#indie sellers guild
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We're gearing up for the ISG Virtual Convention
Indie sellers deserve an internet where it's possible to earn a fair living wage for creative work.
Shoppers deserve an internet where it's possible to support the makers, creators, and small businesses that you love, without so much of your payment being gobbled up by big tech platforms.
Together, we can build that internet.
Learn more at the first annual Indie Sellers Guild Virtual Convention, scheduled for April 13-14, 2024, entitled—
Support Small Sellers: Freedom from Etsy and other Big Tech
See what we have planned through the link below, and register to attend for only 1 USD.
We hope to see you there!
#Isg#support indie artists#support small artists#support small business#small business#workers rights#indie sellers guild#indie sellers#ISG virtual convention#Etsy#Big tech
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Some points to ponder on supporting small businesses, just in time for the holiday shopping season and Small Business Saturday! ✨ Feel free to download & share these images.
When money's tighter than ever and there are plenty of big corporations to boycott, please consider your local & favorite small businesses if you can spend. 💞
#shareable#small business saturday#small biz saturday#small biz sat#boycott black friday#shop small#shop local#do what you can#indie sellers guild#indie sellers#artists on etsy#makers on etsy#boycott walmart#boycott amazon#boycott starbucks#boycott disney#boycott mcdonalds#shop direct#artists on tumblr#holiday shopping
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The @indiesellersguild has printed merch now and ✨I want a tote bag ✨
I can maybe do that for myself after Christmas, idk.
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I'm going to be in Rostock, Germany for the foreseeable future starting in May. That means a few things that I'll put in bullet points for your convenience and mine:
The shop will be closed starting then until I figure out some legal stuff regarding shipping commercial items in Germany (hit me up if you can help lol).
I will start going to physical market events! I don't know if or how many followers I have now that are in that area, but it would be neat if someday y'all could come down to one of those.
I'm getting t4t married. :3
I will need to start making more money. I hope I can do it all through my art.
If you like the look of any of the below, please consider supporting me either monitarily or by following and spreading the word!
#craftblr#crocheting#embroidery#crochetblr#amigurumi#Trans#Ace#Aro#Aroace#Trans pride#indie sellers guild#Creators rising#Catnip#Cat toys#my face#trans selfie#on the shop#uncaptioned#No spoons for alt text today
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i don’t really talk about this on here but i was part of the etsy strike back in april. since then, we have been working on building a union-like guild for all indie e-sellers and we are finally ready to launch publicly! we’re called the Indie Sellers Guild and tomorrow, september 5th @ 1pm EDT, there will be a livestream on multiple platforms under our name to announce this and a q&a panel.
you can get more info here: indiesellersguild.org/launch
membership is open to anyone who would like to support us as well as online sellers! you can apply for both on our website. i hope you join me tomorrow (:
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I PROCLAIM A SALE!
Prints. Bookplates. Journals. Sketchbooks. PATCHES. Planners. COMMISSIONS?!
Fandom. Queer shit. How-to for making your OWN books. Books for your spells, recipes, fanwork, and next great novel. It’s ALL going on sale.
Quick info:
- sale lasts through Jan 23, 2023
- go to https://ko-fi.com/ajollyyarn
- COUPON FOR IN-STOCK INVENTORY: 30N2023
- COUPON FOR COMMISSIONS: 30OFF2023
- ko-fi tips and memberships are also open, but not discounted
Literally all inventory and all commissions, including things previously discounted, are included. I’ve never run a sale (that I remember) this big, or with such a big discount.
Commissions? You want? I will make prints, books, books with prints, planners, custom bookplates, bookmarks, you contact me about it, you got it. If it’s not already in the commission section, just reach out to me. I want to talk. Commissions are fun and I already frankly undercharge for them. Plus there’s now a DISCOUNT.
Why am I doing this? Real talk? Only for you, tumblr.
See, I had to get some very expensive medical tests done that I am required to pay off in a very short amount of time, because what they are and how American health insurance isn’t helping me. I have more major medical procedures likely coming up, and I’m currently in physical therapy. None of that is cheap, and the physical therapy is interfering a little with my other, already part-time, job.
Also, this week some “someday I’ll fix it” problems with our house became “no, this needs fixed ASAP actually” problems. Our roof needs replaced and some other repairs, and a door needs replaced. Again, all expensive, often requiring up-front or upon-delivery payment, and it’s the beginning of winter here.
I am looking for another job, but that process takes time. So we’re doing a BIG SALE! 30% OFF! WOOO!
eta: I’m sorry, I only do shipping within the US since I moved off of etsy. There is a DIY bookbinding PDF available, and I could do PDF commissions if you’re outside the US and interested in something.
Check it out! Spread it around! Tell your friends and your mom!
