Simply Elegant Glass has been selling handmade sex toys on Etsy for nearly a decade. During this time, the store has sold more than 7,000 and collected more than 1,500 mostly five-star reviews. Offering glass dildos, anal plugs and other insertables, the Etsy shop drives most of the small business’s total sales. But as of Monday, July 29, most of the store’s catalog will not be allowed on the market under Etsy’s new restrictions on sex toys.
The Adult Nudity and Sexual Content policyIn late June, the platform’s House Rules, which were quietly published, state that “Etsy prohibits the sale of adult toys that: are inserted into the body; are applied to the genitals; are intended for genital insertion.” Among other things, it specifically states that sellers Prohibits selling “dildos, vibrators, butt plugs, sex dolls and fleshlights.” Policy update, originally posted Mashable, came in tandem with community forum Written by Etsy’s Head of Trust & Safety, Alice Wu Paulus, it was developed to reflect “evolving industry standards and best practices so we can continue to keep our users safe.”
A note about the pending change says Etsy will “directly contact sellers who need to update their listing images to be compliant” in the coming weeks. He said enforcement would begin on July 29 and non-compliant listings would be removed. But three weeks after the new policy was posted online, sellers who spoke to Engadget said they never contacted Etsy directly. All of them learned about the ban through social networks or other means.
Etsy did not respond to specific questions about the reasons for its decision when contacted by Engadget, but a spokesperson said the change will only affect a very small portion of the platform’s overall seller community. The only explanation provided in the policy change states that the site wants to ensure that “content is appropriate for a broad audience.”
This was seen as the final nail in the coffin for many adult-oriented businesses on Etsy. Multiple vendors described the years before Engadget as a struggle to exist and succeed on the platform. Andy, who blows glass for Simply Elegant Glass, has chosen to share only his own products, feeling that the only place to find such items has been “essentially removed from the internet” because there is currently no alternative marketplace for handmade items on the scale of Etsy. name
“If I want to find handmade products—unless I already know they exist through Etsy—they’re pretty hard to find,” Andy says. They said they found advertising on Google to be “inordinately expensive” and that small business products were often hidden in search results. If a person is just searching by product type, they say, “I don’t think you’ll find it [Simply Elegant Glass] On Google,” said Andy.
Simply Elegant Glass launched her own website a few years ago and recently moved to Shopify to move away from her reliance on Etsy, but said in a recent post. X still “most of our traffic comes from Etsy searches”.
As they see it, Andy said the platform is leaning toward “more questionable sellers, people who don’t actually make toys, dropshippers” and shops that otherwise seem to be “flying in the face.” [Etsy’s] policies”. Dropshipping is an increasingly common practice where businesses sell products that they don’t actually manufacture or even keep in-house – instead, they buy those products from a third-party supplier after receiving orders, and the suppliers will ship them. to customers. Etsy That said, dropshipping is not allowed on the platform in most cases, however dropshippers still found a way.
In addition to sex toys, Etsy’s new policy prohibits the sale of all pornography, including vintage Playboy magazines and any photographs or photo-realistic depictions of sexual acts and genitalia. Unrealistic artwork depicting sexual acts or genitalia may be permitted, but only under certain conditions: when sexual acts are shown, there may not be visible genitalia; if genitals are shown, there can be no “sexual context”. Any material featuring a combination of family and sexual terms, such as slogans such as “‘Daddy’s whore’ or ‘Smothering my mother,'” are also available. However, Etsy will continue to allow certain sexual accessories, such as some BDSM tools and sex furniture.
Sellers who spoke to Engadget questioned why Etsy couldn’t address safety issues in ways other than bans, such as creating an adults-only section to prevent this material from appearing in inappropriate places.
The marketplace is a place where both sellers and buyers rely on custom made sex products. Etsy boss Alyssa Milano, who buys sex and kink products on the platform, told Engadget in a DM that Etsy is “the only place you can really go to support small businesses/brokers in the alternative product world.”
