hoping it'd be something positive I could post on my blog as a follow up. But instead, I found a lengthy tome that skillfully managed to say nothing...and yet, upon reflection, everything (to me). The slippery slide has begun.
[Earlier in these comments] GiftsAndTalents said:
"Just to be sure I am understanding the situation...instead of working endless hours making my products (12-16 hrs. a day 7 days a week). It is now okay for me to outsource all of this labor and call it "collective" as long as I disclose that I have hired a bunch of people to do the work? Is this correct? Also, if I find something that is handmade in a foreign country, as long as it's handmade, it is now okay for me to import it and say I handmade it? Is this correct?"
While I have not had time to read all the comments on these pages, I could bet the contents of my shop that that question has not been answered by Etsy admin yet--nor is it likely to be.
In that Etsy has declared a policy of having no egalitarian policy, but instead, reviews each shop's case "individually," I predict the outcome will be that many, many shops here (particularly the newer ones) will begin to do what is most economically advantageous for them, individually. Since the shop accounts on Etsy are multiplying exponentially, sellers can count on the fact that 1) they will not be discovered, or 2) if flagged, and if they are pulling in the $, they can "work with" Etsy to rewrite their shop/item descriptions in such a way that they, too, can say 'nothing, yet everything.'
Chad, any company that relies on the uninformed nature of their consumers is bound to go down. Consumers that know about Overstock.com, Alibaba, or similar online sites WILL NOT BE BACK to shop on Etsy if they discover products listed here that they see offered there. (And they will discover them, eventually.) That is because Etsy bills itself as being made up of entrepreneurial, small businesses offering one-of-a-kind, uniquely handmade products. Moreover, these buyers will be justifiably inflamed about being taken, and will spread the angry word.
You've been quoted as saying you want to take Etsy public. The article also states, "While many artisans have made a good amount of money by selling through Etsy, Dickerson said the next step is to help them grow and expand in whatever way they want to. And that means rethinking what Etsy is and its value proposition for its sellers." gigaom.com/2012/02/02/etsy-to-become-an-indie-biz-one-stop-shop/
But going public means Etsy had better get a handle on its PR...which is very, very bad right now--particularly internally. Can a company ultimately have good PR with its customers if it can't have the same internally, with the people that supposedly make it what it is? I don't think so; it would be doomed to implode.
And if 'rethinking Etsy' truly means letting them "grow and expand in whatever way they want to," then...I think that's really the beginning of the end of what Etsy used to be all about. With the change in CEO leadership, it seems we really do have a change in definition re Etsy.
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