Rogue sellers are using the Etsy platform to resell name-brand products at exorbitant prices, passing them off as handmade items by an artisan, an investigation has found.
“Our research shows that some sellers on Etsy brazenly defraud their customers by making misleading claims about their products,” commented Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy for product and services analytics firm Which?, according to what “The Guardian” reported on Thursday.
The survey revealed that some sellers would charge up to seven times the price for an item labeled “handmade” but previously purchased from a major retailer such as Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba or even a clothing or furniture chain. .
In its rules, the Etsy platform would however indicate that all items offered for sale must be handmade – that is to say that the seller must have been involved in the manufacture of the object -, antique or be craft products.
All those who participate in the creation of the object must also be listed in the announcement, continued the English media.
By analyzing only the first page of several categories, including furniture, toys and clothing, Which? would thus have determined that at least 23 of the 192 products analyzed and sold “handmade” would in fact come from another platform.
For example, a supposedly “handmade” rustic nightstand that sold for £128 – around $215 – could be had for £44 ($75) on Amazon. The same goes for a children’s book, whose price of £4 ($6.80) on Alibaba would have jumped to £28 (about $47.60) on Etsy, an amount seven times higher.
Etsy needs to “up its game by tackling these dishonest practices,” Rocio Concha said, adding that “a crackdown on dubious claims and online advertising is long overdue.”
Last year, 36 million listings were reported to the platform, which would be double the previous year, according to Etsy. In total, 1.9 million ads would also have been removed from the website, an increase of 16% compared to 2021, according to the British media.
