Etsy's Image Policy Update: Mockup Guidelines and Clarifications

Etsy's new image policy clarifies the use of mockups for personalized items, requiring representation of the finished product.

### Etsy Mockup Policy Update: Clarifying the Use of Third-Party Mockups
* 🖼 ️ Etsy has updated its image policy, clarifying the use of **third-party mockups** for **print-on-demand and personalized items**.
* 🛍 For print-on-demand products, sellers can use third-party mockups as long as they accurately represent the finished product, **without placeholder text**.
* 🖌 ️ Personalized or customized items must have a **real photo of the finished product** as the main image, but can use mockups in **additional listing images**.
* 📸 Sellers can use buyer's review photos with permission, and must ensure the **first image showcases the actual customized item**.
* 🤔 There was initial confusion about whether mockups could be used for personalized items, but the policy allows for mockups as long as they **represent the finished product**.
* 🛠 The key requirement is to **show the finished product** to help buyers visualize what they will receive.
* 🔍 The policy aims to build trust with buyers by **accurately portraying the condition, quality, and quantity of items**.
* 💬 Sellers are encouraged to seek clarification from Etsy's legal team if they have any doubts about **interpreting the policy**.

all right so with the big announcement that uh Etsy had made with all of this breaking news. One of the components was and one of the things that was addressed is mockups, and we all know that there was this big mockup debate, and people were saying that your accounts were getting suspended and shut down because you were using a third-party mockup. It wasn't the actual product, and uh you could only use the company's uh, you know, the print on demand company that you're using's uh, you know, image. That was addressed in this big update. I've got Chris Schaefer to explain everything because that's what Chris does. He gets into the weeds, and he figures out what exactly does this all mean. And Chris, I'm curious, what was said and what does it mean? Is there an issue with people using third-party mockups like what's going to happen here in the future? Scott, I thought we settled This months ago, but I'm now confident that we can say that the Etsy mockup drama is settled once and for all, and it's

written in almost almost plain English, and so as a part of all of these changes, they rolled out changes to the image policy. And Scott, you may remember this thumbnail because I do, despite setting aside the way that you and I both say Niche, which by the way, Niche or Niche, both acceptable in the English language before anybody runs down to the comments right the second. Most hot take that we've ever had on anything was when we reported our conversation with Etsy's legal team clarifying their term or their image policy, saying, Hey, when you have an item made with a production partner, you have to use the production partner's mockup. We said, That doesn't make sense if you read through the rest of this, the literal words on the page don't make sense. And we reached out to their legal team when there was a bunch of AI takedowns. I think it was last October, it was like eight or nine months ago as of the time of recording this video, and their legal team got back to us, and they said, No, that we don't.

literally mean you have to use the production Partners mockup. What we mean is that you have to use a mockup that is either from the production partner or something that represents the finished product that you have the rights to use. And at the time, and even still to this day, we get comments on that video saying, That's not what the policy says. Said, we know that's why we ask for clarification on it, right? Turns out, as part of this giant overhaul of the Etsy seller handbook, they rolled out a new image policy. And it's almost this time written in English that most people can understand. So, their default Scott is to use original photos. To me, and I think to you, that means take some pictures, right? These photos should showcase the actual finished product that you made, designed, handpicked, or sourced by accurately portraying the condition, quality, and quantity of your items. You're going to help build trust with buyers. And I know I just said we were vindicated on the Etsy mockup apocalypse, and this doesn't

say anything about it. Well, if we scroll down the page a little bit, we get into a giant section that they call exceptions, right? And they're saying in certain situations you can't use an original photo. And something like that would be if you're using an item that comes from a production partner, right? Which print-on-demand products come from a production partner. What they're saying is for items that come from a production partner, when you work with them, you can use something that's provided from them, or you can use an item that illustrates that, right? So you can use a computer-generated mockup as long as it accurately represents the product. The interesting thing here and where I wanted to get your take before we talk through it a little bit is where they're talking about personalized or customized items. And we said in when we were talking about the different categories that Etsy rolled out, yeah, that customized items for whatever reason fall into a different category than the rest of print-on-demand. And it appears that they have a few different

rules. So, I want you to read or to listen to me read through this really quick. And they're saying for personalized or customized items, so beautiful avocado mug, put my name on it, right? Personalized item. For personalized or customized items, your first image must feature a finished customized item similar to what buyers will receive. This helps buyers visualize what their custom-made item will look like when it's completed. It is prohibited to use a photo of a blank product or a mockup with placeholder text as the main image. Computer-generated mockups may be used in additional listing images to showcase how you can customize it. Just make sure that your first image is the real deal. If you would like to use a buyer's review photo as a listing image, just ask the buyer. And as long as they give you permission, that's fine. So, for regular print-on-demand stuff, right? If we're just printing avocado mugs, very straightforward, we can use mockups. For customized things, when you read through this, does it sound like you can use mockups at all on personalized

