u/Different_Inside4040

Hi everyone <3

My wife and I decided to give Etsy another chance after focusing on our own website for a while. To be honest, when we first tried Etsy, almost every order ended up costing us more than we earned, so we stepped away for some time.

Recently, we decided to come back because we still dream of sharing our products with customers from different countries and also because my wife is pregnant, which motivated me even more to focus on growing our small business and building something meaningful for our future.

Our shop:
https://wivanco.etsy.com/

I feel a little lost because so much seems to have changed on Etsy over the last 8–9 months. Ads also never worked very well for us before, so I’m trying to better understand what actually works today.

We create customizable bedding sets with our own color combinations and designs. Everything is carefully prepared in our workshop, and many pieces are sewn with the help of our grandmothers, who put incredible care into every detail.

I would truly appreciate any honest feedback, advice, criticism, or ideas about the shop, products, photos, SEO, pricing, Etsy ads anything at all. I’m open to learning and improving.

Thank you so much 🤍

Guys, I sell bedding products in EU. We produce made-to-order bedding sets, and our products are not cheap.

Most of my returns are from customers saying things like “the color doesn’t match my room.” If the hygiene/security packaging has not been opened, I accept the return without any issue.

If the seal has been opened, we professionally clean the products and then sell them only as second-hand/outlet items, usually around cost price.

Today I inspected a return and the customer had placed the OUTER SHIPPING BAG inside the bedding set itself. As you know, outer shipping bags pass through dozens of hands, warehouses, floors and logistics surfaces.

Honestly, even after professional cleaning, I don’t feel comfortable reselling this product even as second-hand at cost anymore. I will most likely just have it professionally cleaned and give it to a student or someone in need.

I explained the situation to the customer and asked:
“Was it really necessary to place the outer shipping packaging inside the returned bedding product?”

I told them that under these conditions we cannot accept the return normally because:

• the product now requires professional cleaning,
• and with 100% cotton fabrics there is naturally around 2% shrinkage after the first wash. We already account for this during production, so this process objectively creates product loss/value reduction.

I offered two options:

• accept a 40% reduction from the refund amount, or
• we send the product back.

The entire package opening process was also recorded on video.

But the customer keeps saying:
“It’s just a bag, why are you exaggerating? I’ll take this to court,” etc. and refuses to find a middle ground.

In my opinion this was an incredibly irresponsible way to return a product.

What would you do in this situation?

I run a premium bedding brand in EU and recently received a return that honestly made me question where the line is between “customer rights” and basic common sense.

The customer returned a bedding set and placed the OUTER SHIPPING BAG inside the duvet cover itself.

Not next to it. Not separately. Literally inside the bedding.

For context:
This is a product that has direct skin contact. People sleep in it. Put their face on it. Outer courier bags go through warehouses, floors, trucks, conveyors, etc.

Now here’s the issue:
To resell this product, I would need to professionally clean and prepare it again. But with premium cotton satin fabrics, the first cleaning can naturally cause 2–3% shrinkage due to the fabric properties. Meaning the product is no longer in the exact same “factory fresh / unused” condition.

So I offered the customer 2 options:

• we send the product back or
• partial refund with a 40% value reduction due to professional cleaning/preparation and loss of resale value.

Some people tell me:
“you’re overreacting, it’s just a bag.”

But honestly:
Would YOU buy a premium bedding set at full price if you knew someone shoved a dirty logistics bag inside it before returning it?

Curious how other store owners (especially in textiles/home goods) would handle this.

To clarify because I think some people misunderstood my post:

I am NOT reselling these products as brand new. That would obviously be wrong.

Any product with a broken security seal/opened packaging is automatically classified as second-hand/outlet stock on our side. I really want to emphasize the second-hand/outlet part here.

Most of our products are also made-to-order.

A lot of returns we receive are simply things like:

“I don’t think the color matches my room” etc. If the packaging is unopened and everything comes back properly, those products are naturally suitable for resale.

If the seal is opened but the product has no signs of use, we still sell it only through second-hand/outlet channels. In many cases we don’t even charge for value loss — we just accept lower margins or try to move the stock quickly.

But this is the first time I’ve seen a return where:

the security packaging was opened

AND

the outer shipping bag was literally stuffed inside the bedding itself.

At this point the product now has to be professionally cleaned, ironed, prepared again and sold as second-hand. This is no longer “reduced margin,” this becomes a direct loss for us.

That’s why I don’t think blindly accepting every single return condition without limits is reasonable either.

