It’s really hard to know whether it’s actually new sales. For example, if my Etsy storefront ranks in the #1 position for “artisanal doorstops”, etsy can buy t

It’s really hard to know whether it’s actually new sales. For example, if my Etsy storefront ranks in the #1 position for “artisanal doorstops”, etsy can buy that keyword, users I would have gotten organically now go through the ad, as it’s a higher position. Now I’m paying for the customer I would have converted organically. But it gets even more insidious when you think about people who have multiple stores on different platforms. Let’s say you also own artisanaldoorstops.com and it goes to a Shopify site. Sure most of your business comes from Etsy, but you’re working hard to build your own brand and reduce your dependence on Etsy. Now, with this change, any success your standalone storefront has will be undercut by Etsy buying ads against your own store AND TAKING MORE OF A CUT. Tangentially, this is the same thing opentable does with restaurants, they will sign up a restaurant and then buy AdWords for the name of the restaurant. I’ve seen stats that upwards of 25% of restaurant bookings can be redirected from the restaurant website to opentable simply via a top position ad spot. It’s the same scenario and it hurts restaurants significantly.