Our Services · Etsy
Etsy Account Management
for Makers and Design Led Brands
Etsy sold Reverb and Depop and is now a single marketplace again. It is also sending buyers in from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode. Both facts change how an Etsy shop should be run in 2026.
Etsy account management is listing work, search work and standards work in roughly equal parts. Titles, tags and attributes decide whether you appear. Shipping price, review rating, response rate and case rate decide whether Etsy keeps showing you. Ads and Offsite Ads decide what the traffic costs. We run all three, and we do it inside a policy framework that is stricter about who made the product than any other marketplace.
What We Offer
How We Help You Grow
Listing SEO Built to Etsy Rules
Thirteen tags at 20 characters each, titles that read as titles rather than keyword strings, attributes filled completely, and categories set as specifically as the taxonomy allows. Etsy matches queries against tags, titles, descriptions, categories and attributes together, so we build them as one system.
Search Visibility Remediation
Etsy publishes a priority placement checklist and most shops fail part of it silently. We work the Search Visibility page listing by listing: image count and resolution, a single uncollaged primary photo, a stated return policy, category specificity and US domestic shipping under six dollars.
Etsy Ads and Offsite Ads
Etsy Ads run on a bid plus a quality score that reflects click likelihood. Offsite Ads are 15% for shops under ten thousand dollars in a rolling year, then 12% for the lifetime of the shop, capped at one hundred dollars per order and mandatory above that threshold. We manage what you control and model what you cannot switch off.
Customer Service Standards
Etsy sets exact thresholds: 80% of first messages answered within 48 hours, 80% of orders shipped on time, and case and review limits that scale with volume. Falling short costs search visibility first and Purchase Protection eligibility second.
Policy and Creativity Compliance
Every item must be made, designed, handpicked or sourced by you. Production partners must be disclosed. Anything generated with an AI tool must be declared in the listing. We audit the catalogue against the Creativity Standards before Etsy does.
Shipping Profiles and Delivery Dates
Processing profiles, carrier times and historical data combine into the estimated delivery range buyers see and cases are judged against. We set profiles honestly, because an optimistic processing time turns into a refunded case two weeks later.
What Makes Etsy Different
Five things sellers from other marketplaces get wrong
Who made it is a listing requirement, not a marketing angle
Etsy’s Creativity Standards require every item to fall into one of four categories: made by you, designed by you, handpicked by you or sourced by you. Dropshipping is not allowed, with a narrow exception for craft and party supplies. Reselling a commercially available item you did not make or design is not allowed. Print on demand is fine, provided the design is yours. Sellers arriving from Amazon often breach this on day one without realising there is a rule to breach.
AI use has to be declared
Items designed with AI image tools from your own prompts do qualify under the standards, but the seller policy requires you to disclose AI use in the relevant listings. Selling AI prompt bundles does not qualify at all. This is one of the few marketplaces with an explicit, written AI disclosure rule for physical goods.
Shipping price is a ranking signal, and Etsy names the number
Etsy states that US listings with domestic shipping prices below six dollars will be prioritised in relevant search results. It also lists shipping price as an overall factor for US sellers. That is unusually specific for a marketplace ranking rule, and it means shipping strategy and SEO strategy are the same conversation.
Reserves can hold your money without warning
Etsy holds a percentage of funds from new sales of physical items. The percentage is not published and varies by account. Triggers include a sudden sharp increase in orders or refunds, missing tracking, late shipping and a first sale. Support agents cannot remove a reserve. Star Sellers are not placed on reserve, which is the practical reason the badge matters.
The company just became a single marketplace again
Etsy sold Reverb in June 2025 and completed the sale of Depop to eBay in July 2026 for about 1.4 billion dollars in cash. Management has said the focus is now on the Etsy marketplace alone. Etsy marketplace gross merchandise sales grew 7.5% year on year in the second quarter of 2026 while take rate rose to 25.9%. Attention and monetisation are both increasing.
Etsy By The Numbers
A smaller marketplace that is growing again
Etsy spent three years shrinking. The most recent quarters point the other way for the marketplace itself, and the take rate has been climbing at the same time. Both belong in your margin model.
Sources: Etsy quarterly shareholder letters, April and August 2026, and full year 2025 results, February 2026.