In addition to discoverability, the intuitive user interface makes it easy for stores to create a listing and offer customization options, and allows potential buyers to contact the seller if they have any questions before placing an order. “I talk to a lot of customers,” said Daniel Tyler, who runs the UK-based adult site Secret Kink, and sells on Etsy under the name SecretLatex. Often, he says, “They want little changes here and there. If you shop on Amazon, you won’t get that.” Because it costs so little to list products on Etsy — $.20 per listing — it’s “probably the most affordable place to sell anything,” Chelsea Downs said. New York Toy Collective. Like emerging indie markets Spicerack Those trying to provide a better option for sellers in the adult space are a promising development, but they don’t yet have the reach or name recognition of Etsy.
Even before the ban, sellers of adult products say they’ve struggled with account suspensions and seemingly arbitrary listing deletions, despite Etsy’s best efforts to follow existing rules around adult items. Or, their store would drop down the search rankings and never climb back up. “It just keeps getting worse and worse,” Downs said, noting that his shop’s sales on the platform aren’t what they once were.
Tyler says his Etsy shop was banned about six or seven years ago for unknown reasons. “I couldn’t open the shop, no one answered,” he said. He rebranded and returned to the platform a few years later and has been “safe” until now, but says, “I get different alerts every week about policy violations.” The current Etsy shop sells latex and rubber clothing, as well as dildos, silicone penis sleeves, and gender expression products such as packers—prostheses designed to mimic the bulge of the penis and testicles. Some of his listings will not be allowed under the new rules.
Etsy sales made up 50 percent of Secret Kink’s turnover last year, Tyler said, and 30 percent the year before that. “I always told my partner that any day I’m worried … they’re just going to close my shop,” he said. In light of the economic struggles small businesses are already facing, Tyler says the platform’s latest move is “another kick in the teeth.”
Both Tyler and Downs expressed concern about how the changes could affect shoppers’ access to gender-affirming products. With more than 12,000 sales on Etsy in seven years, Downs’ shop also sells a mix of pleasure and sexual expression products. According to an Etsy spokesperson, items such as packaging that would be classified as prosthetics and not toys (ie, not intended for sexual acts) are still allowed, along with some sexual health products.
The overhaul at Etsy follows age-verification laws gaining traction in the United States, aimed at protecting minors from adult content online. In recent weeks Pornhub is out of several states adopt or seek to promote such legislation instead of complying with screening methods that may pose a privacy risk to users of the site. And sex was already a tough sell for online businesses before this move. Payment processors, e.g PayPal and Stripthere is has historically taken a tough position Regarding the sale of sex-related products and sexual content (Remember when Only Fans tried ban pornography to please the banks?).
Whatever Etsy’s reasoning, affected sellers say they’re bracing for industry-wide implications. Matt Rowe, one of the owners of the fantasy sex toy store Odyssey Toys said in an email that this would be a “devastating blow to many artists.” “There are some extremely talented people who drive innovation and create incredible work with their designs, and for many of them, their work can be swept under the rug almost overnight.”
Rowe said she considers Odyssey “one of the lucky ones” because Etsy currently accounts for about 20 to 25 percent of the business’ sales — but the potential impact on the team of owners and employees, as well as their families, is still “really concerning.” Odyssey moved to a larger office earlier this year and brought on new employees, Rowe said.
With no word from Etsy since its decision, many sellers said their futures are currently uncertain. “Wondering if our account will be deactivated? Is it restricted? Or will they collect our products? Who knows!” Rowe said.
Selling sex toys may have put a target on their backs, but affected sellers warned of broader issues plaguing Etsy that will continue to affect even small businesses that don’t carry adult products. To their dismay, because they don’t offer free shipping, they have to “suffer” in search rankings and navigate a wildly changing playing field with an influx of dropshippers, mass-produced products, and the art of artificial intelligence. “The idea of a handmade market doesn’t exist anymore,” Downs said.
Etsy in July updated the seller’s directory with new categories By reflecting what belongs on the platform, loosening controls on the “handmade,” “vintage,” or “craft supply” categories that listings were once required to conform to. Stores can now label their products as “made by seller”, “made by seller”, “bought by seller” or “selected by seller”.
