What to do if your Etsy shop gets suspended and how to prevent suspensions

Having your Etsy account suspended is no fun. It prevents you from making sales and you may not know what to do to get your store back up and running.

This is a position that I’ve been in a couple of times, so I speak from personal experience when I say how frustrating this can be.

Last year, when I opened a brand new Etsy store and set the goal of making $50k in sales, my account was suspended almost immediately. I still don’t fully understand why that happened, but I learned a lot from the experience and I wanted to pass that information on to you.

That way, should you ever find yourself in the same predicament, especially as a new seller, you’ll know what to do.

Below, you’ll find information about how to get your account reactivated and how to prevent being suspended in the first place. You’ll also find several copy-and-paste script templates that you can use to contact Etsy.

Let’s take a look… 

How to get your account reactivated

Most of the time, it’s unclear why Etsy suspends new seller accounts. Numerous Low Hanging System members have had this happen to them and most never got a real explanation.

Most likely, the reason was due to Etsy’s anti-fraud algorithms. So don’t worry that you did something wrong. Way more often than not, it’s not the seller’s fault and Etsy is really kind about it.

But just to be safe, it’s a good idea to review Etsy’s policies and terms of use to make sure you’ve been adhering to all of their rules. You can look over that information here:
https://www.etsy.com/legal/terms-of-use

So what do you do when you’ve done everything right and Etsy still shuts down your shop?

You have three main courses of action:

Submit an appeal

If your account has been deactivated, you won’t be able to sign in to Etsy. Instead, copy and paste this link:
https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?segment=selling&ticket_form_id=360000108008#issue_account_reopen_unsuspend

Then, enter a subject line and description (see the templates below), select “Etsy closed my account because of policy violations” from the dropdown, and click Send.

Call

Call (844) 659-3879 or (888) 659-3879. Explain the situation as patiently and politely as you can and let the Etsy representative know that you would like a manual review of your shop.

Email 

Email Etsy.

You can find Etsy emails on their support page. This can sometimes be very helpful.

If either calling or emailing results in a negative response, call again and/or send a follow-up message. If you know you’ve followed all the rules and your account’s suspension was a mistake, ask Etsy for a report containing the breached policy that’s caused your account’s suspension along with a subject access report.

By law, Etsy has to provide these reports detailing everything they have on file pertaining to your account.

If the Etsy representative hangs up on you, call again. If you don’t get an email response, email again. Be polite and respectful but be persistent. Do not give up, even if Etsy says their decision is “final.”

In most cases, your shop will suddenly be reactivated without any further explanation other than “it was a glitch.” This has been the experience of most LHS members who’ve had their accounts suspended.

Copy-and-paste scripts

Template 1: Asking for your Etsy reports 

Subject: Account suspension of [shop name]

Hello Etsy support,

I’m writing in regards to my Etsy store [shop name], which was recently suspended. My store sells ecommerce, print-on-demand items, including [examples of products you sell – e.g. coffee mugs, shot glasses, etc.]. My products mostly pertain to [niches your designs relate to – e.g. pit bulls, sports, etc.].

I was told my account was suspended because my shop violated one of Etsy’s policies.

At this time, I’d like to please ask you for a report of the breached policy that caused my shop’s deactivation. And if you could also please send me a subject access report detailing all the information you have on record pertaining to my account.

My shop’s email address is [your contact information]. Or you can reach me by phone at [your phone number].

Thank you very much for your attention to this matter and I hope you have a great day.

Best,
[Your name]

Template 2: Explaining you haven’t violated any policies

Subject: Account appeal for [shop name]

Hello Etsy support,

I’m writing in regards to my Etsy store [shop name], which was recently suspended.

My store sells ecommerce, print-on-demand items, including [examples of products you sell – e.g. coffee mugs, shot glasses, etc.]. My products mostly pertain to [niches your designs relate to – e.g. pit bulls, sports, etc.].

All of the designs I create are unique and owned by me.

After reviewing Etsy’s terms of service, I remain unsure as to why my account was suspended. To my knowledge, I have not violated any of Etsy’s policies. Therefore, I assume my account’s suspension was a mistake and likely due to an auto-bot incorrectly identifying my account as being in violation.

At this time, I would like to ask one of your staff to manually review my account to see if there are any issues. And if no issues are found, I would like to ask you to please reinstate my account so I can sell on Etsy’s platform again.

