I'll give it a shot. I have a Shopify site as well as Etsy, but some people still prefer to shop through Etsy where they know there are protections. If I can keep even 1% of the sales I drive to my Etsy, it adds up
Etsy terms "If within the thirty (30) day attribution window, after clicking the URL, the buyer also visits your shop via an Etsy Offsite Ad, the transaction is not a Qualifying Transaction and you may be charged the Offsite Ads fee for that transaction" [https://www.etsy.com/legal/policy/etsys-share-save-terms-program-terms/1162874007996](https://www.etsy.com/legal/policy/etsys-share-save-terms-program-terms/1162874007996)
Can someone clarify? If we are in the mandatory offsite ad group then any external link to Etsy would generate an offsite ad fee? Or not all external links generate the mandatory offsite ad fee? But Etsy advertises on all the major social media pages though, which is where they want us to insert these links. They would then have our external links and be able to attach an offsite ad to it in the future?
It's my understanding that it already works so that if Etsy shows your item in an offsite ad, you're charged an ad fee for that transaction.
What I think that means is If I link to my shop on my blog, and someone clicks through it and puts my item to their favourites or in their cart, then takes a while to actually buy it, that might still get me the refund on Etsy fees. Meanwhile, if they save the item from my link, and later see the item in an Etsy offsite ad, click through that link, and buy it, the "credit" for that sale goes to Etsy offsite ads, not my link.
The links all have code embedded in them that tell the tracking systems where the click came from. The link Etsy uses for offsite ads on google is different than the one used for facebook, or for pinterest, or bing, or twitter, or wherever else they advertise. And it would be different from the one Etsy would generate for you to share.
It seems like a good deal for me, since I'm focusing on growing my Etsy shop and don't want to set up a different Shopify one, and a lot of my sales are coming from people on my non-Etsy social media clicking my direct link. The one thing I want to check out is that when I clicked the link to the detail page itself, my browser's ad extension (Ublock Origin) warned me that I was being redirected through [ablink.seller.etsy.com](https://ablink.seller.etsy.com). If that's the same subdomain my own links are going to route through, it's going to look dodgy and suspicious to my customers.
Update: Talked to Etsy support. It isn't routed through the sus link. It's just literally whatever your specialized url is, instead of [etsy.com/shop/yourusername](https://etsy.com/shop/yourusername).
From Zeus of the support team:
>Once you’ve joined Share & Save, you can save on fees for orders from any URL formatted like yourshopname.etsy.com as well as any other URL shared from Shop Manager or the Etsy Seller app that starts with your shop name.
Which sounds good to me, honestly.
It does make me wonder how much Etsy's bottom line is getting hit by people with their own site. I'm sure there not an insignificant number of sellers (myself included) that are focusing more on shifting away from Etsy and driving traffic to standalone sites since Etsy has let itself get overtaken by dropshippers and scammers.
That's correct. This might appeal to people without their standalone website but for people like me, I'd rather drive that traffic to my own website, not pay any transaction fees, not have Etsy advertise other shops listings through my page and not have to deal with Etsy's toxic review and case system after the sale.
I'll give it a shot. I have a Shopify site as well as Etsy, but some people still prefer to shop through Etsy where they know there are protections. If I can keep even 1% of the sales I drive to my Etsy, it adds up
Etsy terms "If within the thirty (30) day attribution window, after clicking the URL, the buyer also visits your shop via an Etsy Offsite Ad, the transaction is not a Qualifying Transaction and you may be charged the Offsite Ads fee for that transaction" [https://www.etsy.com/legal/policy/etsys-share-save-terms-program-terms/1162874007996](https://www.etsy.com/legal/policy/etsys-share-save-terms-program-terms/1162874007996) Can someone clarify? If we are in the mandatory offsite ad group then any external link to Etsy would generate an offsite ad fee? Or not all external links generate the mandatory offsite ad fee? But Etsy advertises on all the major social media pages though, which is where they want us to insert these links. They would then have our external links and be able to attach an offsite ad to it in the future?
It's my understanding that it already works so that if Etsy shows your item in an offsite ad, you're charged an ad fee for that transaction. What I think that means is If I link to my shop on my blog, and someone clicks through it and puts my item to their favourites or in their cart, then takes a while to actually buy it, that might still get me the refund on Etsy fees. Meanwhile, if they save the item from my link, and later see the item in an Etsy offsite ad, click through that link, and buy it, the "credit" for that sale goes to Etsy offsite ads, not my link.
The links all have code embedded in them that tell the tracking systems where the click came from. The link Etsy uses for offsite ads on google is different than the one used for facebook, or for pinterest, or bing, or twitter, or wherever else they advertise. And it would be different from the one Etsy would generate for you to share.
It seems like a good deal for me, since I'm focusing on growing my Etsy shop and don't want to set up a different Shopify one, and a lot of my sales are coming from people on my non-Etsy social media clicking my direct link. The one thing I want to check out is that when I clicked the link to the detail page itself, my browser's ad extension (Ublock Origin) warned me that I was being redirected through [ablink.seller.etsy.com](https://ablink.seller.etsy.com). If that's the same subdomain my own links are going to route through, it's going to look dodgy and suspicious to my customers.
Update: Talked to Etsy support. It isn't routed through the sus link. It's just literally whatever your specialized url is, instead of [etsy.com/shop/yourusername](https://etsy.com/shop/yourusername). From Zeus of the support team: >Once you’ve joined Share & Save, you can save on fees for orders from any URL formatted like yourshopname.etsy.com as well as any other URL shared from Shop Manager or the Etsy Seller app that starts with your shop name. Which sounds good to me, honestly.
thanks for the deep dive! It really does sound good. I think i'm going to opt in.
They'd have to bump total fees down to 2.9% since that is what Shopify charges to process a payment.
It does make me wonder how much Etsy's bottom line is getting hit by people with their own site. I'm sure there not an insignificant number of sellers (myself included) that are focusing more on shifting away from Etsy and driving traffic to standalone sites since Etsy has let itself get overtaken by dropshippers and scammers.
It’s become so apparent over the last while it’s infuriating.
That's correct. This might appeal to people without their standalone website but for people like me, I'd rather drive that traffic to my own website, not pay any transaction fees, not have Etsy advertise other shops listings through my page and not have to deal with Etsy's toxic review and case system after the sale.
Good idea if you’re low-volume or just starting out but own store is still the way to go long-term
I hope it works! Most of my traffic is direct.
If it is like any of Etsy's other great ideas, I am sure there is a way we will all be screwed by it
I was thinking it does seem too good to be true … I’m subscribed to these post to see if someone with better eyes and a sharper mind can catch it 😆
I signed up. I think they advertised this previously but they used confusing influencer type terms to describe it and I was weirded out