Storque articles by adubois

Holiday How-To: Offering Services

2008-09-08T17:00:00-05:00

Sellers: it's never too early to start thinking about the holiday shopping rush! During the holiday season last year, the Etsy Support Team learned a lot about the issues that sellers face when offering services to Etsy buyers. This season, you may want to offer some promotions and additional services to your customers, and we want to help you be prepared. This article will describe how to provide some of these extras and stay within the DOs & DON'Ts of Etsy. Please follow the links for further information on each of these topics.

Gift Certificates

When selling gift certificates, be sure to create a tangible, physical item for the listing. This could be a traditional paper certificate, notecard or even a digital file that is delivered to the buyer.

More on selling gift certificates in your Etsy shop in this previous Storque article.

Shipping Upgrades

To let buyers know that you can upgrade shipping at their request, you can mention this in your shop announcement, profile or in item descriptions. A buyer can let you know if they need upgraded shipping, and you can then revise the listing or invoice to reflect the shipping changes.

Check out the full article about holiday shipping concerns for more info.

Selling Gift Wrap

All items must be available for purchase, but without requiring other purchases to be made. To offer gift wrapping, the paper needs to be listed as a supply that can be purchased with or without another item. You could write in the item description that if another item is purchased, it can be wrapped in the paper.

For further information on offering gift wrap to your customers, check out this article.

Sales and Other Add-ons in Your Shop

Rather than create a listing to let buyers know about a promotion or add-on, you can include this information in item descriptions, shop announcement, profile or even your banner. Additionally, you can adjust the price of your item in PayPal or make arrangements with the buyer to refund her after she purchases.

How to edit a PayPal invoice to accommodate a price change.

Do you have any questions on these topics or any other holiday rush bugbear and you're concerned about what you can and cannot offer in your shop? Please feel free to contact Etsy's Content Team at content@etsy.com. Happy holidays!

About Us: Amber aka adubois

2008-08-27T11:16:00-05:00

Amber aka adubois is part of the hard-working and ever-growing Support Team and is known for the fire in her belly when it comes to busting resellers and other evil-doers on the site. Amber also shows compassion for those who may have simply misunderstood Etsy's selling policy.

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Amber Fun Facts:

Amber is a painter.
She's a Die Hard Philly Sports Fan, and has cried at the following losses:
- 1987 Philadelphia Flyers Season Loss
- 1993 World Series (7th grade)
- 2001 NBA Playoffs (while studying painting)

Suffers from a textbook case of Koumpounophobia — which is a severe fear of buttons.
Her father is known as a hairdresser to the stars (which may have something to do with why she pulls-off such a great pompadour).
Has a healthy obsession with the Cult Classic: Manos: Hands of Fate and MST3K and is even a card carrying member of the Fan Club.

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some favorite shops below...

About Us: Erin aka ErinHaldrup

2008-07-30T12:00:00-05:00

Erin aka ErinHaldrup works on the Support Team and was one of the first Etsy employees after Matt and Emily joined the founders. She hails from Indiana originally and went to painting school here in New York City.

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As a New Orleans enthusiast, Erin did a number of Storque posts with videos about her trips there post-Katrina, her visits with some Big Easy Etsy sellers, and her time living there before the hurricane.

Erin is very passionate about Etsy. She's a painter herself and spends her free time in the studio, and she's a huge advocate for fine art on Etsy, as Anda pointed out. Her sensitive soul always prompts her to think about customer support issues from the artist's perspective.

Erin Fun Facts:

Erin and Tim were dramatically evicted (along with everyone else in the building) after only having lived in their Bushwick apartment for three days. After that experience, Erin vowed to never rent again and bought an apartment.
She likes tie-dye.
Tim and Erin have been friends since high school.
Erin once dined with her hero, Lou Reed.
She went to the Super Bowl in 2002 to see another one of her heroes, Bono.
During Pet week, Erin brought her budgie birds, Elvis and Priscilla, into the office.
Her favorite painter is Max Beckmann.
She is an amateur ballerina.
As quite the jetsetter, she has been to Japan, England, Italy, and even attended a wedding in India.
Erin got really mad at me (Vanessa) when I added a joke to her cloth maxi pad Etsy Find.
According to Jim, she has possibly the loudest cell phone ring in the office.

As you can see, she was an equestrienne in middle school:

Adorable babe:

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We are posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it. For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Below you will find some of Erin's favorites.

Etsy Finds: Vintage Straw Purses

2008-05-17T16:29:00-05:00

There are some fantastic vintage goodies to be found on Etsy — and the new 'vintage' search option has made it that much easier to shop for them!

Vintage accessories have been a particular vice of mine for a long time! It's sort of genetic — in the 1950's and 1960's my grandmother had a small shop that sold antiques and ladies' accessories! One of the first gifts I remember receiving from her was a stuffed toy bunny tucked into a small vintage straw purse. I still have that purse, and I can't wait to break it out come summertime!

