• Etsy sellers have started putting their shops on "vacation mode" to lower the risk of non-payment.
• The e-commerce platform used the Silicon Valley Bank to process payments to their sellers.
• "I don't want to continue accruing sales while not knowing when the funds will reach me," said one seller.

Several sellers on Etsy say they are shutting their stores temporarily to lower the risk of not getting paid for their goods.

This new move from some Etsy sellers comes as Etsy reels from the fallout of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.

The e-commerce company, which provides a selling platform for small businesses, said in a statement on Friday that sellers might see delays in receiving their payments. This is because Etsy used the Silicon Valley Bank to process these payments to some sellers.

The platform said that it would be paying its sellers "within the next few business days via our other payment partners."

Following the company's statement, Etsy sellers started urging each other to put their stores on "vacation mode." This is a setting on Etsy that temporarily prevents customers from placing new orders. 

—Fossil Locator (@FossilLocator) March 12, 2023

Etsy store owner Liv Rainey-Smith said on Twitter said that she is temporarily pausing sales on her Etsy shop while the SVB collapse plays out. 

The Portland-based artist, who sells woodcut prints, said that she doesn't want to "continue accruing sales while not knowing when the funds will reach me."

A crystal seller from Texas operating under the business name NewMoonAscension posted a TikTok saying that they, too, are pausing orders made through Etsy. They added that they may also have to cancel some pre-existing orders.

"I will do my best to fulfill those orders. However, depending on how long the delay of Etsy payments takes, I may have to cancel some orders," they said on TikTok.

Other sellers have been directing their customers to their personal websites rather than their Etsy shopfronts.

Renee Donohue, who runs a small business selling lavender-scented bath products, tweeted that customers can buy her products via her website instead of on her Etsy store, which is on vacation mode. 

The Suburban Farmhouse, a small business that sells home decor and wooden stove countertops, said on TikTok that they will be fulfilling orders through Shopify instead of Etsy, while the platform sorts out its payment issues. 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation dissolved Silicon Valley Bank on Friday after a disastrous bank run. Silicon Valley Bank's collapse is the largest bank failure in the US since the 2008 financial crisis. 

Liv Rainey-Smith, Renee Donohue, and representatives for NewMoonAscension and The Suburban Farmhouse did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. Representatives for Etsy also did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment outside regular business hours.