I've been doing fairly well there since I expanded to listing on that site several months ago. It fits my items to a "T", and despite having far fewer listings there, my turnover has been about 10% to 15% -- far better than here. You're right, all the fees are lower than here. The $0.20 listing fee is for 3 months, not one.
However, the competition has increased significantly over the last few months, partly because Etsy made the decision to permit "manufacturing partners", a sort of cutesy way of letting in commercially made goods. Although to a lesser extent than on eBay, this opened the gates for you-know-who. Now I see quite a lot of obviously mass-produced goods being sold there. This is allowed as long as the shop owner can claim the manufacturer is working as a partner in the "creative" process. Yeah, right.
The other thing I was disappointed to see was that Etsy went public this year. We all know what that leads to, with shareholders constantly nipping at the heels of CEOs.
I think the "pop-up stores" are just that -- temporary sales venues. It's a trial balloon, I believe, to see if the public has an appetite for any more permanent installations. So far I don't think it's been successful enough across the board to warrant franchising. They aren't going to be Tim Horton's of the crafty trade anytime soon.
And yes, there has been a definite slow-down in sales on that site since early summer that has mirrored what has happened on eBay. I see even long-time, established Etsy sellers with dozens upon dozens of interesting listings who are struggling to make a couple of sales a week, and it seems most of those sales are of the cheapest items they offer. These are people who were doing a roaring business 3 or 4 years ago.
All of this leads me to believe there may be factors at work beyond the usual site dysfunctions and bad policy-making at eBay and elsewhere. That is, unless Amazon is booming, having stolen everybody else's thunder. I don't know enough about Amazon to say. If their sellers are feeling the squeeze too, then perhaps its a demographic switch in online buyers, or a reflection of economic woes generally.
I am still planning to expand my offerings on Etsy, but with lower expectations than a year ago. EBay is still the better place if you want massive exposure.
