The ISG is a volunteer-run nonprofit — a force for indie sellers worldwide, built from the ground up to fight for workers' rights by changing the status quo of online shopping for handmade, vintage, and craft goods.
Up until recently, we functioned mostly out of indiesellersguild.org and our public Discord server. These are still very much in use, but now we have our own forums to meet, talk to, and discuss business with our fellow indie sellers.
And it's a much smoother process to joining the guild!
Just create an account and follow the site instructions to introducing yourself. You can start posting and interacting immediately. We look forward to seeing you there!
My account is still blocked from searching/tags/etc on my business blog @foundfamilyadventurecrafts so I'm posting this here. There's something very bad happening with Small Business, Tech, and Amazon. What else is new?
Links:
Bobo Design Studio for Updates & Submitting Information
Arrows Aim Greenhouse + Chroma Rex are putting together a complaint with WA State Attorney General's Office + Templates for complaints / opt out
Hey, that's us and a bunch of our friends! This whole thing SUCKS so bad and we're pissed. We've intentionally not listed our products on Amazon for the 15 years we've been in business. We're ready to join a class action lawsuit and kick some ass.
Still looking for presents to give your loved ones for this month's beloved gift-giving holidays? Shop indie by browsing our new Member Directory.
And if you're looking for something more specific, our Showcase allows verified sellers to highlight their products in a searchable database. Take a look!
A special thanks to Worx Printing for being so great to work with! They were so patient answering all our random questions AND worked extra fast to get our shop up before Black Friday.
One of our core members just received a batch of stickers, and the quality is amazing!
Get yours here:
The Indie Sellers Guild is a grassroots nonprofit organization, by indie sellers, for indie sellers. We fight for a better, fairer internet
We've changed the tone of these payment reserve posts to not be focused so much on Etsy -- changed the slogan from "Etsy Must Pay" to "Big Tech Must Pay," and changed the tag from "#etsy reserve stories" to "#reserve stories".
Why?
Well, you probably won't be surprised to learn that Amazon is also withholding money from its sellers.
Did you recently delete your Twitter account and move to that growing alternative in the big blue sky? We're there too! Come say hi if you're in the neighborhood. 👋
Hello! We're a grassroots advocacy org for creative people! This is the blurb we use on the home page of our website to introduce what we'
There has been a recent influx of social media accounts made to advertise The Wonders Of Dropshipping on any post mentioning ecommerce. Many of these seem to be bots, but a real person must be behind them -- so our very own Alex R. of @handmadehazefromtheheart decided to write up an article responding to the idea that these ecommerce "guru" types overlap with our member base of online indie sellers.
Excerpt:
To a consumer, the process of buying from big name versus indie online storefronts is the same: see the pictures, read the description, click “purchase,” and wait for a package. That standard makes it pretty easy for another kind of online seller to present you with a product on an original-looking webpage, accept your money in exchange for the promise of shipment — and then turn around and give (some of) that money to an actual supplier that sends you your purchase.
[...]
Ultimately, the Indie Sellers Guild seeks to be an online extension of the labor movement. In capitalism, things are often divided into a working class and an owning class, and we’re here for the working class. [...] [D]ropshipping is a way to claw at the benefits of being part of the owning class: gaining profit for nothing more than inserting yourself into a transaction that doesn’t need you to operate fairly. We don’t condone that, and we don’t represent that.
View it in full here.
For some insightful thoughts on print-on-demand selling -- something that we don't all agree falls under "dropshipping" but does overlap -- you'll find a link inside to another article by Valerie of Artisans Cooperative.
I would like to know how to join this guild and if you're accepting new members. I'm a Disabled quilter, a painter when I have paint, and my art page is @creations-by-chaosfay.
We're always accepting new members! I'll have to create a new pinned post later to make joining from Tumblr a bit easier. My apologies.
We recently moved to a new website for joining and verifying membership. Just set up an account, and you should find further instruction once you're in.
