What should I know about Etsy's Creative Standards policy?

Written by

Sabrina Barnes

Etsy is a marketplace, which means that it operates a bit differently than a stand-alone store. There are certain marketplace policies that all Etsy sellers are expected to comply with, in the interest of buyers. Etsy’s Creativity Standards policy requires full disclosure about how your products are made.

All products sold on Etsy must fall into one of the following categories:

Made by a seller: Items crafted, altered, or assembled by a seller, either by hand or using tools.
Designed by a seller: Original designs created by a seller (or seller-prompted AI art) and produced/printed by a third party.
Sourced by a seller: Items that enable buyer creativity, such as craft supplies or party decorations.
Handpicked by a seller: Vintage items curated by a seller.

If you’re using Printify, be sure to indicate that your products are “Designed by a seller” by following the steps below. This will automatically add a “Designed by ShopName” note to the listing, informing buyers that the product is made with the help of a production partner. Learn more about Etsy’s new policy here.

Note

Printify cannot automatically create a production partner in your Etsy account during publishing.
However, if a production partner named “Printify” already exists in your Etsy account, Printify will automatically assign it to your listings during publishing. If no such production partner exists, the listing will default to “Made by seller”, and you’ll need to manually update the product details in Etsy to indicate that it’s “Designed by a seller” with Printify as the production partner.

Step 1: Create and publish a product

Create and publish a product from Printify to your Etsy store.

If a "Printify" production partner already exists in your Etsy account, it will be automatically assigned to the product.
If no production partner exists yet, the listing will appear as “Made by seller”, and you’ll need to update this manually.

To update it, go to your Etsy Shop Manager → Listings, and select the product you want to edit.

Step 2: Change information in the Core details section

Scroll down to the Details section and click Change next to the Core details field. Then, in the Who made it? section, select Another company or person.

Next, click Select production partners, then Create a new production partner (if “Printify” is not already listed in your account).

To create a new production partner, enter the following details about Printify:

- Production partner – Printify
- Location – Wilmington, DE, USA
- About production partner – A production partner
- About your partnership:
  - Select – I don't have the technical ability to make it entirely by myself
  - Select – I design everything myself
  - Select – They do everything for me

It's not mandatory to display the full information about the production partner in your store. If you prefer to keep the full production partner details hidden from your customers, use the toggle as shown below and add “A print shop” in the “Descriptive title” field.

Step 3: Save the added production partner

Once you’ve added Printify as a production partner, it will appear in your saved list for future use.
Printify will use this information for future product listings.

Step 4: Save the changes

Make sure to save all the changes you’ve made by clicking the Publish changes button.

When publishing additional products through Printify, ensure the production partner is named "Printify" so it's automatically assigned to your listings.

Tip

If you’re interested in learning how to open and run a successful Etsy store, check out our Etsy POD Bootcamp — exclusively available through the Printify Sellers Club.