Etsy crashes! A large number of handicrafts are priced at random, and the selling price is 6 times that of other platforms

It is learned that recently, Which?, a British consumer protection organization, reported that some products on Etsy that are advertised as "handmade" are also sold on many other e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, AliExpress, B&M, etc. Not only that, the price of the same products on Etsy is several times that of these platforms, up to 7 times.

Which? analysed items in select Etsy categories in March, including furniture, toys and clothes, filtering out items that were "handmade" and using Google Images to detect other sales channels for those items.

The survey found that among all the 192 handicrafts screened, 23 were also sold on other e-commerce platforms, and most of them were sold at higher prices on Etsy, with only two exceptions. Among them, the price of 9 items on Etsy was more than twice the lowest price on other channels.

The same handmade bookshelf product is priced more than twice as high as Amazon and eBay

The investigation found that a bookshelf claiming to be "handmade" was sold on Etsy for £59.99, while the same product was found to be sold on Alibaba International Station for £10, a price difference of six times.

The item was also found selling on eBay for £28.90, Amazon for £28.88 and OnBuy for £30.99.

"Celebrity sellers" also bid random prices, and handmade products are not handmade

According to reports, a store with a "star seller" label sold a "handmade" vintage bedside table for £128.31. This product was also found on Amazon, but the price was only £43.99, a difference of nearly three times.

The research also found that an industrial coffee table from the same seller was priced at £146.10, but was found to be significantly cheaper on Wowcher (£59.99), Manomano (£84.99), Wayfair (£89.99), Aosom (£99.99) and eBay (£131.99).

The investigation revealed that another "star seller" was selling a shabby chic chest of drawers for £175, plus £25 delivery. The same item was priced at £72.99 on B&Q marketplace, with free delivery. The difference in price was £102, or £127 including delivery.

The seller's store has 105 items for sale, 7 of which were found to be sold on other platforms at cheaper prices.

False advertising and price chaos spread to other categories

According to the investigation, an Etsy shop had 19 items for sale, all of which were advertised as "handmade", but none of them were unique to Etsy. The investigation found that six of these items were from Asda, one from Dunelm and another from B&M.

Items included a side table, priced at £42.99, almost double the £22 at Asda, a bee print shower curtain, priced at £23.99, more than three times the £7 at Asda, and a tortoise-shaped glasses frame, priced at £32.99, which cost £15 at Dunelm.

In addition to key categories on the platform such as home furnishings and furniture, the phenomenon of "sky-high prices" and false advertising of handmade products has also appeared in other categories.

In the toys category, a popular "handmade" children's book on Etsy costs £27.98, while it costs only £4 on Alibaba International Station, a price difference of seven times. Even items like women's clothing are sold at cheaper prices on other platforms.

In response to Which?’s findings, an Etsy spokesperson said: “Our policies prohibit counterfeiting and reselling items on Etsy, and we use a combination of automated controls, manual reviews, and user flagging to continually monitor the marketplace and identify violations.”

Editor✎ Ashley/

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