If you’ve spent any time browsing Etsy recently, you’ve probably come across more than a few listings that look oddly familiar – suspiciously like items you’ve seen on Temu, Shein, or AliExpress. And you’re not imagining it. Some sellers are clearly bulk-buying cheap products and listing them as ‘handmade’ or ‘designed by’ them, despite Etsy’s rules saying otherwise.
What’s frustrating is that some of these shops are racking up thousands of sales, have glowing reviews, and seem to stay open without issue. Meanwhile, genuine sellers – who spend time designing, creating, or curating their products – are getting their shops suspended or listings removed for far less.
So, what’s going on?
According to Etsy’s policies, items sold must fall into one of three categories:
- Handmade: You made or designed the item.
- Vintage: At least 20 years old.
- Craft Supplies: Tools, materials, or ingredients used to make something else.
If you’re selling something under the ‘handmade’ label, you’re expected to have a direct role in its creation. You can use production partners (e.g. a printer or manufacturer), but you’re supposed to design the item yourself. Simply buying something cheap from Temu and reselling it as-is isn’t allowed.
Even if the listing says ‘shipped from the UK’ or ‘handpicked’, it’s still reselling if the item is mass-produced and readily available on other platforms for a fraction of the price. That’s misleading to buyers and unfair to sellers who follow the rules.
How Are These Shops Getting Away With It?
That’s the million-pound question. A few reasons why they might be slipping through the net:
- High-volume sales: Once a shop builds momentum, Etsy often lets it be, especially if it’s making money from listing and transaction fees.
- Slick branding: Some resellers know how to make their shop look authentic. They write fluffy product descriptions, use lifestyle photos, and brand their packaging, making it harder for Etsy to spot that the products are just dropshipped or bought in bulk from China. Yet there are sellers taking photos straight from Temu and using them in their listings and still getting away with it.
- Report fatigue: While Etsy relies on community reporting to flag problem shops, many users give up after reporting once or twice with no result.
- Etsy’s inconsistent enforcement: This is the most frustrating part. Genuine sellers get flagged over minor infractions – a missing production partner form, a keyword Etsy doesn’t like, or even just an automated mistake. Meanwhile, obvious resellers can stay under the radar for months, sometimes years.
Why It’s Hurting the Etsy Community
This type of reselling floods the platform with low-quality items and undercuts prices, making it harder for real makers and small businesses to compete. It damages buyer trust, too. Someone who orders ‘handmade’ earrings and receives something identical to what they saw on Temu for £0.68 is unlikely to buy from Etsy again.
For sellers who pour time and energy into their shops, this double standard feels like a slap in the face. You follow every rule, pay your fees, respond to customers, and work hard to build your brand, only to see others seemingly profit by bending or breaking the rules.
Etsy Needs to Do Better
Etsy says it stands for handmade, vintage, and unique goods, and many of us joined the platform because of that mission. But when enforcement is patchy and inconsistent, the platform starts to feel like just another online marketplace.
It’s not about gatekeeping or having a go at those trying to make ends meet. It’s about fairness. If reselling mass-produced goods is against Etsy’s terms, the rules need to apply to everyone, not just the small shops that are easier to penalise.
If you’re a seller affected by this, you’re not alone. Many of us see what’s happening and feel the same frustration. Etsy has the power to fix this – but until then, it’s up to us to keep speaking up.
Have you noticed shops reselling from Temu on Etsy? Have you reported them and seen no action taken? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
