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Etsy Fee Increases

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TLDR version: Prices will go up ONLY ON ETSY.  I'm adding a permanent sale to the shop which will remove the increase if you buy 3 or more patterns at a time. 


(Prices on RequiemArt.com will not increase)


When Etsy announced that they were increasing their fees in 2018, I calculated it out to see how it would affect me: about a 20% increase over existing fees. 


Wait, a 20% increase?  How do you get that when you go from 3.5 to 5%?  Here's the thing: you go up 1.5%, but the INCREASE is 43%.  Calculated in with the rest of different types of listing/sales/transaction fees, it's about 20% if your average item is $4.99. 

There were some variables I couldn't calculate for since they aren't constant which could add to that, so I waited a few months to see what the actual increase would be.  Turned out to be 27%. Wow.  If the average I paid in fees was ~ $1/item before the increase, after it is ~$1.27

I crunched a bunch of numbers to see if there was a way to get costs down.  This is the best solution I came up with:

I can save money for customers and get my fees down to pre-hike rates if I  increase pattern prices by 10%, and then use a storewide permanent sale to decrease prices by 10% on 3 or more pattern orders.

Grouping 3 items reduces transaction fee/item averages by about the same amount as the rate hike.  (My fees go up about 5% that way, but that's way more manageable than 27%)

I thought this would be a better alternative than just increasing prices to offset the fee increase. 

This ONLY affects Etsy.  Prices on RequiemArt.com will remain the same, at 4.99 for a single size pattern, 5.99 for an XL pattern, and 8.99 for double-sized patterns.

I hope that wasn't TMI or TMM (too much math) but I like to be treated fairly and openly, so as a business gal I prefer to treat my customers the same way :)