Latest posts
-
Week in Review — October 19, 2025
Halloween’s final full week, with attention increasingly split toward the holiday season just ahead. Halloween: the last real week With the holiday itself less than two weeks away, sellers in costumes and party decor describe this as the true final push, consistent with the cutoff and pacing guidance we’ve covered throughout the month. If you…
-
Seller Mailbag: Is It Worth Appealing a Creativity Standards Strike?
We answered a version of this question back in August, when the appeals process was still new. With Q4 approaching, and the cost of a listing removal now higher given the season, worth revisiting with a heading-into-the-holidays lens. “I just got a Creativity Standards strike on one of my better-selling listings, right as I’m gearing…
-
Running Two Seasons at Once: Halloween’s End and the Holiday Ramp-Up
For the next two weeks, most sellers touching both Halloween and holiday categories are running two seasons simultaneously. How you manage that two-week overlap matters more than how well you handled either season in isolation. Table of Contents Introduction 1. Split Your Remaining Time Between Both Seasons Deliberately 2. Apply Your Halloween Production Lessons to…
-
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Keyword Prep: Starting Now, Not in November
In 2024, Black Friday drew an estimated 87.3 million online shoppers and Cyber Monday drew 64.4 million, part of a five-day Thanksgiving weekend stretch that reached roughly 197 million shoppers total, according to the National Retail Federation. That volume is exactly why waiting until November to configure a sale or tag a listing for “black…
-
ShieldMyShop for Etsy Sellers: How It Stacks Up Against the Free Alternatives
ShieldMyShop scans a shop’s active listings against a database of 500+ trademarked brand names and flags potential Creativity Standards, IP, and disclosure risks before Etsy’s own enforcement finds them, for a free trial that covers up to 50 listings and three lifetime scans. Table of Contents Introduction Most Etsy sellers find out they have a…
-
Starting the Transition to Holiday Gift Mode While Halloween Is Still Running
Roughly two out of every five holiday shoppers already start browsing and buying before November, according to National Retail Federation survey data. A shop that waits until Halloween ends to think about holiday positioning is starting behind a meaningful share of its own buyers. Table of Contents Introduction With Halloween in its final two weeks,…
-
Week in Review — October 12, 2025
Halloween’s peak week is here, and the Star Seller changes from earlier this week are already generating real seller reaction. Star Seller update: early reactions largely positive Following Monday’s coverage of the lowered order minimum and combined messaging threads, several smaller shops reported this week that they now qualify for the badge under the new…
-
Scam Alert: What’s Targeting Etsy Sellers This Week
This week’s pattern: fake “item didn’t arrive” claims timed deliberately around Halloween’s hard deadline, designed to pressure sellers into a fast refund or replacement without normal verification. The setup Several sellers in costume and decor categories reported buyers this week claiming an order never arrived, despite tracking showing successful delivery, and specifically pushing for an…
-
Handling the Final-Week Halloween Rush Without Burning Out
A Capital on Tap survey of small business owners found 79% report finding their work stressful, and 56% report poor mental health as a result. The final week before Halloween, right before an even longer Q4 crunch begins, is exactly the kind of stretch that produces it. Table of Contents Introduction These are the exact…
-
Halloween Decor Niches: Spooky-Cute vs. Gothic Elegant vs. Kid-Friendly
Halloween spending is projected to hit a record $13.1 billion in 2025, and 78% of that spending, roughly $4.2 billion, goes toward home decor alone, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual consumer survey. That’s a lot of buyers searching for a very specific aesthetic, and most of them are not searching for the word…