Hi everyone, my name is Corinne and I lead the Trust & Safety team at Etsy. My team works to protect the marketplace by enforcing our House Rules and combating fraud.
We often hear that a big fear for Etsy sellers is that their shops could be shut down with no warning. I’m here to debunk a few myths about how we enforce policies.
Myth #1: The process of shutting down shops is automated
Answer: Well, not exactly. Like most large companies who do content moderation, we use a combination of automated systems and human review. In order to monitor the millions of listings on Etsy we leverage automation when we can. But most often, when we find policy violations we reach out to sellers to educate them and ask that they make changes to their listings or shop to bring them into compliance. In most cases, only after several warnings and a pattern of policy violations would we take action on a shop.
Myth #2: Etsy doesn’t give second chances
Answer: We definitely do! For all policy violations (for instance, when a prohibited item is listed) we’ll reach out to the seller and provide educational information about our policies, and even give them the opportunity to remove or edit the listing without ever suspending their shop. We also have an appeals process that you can read more about here. We use insights gained from our agents and the community to fuel a process of continuous improvement, incorporating feedback to help improve the design of our automated systems and enhance human decision-making.
Myth #3: Etsy doesn’t offer leniency to shops in hardship
Answer: We know life happens and sometimes things go wrong. That’s why we take a holistic approach when we review shops for customer service performance. We have one-on-one conversations with the seller and take into consideration things that happened outside of their control before a decision is made to permanently close a shop. In the end, what may lead to an action is a pattern of behavior rather than one-off instances.
Monitoring policy violations is a work in progress that is always evolving. We’re dedicated to protecting our marketplace and working hard towards making our process and the technology even better. You can read more information about what to do if your shop is suspended here.
Words by Corinne Pavlovic
Head of Etsy's Trust & Safety Team