What You Get
What a month of Etsy management looks like
Etsy account management is closer to running a small brand than running a marketplace feed. The catalogue is smaller, the rules about provenance are stricter, and the scoring is public. Every engagement includes:
- Listing SEO passes across titles, thirteen tags, attributes, categories and descriptions, staged rather than changed all at once
- Search Visibility page remediation, working the priority placement checklist listing by listing
- Etsy Ads management with daily budgets and listing level strategies where the budget supports them
- Offsite Ads reporting, so you can see what the 12% or 15% is actually buying
- Customer service standard monitoring against the published thresholds, with message response handled inside 24 hours
- Shipping profile and processing time review against what your workshop actually achieves
- Policy audits against the Creativity Standards, production partner disclosure and AI disclosure rules
- A monthly report covering orders, conversion, ad cost as a share of revenue, standards status and reserve exposure
A good fit if
- You make, design or genuinely curate what you sell
- You have at least 30 to 40 listings, or a plan to get there
- You can dispatch inside your stated processing time consistently
- Your margin survives 6.5% transaction plus payment processing plus ads
- You want the shop run to Star Seller standards rather than reactively
Probably not a fit if
- You want to resell commercially available products, Etsy does not allow it
- You dropship outside craft and party supplies
- You want AI generated designs sold without disclosure
- You need retail price control tied to a wholesale model
- You expect Amazon volumes from a handmade catalogue
Where The Growth Is Coming From
Four changes worth building around this year
Etsy listings are now discoverable inside AI assistants
From March 2026 buyers can find Etsy items through ChatGPT, Gemini, Google Search AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot, currently in the United States only. Etsy has said its partnerships with OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are driving growth in traffic and high intent engagement, and it has built an Etsy app inside ChatGPT. For a seller this rewards clear, factual listing copy over keyword stuffing, because an assistant summarising your product needs to be able to state what it is, what it is made of and who made it. Attributes and materials fields matter more than they did.
Listing URLs stopped changing, which fixes external SEO
Also from March 2026, Etsy listing URLs remain fixed after first publication. Before that, edits could move a listing to a new address, which quietly reset whatever external authority it had accumulated. That single change makes it worth building links and social references to individual listings again, and worth treating a strong listing as a permanent asset rather than something you rebuild each season.
The six dollar shipping rule is the cheapest ranking win available
Etsy states plainly that US listings with domestic shipping prices lower than six dollars will be prioritised in relevant search results. Separately, the free shipping guarantee applies free shipping automatically for US buyers on individual items of thirty five dollars and up. Most shops we take over are paying for ads to fix a visibility problem that a shipping recalculation would fix for nothing. We model the shipping price into the item price first, then decide what advertising is actually for.
Duties now have to be prepaid on US bound orders
From 9 July 2026 international sellers shipping to the United States must prepay all duties and fees, using delivered duty paid terms, or the order loses Etsy Purchase Protection eligibility. That is a landed cost change for every non US seller. It also interacts with the case system, because an order arriving with a surprise charge produces exactly the kind of dispute that pushes your case rate through the published threshold.
Our Process
How We Work
Shop and Standards Audit
We review your listings, search visibility flags, customer service standards, reserve status and policy exposure, then give you a written list of what is capping the shop before we touch advertising.
Listing and SEO Rebuild
Titles, tags, attributes, categories and descriptions rebuilt against how Etsy actually matches queries, staged so we can read the effect rather than guess at it.
Operations Cadence
Message response inside 24 hours, dispatch monitored against your stated processing time, cases handled early, and shipping profiles kept honest.
Advertising
Etsy Ads budgets and listing level strategies set against contribution margin, with Offsite Ads cost reported rather than ignored because you cannot turn it off.
Growth
New listings, seasonal planning and range extension built around what the data says buyers already come to you for, with Star Seller status protected throughout.
Where Accounts Go Wrong
Four mistakes that hold Etsy shops back
Collaged primary photos
Etsy’s own priority placement checklist asks for a primary photo that is a single image of a finished product, clear and well lit, ideally 2000 pixels or more on each side. Stitched together before and after images or feature callouts in the first slot cost placement. Move them to slot two onwards.
