Etsy Launches New Seller Community & Events Hub
Etsy launches new Community Hub, complete with AI-powered search, educational resources, a revamped Teams experience and live seller events
The community forum revamp was announced last month as part of Etsy's efforts to support sellers through the all important holiday shopping season.
Liz Morton
Community
Bringing our community together: When you choose to run a business on Etsy, you become part of our vibrant, global community of makers and creative entrepreneurs.
Sellers in our ecosystem have always inspired and supported each other, and this holiday season we’re offering even more opportunities to connect. First, our biggest event of the year, Etsy Up, is back with engaging sessions to help sellers level up their shops.
And we’re excited to introduce our first-ever live aftershow, where participants can learn from even more Etsy experts and ask questions in real time.
Next month, we’ll also launch our new-and-improved Community Hub, complete with AI-powered search, fresh educational resources, and a revamped Teams experience for discovering and joining groups of like-minded creatives.
Etsy has left their previous forum provider, Khoros, in favor of a new platform hosted by Bevy.
However, like the old community forum, the new Hub still keeps access to most areas restricted only to those with an active selling account, keeping everything except technical issues and announcements private as they've done since 2024.
Liz Morton
Etsy's VP of Communications and Community, Kelly Clausen, broke the ice with a Welcome post, outlining what's new in the community
The new Community Hub brings together Forums, Teams, educational resources, and events – all in one central destination. You’ll also notice exciting upgrades, including AI-powered search on the homepage, simpler navigation across the Forums, integrated seller events, and new tools to make peer-to-peer engagement even easier.
Read on for a quick tour of what’s new and how to get started:
- Homepage: Explore trending discussions and use the AI-powered search to find answers across Etsy resources, including the Seller Handbook and Help Center.
- Announcements: Get the latest on Etsy news, product updates, and community highlights. Don’t miss the Community Newsletter for top stories.
- Etsy Forums: Find and follow topics that matter to you. Join or start discussions, reply with emoji reactions , and connect with other sellers. New here? Start with the Etsy Success forum for expert advice. Learn more.
- Education and Insights: Grow your business with educational content, seller tips, and expert resources from across Etsy. Register for live events, or watch past workshops anytime. Learn more.
- Etsy Teams: Join or start a Team based on your interests, location, or creative niche. Connect with other members, attend virtual and IRL Team events, and even become a Team Captain! Learn more.
- Shop Manager: Use the top menu to jump back to your Shop Manager anytime; we’ll be here when you return!
- Badges: Earn badges and add flair to your Community Hub profile when you post in the Forums, attend seller events, and show support for other members. Learn more.
But apparently AI isn't just integrated into search, Bevy has a whole host of AI capabilities, including post review and moderation, that Etsy appears to be taking advantage of - with sellers complaining about long wait times for post approval disrupting the flow of conversation and raising transparency concerns.
My first post was over 20 minutes ago, and it's sill pending. I thought AI was meant to be a bit quicker than snails.
We should have transparency as to who is approving our posts. Is it the moderators, AI, bots, third party company? A seller's post was declined with no reason. Why? What does this mean? Some clarification is needed.
Some sellers were also concerned about privacy and the data they would be agreeing to have shared with Bevy by using the new community hub.
I have a question. After I signed into the new forums, I received a pop-up page asking for consent to connect to my account.
If you grant access, you will be subject to Bevy OAuth 2.0 Single Sign On’s privacy policy, and Bevy OAuth 2.0 Single Sign On will have permission to do the following on your behalf:
- Connect to your account
- see all profile data ???????????????
- Read your user profile
Exactly what type of data is this referring to? And who can see it?
Etsy has invited sellers to provide feedback about the new community hub in a survey and will be hosting a Q&A session to help sellers learn about the forum on October 30th at 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern.
What do you think of the new Etsy Seller Community Hub? Let us know in the comments below!
