Etsy put my shop on vacation mode and it killed my business!
From $100,000 in annual sales to zip. That’s exactly what happened to one of my clients. My heart sank when I got the message from her. “Etsy put my shop in vacation mode.”
There are two ways to put your shop in vacation mode – you do it yourself or Etsy does it for you. Either one will cause your business to TANK. That’s exactly what happened to my client that had built her business to over $10,000 in monthly sales. $10,000 to nothing.
Why would you want to put your shop on vacation?
Etsy tells you it’s okay to put your shop on vacation to catch up on orders or if you’ll be out of town. My recommendation? Don’t do it. No matter how many times they’ll tell you it won’t affect your traffic and sales, they’re wrong. I have seen time and time again from my client’s stores the exact opposite. Vacation mode has a hard, negative impact on store sales.
You can see EXACTLY when Etsy put this store on vacation. Look how far the visits have tanked. If this doesn’t make it crystal clear about how little control you have over your business, I don’t know what will.
If you are behind in your sales OR may planning a vacation, it’s best to adjust your shipping times. You can do that by going to your store dashboard, settings, shipping settings, shipping profiles and adjust the processing time. You can move it out to 10 weeks if necessary.
Now what do you do?
Now what do you do when Etsy puts your store on vacation? Well you have zero control over that scenario except to follow what they tell you to do. The store I’ve shown the stats above for is a seasonal business that is dependent on Mother Nature. This seller is stuck as they are not able to ship for at least another month.
No matter how many times we’ve explained this to Etsy seller support, you’re talking to someone who is only following a script. They’re not able to make any determinations on their own. Dead end. There’s not a damn thing we can do right now. This store is for all purposes closed by Etsy. Truthfully from a seller perspective? Etsy sucks.
What do I recommend all my clients do? Get control of your business! When you’re selling on Etsy, Ebay or Amazon, you don’t own your business – they do. It’s THEIR platform not yours.
You cannot contact your customers directly and can only communicate with them through their selling platform. As soon as you try to communicate with the customer in any other format, you are in violation of their selling terms. They can shut you down. Immediately. In the click of a key, you’ve just lost your business.
Take control of your business.
If there is just one thing I hope you take away from this, it’s DO NOT GIVE CONTROL OF YOUR BUSINESS OVER TO ANYONE. EVER.
How to fix this? Use Etsy, Ebay or any other platform to build your business. Dedicate a portion of your sales to create an online presence with your own website. I recommend Big Commerce or Shopify as they are easy to set up in minutes if you’re selling physical products.
Build your email list. You may have heard it before but I’m here to say it again – the money is in the list. Be sure you have an email optin in place on your site and on all social media platforms. This gives YOU control on how and when you communicate with your customers. I like Aweber because of the many options available but there are several others that will serve the purpose.
Finally, if this has happened to you, breathe. It’s a blessing in disguise and one that will help you take your business to the next level. Need help? Contact us. Click here: Contact Sanger Marketing
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