Thousands of sellers on the e-commerce platform Etsy ETSY, +0.55% began their planned strike on Monday to protest a new fee hike by the company.
The fee increase, which was set to begin Monday, raises Etsy’s site’s transaction fees from 5% per order to 6.5% per order, according to the company’s annual report.
Thousands of creators took to Twitter TWTR, +1.69% to post that they will render their Etsy shops unavailable, with one seller referring to the new fee as “unbearable.”
Another individual who says they sell on Etsy called the transaction hike “ridiculous.”
Etsy, which now has a base of 5.3 million businesses or sellers on its platform, last increased its seller fees in 2018 from 3.5% to 5%, resulting in similar negative sentiment from some sellers.
A petition was created to organize this strike on Coworker.org by Etsy seller Kristi Cassidy — the petition is addressed to company CEO Josh Silverman and calls to the raised fee “pandemic profiteering.”
“They plan to increase our transaction fees by 30%,” the petition says. “We’re going on strike on April 11 to call on Etsy to hold itself accountable to sellers and buyers. Sellers will put their shops on vacation mode in protest. Buyers can show support by agreeing to boycott Etsy from April 11-18.”
The “Cancel the fee increase” petition now has 52,602 signatures.
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Etsy said that the raised fees will help them weed out these resellers, however.
“We’re committed to supporting our community of 5.3 million sellers around the world by helping them grow their businesses. Sellers have consistently told us they want us to expand our efforts around marketing, customer support and removing listings that don’t meet our policies,” an Etsy spokesperson told MarketWatch. “Our revised fee structure will enable us to increase our investments in each of these key areas so that we can better serve our community and keep Etsy a beloved, trusted, and thriving marketplace.”
Etsy’s stock rose 0.6% on Monday but is down 46% over the last 12 months.
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