#sale#ko-fi#ko-fi promo#bookbinding#bookbinder#printmaking#frodo lives#star wars#tolkien#cripplepunk#cripple punk#the rules are queer#indie sellers guild
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We put our four designs to a vote, and spent some time finalizing the one that won, and here's our new Indie Sellers Guild logo! And our new website is in the works too. ^.^ Oh, and follow us at https://indiesellersguild.tumblr.com!
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RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), January 2024
Welcome to my first commerce news update of 2024!
Now that we are through the intensity of the holiday rush, I plan on getting a few of these out each month. Please follow me on Bluesky or on LinkedIn if you want more timely updates. (New ways to get updates coming soon!)
TOP NEWS & ARTICLES
Some Etsy listings now have a link which displays some shop owners' names and home addresses under the seller contact info, which says “Meet your seller”. This may be legally required in some jurisdictions, including within the US if you don’t have a proper location on your shop, but here is how to remove it if you don’t need it. Here’s some of the info on the US INFORM Act which could require disclosure of your information; the EU and UK are other jurisdictions which sometimes may require this info if you sell to them.
Reminder that UK small sellers may end up having their taxable income reported by the platforms they sell on starting for 2024. “The first deadline for firms to report details of transactions is the end of January 2025 – a year after the rules come into force. Bank account details and the cost of transactions made by sellers with sizable trading activity must be reported.” Etsy reminded shop owners that there is no change in taxes owed in the UK; the changes force platforms to report income so that people can’t evade taxes as easily.
In case you missed it, many USPS rates, as well as forever stamps, went up again on January 21. Some label services such as eBay may actually offer decreases in certain categories, however.
ETSY NEWS
Etsy announced 2 (very different) “privacy” changes at the beginning of January: limiting some third-party apps from receiving buyer email addresses, and making the Etsy forum a seller-only site in the near future. Shops will have to log in to read anything other than Announcements and the Technical Issues sections. We are not yet sure if this applies to shops in long-term vacation mode.
Etsy teased a promotional announcement on Jan. 16, which is likely that the site will be launching Gift Mode [post by me with a link to another post with screenshots]. I’ll write more on that once it is officially released, but here is one of my screenshots from today, with lots of infringement. Also, the site is apparently buying a Super Bowl ad. This year’s ads are expected to cost at least $7 million USD. Etsy forum thread discussing both topics here.
Etsy chose not to respond to this article about AI art sold as indigenous creations. “Etsy has a policy that prohibits users from selling items falsely listed as being produced by Indigenous peoples — but only in Northern America, and allows “Indigenous-style” products by non-Indigenous people.”
Some shop owners from Turkey claim their shops are being shut down at a high rate, with no explanation. At least some had issues with items that cannot be sold on Etsy, and there appeared to be some with ID or financial anomalies. I am still interested in hearing more, if anyone knows anything.
EcommerceBytes covered the Etsy problems with the domestic pricing tool charging some international buyers domestic prices, which have been going on since May 2023. While some sellers have managed to get refunds from the company, others report no such luck.
ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)
General
The Indie Sellers Guild is running a virtual convention in April; read the panel ideas here.
Amazon
Amazon product pages now have a link to get AI-answers to your questions. Expect to see a lot more of this on many types of sites.
There are several keyword tools that can help you optimize your Amazon products; 5 are discussed here, but note that some may be pricy.
The latest layoffs at Amazon include people working for the “Buy with Prime” department.
Amazon’s difficult-to-navigate system for suspensions and other punishments has led to entire law firms dedicated to supporting shops that have been closed or have had listings removed.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce sites can now have a marketplace component, meaning that a single business site can now have other sellers on it.
eBay
eBay had to pay $3 million over its behaviour in the cyberstalking case against Ina and David Steiner, owners of EcommerceBytes. The Steiners issued a victim impact statement; the civil lawsuit in this matter goes to trial in March 2025.
eBay’s discounted Tracked Packet rate from Canada Post has been extended to March 31, 2024.
Buyers and sellers are getting annoyed with long delays in product authentication.
eBay called a few sellers and pushed them to offer cheaper shipping rates, based on the discounted rates for eBay’s labels. (They seem to have forgotten that they charge fees on those shipping rates.)
Poshmark
Poshmark’s recent policy changes included a class action waiver. Changes are effective February 5.
All Other Marketplaces
Depop released its first Trends Report, similar to those put out by its parent company, Etsy.
Bonanza is introducing a combo website builder/inventory integration and accounting platform called Vercado. Price will be $99 a month, so I strongly suggest investigating what - if any - advantages it provides over its competitors.
Payment Processing
PayPal and Venmo are teasing some big ecommerce plans for this year, to be announced on Jan. 25. It involves use of AI, and the possibility of improving engagement rates.