Once you introduce yourself, you can also treat the site like ISG specific social media - post, follow people, boost, etc.
And, fun fact: I wrote this out before opening the site as a new user to make sure I remembered how the new system works, and when I did I saw that you already figured it out. 😅 I'll still post this and make a new post to pin later for future reference.
Legitimate Handmade Creations Are Being Removed From The Site, And Shops Closed With recent changes to sellers' ability to appeal automated
Please share this everywhere, including other social media and forums - people need to know that Etsy is damaging small businesses by removing their legitimate handmade items with no way to appeal in most cases.
It's a feature on our new community website to promote your creative business.
Excerpt from our blog post:
It would be so epic if there were a Google Shopping alternative for creative people – that collates what’s available across all the small and local Etsy alternative marketplaces, and all the independent creator’s online stores – and a bunch of Etsy stuff too, except WITHOUT any of the mass-produced junk from dishonest resellers!
"Wait, new community website?" Yes! We've got one of those too now! You can easily set up an account here. We've got forums, personal feeds, our Etsy alternative database, an event tab, and more -- now including showcases where our verified indie sellers can shine a spotlight on their work.
With the help of a few of our adult product makers, we wrote an article with advice on how to survive the shutdown:
Etsy rolled out sweeping new policy guidelines for adult products that took effect earlier this week. The hardest hit by these new changes are adult toy-makers – people who create sex toys to higher standards for quality and skin sensitivity (and artistry) than what you can get from mass manufacturers. It’s unknown what prompted these changes – but we’ve seen speculation that it’s related to pressure from payment processors, or in response to age-verification requirements implemented by some US states.
It’s left many sellers scrambling to stay afloat. Unfortunately there is no one-size-fits-all answer for what an Etsy seller can do if Etsy decides to pull the rug out from under your entire business demographic – but we’re putting together a survival guide for adult product makers, based on what our members have told us.
The full article can be read here or under the read more.
1: Get a website, or a shop on an Etsy Alternative Platform
If you have a large customer following, an independent store on your website might be your best bet. In this case, you’ll need an option where you have full control; where you aren’t in danger of being excluded via a change of terms in the future. That means the “free” options are all out – you’ll need to use an online store builder at your own web domain. The two most commonly recommended by our members are Shopify and WooCommerce. Shopify costs $29 a month, and most people find it to be the easiest option to set up. WooCommerce requires a bit more technical expertise to set up, but it’s a much cheaper option – it’s a free plugin you can install on a WordPress-based website to convert it into an online store.
Stripe doesn’t allow adult products, so you won’t be able to use built-in payment options with either Shopify or Woocommerce; you’ll have to set up an alternative payment processor. Paypal can be an option, but it’s best to ask for permission first, and hope that you can get the right rep to give you the go-ahead. Otherwise, they could shut you down at some point in the future. We know of only one payment processor that explicitly and reliably allows adult products. It’s called CCBill – and unfortunately the fees are quite high – 10.8% to 14.5% of each transaction. CCBill can be installed in a Woocommerce store via a free plugin.
For small sellers, an Etsy alternative marketplace might be the better option. If you’re part of a marketplace, you don’t need to post new products as frequently in order to stay relevant in search engine algorithms, as there are other sellers posting things when you are not. There is a new Etsy Alternative marketplace formed specifically for adult-product indie sellers that looks promising – Spicerack. As of the time writing this, it’s free to set up a shop on Spicerack, with a 5% transaction fee (plus Paypal fees) on each sale. Membership is open worldwide, although all orders must ship to the US until they figure out tax compliance for other countries.
The ISG is working on an Etsy Alternatives Database to help sellers find the best alternatives that will work for their unique businesses. “Allows Adult Products” is one of the filters we’ve built in – but we could use some help researching which options are actually adult-product-friendly, and which aren’t. If you’re interested in collaborating with us on this project, please reach out!