I am grateful for the opportunity to sell on Etsy and I am looking forward to hearing back from you about my account’s reactivation.

If you need any additional information from me, please email me at [your contact information]. Or you can also reach me by phone at [your phone number].

Thank you again.

Best,
[Your name]

Template 3: Explaining how you will fix any issues

Subject:

Hello Etsy support,

I’m writing in regards to my Etsy store [shop name], which was recently suspended.

My store sells ecommerce, print-on-demand items, including [examples of products you sell – e.g. coffee mugs, shot glasses, etc.]. My products mostly pertain to [niches your designs relate to – e.g. pit bulls, sports, etc.].

After reviewing Etsy’s terms of service, I see that [factors that lead to your suspension – e.g. selling a design featuring trademarked material, etc.].

I am truly sorry about this and I promise to make the following changes in my shop to prevent any further incident. [What you plan to do – e.g. more thoroughly checking your designs for potential copyright infringement]

I appreciate the opportunity to sell my products on Etsy, and I look forward to having my account reactivated soon.

If you need any additional information from me, please email me at [your contact information]. Or you can also reach me by phone at [your phone number].

Thank you again.

Best,
[Your name]

Tips to prevent being suspended in the first place

Add listings asap

Some LHS members have suggested that your account may be suspended if you open a new shop and don’t add any new products right away. So if you plan on opening an Etsy store, be sure to create several listings as soon as possible. Don’t wait.

Also, when you add your listings, since you work with third-party manufacturers to create your items (more on this below), when Etsy asks who made your product, if you select “I did” from the drop-down, Etsy may be more likely to suspend your account.  So instead, always select the option that says “Another company or person.”

Be mindful of giving other people access to your account

If you give another person, such as a VA, access to your account and you don’t list that person as a shop member, Etsy could see that someone accessed your account from a different ISP and then shut down your account. So be mindful of that as well.

Acknowledge if you have other Etsy shops

If you have multiple Etsy shops, make sure that each shop acknowledges the existence of the other shop. Some sellers forget to do this, but it’s actually pretty important.

On your Etsy homepage, click where it says View your profile then Edit Profile. Scroll to the About section and add a line like this…

I am also on Etsy under the following usernames: [list of your other Etsy shop names].

If you forget to add this information and your account gets suspended, be sure to mention that you will remedy this asap once Etsy reactivates your account.

Make sure you don’t have any open cases against your shop

Another way to prevent being suspended is by not having any cases opened against your shop. Make sure you’ve correctly laid out information about your shop’s processing times, shipping, and billing so customers know what to expect up-front and they are less likely to open cases against you. 

Additionally, Etsy recently rolled out an update that says sellers must specify the zip code where their items are being shipped from before the end of September 2021. If sellers don’t do this, Etsy may pause any listings that don’t provide this information. So make sure you comply with this new policy as well to prevent your shop from being suspended.

Check for trademark infringements 

To prevent your listings from being paused or having your account suspended, you also need to make sure your designs don’t have any trademark infringements.

An easy way to do this is by checking your phrases before you even create your designs. You can use a website like Trademarkia.com to check to see if certain words or phrases are trademarked. 

List your third-party manufacturer

According to Etsy’s Handmade Policy, sellers can list handmade items as well as items made with production assistance. It is very important that you list all of your items as handmade with product assistance and that you’re open about which manufacturers you work with.

Etsy looks closely at this type of information and will shut down shops without question if they don’t have this information detailed accurately. For more information about how to convey production assistance in your shop to Etsy, check out this article:
https://www.etsy.com/legal/handmade/

It also doesn’t hurt to list the manufacturers you work with in your profile’s About section. Here, you can also talk about how your items are made, including how you come up with your design ideas and how the manufacturers create your products. 

If Etsy ever decides to audit your shop, they look for pieces of this information when they email you. So it’s a good idea to take preemptive measures and have the information already detailed in your shop.

Whenever you sell products through an ecommerce company like Etsy, it’s your responsibility to be aware of and to adhere to the platform’s rules.  This is the number one way to prevent the majority of Etsy suspensions. 

If you need more support and are in Low Hanging System, feel free to also check out this post in our group as people have shared more specific details of their situations.

I really hope you find this post useful! If you have any other tips you can share about how to handle an Etsy account suspension, please leave a comment below. Also, if you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends and followers.