I run a premium bedding brand in EU and recently received a return that honestly made me question where the line is between “customer rights” and basic common sense.

The customer returned a bedding set and placed the OUTER SHIPPING BAG inside the duvet cover itself.

Not next to it. Not separately. Literally inside the bedding.

For context:
This is a product that has direct skin contact. People sleep in it. Put their face on it. Outer courier bags go through warehouses, floors, trucks, conveyors, etc.

Now here’s the issue:
To resell this product, I would need to professionally clean and prepare it again. But with premium cotton satin fabrics, the first cleaning can naturally cause 2–3% shrinkage due to the fabric properties. Meaning the product is no longer in the exact same “factory fresh / unused” condition.

So I offered the customer 2 options:

• we send the product back or
• partial refund with a 40% value reduction due to professional cleaning/preparation and loss of resale value.

Some people tell me:
“you’re overreacting, it’s just a bag.”

But honestly:
Would YOU buy a premium bedding set at full price if you knew someone shoved a dirty logistics bag inside it before returning it?

Curious how other store owners (especially in textiles/home goods) would handle this.

To clarify because I think some people misunderstood my post:

I am NOT reselling these products as brand new. That would obviously be wrong.

Any product with a broken security seal/opened packaging is automatically classified as second-hand/outlet stock on our side. I really want to emphasize the second-hand/outlet part here.

Most of our products are also made-to-order.

A lot of returns we receive are simply things like:

“I don’t think the color matches my room” etc. If the packaging is unopened and everything comes back properly, those products are naturally suitable for resale.

If the seal is opened but the product has no signs of use, westill sell it only through second-hand/outlet channels. In many cases we don’t even charge for value loss — we just accept lower margins or try to move the stock quickly.

But this is the first time I’ve seen a return where:

the security packaging was opened

AND

the outer shipping bag was literally stuffed inside the bedding itself.

At this point the product now has to be professionally cleaned, ironed, prepared again and sold as second-hand. This is no longer “reduced margin,” this becomes a direct loss for us.

That’s why I don’t think blindly accepting every single return condition without limits is reasonable either.

I run a premium bedding brand in EU and recently received a return that honestly made me question where the line is between “customer rights” and basic common sense.

The customer returned a bedding set and placed the OUTER SHIPPING BAG inside the duvet cover itself.

Not next to it. Not separately. Literally inside the bedding.

For context:

This is a product that has direct skin contact. People sleep in it. Put their face on it. Outer courier bags go through warehouses, floors, trucks, conveyors, etc.

Now here’s the issue:

To resell this product, I would need to professionally clean and prepare it again. But with premium cotton satin fabrics, the first cleaning can naturally cause 2–3% shrinkage due to the fabric properties. Meaning the product is no longer in the exact same “factory fresh / unused” condition.

So I offered the customer 2 options:

we send the product back

or

partial refund with a 40% value reduction due to professional cleaning/preparation and loss of resale value.

Some people tell me:

“you’re overreacting, it’s just a bag.”

But honestly:

Would YOU buy a premium bedding set at full price if you knew someone shoved a dirty logistics bag inside it before returning it?

Curious how other store owners (especially in textiles/home goods) would handle this.

I genuinely don’t understand this and it’s driving me crazy.

With a single campaign → single ad set → 5 creatives, I’m spending around $100/day and getting CTR ~1% and CPM around $40.

But when I switch to an ABO setup with 22 interest-based ad sets, each spending about $3/day, I’m getting CTR ~5% and CPM around $20 on average.

Now here’s the part that makes even less sense:

The ABO campaign today generated 2 purchases and 7 Add to Carts.

Meanwhile, the CBO setup (1 campaign – 1 ad set – 5 creatives, broad targeting) only got 2 Add to Carts and zero purchases.

Same product, same market, same creatives btw completely different performance just based on structure.

Why is broad + CBO underperforming this hard compared to small-budget ABO with interests?

Is Meta just better at finding cheap pockets of attention in segmented interest stacks, or is something off with broad targeting unless you’re spending way more?

Would really appreciate if someone can break down what’s actually happening here.

Hey guys, quick question.

I’ve been analyzing a competitor in the bedding niche, and I’ve noticed something interesting. Even their newly launched ads (just a few days old) are already getting 100 200 likes and around 10 15 comments.

These are purchase-focused campaigns, not engagement campaigns.

Is that kind of engagement normal within a few days? Or could there be something else going on behind the scenes?

Would love to hear your thoughts.