items. No, I, to me, it's like that. That is confusing though because like you just said, right, like if you're doing your avocado mug, right, custom or personalized, to me would be custom, right? And so from what I, what you just said to me sounds like I can't use a mockup. But if I don't personalize it and create a custom, I can. Is that correct? So what they're saying is if you're printing this side, you absolutely can. What I see in this, and I've changed my opinion on this since I read it, and I've already sent an email to Etsy's Legal team because the entire rest of this is very straightforward, right? If it's a handmade product, you got to use a picture. If it's not a handmade product and it's being printed on demand without buyer intervention, right, without buyer creativity, you can use a mockup. What they're saying here appears to say that you can't use a mockup. Until you reread it. So the second time I read this, says you can't use a blank product.

or a mockup with placeholder text because what they're after here is a finished good. Right, they don't want it to say your text here with a giant white block. They want to see. Chris, now given that it's coming from a production partner, I don't understand why the rest of this wouldn't apply, and so I'm curious what people think in the comments. But to me, you can use a mockup, right, as long as it's of the finished product, and you're not using a placeholder text. To me, it doesn't make any sense to write, yeah, placeholder text mockup, instead of just mockup. If they were gonna disallow it, they would have just gotten rid of the first portion of that and then said, for example, something that says your text here, or a digitally created image of the finished product. If we want to be super safe, then yeah, reach out to some buyers or order a sample that is customized. But based on reading through that and hearing me explain that, what are your thoughts on for personalize their custom products?

everybody right now is freaking out because they think they have to go change all of this. Yeah, no. What I'm hearing is they don't want it to be a generic blank mug that says, this is what you're G to get. They want you to show them an example. So like they said, now that you're reading it back, you can take someone that purchased it and they're holding up their mug going like, I love this. You can use that even though it says, love Chris or love Sally or love whatever, right? It's been personalized. What they're going to do is they are going to envision their name or their customization there. But what they're saying is they don't want it to be here and saying, your text here like that doesn't represent what the finished product would look like to a customer. So that's what I'm taking away from it, and I think that makes sense because they just want you as a customer to be able to see something that's finished. That's what they're saying. That is my

interpretation as well. That is not the interpretation of a lot of people in the forums right now, and that's why I reached out to Etsy. Leo, look, it's almost written in English this time, right? If we can clarify one sentence in that terms, in the image policy, then the entire rest of the thing makes perfect sense. But it doesn't make sense to call it a specific example to apply to the whole category of things. And if we read through it again, Scott, we will see, right? Okay, when you're working with production partners, the requirement for listing photos varies depending on the item. If you design a unique item, production partner manufactures it, you have to use a real photo of the physical end product. So if you're using a production partner to create furniture or a book, they want that if it's an original design. So it falls into the designed by category, and you created the design, and it's being printed on a base item. So an item that production partner has, they're not assembling it, they're just printing it. So a t-shirt or

a mug. Oh my God, they used real-world examples. You can use a stock mockup to illustrate. The end buyers will receive buyer-personalized items. Must follow the guidelines laid out above, right? And so then you go, Okay, it's a custom item. I can't use a mockup. What they're saying is you can't use a mockup placeholder as the main image. And so yeah, a blank mockup. So like if you bought a mockup and it just had the t-shirt and it just said your text here, they don't want that. Um, so like um, I have one here. Um, yeah. So this, this I just want to clarify this. So it's not realistic to have to purchase all your listings to photograph. They're not saying that. What they're saying is you can, at least this is how we're interpreting it, right? You can use a third-party mockup, but you have to show it as it's a finished product, meaning they don't want it to say your text here. They want it to say whatever it's going to be customized.

or personalized. That's all they're saying. If your finished product is represented in that image, then I don't see a problem in it because you're showing what the product is going to look like, even though it's not your name in it. It's someone else's name, and they're seeing it being personalized, and they're saying you can use a third party as long as it's finished. That's what they're saying, at least that's what I'm taking from it, Chris. That's my interpretation as well, and I'm over here trying to pull up an example of this, and I'm gonna see if I can share my screen here really fast, Scott. I just typed in custom mug, right? So here, let me pull this up. How do I share a screen? It's almost like I've done this before, right? Oh, I pulled up two of them. That's why I can't figure out which one I want to show, right? So if we're looking at this, I'm gonna see if I can make this a little