...Check out some of the delightful vintage straw bags that can be found on Etsy. One of my favorites can be found in softspoken's shop — quintessentially summery and fun!

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Fresh Shops: SecondLineFrames

2008-04-24T13:30:00-05:00

The Earth Tones series features sellers that repurpose, recycle, and reuse materials. This week's eco-friendly contribution to the Fresh Shops series features SecondLineFrames, which opened in January. I was immediately taken by the items in their shop — exquisite frames both beautifully crafted and lovely to look at. What makes these objects even more unique is the fact that they are fashioned out of salvaged wood scraps that were left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I spoke to Anika, who along with her mother, father, and boyfriend Michael, runs SecondLineFrames.

It's incredible that these frames are constructed out of wood debris left after Hurricane Katrina. Can you talk a little about your personal connection to New Orleans?
My mother was raised in New Orleans and lived there for 22 years. It’s a place that’s immensely dear to her heart, and the rest of my family's. We’ve been loyal Jazz Fest-goers every year for as long as I can remember! [NOTE: SecondLineFrames is now based out of Alabama.]

Tell me a little about the idea behind your shop, and why you offer frames...
It was important to us that an individual could have a piece of New Orleans and its story. Frames preserve memories, and the notion of making frames out of this wood and giving it a fresh start seemed only natural. In the several times we went back to New Orleans after the hurricane, we couldn’t quite get over the shock of how much was still left to be done. With each visit, it was getting better, but there was also that pile of debris you’d see where there was once a quaint old house — and that was unsettling. We want to remind people that there is always something to look forward to, even when you're looking back.

My grandfather, Harry Anderson was a woodworker, he made frames and furniture for as long as I can remember, and so it was no surprise that woodworking came just as naturally to my father! RebirthFrames is our Etsy 'sister store,' or should we say 'brother store,' as it’s run by my mother's brother. It feels good to know we’re continuing a family tradition, and we hope to invigorate and reclaim these materials that had been disregarded — to give them new life.

Can you talk a little bit about how the frames are made, from conception to finish?
When it comes to designing the frames, we pick out a plank of wood and think about what would best fit it, not how it would fit into our design. We try to maximize the wood we have in an attempt to produce as little waste as possible. All the wood we collect has either already been put into piles for trash pickup, or we get permission from a family currently doing renovations. What we would like to do sometime in the future is to give a frame back to the original person we got the wood from, so that they can have a preserved piece of their old house — that would be a fantastic moment!

For more about how to contribute to Hurricane Katrina relief, visit the American Red Cross at: Redcross.org/services/disaster.

EGCG | Trashion | EcoEtsy | Environmentally Friendly Gift Guides | Earth Tones Series

All About Etsy FAQ Series: Meet the Content Folks on the Support Team

2008-04-17T15:32:00-05:00

In this installment of the All About Etsy FAQ Series, we'll introduce the precious few in charge of investigating flagged items on Etsy: the Content folks on the Support Team.

Have you ever wondered what happens when an item is flagged on Etsy? Where do these reports go? Who reads them? What happens next?!

A special task force is in place to investigate these matters, and we are called the Etsy Shop Content Team. This branch of community support is made up of Tim aka dillinger (see his About Us piece) and Amber aka adubois (About Us piece coming soon!). As well as helping users to comply with Etsy guidelines, we field questions about listing policies and work to shape the boundaries of what can be sold on Etsy. Our mission is to educate the community and preserve the integrity of the site.

Here is some information about when and how to contact the Etsy Content Team...

Reporting shops in violation of Etsy Policy:
If you come across a listing you feel breaks one of Etsy's rules, you can click 'Report this item to Etsy' on the lower right hand side of the page. You can also report a shop or listing by sending an email to flagged@etsy.com. Please note that you don't need to expect an email back from us: the Content Team does not respond to emails received in the flagged inbox. Further, once an item or shop is reported, the investigation process is confidential. We take care of it from here on out!

As the flagged emails come in, there are generally four actions we may take:

1. The report is dismissed - This happens when the listing is clearly not in violation of Etsy policy, and there are no other apparent problems with the shop. If the user is flagged again, we will look into the shop to make sure everything is still in order.

2. An inquiry is sent to the reported user - Sometimes it is unclear whether or not a violation is occuring. In these cases, we send a questionnaire to the seller to get more information about the shop or listing. After the seller returns the Inquiry, we either dismiss the case, we ask the user to make changes in the shop, or we make an immediate change.

3. A change request is sent to the reported user - If a shop features items that clearly break one or more of Etsy's rules, we ask the User to edit or remove the problem listings.

