Simply Elegant Glass has been selling handmade sex toys on Etsy for nearly a decade. During this period, the store made more than 7,000 sales and accumulated more than 1,500 reviews, most of which were five stars. The Etsy store — which offers glass dildos, butt plugs and other insertable items — drives most of the small businesses’ overall sales. But starting Monday, July 29, most of the store’s catalog will no longer be allowed on the market under Etsy’s new restrictions regarding sex toys.
O Adult nudity and sexual content policy, which was quietly published in late June in the platform’s “House Rules,” states that “Etsy prohibits the sale of adult toys that are: inserted into the body; applied to the genitalia; designed so that the genitals are inserted into them. Among other things, it specifically prohibits sellers from selling “dildos, vibrators, butt plugs, sex dolls, and fleshlights.” The policy update, first detected by Mashable, came along with a Community Forum post from Etsy’s head of trust and safety, Alice Wu Paulus, who wrote that it was designed to reflect “evolving industry standards and best practices so we can continue to keep our users safe.”
The note about the impending change said that Etsy would, in the coming weeks, “communicate directly with sellers who may need to update their listing images to be in compliance.” Enforcement would begin July 29, he said, and listings that were not in compliance would be removed. But until three weeks after the new policy was posted online, sellers who spoke to Engadget said they were never contacted directly by Etsy. Everyone found out about the ban through social media or other means.
Etsy didn’t 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 percentage of the platform’s overall seller community. The only explanation presented in the policy change itself notes that the site wants to ensure that “content is appropriate for a broad audience.”
It was greeted as the final nail in the coffin for many adult-oriented businesses on Etsy. Several sellers described the years leading up to Engadget as a struggle to exist and succeed on the platform. And with no alternative marketplace for artisanal goods currently operating on the scale of Etsy, it appears the only place to find such items has been “essentially shut out of the internet,” said Andy, a glassblower at Simply Elegant Glass who has chosen to only share his wares. . first name.
“If I want to find handmade products — unless I knew they existed through Etsy — finding them is incredibly difficult,” Andy said. They said they found that advertising on Google is “prohibitively expensive” and that small business products are often buried in search results. If a person were just searching by product type, “I don’t think you could find [Simply Elegant Glass] on Google,” Andy said.
Simply Elegant Glass launched its own website a few years ago and recently moved to Shopify in an effort to move away from relying on Etsy, but said in a recent post on X that even so, “the majority of our traffic originates from searches on Etsy.”
In his opinion, Andy said that the platform has a tendency to “allow shady sellers, people who don’t actually make the toys, dropshippers” and stores that would otherwise seem to “go in the face of [Etsy’s] policies.” Dropshipping is an increasingly common practice in which companies sell products that they don’t actually make themselves or even keep in stock—instead, they source those items from a third-party supplier once they receive orders, and the suppliers ship them to customers. . Etsy said that dropshipping is not allowed on the platform in most circumstances, but 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 photorealistic depictions of sexual acts and genitals. Non-realistic works of art that feature sexual acts or genitals may be permitted, but only under certain conditions: if sexual acts are shown, there may be no visible genitalia; if genitalia are shown, there cannot be any “sexual context”. Any material that features a combination of familial and sexual terms, for example, “slogans like ‘daddy’s slut’ or ‘smother me, mommy,’” is also out of the question. Etsy, however, will continue to allow certain sexual accessories, such as some BDSM equipment and sexual furniture.
Sellers who spoke to Engadget questioned why Etsy couldn’t resolve safety concerns with methods other than banning, such as creating a designated adults-only section to prevent these materials from appearing in inappropriate locations.
The market is one that sellers and buyers have come to trust for personalized sexual products. Etsy “is really the only place I know of to support small businesses/makers in the alternative product world,” Alissa Milano, an Etsy patron who has purchased sexual and kinky products on the platform, told Engadget in a DM.
