What To Do When Your Etsy Account is Suspended
I only had my Etsy account for a few weeks, and my account got suspended. No explanation why this had happened, nothing! Has this happened to you? Why would they do this? No one would enter a shop on the high street and shut your shop down straight away with no explanation, so why would Etsy be so harsh (to put it lightly)!
WHY IS MY ETSY ACCOUNT SUSPENDED?
This question was going round and round in my head, and I was going around in circles on their website trying to figure it out. I got NO EMAIL from them saying my account had been suspended, nothing! So I couldn’t even respond to them.
You’ve probably checked this out already, but usually, when they suspend your account, it’s because the products aren’t your own or for some other stupid reason. All my products are my own and designed by me, so I couldn’t understand why this had happened.
WHO DO YOU CONTACT ABOUT THE SUSPENDED ACCOUNT?
I could see that there was no email or telephone number to contact anyone, which I find pretty shocking for such a big online market. There is just a help centre that wasn’t helpful for the suspended account category.
If you have tried the help centre, you’ll probably find you’re going around in circles coming back to the page where you started!!
So I resorted to social media. I first tried Twitter but had no response. I looked at their Tweets and Reply section and found they had a lot of people complaining about their suspended accounts! Surely this must say to them that they need a better way of communicating.
The only way I got a response was through Instagram and to send them a direct message.
This is what I said on the 22nd Nov: Hi, could you help me, please? My account was suspended for no reason, and no email was received. The help centre was no help. My email is ……….. and my shop is called ……………….
In response 23rd Nov:
Hello! Thanks for reaching out. We review our inbox throughout the day, and messages are answered in the order in which they are received. To help get us started, please let us know your Etsy username, the email address associated with your account, and/or your order number. Thank you!
I finally got an email on the 3rd of December saying they had reinstated my shop and listings, and they should be searchable within the next 20 minutes. They were sorry for any inconvenience that it may have caused.
Overall, it took 11 days to get my account back up and running, but there was still no explanation of why this had happened.
Even though my account is back up and running, I’m now a bit wary if they are going to do this again. This is why you need a backup plan! See below.
WHAT DO YOU DO WHILE YOU WAIT FOR A REPLY/UNSUSPEND ETSY ACCOUNT?
I’ll come straight to the point. Never rely on other platforms to sell your products. These aren’t your sites; they can shut down at any time, and you’re left out of pocket without explanation. Read my Etsy vs Website post.
Set up your own website. Not just any website, it must be a self-hosted website that you truly own. What does that mean, I hear you say?
With a self-hosted site, you have complete control. You are free to do anything you want and customize it as much as you need. With a non-self-hosted site, it is very restricted. It’s a bit like Etsy. They can delete your site at any time if they think that it violates their terms of service.
This website you’re reading from is a Bluehost self-hosted site with WordPress.org (you get the WordPress free with a shop too to sell your products). Don’t use WordPress.com as it is not self-hosted.
I have written another post on setting up a website if you’re struggling with it HERE. Don’t forget to get a theme for your site (this is the layout or how you want your site to look), see HERE.
Do this while waiting for your Etsy site to be fixed. They say it can take 5 days, but it took longer in my case.
WHAT DO I DO NEXT AFTER I’VE ADDED MY PRODUCTS TO THE SHOP
Having your own dedicated website is different from having an Etsy account, as nobody knows who you are. This is where you need to learn SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
You will learn how to optimize your product pages, posts etc., so when people search for items on Google or Bing etc., your website will pop up without having to pay for ads! Please don’t skip this part, as it’s a valuable part of having an online presence. I made the mistake of not doing this initially, and I wasn’t getting anywhere with my blog.
There are lots of SEO courses out there. The course I went on and wished I’d bought it years ago is the Stupid Simple SEO course. It’s pretty expensive but worth it.
If you’re on a small budget, I created my own SEO course, SEO The Right Way, at a fraction of the price, and it has the same principles as the expensive course. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one you want.
DO I NEED A WEBSITE IF MY ETSY ACCOUNT GETS FIXED?
Yes, of course, you do!!. This is not only your backup plan; it’s another avenue to earn money. Not everybody shops on Etsy.
I was reading some comments on the Etsy forums when my account was suspended, and one of the people said she had a successful shop on Etsy for years, and suddenly, it was shut down, and her income stream had stopped! I felt so sorry for her.
Make sure you get your own website now >> GET YOUR OWN WEBSITE HERE. Once you’ve done that, promote with a free Pinterest Business account and grab this free Ultimate Pinterest Checklist to help you out.
I would love to hear how you got on with Etsy or what you think of this post. Just leave a comment below. And I would also love an extra subscriber!