bit bigger for everybody. This has a mockup, right? Very clearly a mockup. This is a placeholder mockup. It says your photo or logo here front and back, right? You can still use this as a supporting image. They just don't want this to be the main image. What they would want, and I don't know why it's not letting me pick an image, um, but what they want is they want you to use something that has somebody's actual finished goods on it. So if this is my listing, right, I would be freaking out right now, yeah, right? I would be going in and immediately creating a mockup that truly shows this. If we go back to custom mug, if it will let me do that, right? None of these would be allowed. You have to show a finished product. This last one on the right here, Scott, where it says your photo here and shows the finished product, are you seeing that? Yep, yep. Um, that would be allowed because it's showing the finished product, right? Okay, so that to me, that one there, that one there, Chris.

though the one with the couple walking with the dog like down a little ways there like no well that one too and it says your photo photo and text here. That's what they're saying that's not allowed. They don't want that. They want it to say okay your photo. You don't need to put your photo right because people are going to be going there. Your your title is going to say custom mug with your photo right. And in there it's going to have that. And it's gonna say your text there. And it's going to say uh you know vulker family vacation 2024 right. And you're gonna put that in there even though the person that's buying its name isn't vulker but you're showing a finished product. You don't want to put this stuff in there that's descriptive is what they're saying yeah they always want to see. And this is this is the simple test right. They always want to see the finished product that's it. If we read through that image policy every little this and that that.

they're talking about says the finished product right. So when they're talking about production Partners if they are making the entire thing you're using a production partner to build a chair, they want a photo of the finished product. If you are showing them what this t-shirt will look like with Happy Birthday Chris printed on it, it needs to say Happy Birthday Chris printed on it. If you're just saying Happy Birthday and then you have a dog on it, that's what they want to see. They want the customer to see exactly what they will get. And I think the reason for that makes a lot of sense. It's because it's easier for people to visualize. It doesn't mean you can't use that in the supporting images, and they actually even say that you can continue to use that in the supporting images. They just don't want you using that as the main image, right? So here, I want to clarify. So absolute freedom says, I don't understand. It still shows the finished product even if it says custom text. No, it doesn't. Is that is your image going

is your product going to say custom text when that customer gets it? No, it's going to say the custom text. So you have to put the custom text. Then there's a follow-up here, and it says, What if you put a fictitious name on the mug? Great, fine. It's showing the finished product. It's not showing imagine your text here, right? Like, it's not like they don't want you to imagine; they want you to see a finished product, plain and simple. So print on demand. If you're selling a fully finished design, mockups are no problem. If you are selling a customer personalized thing, if you're going to use a mockup, make sure that it has a finished thing on it. It doesn't say your text here or placeholder images, right? It says Chris on it, and it doesn't say your name here. You should be good to go.

NEW Etsy UPDATE: Watch This Before Using Mockups

Brand Creators

Etsy's Big Update: The Resolution of the Mockup Debate

Etsy has addressed the use of third-party mockups, clarifying that sellers can use mockups representing the finished product.

The new image policy emphasizes the use of original photos to showcase the quality and quantity of items, aiming to build trust with buyers.

This update resolves the previous confusion and controversy surrounding the use of mockups on the platform.

Etsy's policy allows the use of original photos for most products, but there are exceptions for items from a production partner.

Personalized or customized items must feature a finished customized item as the first image, prohibiting the use of a photo of a blank product or a mockup with placeholder text.

The policy is confusing regarding the use of mockups for personalized items, leading to a need for clarification from Etsy's Legal team.

Clarification on the Use of Mockups for Customized Products

Using mockups for personalized products is allowed as long as they represent the finished product.

The key is to show a real example of the customized item, allowing customers to envision the final product.

The use of mockups is acceptable for unique items designed by the seller and produced by a manufacturing partner.

Clarification on the Use of Mockups for Customized Items

Using a third-party mockup for personalized items is allowed as long as it represents the finished product.

The mockup should not just say "your text here" but rather show the actual customization.

It is acceptable to use mockups to illustrate the end product, even if it features someone else's name or customization.

Clarifying the Image Requirements for Product Listings

Using a mockup as a supporting image is acceptable, but the main image should display a finished product.

Descriptive elements like "your photo here" are not allowed in the main image.

The key is to always show the finished product, as per the image policy for listings.

Using Production Partners: The Importance of Showing the Finished Product

When using production partners to create customized items, it's crucial to provide a photo of the finished product for the customers to see exactly what they will get.

This approach helps people visualize the end result and is a requirement, especially for personalized items, to ensure clarity for the customers.

While supporting images can still be used, the main image should always display the complete and finished product, whether it's a custom text or a fictitious name.