Marketplace Boycotts Are Toothless: 0.0085% of Etsy Sellers Revolt!

Headlines look great until you put them into context. "Hundreds" of Etsy sellers are boycotting Etsy. OK that sounds bad.

How many Etsy sellers are there?

Juozas Kaziukėnas mentions 5.9 million -- is this really a story?

The BBC reported that hundreds of sellers had 75% of their funds held for 45 days. The reasons are reportedly not revealed. It's not just Etsy. Every Amazon seller on the platform for at least 5 years has their own version of a "funds held" or a "delisted or suppressed item" story.

The risks are real.

The only way to avoid marketplace risks is to avoid dependencies. Get into retail. Have your own website. Be present on other marketplaces.

Logically, any single channel with more than 40% concentration is a tremendous risk to your well-being as a small business owner. If you liken it to the stock market, it would be like betting 50% of your net worth on a single stock rather than buying a broad index fund that distributes your risk.

While I'm not defending Etsy's actions here, usually big marketplace can be restrictive and onerous for a few reasons:

* One, they can get away with it.

* Two, you aren't their primary customer. The buyers are. You're "just a vendor" to a lot of marketplaces. And a somewhat easily replaceable one, at that.

* Three, they get targeted. People talk a lot about buyer fraud, but the reality is that seller fraud is the most insidious form of fraud on a marketplace. Buyer fraud can only target a single transaction at a time. Seller fraud can defraud hundreds or thousands of buyers before someone finds out.

The marketplace itself is out money in this case, and you have many more upset buyers.

This risk of seller fraud is the reason why marketplaces are so restrictive with seller funds and policies.

I try not to pay too much attention to reports about marketplace boycotts. It detracts from the main goal: doing business. I was always told: God helps those who help themselves.

The way to help yourself as a seller?

Get your sales in a couple more baskets, especially if you cannot afford the risk.

Otherwise, I really like Warren Buffett's advice too - especially if you have enough cushion to take risks: put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket ;-)

Easy for Warren Buffett to say than for the average SMB seller to do!