Etsy draws this line in two policies, not one
Most sellers looking for more reviews read the review help page and stop. The rules that decide what you may do live somewhere else entirely, in the shilling policy and the extortion policy, and between them they cover almost every idea a seller has on a slow week.
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The two policies that govern asking
Four points, drawn from Etsy's house rules rather than from its review help article. The third is the only exception on this page.
Friends and family buying to leave a positive review, paying a third party to buy and review, and second accounts posing as buyers are all prohibited as shilling.
The launch tactic almost every new shop is advised to use by somebody is the first named example in that policy.
Offering a buyer goods, services or compensation in exchange for a positive review is treated as extortion.
Note the direction. The policy covers the seller making the offer, not only the buyer demanding something.
There is one narrow exception: an offer available to every buyer, such as a discount on a next purchase for leaving an honest review.
Two conditions do the work. It has to be open to all buyers, and it has to be for an honest review rather than a good one.
Reviews can be answered publicly for a hundred days, and a response does not count toward the Star Seller response rate.
The visible reply is free of any metric consequence, so use it for the next shopper rather than for the badge.
A follow up that stays inside the house rules
This is a packaging and message problem more than a marketing one, which is why the first two steps are physical.
Make the unboxing worth mentioning
On Etsy the parcel is the experience. A note in the handwriting of the person who made the thing does more for review volume than any message sent afterwards.
Put the ask in the parcel, not only in a message
A printed card asking for an honest review is read at the moment the buyer holds the item, which is the only moment they have an opinion worth writing down.
Ask for an honest review, in those words
The exception in the shilling policy turns on honesty and on availability to all buyers. Asking for a five star review forfeits both halves at once.
If you offer anything, offer it to everybody
A discount on a next purchase for leaving an honest review is the shape the policy names. Offering it to a chosen buyer after a bad experience is a different thing entirely.
Resolve problems before they become reviews to answer
A buyer who messages you and gets a replacement often edits their own review. Once you have replied publicly, they no longer can.
What GetSetReply does for an Etsy shop
We are not an Etsy marketing tool and there is no Etsy review request in the product. What we do is make the reviews you get readable and answerable in one place.
- Etsy reviews arrive alongside your other platforms, with a public response drafted for you to check.
- Your review funnel link and printable QR code are on every plan and can go in the parcel. Review requests by email and SMS are on Professional and Enterprise.
- Nothing is published on your behalf, and no review is written or bought by us.
Review requests by email and SMS are included on Professional and Enterprise. Your review funnel links, QR codes and contacts are on every plan.
Two pages worth reading with this one
One explains how the Etsy connection works. The other is what to write when a review is glowing and you have thirty seconds.
Etsy is one of the places we watch
Every platform below lands in the same queue, so a Etsy review and a review from anywhere else are read, drafted and answered in one place.
- Yelp
- TripAdvisor
- DoorDash
- Trustpilot
- Etsy
- Square
Etsy review requests, answered from the house rules
Every answer here comes from Etsy's own policies, which are cited with dates below.
Can I ask a buyer to leave an Etsy review?
Asking for an honest review is ordinary practice. What Etsy prohibits is compensating anyone for a review, unless the offer is available to all buyers.
Can I offer a discount for a review?
Only in the narrow shape Etsy names: an offer available to all buyers, such as a discount on a next purchase for leaving an honest review. A private offer to one buyer is not that.
Can friends or family buy something and review it?
No. Etsy's shilling policy names exactly that, along with compensating a third party to buy and review and opening additional accounts posing as independent buyers.
Is offering something for a positive review really extortion?
Etsy classifies it under that policy, and the direction is what surprises people: it covers a seller offering goods, services or compensation in exchange for a positive review.
Does GetSetReply send Etsy review requests?
No. There is no Etsy request in the product. We pull the reviews in and draft the public response.
Where the Etsy rules on this page came from
Two Etsy house rules and one help page, all read on the date shown.
- Etsy House Rules: Shilling Read 2026-09-10.
- Etsy House Rules: Extortion Read 2026-09-10.
- Etsy Help: How the review system works for sellers Read 2026-09-10.
Etsy
Earn it in the parcel
Connect the shop and every review that follows arrives with a response drafted in your own voice.