What do you get when you add a pinch of greed, a dollop of cognitive dissonance and a bucketload of AI slop? The downfall of Etsy, that’s what!
For years, Etsy felt like the digital version of a little local craft fair. You could calmly browse through tons of beautiful handmade items. You could join community groups based around your interests. You could even go into chat rooms that did flash sales where you’d be almost guaranteed to make sales and meet fabulous fellow makers along the way. It was glorious!
But have you seen the place lately? Find human-made items feels a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and half the hay is just cheap, mass-produced junk being resold by the container load. Etsy now has a very “cheap and nasty” feel to it, It’s kind of turned into one of those shops you go into and you’re blasted by that kind of nasty, plastic-y smell – I’m sure you know what I mean. As a place that used to be an absolute joy for independant sellers, this sticks in the craw. It’s depressing. It’s enshittified. Are we surprised, though?
I have been chatting with so many of you, and the consensus is loud and clear: Etsy is well and truly over. I am actually sat here in my studio right now, in the middle of trying to close my own shop (they’re making it very difficult even though I have paid up all my fees and there isn’t a single reason why I shouldn’t be able to close it), and I have to tell you, it feels like a massive weight off my shoulders. Here is why we are all starting to pack our bags and look for a new place to set up shop. For me, the absolute end of the line was receiving an email from a person – a “crochet designer” – who’s entire shop was AI slop. Not one item was handmade, not one item was genuine, not one pattern was written by her. Her very strange message consisted of asking me to promote her slop on my own page for a fee. Like, what? Weird. As you can imagine, that individual got a very stern telling off, and that was the final straw for me.
The bottom line is that Etsy does not care about sellers or customers. They enable theft and AI content by default, and their greed is off the scale. Their social media presence is grating and out of touch with their client base (they regularly, hilariously get roasted on Threads – check it out):
So, lets take a detailed look at how it came to this, why Etsy is no longer the creative haven it used to be, and some ways that you can continue selling your work and thriving as a maker.
Table of Contents
The Great Fee Squeeze
Let’s talk money, shall we? It used to be that you would sell a pattern or a finished piece and, after a tiny slice went to Etsy, you would have enough left over for, say, bills, a living wage, a new skein of yarn. Now it feels like we are paying for the privilege of working for them.
The numbers are genuinely startling. By the end of 2026, Etsy’s take rate reached a staggering 21.4%. Between listing fees, transaction fees, payment processing, and the mandatory Offsite Ads for successful shops, your margins are being nibbled to death. For a £100 sale, you could be handing over nearly £22 just to the platform, and that is before you even factor in the cost of your materials or your time. It is a constant game of moving the goalposts, with new regulatory operating fees creeping up every single year. We are not doing this to subsidise a corporate giant. We are doing it to keep our creative fires burning.
The AI Takeover and the Death of Handmade
The final nail in the coffin has been the explosion of AI-generated junk. It feels like the site has been totally overrun. You search for a unique, hand-knitted pattern or a one-of-a-kind gift, and you are hit with a wall of listings that are clearly mass-produced imagery or patterns churned out by a machine in seconds. It is lazy, it is soulless, and it is insulting to those of us who spend weeks refining a design, testing the tension, and putting our own heart into the work.
When you see listings where the photos are clearly AI-generated nonsense, it ruins the experience for everyone. We are watching a marketplace that was built on human craft being hollowed out by tech that does not know the first thing about the feel of wool between your fingers. It is dehumanising to see our life’s work reduced to fodder for a commercial image slot machine, and the saddest thing is actually the fact that still so many people can’t tell the difference between a genuine and an AI-generated one. As someone who lurks in Facebook knitting and crochet groups on occasion (I know – I’m sorry), they are FULL of people complaining that they bought a “pattern” and that it makes no sense. I mean, no caca, Sherlock. I don’t blame those people, though, I blame Etsy for allowing this to happen.
Lost in the Algorithm
Remember when you could search for a hand-knitted scarf and find a hand-knitted scarf (and probably some other lovely things that’d go into your shopping basket, too)? These days, you are more likely to scroll through ten pages of factory-made or AI-churned clutter before you find something actually made by a human being.
It is soul-destroying to spend days on a project only to have it buried under a pile of generic, drop-shipped rubbish. The algorithm only cares about who can pay for the most clicks. Many established shops have reported being completely de-indexed overnight, with traffic and sales plummeting to zero without a single policy violation to explain it. Sellers are now forced to become data analysts just to stay visible, often having to pay for ads that simply eat up whatever profit is left, again adding more costs.
The Death of the Community
Perhaps the biggest loss of all is the community feel. Do you remember the old Etsy chats? They were brilliant. It was such a great way of getting in touch with fellow makers, sharing tips on sourcing wool, or just having a moan when a project went pear-shaped. I remember spending hours talking to wonderful folk around the world, and we’d often buy items from each other.
Now, that warmth has vanished. The Temu-esque seller support has become a maze of automated responses, and there is a growing feeling that the people in charge do not actually care about the small-scale makers who built the platform in the first place. A recent survey by the Etsy Sellers Advocacy group really hammered that home, with most makers feeling completely abandoned by the platform’s leadership. Speaking personally, I have been trying for days to close my shop and have had no joy at all, meeting walls of soul-destroying “FAQ” pages that do anything but solve your problems.
Where to Next? Reclaiming Our Space
Do not panic! We are not going anywhere. We are just getting a bit smarter. If you are feeling the itch to leave, here is how you can find your way back to sanity and profit.
1. Set Up Your Own Digital Home Building your own website is not as scary as it sounds. Platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, or even a simple WooCommerce setup give you total control. You own your customer list, you set your own rules, and you do not have to pay a commission on every single sale. Start by moving your best sellers over and let your loyal followers know where to find you. Creating your own personal space gives you a proper buzz and allows your customers to connect with you on a deeper level, gives you a chance to learn about useful things such as SEO and gives you total flexibility. Plus it isn’t as expensive as you’d think! Sure, it takes a bit of effort and you need to allocate time to maintain your site, but the payoff is immense. Plus, you can monetize your work in different ways, such as using affiliate links and ads.
2. Ravelry for the Knitting and Crochet Crowd If you design patterns, Ravelry is an absolute non-negotiable. It is the lifeblood of our community. Use it to list your patterns, link them directly to your new personal shop, and get involved in the forums. Unlike Etsy, Ravelry is built for makers, by makers. The community there understands the value of a well-tested pattern, and they appreciate the effort that goes into every chart and instruction. Plus they don’t allow any kind of AI content – that’s a real winner!
3. Direct Social Sales Use Instagram and TikTok as your shopfront, not just as a place to post pretty pictures. When you share a project, put a direct link to your own site in your bio and your posts. Build a newsletter. Your email list is the one asset that an algorithm can never take away from you. When you have a new launch, you send an email, and your customers are right there waiting for you.
4. Local Markets and Consignment Never underestimate the power of a real-life craft fair. The connection you make when someone touches your work, asks about your process, and buys something directly from your hands is worth a hundred algorithm-driven sales. Look for local independent boutiques that take consignment. It is a brilliant way to get your work in front of people in your own town.
Have you noticed your favourite makers making the move? Are you finding it harder to find the genuine articles out there? Grab a cuppa and let me know your thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear how you are navigating all this!
Happy crafting!
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