Having announced in April that they would be changing the way that their merchants were will, Etsy have postponed plans to launch their new payment account immediately and the Etsy billing changes will now be introduced later in the year.
The changes were controversial from the start and wide ranging including collecting and remitting sales taxes on behalf of sellers as well as effectively doing merchants accounts for them by combining payment and billing accounts and deducting fees from money owed to the merchant.
Etsy have put out a statement detailing the delay in implementation:
“Earlier this year, we announced plans to make managing your shop’s finances easier by combining your payment account and bill, and changing how you’re billed on Etsy.
Since our announcement, a lot of you have shared your feedback and we’re listening. We’re hard at work making the new experience the best it can be for you and your shop, and to help make that happen, the redesigned payment account will now be released later this year.
We know how important managing your finances is and we appreciate your patience and your thoughtful feedback about this change.
We’ll continue to update you as the new experience becomes available.
Thank you for being a part of the Etsy community.”
– Etsy
Etsy are making many changes at the moment – some of their own volition and other’s forced on them, for instance the collection of Australian GST if the seller is located outside Australia, shipping goods to a buyer in Australia with a value of up to $1,000 AUD. That’s more or less been forced on Etsy by the Australian government.
Sellers still aren’t happy and are even complaining that the changes have been delayed bemoaning that they’re are still coming. They don’t want Etsy to effectively become their bookkeeper and accountant deducting monies that they see fit from Etsy sales. Perhaps the biggest complaint of all however, is that Etsy are “dressing up the changes” and presenting them as if they are solely designed to benefit the merchant. Many of the changes will benefit some merchants, but the’d rather Etsy be a bit more straight talking and say we’re doing this because laws have changed or we’re doing this because it helps our cash flow – merchants aren’t daft and in over 20 years of marketplace trading have become adept at reading through the marketing presentation and deciding what works in their favour and what’s just sugary talk.
