I started a store back in 2020 on Etsy, Amazon USA, and eBay, selling handmade brass, copper, and other artisanal utensils. The margins were insane—a ₹500 item would sell for ₹5,000. Out of all the platforms, Etsy really scaled for me. I hit 50 orders a day and was making ₹1 lakh profit daily, just from Etsy alone.
But then, one morning at 5 AM, I received the email that would destroy everything. Etsy had suspended my account, citing a copyright infringement claim because new sellers had used my product photos and filed complaints against me. My account was gone in an instant.
I was left stuck with crores of stock, and to make it worse, ₹24 lakhs in PayPal was frozen due to settlement holds. Adding to the pain, Etsy paused new seller onboarding in India, and the Indian government started cracking down on e-commerce exporters with complicated shipping bill clearances.
Now, I’m back to running my dad’s utensil shop, where earning even ₹10k profit in a day feels nearly impossible. It’s exhausting—dealing with hundreds of customers, endless talking, and manual effort. I’m clearing all my stuck stock there, but it’s nowhere near what I had built.
My biggest mistake was not focusing on creating my own brand and selling through my own website. And to top it off, I see my competitor, Ptal, on Shark Tank India with a ₹100 crore valuation while I’m sitting in a clumsy shop in my village.
The biggest lesson? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Distribution is a must in business.
