Etsy has always been a home for sellers of bespoke, artisanal and alternative items – including erotic jewellery and sex toys.
But as of next month, some of these companies will be kicked off the platform, which they see as a betrayal of Etsy’s sizeable sex-positive community.
From 29 July, Etsy will ban the sale of sex toys, such as dildos and vibrators as well as “printed or visual materials” that exist for “the purpose of sexual arousal or stimulation”, including old Playboy issues and vintage adult magazines, and anything printed with sexual slogans related to “daddy” or “mommy”.
The new policy is the company’s attempt to “continue to keep our users safe”, wrote Alice Wu, the head of Etsy’s trust and safety team, in a public letter.
Sellers see this as a betrayal, according to Alexandra Houston, the founder of London-based e-commerce platform Charmskool, which specialises in fetish apparel and accessories. Since the announcement, she has seen an influx of former Etsy users to her platform.
“The huge crushing disappointment is that a previous ally [Etsy] is turning its back on this community without so much as an apology,” she said.
“Imagine if you have been trading on Etsy for the last 10 years … it’s like having your house burnt down.”
The company now catered “to the mass market”, Houston said. “Etsy wants anything creative as long as it is beige, and middle of the road. It doesn’t want anything risque any more.”
Preston Stevenson and Laura Norden, who have been selling handmade dildos and other sex toys from Ohio since 2018, agree.
“The ban will essentially close the doors of many handmade makers in the adult toy realm like ourselves. For small shops like ours who have spent the majority of their time on the Etsy platform, 30 days’ notice is simply not enough time to pivot either to a new shop home with the same amount of traffic or exposure or ramp up in-person sales,” Stevenson said.
“Bans like this one also further the idea that sexual health and pleasure is somehow taboo or something to be ashamed of. It has broader impacts on society as a whole.”
The founders of Simply Elegant Glass, which makes sex toys, posted an open letter to Etsy on X, noting it was already hard to run an adult business, since most payment processors “have prurient clauses and won’t work with us”.
They wrote: “Protecting children from adult content is a noble interest and we agree that it should be pursued – no question whatsoever. That’s not an honest framing of what you’re doing here, though, is it?
“A blanket ban is a lazy solution to the problems of non-compliance and non-enforcement that you [Etsy] … created in the first place. It’s a solution that targets buyer retention and that appeases investors and advertisers. It’s a bad solution – even when framed around ‘safety’.”
Simply Elegant Glass said it had been a “loyal Etsy seller since 2015, selling artistic, handmade, one-of-a-kind goods”, with 5,000 shop followers and hundreds of five-star reviews.
Etsy introduced cost-cutting measures last year, including laying off 225 workers. It faces growing competition from websites such as Temu and Shein, which sell products at cheaper prices.
It also reported first-quarter profits of $63m (£49m), down more than $11 from the year before, due to weak consumer demand.
It is understood the decision by Etsy is to promote user safety and not for financial benefit. Etsy did not provide a comment.