2: Extract what you can from Etsy
Will you continue to sell on Etsy in the future? The answer to this question varies based on your business, and whether there are portions of your product line that are still allowed, and still viable with the restrictions. If you plan to continue to sell some of your adult products on Etsy, create an image to add to each of your listings. In the image, let shoppers know that you create more things that can’t be sold on Etsy anymore, and where to find them. If you plan to take this route, be sure you’re complying with these Etsy policies:
New 2024 Adult Content Policy
How to Correctly List Mature Content
Off Platform Transaction Policy
Whether you plan to continue to sell on Etsy or not, we recommend extracting a list of emails for your past customers. There are Google Chrome extensions that can do this very quickly, or you can find the emails individually by clicking the down arrow next to the person’s name on your Etsy “Completed Orders” page. Spam laws vary by country – and we recommend researching your local laws – but in most countries, it’s okay to send an individualized followup email after a customer purchase. Ask them if they are still pleased with their purchase, and let them know about the changes on Etsy and where to find you in the future.
If you’re a long term Etsy seller who must leave entirely, we don’t recommend closing your shop. Instead, deactivate all your listings, and update your shop banner, shop avatar, and shop announcement to share where you’re selling now. This way, people who have bookmarked your shop (or even added your sold-out listings to favorites) can immediately see that you moved rather than shut down, and more easily find you in your new location.
3: Connect with your community
Are there any events local to you that are adult-product-friendly? A well-attended local event can be the best way to replace income from a lost Etsy shop – so if you haven’t done local vending yet, now is a good time to break into that market! It can be hard to find kink-related events if you aren’t plugged into specific communities yet – but niche communities are typically interwoven. Find a con – any con – make some friends, ask specific questions, and leave your business cards out everywhere you can. It will only be a matter of time until you’re connected up with the niche community that best matches what you make.
It’s also possible that established events nearby will allow adult products, even if you haven’t seen any there yet. Think of which events your customers would be likely to frequent, and ask event management if your products are allowed. You’ll never know until you ask! Some of our members have found success partnering with local brick and mortar stores. It’s all about putting yourself out there, and starting conversations with people.
It’s possible to find community online too. You can search through hashtags of similar indie products, or issues surrounding your specific products. Right now, for instance, searching for “Etsy” in adult-related online communities brings up a bunch of toy makers and kink gear makers who are not happy with these new changes, and quite ready to network with one another and spread the word about alternatives.
On that note, please join the Indie Sellers Guild, if you haven’t yet! Membership is free, and we welcome makers of adult products. Once we finish working out the kinks and learning how the technology works on our new community website, we plan to create an adults-only area there. We would love to have you join us!
Hey all! We are so excited to announce that our new community website is now open to all verified seller members. If you're verified with the guild, check your email for an invite. If you're not, you can become verified by joining the Guild as a seller member via the link below. (None of this costs money, by the way! Join the ISG to help advocate for indie sellers everywhere. 💪)
Since we started collecting reseller stories last year, we've heard from quite a few people about Etsy's complete lack of action on taking the listings down.
I sell handmade bucket hats. I searched Etsy to see what else was being offered. So many hats were priced at $15 or less. My hats are at least $49 being handmade. I was able to go onto Alibaba and find many of the hats being sold on Etsy. The same with my upcycled patched jeans. I even reported the sellers to Etsy with links to the Alibaba site with the exact picture. Nothing happened. Those listings were never taken down.
-Bunny
Items are being incorrectly categorized by Etsy's AI.
Etsy has announced their newest initiative to "Keep Commerce Human". Now, every listing will have descriptors that say “made”, “designed”, “handpicked”, or “sourced”.
Except:
Instead of letting the actual humans who sell on Etsy add descriptors to their own listings, they're categorizing it all with AI bots. Check your listings!
If your listings were miscategorized, at present, the only option is to open a support ticket with Etsy. There is a survey about the new changes available here:
