The fee increase literally only harms the sellers. I use Etsy at least about once a month - I'm a huge fan of custom knick-knacks such as this lovely 'fix your hearts or die' 'Twin Peaks' pin in support of transgender equality:
There's a lot of cosplay items, etc - Etsy is an incredibly unique market that looks like it needs a replacement with accountability towards it's community.
The fee increase does not "literally" only harm the sellers. Fee increases are necessarily passed on to buyers (as are all expenses; buyers are the only source of funds moving in the marketplace), so if you feel that a fee increase is a harm, it's also harming the buyers. However, the fee increase does not only harm anyone. The increased funds going to Etsy will be spent, and some of that money will be spent on growing the number of buyers on their platform, which puts money back into sellers' pockets. Potentially growing their business by even greater than the 1.5% the fee is going up. After the increase, Etsy still has the lowest fees of any major marketplace -- cheaper then eBay, cheaper than Amazon Handmade, etc.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/542366240/fix-your-hearts-or...
There's a lot of cosplay items, etc - Etsy is an incredibly unique market that looks like it needs a replacement with accountability towards it's community.
Sounds like maybe my next project, tbh. :)