2023-08-01 04:00:00
A jeweler from Lanaudière is exasperated by the American merchant site Etsy, which retains a good $5,000 from her sales without providing her with valid explanations, according to her.
“It’s thanks to us, to all the small sellers, that Etsy got to where it is today, so it would be a good idea to respect us”, denounces in an interview with the Journal Joëlle Latreille, jeweler, owner of the Le Cubicule boutique in Terrebonne.
“I was two weeks without income,” she sighs. “I find it disrespectful. I feel humiliated,” she continues.
For 16 years, the entrepreneur from the MRC des Moulins has been selling her handmade jewelry on the American platform Etsy, but in recent months the site has been giving her a hard time.
More and more boutiques have shoveled in jewelry that is not at all handcrafted, and communications between the company and longtime sellers, like Joëlle Latreille, are sterile.
“Since May, Etsy has withheld $5,000 from my income,” laments the businesswoman, who no longer recognizes the site, which previously had impeccable service.
“On each of the sales, they keep 75% of my funds,” she explains.
Provided by Joëlle Latreille
Profits first
Au Journal, she says she did everything to find out why Etsy had this fate in store for her, without success. Normally, Etsy can withhold funds when the shop is new, but that’s not the case for Joëlle Latreille, who has been there since 2007.
This can also happen if the merchant is the subject of complaints or has a bad payment history, which is not the case for the jeweler either.
To avoid having his money frozen, Etsy later offered to send his orders with tracking numbers in the mail, but that would add a nice $10 or even $20 per shipment, which would bleed his profits. .
“There is a lot of pressure to offer free delivery,” observes the jewelry designer.
“Since Etsy went public, it’s more profits that are interesting than integrity and respect for their values,” says Joëlle Latreille.
Etsy went public in 2015, ten years after its founding. It then raised US$267 million.
Today, the tech giant is worth more than US$12.5 billion. The company is run by Josh Silverman, the former CEO of Skype.
To leave or to stay?
When we ask Joëlle Latreille why she simply does not drop this site which irritates her, she replies that it could compromise the survival of her SME.
“A lot of sellers are leaving because they’re sick of being treated this way by Etsy,” she says.
“Two years ago I opened my own website, but Etsy has an international market. It is the most recognized platform for ”Handmade””, she specifies.
“It brings me sales that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I can’t afford to leave Etsy because it’s too much of my income,” sums up the SME boss caught in a vice.
Etsy responds in English
Joined by The newspaperEtsy did not want to grant an interview and limited itself to an answer sent by email in English.
“Etsy has long offered sellers a generous payment schedule – the vast majority of sellers receive their funds when they make a sale rather than having to wait for the buyer to receive the item, as they would with other sales platforms,” said a spokeswoman.
The company clarified that payments were released when a seller added a tracking number, funds were often held for less than two weeks, barely 2% of active sellers had a reserve on the platform, and that amount was under $50 70% of the time.
“In some cases, we will delay some of the funds from a sale until we can confirm the order has been dispatched. This allows us to continue to pay sellers in a timely manner while taking the necessary steps to keep our marketplace secure and protect our customers in the event of unexpected issues with their order.
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