Rewriting every listing on the same day
Etsy gives new listings a small temporary boost so it can learn how buyers respond. Changing your whole catalogue at once destroys your ability to read what worked. We stage changes in batches and hold a control group.
Treating the case rate as customer service
It is a ranking and eligibility input. Shops under 300 orders are allowed no more than three refunded cases; above that the limit is one percent. A generous refund policy applied late still counts as a case. Answering the first message quickly is what keeps the number down.
Ignoring reserves until cashflow breaks
A sudden order spike, a missing tracking number or a first sale can put funds on hold, and support cannot lift it. The fix is preventative: buy labels through Etsy, add tracking immediately, ship inside the stated window, and work toward Star Seller status, which removes reserves entirely.
FAQ
Common Questions
What does Etsy charge sellers?
Twenty cents to list an item for four months, and 6.5% of the item price plus shipping and gift wrapping on each sale. Payment processing is separate and varies by country, 3% plus 25 cents in the United States and 4% plus 20 pence in the United Kingdom. Offsite Ads are 15% of an attributed order for shops under ten thousand dollars in a rolling year and 12% after that, capped at one hundred dollars per order. Etsy Plus is ten dollars a month and optional. Some countries also carry a regulatory operating fee.
Can I opt out of Offsite Ads?
Only below the threshold. Shops that have passed ten thousand dollars in sales over a rolling 365 day period are required to participate for the lifetime of the shop. Below that you can switch it off. The fee applies when a buyer clicks an ad and buys from your shop within thirty days, and it is capped at one hundred dollars per order.
Is dropshipping allowed on Etsy?
No, with one narrow exception for craft and party supplies. Etsy defines dropshipping as selling ready made products shipped directly from a third party supplier without alteration, and reselling as selling a commercially available item you did not make or design. Using production partners, including print on demand, is allowed as long as the design is yours and the partner is disclosed in the listing.
Do I have to declare AI use?
Yes. Etsy’s seller policy states that if an item is created through the use of artificial intelligence you must disclose it in the relevant listings. Items designed from your own prompts using AI image tools do qualify under the Creativity Standards. Selling AI prompt bundles does not qualify as an Etsy item at all.
How does Etsy search actually rank listings?
Etsy names the inputs itself: how well your tags, titles, descriptions, categories and attributes match the query; listing quality, including multiple good photos and a stated return policy; shipping price as an overall factor for US sellers; customer service quality, using review rating, message response rate and case rate from the last three months; listing engagement rate, meaning views that turn into purchases; and a small temporary boost for new listings. On top of that sits Context Specific Ranking, which personalises results to the individual buyer.
What is Star Seller and is it worth chasing?
Etsy reviews it on the first of each month against the previous three months. You need to reply to 95% of first messages within 24 hours, ship 95% of orders on time with valid tracking or an Etsy label, hold a 4.8 average review rating, and have at least five orders and three hundred dollars in sales. It is worth chasing for one unglamorous reason beyond the badge: Star Sellers are not placed on payment reserve.
How long do I have to appeal a suspension?
Six months from the day the account was suspended. Etsy says decisions can take up to two weeks, and that if the suspension is upheld the decision is final with no further consideration of reinstatement. Separately, shops inactive for four or more years are closed permanently, with warning emails at ninety, thirty and fourteen days.
Does Etsy still have free shipping for orders over $35?
Yes. The free shipping guarantee automatically applies free shipping for US buyers on an individual item of thirty five dollars and up, or an order totalling thirty five dollars or more. Keep it separate in your head from the ranking rule, which is about US domestic shipping priced under six dollars. Etsy documents them in different places and never connects them.
Other services we run
Our Guarantee
What we put in writing
What you always get
- One named account manager who knows your account, not a rotating pool
- A written report every month covering what we changed and why
- Every file, login and asset stays yours, handed over on request
What you never get
- No lock-in. Cancel any month, with no notice period
- No setup fee, and the audit before you start is free
- If we miss the scope we agreed in your first 30 days, that month is free
We do not promise a ranking, a Buy Box share or a sales figure, because those sit with the platform and not with us. We promise the work, the reporting and the terms above, and all three go in the contract.
Want Your Etsy Shop Run Properly?
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