This isn't an announcement I enjoy having to make so I suppose I'll just jump right into it: I've raised the prices on all items in my Etsy store by a flat %. This change does not affect my main store, you'll still see the same prices as always with an occasional increase per item as demand or cost of creation increases.  

If you follow me on social media this will come as no surprise to you, but for people visiting my business for the first time I wanted to make an official post so you aren't left in the dark as to why prices are different on different platforms. 

Etsy recently announced they were going to start an offsite ads program. Sellers making under $10k a year can opt out, but anyone who has ever made over $10k a year does not get a choice, they are required to participate in the program and they can't ever opt out even if their sales drop below $10k a year. The program takes 15% from sellers who have made less than $10k and 12% from sellers who make or have made more than $10k a year. 

In addition, clicking on the ad result places a cookie in your browser which means any purchase made from the Etsy store you clicked on for the next 30 days (unless you clear your cookies) will be attributed to Etsy's ads and the 12% fee will be collected. 

Unfortunately I fall into the group unable to opt out of this program. Equally unfortunately, the program hasn't actually increased my sales, it has only resulted in significantly higher costs. Etsy estimated their ads would effect 10% of my total sales, but the reality has actually been closer to 25% of my total sales and my total sales have actually decreased in this time. 

Also disheartening is that many of the search keywords have actually been people searching for me specifically such as "beezeeart etsy" or "beezeeart bat" and then they click on the ads instead of the organic search results. So Etsy is getting credit (and taking a %) for people who are already searching for me directly and would have found me anyway, they just happen to click the ad first. 

On top of all of this, Etsy raised their fees last year and began applying those fees to shipping charges as well as the item cost. 

At the end of the day I just can't keep eating these additional costs. At the same time, I don't want to completely eliminate my Etsy store. The only way I could see to continue without losing significant income was to raise my prices. 

At the same time, I didn't want to punish my customers in my main shop with higher prices just for the sake of keeping my prices the same across platforms. That doesn't seem ethical or fair to me. So I've kept the prices the same in my main store (here at beezeeart.com). 

I hope it doesn't cause too much confusion and I hope everyone understands my reasoning and why it had to happen. Like I said, it's not something I enjoy having to do and I hope that this is the last time I have to do something like this. 

Thanks so much for all your support and I hope to have happier updates in the future!