Etsy has been gaining popularity over the years, with sellers and users making the most of their selling and purchases. Currently, as per Statista, there are around seven million sellers on Etsy, while ninety-six million buyers. When you look at it, that is indeed a big market. It is tempting for someone who wants a business or an extra income while juggling work. For buyers, it is a haven for the seemingly unlimited option. Now for those who ventured into online selling, despite the whole process of selling online.
Managing an online store is still time-consuming, so some owners hire virtual assistants to continue to thrive. Most entrepreneurs and working individuals understand why time management is important especially when there are other things you have in life. That is why we try to do what we can to minimize any unwanted distractions and time-consuming applications in our lives. So, if deleting your Etsy account is included in your spring cleaning, here are the steps on how to delete your Etsy account. But before that, here are things you may know before deleting your Etsy account.
For Sellers
Make sure you have no arrears.
Etsy will send an invoice if you have an active listing in your store. Ensure that your Etsy bills have already been paid and do not have unpaid listings. The reason is that it will prevent you from requesting to close the account. You will be asked to settle the arrears first and wait for them to clear before proceeding with the request.
No pending orders
For obvious reasons, all orders from your store have to be fulfilled. Hence, Etsy will only allow you to request that your account be deleted once all orders from your store have been completed. This is to avoid inconvenience for all parties involved, including the 3rd party print on demand company if you use one.
No dispute unresolved
You are expected to either have no disputes or all disputes are resolved. There should be no ongoing disputes or issues with the items ordered. Even if you try, the system will not allow you to request the deletion. Remember that once an Etsy account has been deleted, all data will be lost, which brings me to the next item.
Extract all the information you need
If you plan to close your store, whether permanently or choose to open up a new one someday, your data from this store may come in handy eventually. Once your Etsy account has been deleted, you will never be able to extract that information again. So, to save you all the trouble and regret might as well remove it as you may not know when that can come in handy.
You can’t use the same email, shop name, and username.
Even though you are deleting the account, unfortunately, you can’t entirely delete the records for legal purposes. This means that the only thing you can salvage here is the email address by replacing it with another email address. The email address will remain taken when you request to delete the account.
As a Buyer
Saved the information you need.
Although some data will be retained by Etsy for legal compliance, most of your data will be purged. If something is vital, you must ensure you have extracted it before requesting to delete your account because you will no longer have access to this information when the account deletion has been approved.
No pending dispute
Since all your information will be deleted once you request the account to be purged, this will also delete your history of transactions. Thus, you will no longer be able to restore all your order details. Also, it is best to ensure that you have resolved all issues with your orders.
Unsubscribe from emails
Despite closing the account, you could still receive notifications from Etsy if you have subscribed to their newsletter. To avoid the inconvenience of still receiving emails, you might as well unsubscribe from all of their emails unless you still want to.
You can’t use the same username and email.
When you request for the account to be deleted and, in the future, decide to register again, you can’t use the same email address or username again. You will have to use a different email and username. Now, if you think that this is something that you like to keep, then consider
How to delete an Etsy account
If you are all set, let us proceed with deleting your Etsy account with these easy steps.
1. Log in to your Etsy.com account.
2. Go to your Account Settings.
3. Then go to Privacy
4. Scroll down to the “Permanently close and delete your Etsy account” section.
5. Click on the button that says “Request deletion of your data.” Once you click the button, you should receive an email with further details on how to delete your Etsy account.
6. Click on the “Yes I’m Sure” button to proceed.
7. After clicking the button, check your email and you will receive an email with a link to further confirm your request.
8. Click the confirmation button on the email.
Note: Once your account has been deleted, it is permanent and can’t be restored. You must use a new email address to register again for Etsy.
Takeaways
While it may be easy to create an account on Etsy, you may need to think twice when deleting it. If you plan to take a break temporarily, there is a vacation mode available. Weigh the pros and cons before deleting the account permanently. If you want other options, there are other marketplaces such as Shopify and Amazon aside from Etsy. As a seller you need to be sharp, purchase some of the sales books is a guide and will give you the knowledge on how to achieve a higher rate of selling.
