Latest posts
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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…
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Seller Mailbag: Is It Worth Appealing a Creativity Standards Strike?
We answered a version of this question back in August, shortly after our look at what actually got removed during Creativity Standards’ first month, 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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Star Seller Just Got Easier — the New Bar, Explained
Etsy’s Star Seller program includes criteria aimed at addressing some of the most common pain points sellers have raised about the badge. We weren’t able to independently pin down a single confirmed announcement this week for the specific changes below, current seller-facing guides describe these as the program’s standing criteria, so treat the “why now”…
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Week in Review — October 5, 2025
Halloween’s final push is underway, and support case volume is already climbing ahead of the busier Q4 stretch. Halloween: full intensity now Sellers across costumes, decor, and party supplies report this is now the single busiest week of the category’s entire selling season, consistent with the compressed timeline we’ve discussed all along. If you’re in…
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Seller Mailbag: How Do I Actually Reach a Human at Etsy Support?
We answered this back in July, but with Q4 approaching and support case volume typically climbing alongside it, worth an updated, more current version of the answer, especially since slow replies right now can also chip away at your Star Seller standing as order volume climbs. “I have a time-sensitive issue and the standard help…
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Star Seller and Q4: Keeping Your Standing as Order Volume Climbs
Star Seller requires a 95% message response rate within 24 hours, 95% on-time shipping, and an average review rating of 4.8 or higher, all measured over a rolling three-month window that Etsy re-checks on the first of every month. None of those thresholds move for Q4. Your margin for error does. Table of Contents Introduction…
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Week in Review — September 28, 2025
Closing out September with Q4 planning now the clear focus across seller conversation. Cash flow planning resonating Following Thursday’s piece on Q4 cash flow, several sellers reached out specifically about the staggered-ordering approach, with a few mentioning they’d never considered it as an option versus a single large upfront inventory purchase. Worth revisiting that piece…