4. An immediate change is made by the Content Team - In extreme cases, we may remove a listing or deactivate an account right away. This happens when there are listings in the shop that strongly oppose Etsy's mission, all items featured in the shop violate Etsy policies, or the shop is being used only as advertisement space.

If you receive an inquiry, be sure to get the requested information back to us! If your shop is within Etsy's guidelines, you have nothing to worry about. If it turns out that there is a violation occuring, the Content Team will let you know what changes need to be made in order to comply.

If you receive a change request, please make the needed changes or write back if you feel this is a mistake. We will work to understand your situation and consider any additional information you can offer.

Please note: if the Content Team makes two attempts to contact a user but does not hear back, some account privileges may be suspended. Once communication is received, we can restore these privileges and works towards resolving any problems. These matters are handled on a case by case basis.

For questions about what can be listed and shop guidelines:
You should read the Selling Policy in Etsy's Help section of the site. Here's the link to info about what you can and can't sell on Etsy.

If you are still concerned or have questions about your own shop, send an email to content@etsy.com. Tim or Amber will get back to you. We'd love to hear from you and help you out!

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about Content! You can read more about the work Etsy Admin do to run the business in our All about Etsy FAQ Series.

Etsy Finds: Bug Bracelets

2008-03-05T10:02:00-05:00

Hi, my name is Amber, aka adubois, and I am happy to say that I am a new member of the Support Team at Etsy! The new members of Support were each asked to pick an item on Etsy that we think is pretty darn cool. Since I'm a bit of a jewelry enthusiast, I've decided to feature this beautiful lucite bangle by KolosStudio.

Usher in the spring time months while wearing this fabulously mod bracelet — that also happens to have real beetles embedded in it! I own one of these bracelets, and not only are they gorgeous, but a reminder of how fascinating mother nature truly can be. Not for the faint of heart, but perfect for the budding entomologist/fashionista in your life!

Happy spring!

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All about Etsy FAQ Series: Meet Customer Support

2008-01-14T16:32:00-05:00

"Oh no! I'm having a problem and I need help but I don't know who to ask?" As part of our All about Etsy FAQ Series, the Customer Support Team has detailed their role at Etsy and the best ways to communicate with them if you need help.

We are here to help Etsians! The Support Team writes a Featured Column for the Storque called Customer Care, with updates on issues such as billing, reporting transactions, and other support-related issues. We also post tips and how-tos which are meant to help you out before you encounter a problem. As they say, an ounce of prevention...

If you do encounter a problem and you want to get in touch with us, you can expect to hear from one of our team members: adrian1, Lori aka Chillionaire, emilybidwell, ErinHaldrup, jasonmseger, JoeTheBeard, calebwalt, projectmattnyc, mermaidclaire, adubois, Dillinger or jimchesters. Our team works on General Support and Billing 7 days a week and Abuse cases Monday through Friday. Expect a response within 24 hours during working hours. If you don't, please email back. Maybe we didn't get it! If you still don't get through, try sending one of us an Etsy Conversation, and we will find out what happened to your email. We eagerly respond to every email, but please be patient. There are a few of us and a lot of you! We believe in quality, one-on-one attention. You will always be emailing with a person when you contact Etsy support.

In order to help you as quickly as possible, send your email to one of the following addresses.

Email Support@Etsy.com for General Help, which covers:
Site navigation and functions, Selling and Buying, Closing and Opening accounts, Bugs, Muted Conversations, Questions about canceled transactions and refunds, Your Listings, Registration and Login, Your Shop, Advice, Question about what can and cannot be sold on Etsy, Forgotten Username, Email or Password trouble, Forums and Chatrooms, Questions about Site Policy, How to leave Feedback, and General Information.

Email Billing@Etsy.com for:
Trouble with credit card, your bill, or your fees.

Email Abuse@Etsy.com for all Disputes and Site Violations, involving:
Transactions, Conversations, Copyright, Trademark, Brand, Feedback, Harassment, Listings that don't belong on Etsy, Fee avoidance, General TOU violation, Behavior or Quality concerns, Sock Puppet accounts, Shilling (falsely inflating feedback), Spam, Scams, Non-Delivery, Inaccurate Listings.

Since most of the Etsy admin have a hand in helping you in one way or another, it can be befuddling as to who is the best point of contact!

For all Disputes and Site Violations involving the Forum and Chatroom, contact community@etsy.com. If you need help getting the hang of Etsy etiquette on the forums, check out the Community Team's Forum Decorum series on the Storque. The Community Team can also help you get acquainted with site policy and getting to know your way around the Etsy website. For more on Community, see their post in this All about Etsy FAQ Series (coming soon).

If you need advice or suggestions on your shop's appearance or the art of selling on Etsy and developing your brand, you might want to reach out to the Etsy Labs admin. For more on the Etsy Labs and how they mentor sellers, see this All about the Labs post.

And lastly, don't be afraid to ask for help! We think open communication works best for everyone.