Last update March 20, 2024
Overview
Etsy is one of the most famous marketplaces focused on selling handmade goods, vintage items, art, and craft supply.
Selling on Etsy is quite easy, but it also requires regular work and involvement.
One of the most important things is that sellers trust the website, so opening an online shop on Etsy makes it easier for sellers to connect with customers all around the world. On the other hand, customers will feel safe and protected.
Like all other marketplaces, in order to keep selling on Etsy, you must follow their Policy, otherwise, your account might be suspended.
When you sign up, you agree to their Terms of Use, and therefore you accept the fact that they can suspend and deactivate your account.
There are proactive steps you can take to address the situation effectively. In this article, we’ll explore key strategies, including utilizing multichannel inventory management applications to safeguard your listings.
Suspensions can certainly be annoying and they might happen for a reason or another, but don’t lose faith, you can handle this!
Reasons why an Etsy account gets suspended
Reading online about people’s bad experiences with Etsy, you may feel a little discouraged from opening a shop online. Some of them have had their account suspended as soon as it was created. For this reason, it’s important to understand Etsy’s policies.
Reselling handmade items
Selling on Etsy means that, most of the time, your items are handmade. Many people ignore that the items must be handmade or designed by you. For example, you can’t buy items from a wholesale seller and re-sell them on Etsy.
If Etsy is in doubt, they might ask you to prove that your items belong to you and they might also ask for progression photos.
Selling prohibited item
Different selling channels have common product regulations to prevent selling illegal materials. All those items are prohibited because their sale can affect people and the safety of the customer community itself. So, as other selling channels, on Etsy, some products are restricted or prohibited from being sold:
- Alcohol, tobacco, medical drugs, drugs, drug paraphernalia
- Hazardous material and weapons
- Pornography content (explicit and mature content)
- Hate items (which promote and support violence or hate, glorify hatred or racial and homophobic slurs against the members of any group)
Pending payment of your outstanding balance
If your billing method is refused, your account can be terminated and you still have to pay by some other means. Once you paid, you’ll be reinstated.
Being associated with another banned account
Although it sounds strange, maybe sharing Wi-Fi or using VPNs can be the cause. This can also happen if you log into your shop at a public place or workplace. Somehow, two shops logged in under the same IP might trigger Etsy’s banning algorithm.
Selling intangible goods and services
Services are not allowed to be sold unless they provide a tangible item. This doesn’t apply to digital products.
Infringing trademarks
Unauthorized use of a trademark can also lead to legal action against the seller.
Whether your shop is a really small one or a famous one, suspension can happen to anyone. If you stick to the rules, your account would hardly be penalized or suspended, but it could still happen by mistake. So let’s keep on reading to understand the consequences of a suspension and how to have the chance to make it up, reinstating your account.
Creating Backups for a Swift Recovery
Multichannel inventory management applications allow you to create backups of your listings, ensuring that product information, descriptions, and images are preserved. This approach not only accelerates the process of setting up a new Etsy account, minimizing downtime and potential revenue loss.
However, Etsy often realizes when two Etsy accounts are connected. Therefore, depending on the reasons why your account has been suspended, it may or may not be sufficient to create, or to have a second account, and feed it with the products existing on the account suspended. This practice in some cases may be deemed as a violation of Etsy policies, and lead to the suspension of the second account as well. Once again, Nembol and backing up are not intended as ways to circumvent Etsy policies.
What happens when my account gets suspended?
Unfortunately, your business will be put on hold for a while. If selling online is one of your main sources of income, you’ll have to deal with all the economic problems that arise from it.
What you can’t do with a suspended account
Once your account is suspended, you won’t be able to:
- Receive new orders and create new product listings. In fact, your shop will be removed from the Etsy search.
- Cancel existing orders
- View reviews left in your shop
- Edit or modify existing listings
What you can do while suspended
On the other hand, you’ll be able to access your account, read the messages, and issue refunds.
Etsy will let you know about the suspension via mail. They will also let you know if you have open orders to ship or refund these as soon as possible.
We know that having your account suspended might be discouraging, but don’t lose faith!
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How to have your account back
In order to get your account and your privileges back, you have to file an appeal. This means that you’ll have to write a detailed yet transparent description of your business and you’ll have to try to explain the reasons that might have led to your suspension.
A word of advice: don’t get defensive and, most of all, don’t blame Etsy. Remember that you’re a guest on Etsy’s marketplace, they make the rules and decide whether you followed them or not. Aggressively arguing with Etsy’s support will cause you only more trouble.
What happens after you file your appeal?
The not-so-good news is that this process might take some time, up to several weeks, but it doesn’t mean that you won’t get back on track for sure.
An Etsy specialist will review your appeal, and if your appeal shows that your shop is worth the trust, you’ll receive a notification via mail, explaining to you how to access and have your account back.
It is not guaranteed that filing an appeal will get your account back. Also, consider the fact that the specialist’s decision is permanent and final.
If you missed the chance of getting reinstated, you can consider registering a new account.
Even if it’s a fresh start, you will still have to follow some rules. As a matter of fact, you won’t be able to use the same name you used for your former account. You can, however, use the same credit card information.
Beware of scammers
As I mentioned before, Etsy will notify the suspension through an email. Be really careful and pay attention to Scam and Phishing Emails.
These mails can trick you into giving scammers your personal information.
One of the most important tips to avoid phishing are:
- Don’t share any of your personal information (such as password, credit card information and/or bank account number).
- Turn your two-factor authentication on
- Change your password often and be sure to use a secure one (at least eight characters and a mix of letters, numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters, symbols).
In order to keep your account safe, remember to enable sign in notification by logging into Your Account > Account Settings > Security > Enable (next to Sign in Notification).
Have you ever considered selling elsewhere?
Selling on Etsy is great but if you don’t empathize with it, you can also try selling elsewhere.
Nowadays online marketplaces have gained the trust of many, many buyers. And as a retailer, there are plenty of benefits of selling your products in marketplaces. Starting with not needing to pay rent or shop assistants.
Online shops can also improve your offerings, reach a global audience and allow you to be open 24 hours a day. Keep in mind that each marketplace you’ll sell on, will have their own selling policies.
While you’re waiting to get a response from Etsy, you might consider selling on other websites, for example on Shopify (read more on their official website), eBay, Amazon and WooCommerce.
Nembol can help you with this: quickly cross-list your products and sync your channels.
How Nembol can help you in case of suspension
- Nembol can create a back up of your Etsy listings. These effectively makes it impossible that you lose years of work, because one of your accounts on Etsy gets suspended in any case. You will have your listings ready to be used on some other channels or possibly on another Etsy account.
- With Nembol, you can also list your inventory across multiple e-commerce channels. Selling on multiple channels will backup not only your products, but your selling activity as a whole. If any channel diminishes in sales for any reason, not only due to a suspension, your revenues will be maintained through your sales on the other channels. Going multichannel is today a must for any advanced online seller.
- When listing multichannel, an e-commerce multichannel manager tool will help you optimizing e-commerce operations.
- With Nembol you can cross list on up to 10 Etsy accounts.
We hope this article helped you solve some of your doubts regarding Etsy and Etsy suspension. Do not hesitate to contact our customer support for any further needs regarding listing and syncing products across Etsy accounts and other channels. Happy sales.
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