Thousands Of Etsy Sellers Just Went On Strike & Here's Why They're So Mad

It's going to be a lot harder to buy custom earrings off of Etsy this week.

Tens of thousands of Etsy sellers launched a boycott against the platform on Monday after the company hiked its transaction fees for creators.

The independent sellers are staging a protest against the new policy, which came into effect on Monday.

Basically, Etsy is upping its transaction fees from 5% of the sale price to 6.5%. That means the company will take an extra 1.5% of every transaction that small business owners make on the site. Put another way, it's increasing its existing fee by 30%.

Over 55,000 sellers have signed a petition started by seller Kristi Cassidy against the fees increase, stating their intention to strike.

"We're going on strike on April 11 to call on Etsy to hold itself accountable to sellers and buyers," the petition states. "Sellers will put their shops on vacation mode in protest. Buyers can show support by agreeing to boycott Etsy from April 11-18."

The online retail platform is known for providing a marketplace for artists and creators to sell their cute and funky trinkets, jewelry and home decor online. However, many of those creators say that Etsy has strayed from its roots with this move and several others in recent years.

"As individual crafters, makers and small businesspeople, we may be easy for a giant corporation like Etsy to take advantage of," Cassidy wrote in the petition. "But as an organized front of people, determined to use our diverse skills and boundless creativity to win ourselves a fairer deal, Etsy won’t have such an easy time shoving us around."

The petition accuses Etsy of "pandemic profiteering" after two strong years and calls for the company to reverse this latest hike.

However, Etsy argues that the fee increase will directly benefit sellers and address the demands in their petition.

According to Etsy, this change in the transaction fees is necessary to compete for shoppers and invest in things that will help sellers, such as better marketing and customer support, reports The Wall Street Journal.

"We're hoping to get Etsy's attention that we are fed up," Cassidy told Yahoo! Finance in an interview.

Although only a tiny percentage of the 5.3 million sellers on the platform are protesting, It's still "quite a bit for just people trying to spread a movement online with no advertising," said Cassidy.

"The amount of support we have gotten when we put this out into the world... people are sharing, it's spreading entirely organically."

The last time Etsy bumped up its transaction fee was in 2018 when it increased from 3.5% to 5%, the first increase since the platform launched in 2005.

"Our sellers' success is a top priority for Etsy," the company said in a statement to TechCrunch.

"We are always receptive to seller feedback and, in fact, the new fee structure will enable us to increase our investments in areas outlined in the petition, including marketing, customer support, and removing listings that don't meet our policies."

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.