Shipping
There have been numerous reports of major USPS shipping delays, especially in Texas.
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i've vaguely mentioned this here before but i'm part of the indie sellers guild, a union-type organization for all online indie sellers.
we're currently doing a survey on what sellers' ideal online marketplaces are. if you're an indie sellers on etsy or your own website or anywhere else on the internet, it'd be great if you could fill it out here:
depaul.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e8KlZKOzvXzyMLk
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It's American Shopping Weekend! (Black Friday/Small Biz Saturday/Cyber Monday) I'm celebrating with my first major sale: Use code SHOLS2022 for 25% off your order at www.thebookroadie.com ~°~ Thanks for shopping small biz! ~°~ Image Description: A graphic with the text above in orange and white on a gray background. At the bottom of the image is a simple graphic with a white hand holding a blue pair of pliers, yellow ruler, and pink paintbrush, with text reading "Verified Seller Member of the Indie Sellers Guild" - because I'm a verified seller member! I haven't decked out my site with badges yet but it's on the to do list. https://www.instagram.com/p/ClXzwvAr_p6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
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For anyone still selling on Etsy, this CNBC article is worth a read.
Below the link is a short excerpt I thought was important, then CNBC's key points, followed by our own.
“Etsy is intensely focused on reigniting growth, driving sales for our nearly 7 million sellers around the world, and delivering value to all of our stakeholders. Today, we announced that we are reorganizing our internal structure so that we can double down on these efforts, which unfortunately means saying goodbye to approximately 225 of our colleagues,” Silverman said in a statement to CNBC.
#Etsy#Etsy news#etsy sellers#workers rights#ai bots#Capitalism#Unions#united we bargain#divided we beg#small business#indie sellers guild
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Oh! If you follow the Indie Sellers Guild on social media, you'll see my face talking about Etsy this week!
You should follow them on social media tbh. I'm a member with them and they do amazing things.
If you sell anything art or handcrafts online, do check them out and consider becoming a member (it's free!).
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indiesellersguild.org/survey
#workers rights#unions#vintage#handmade#crafts#small business#indie artist#Etsy#Amazon#Ko fi#Go imagine#Artisans Cooperative#indie sellers guild#online shopping
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It’s a wonderful feeling to do all of your holiday shopping from small businesses. If you do that shopping online from creative indie sellers, you won’t even have to change out of your comfy pajamas!
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Sneak peek of a few of the logo concepts we're working on in Discord!
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RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES AND STUDIES, MID-AUGUST 2023
Welcome to my latest roundup of ecommerce and other online news for small and micro businesses, including Etsy sellers. Usually August is a slow news month, but there is still a fair amount going on.
Want to receive this report and my website blog posts by email? Sign up here: http://bit.ly/CindyLouWho2Blog
With the continuing demise of Twitter being a concern, here is a list of places you can find me, and here is where I am posting news:
LINKEDIN
BLUESKY
REDDIT
TWITTER
I hope to get the next report out before Labour Day, but of course I cannot predict what will happen between now and then. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to see more reporting on!
TOP NEWS & ARTICLES
Repeating this from the last update since it so important: Etsy’s latest policy changes brought in the ability to opt out of the binding arbitration clause, but existing members only have until August 23rd to do so. The Indie Sellers Guild has some thoughts on this.
If you are opting out, remember this must be done for each account (buyer or seller), and make sure to include the following information in your email to [email protected]:
your name
the email address for your account
your username
your shop name (if applicable)
Expect a vague email response that does not verify that you are opted out, because this is Etsy and why would they be clear?
If you have anything with images of children in your Etsy shop (including art and figurines), please carefully read Etsy’s new policy on such imagery, as it appears many current photos and other visual depictions will not be allowed as of September 8. I started a thread in the Etsy forum for discussion.
Amazon changed the deposit rules for UK and EU sellers who started on the site before 2016, implementing the “7 days after delivery date” deposit release that newer sellers also face. The UK’s small business commissioner and the minister for small business were not amused, and that led to some money being released early, but with a warning that the new delayed deposits would resume in January 2024.
ETSY NEWS
Etsy has changed the criteria for payment reserves for the time being, but we don’t know much about how, other than the fact most have been reduced to 30% from the original 75%. We still don’t know how they have made “... adjustments for issues that are beyond sellers’ control” such as a lack of cheap tracking, or if they are truly providing better communications to sellers just put on reserve, other than this Seller Handbook article from August 4. That article does admit that most current reserves are about shipping.
I do know that we aren’t seeing many new reserves mentioned publicly, so it appears they have changed something.