In addition to discoverability, the intuitive user interface makes it easy for stores to create listings and offer customization options, as well as giving potential buyers a way to contact a seller if they have any questions before placing an order. a request. “I talk to most of the customers,” said Daniel Tyler, who runs the UK-based adult site. Secret Twistand sells on Etsy under the name SecretLatex. Often, he says, “they want little changes here and there. If you’re shopping on Amazon, you won’t get that.” And because it costs so little to list products on Etsy — $0.20 per listing — it’s “probably the most affordable place to sell something,” said Chelsea Downs, founder of New York Toy Collective. Emerging independent markets like Spice rack that are trying to offer 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, though, sellers of adult products say they faced seemingly arbitrary account suspensions and listing removals, despite their best efforts to comply with Etsy’s existing rules regarding adult items. Or your stores would plummet in search rankings and not be able to climb back up. “It gets worse and worse,” said Downs, who notes that his store’s sales on the platform aren’t nearly what they were before.
Tyler says his Etsy shop was banned about six or seven years ago for unknown reasons. “I couldn’t open the store, no one responded,” he said. He rebranded and returned to the platform a few years later, and so far has been “safe,” but says, “I get multiple notices about policy violations every two weeks.” The current Etsy store sells latex and rubber clothing, as well as dildos, silicone penis sleeves, and gender expression products such as packers — prosthetics meant to mimic the bulge of a penis and testicles that can be worn under clothing. Some of your listings will not be allowed under the new rules.
Etsy sales accounted for 50% of Secret Kink’s revenue last year and 30% the year before that, Tyler said. “I’ve always told my partner that I’m worried that someday… they’ll just close my store,” he said. Amid the economic hardships small businesses are already facing, Tyler says the platform’s latest change is “just another kick in the teeth.”
Both Tyler and Downs also expressed concerns about how the changes could affect consumers’ access to gender-affirming products. Downs’ shop, which has made more than 12,000 sales in its seven years on Etsy, also sells a mix of pleasure and gender expression products. According to an Etsy spokesperson, items like packaging that would be classified as prosthetics and not toys (i.e., not intended for sexual acts) are still allowed, along with some sexual wellness products.
Etsy’s review comes in the wake of age verification laws that have begun to gain traction in the US, with the stated intention of protecting minors from adult content on the Internet. In recent weeks, Pornhub has exited several states that have enacted or are attempting to advance such legislation, rather than complying with verification methods that may pose a privacy risk to website users. And sex was already a hard sell for online businesses before this movement. Payment processors such as PayPal It is Stripeto have has historically taken a tough stance in selling sexual products and content (remember when OnlyFans tried ban pornography to appease the banks?).
Whatever Etsy’s reasoning, affected sellers say they are bracing for industry-wide impacts. Matt Rowe, one of the owners of Fantasy Sex Toys Store Odyssey Toys said in an email that it will be a “devastating blow to so many” artisans. “There are some extremely talented people driving innovation and creating amazing work through their designs, and for many of them, their business can be pulled out almost overnight.”
Rowe said he considers Odyssey “one of the lucky ones” because Etsy currently only accounts for about 20-25 percent of the company’s sales — but the potential impact on the team of owners and workers, as well as their families, is still “really concerning.” ”. .” Odyssey moved to a larger office earlier this year and hired new employees, Rowe said.
With no word from Etsy following its decision, many sellers said their future now looks uncertain. “We wonder if our account will be deactivated? Restricted? Or will they just remove our products? Who knows!” Rowe said.
Selling sex toys may have put a target on its back, but affected sellers have warned that there are broader problems plaguing Etsy that will continue to affect even small businesses that don’t sell mature products. Their complaints include being “lost” in search rankings by not offering free shipping and having to navigate a playing field that has changed immensely with an influx of dropshippers, mass-produced products and AI art. “This idea of an artisanal market no longer exists,” said Downs.
In July, Etsy updated your seller handbook with new categories to reflect what the platform says belongs, loosening its grip on the “handmade,” “vintage,” or “artisan supplies” categories that listings were previously required to fall into. Now, stores can choose to label their products as “made by a seller”, “designed by a seller”, “supplied by a seller” or “handpicked by a seller”.