A few sellers from the UK have been able to opt out of Etsy’s Offsite Ads, but Etsy is now pushing back and rejecting requests. Reminder that most of the EU and also Switzerland can now opt out.
The Make an Offer tool now lets you choose which listings you will accept offers on, as well as other improvements. (It's still only available to shops that sell in USD, and not all buyers can see it yet.)
To accompany the release of Etsy’s new baby registry, Etsy reported on recent baby and nursery trends. Farm animals are apparently in, as are flowers.
The holiday season trends report is also out; it covers Canadian Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve. “277% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “wooden christmas tree decor” - With sustainability in mind, many buyers are opting for ornaments made of solid hardwood over plastic.” And apparently maxi skirts are back?
The second quarter 2023 report showed stagnation in sales but more new sellers, plus Etsy focussing on telling sellers to discount items. You can read my coverage here. Some analysts are starting to sour on Etsy: “They feel a little bit like Pinterest to me where they have something great but they're not finding the opportunity on it.”
Smiley faces are one of the latest takedown targets - not by Etsy bots, but by the actual rights owner.
SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES
If you are using internal links on your website for SEO reasons, beware that the anchor text is also important.
An analysis of the biggest winners in Google search results for the United States in the first half of 2023 shows Mercari had a huge leap in search visibility so far this year.
Bing is not gaining much on Google’s market share, despite having a jump on AI search.
Brave Search now includes both video and image searching.
If you missed a lot of Google developments in July, Search Engine Roundtable has you covered.
[Advanced content] An Ahrefs study found that ⅔ of websites using hreflang have at least one problem.
SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site
General
Since most social media platforms don’t want people leaving their site, they tend to give lower ranking to posts with links in them. You can get around this issue by focussing on zero-click marketing. [text and video] There’s a followup video with transcript on the 4 ways you can promote content through social media as well.
Another what and when to post on social media, this one covering Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, based on what brand accounts did in 2022. [I’m thinking the Twitter data may not be as relevant today.]
Several US states have passed laws requiring parental permission for anyone under 18 to join social media, or are in the process of doing so.
One of the downsides of Bluesky is that it counts any link URLs as part of your character limit, but you can get around that if you aren’t also adding a photo.
Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)
Daily active users on Threads have dropped over 80% from their peak. The site is still developing, however, and desktop access plus searching is coming soon.
Instagram
Instagram is adding more tools that use artificial intelligence.
Photos carousels now support music.
TikTok
TikTok will be offering fulfilment services in the UK, to be followed by the US. “The example merchants are influencers and beauty brands to start with.”
Users in the EU will be able to remove online tracking from their TikTok “For You” algorithm in the near future, possibly by August 28.There will also be advertising changes.
Twitter
The Twitter algorithm is changing, and now prioritizes replies, plus it is pushing video. “X is also penalizing mentions of the term ‘Threads’ as well as links to the Meta competitor.” [Yes, I am still calling it Twitter, but you can call it X if you want.]
Tweetdeck is now a paid service only. The ability to organize different lists and even work with multiple different accounts made it an essential for doing a lot of work on Twitter.
ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS (minus social media)
Amazon
Amazon will be charging additional fees for sellers who use Prime but don’t ship through Amazon, starting October 1.
Amazon added hundreds of new product attributes that need to be added to relevant new listings starting on August 16.
Looks like there will be another Amazon Prime Day in several countries this year.
Amazon’s second quarter was strong, with a lot of growth in ads.
Investors are suing Amazon over several issues, including lying to them.
eBay
eBay is finally agreeing to negotiate with the union of its recent acquisition, TCGPlayer, after the larger company failed to reverse the vote to unionize.
Poshmark
Poshmark’s app will soon include an image search, called “Posh Lens”, although only some have the beta test at the moment.
All Other Marketplaces
Depop’s new seller protection policy for US and UK sellers kicks in on September 3, and requires sellers to purchase shipping labels on the site.
Wish is laying off over ¼ of its staff, including up to 40% of its employees in the United States.
Shipping
The port labour disruption in British Columbia is officially over.
ONLINE ADVERTISING (NOT SOCIAL MEDIA OR ECOMMERCE SITES
If you aren’t using the free Google Shopping ads for your website yet, here are some tips on optimizing your products. Note that “Google may also assess your landing page speed and experience to rank your products”; many think that is only for organic results.
Google ended “similar audiences” from all ads on August 1. “Campaigns using similar audiences will automatically get opted into optimised targeting and audience expansion moving forward. Marketers who would rather avoid this can go to the audiences tab in the Google Ads settings page and manually turn off the campaigns instead.”
STATS, DATA, TRACKING
Still not paying much attention to Google Analytics 4? Here’s more info on why and how it is different from Universal Analytics.
And that's it for this edition! Please let me know if there are other topics I should be covering.
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