On Monday, Etsy hiked its transaction fees for the first time since 2018—to 6.5%, up from 5%—and some sellers have pushed back. More than 14,000 of them have gone on strike this week, temporarily shutting down their online stores, and 48,000+ buyers and sellers have signed a petition opposing the fee bump.

“The problem is not so much necessarily that they raised the transaction fees. It’s the amount they raised them,” Efthemia Hinman, an Etsy seller who is participating in the strike, told Retail Brew.

• Etsy announced the 30% increase in February.

Paying the price: Hinman said the increase in transaction fees is the latest in a series of costs that have made it more difficult to profit from her sweets shop, Mia’s Sweets Emporium.

• For sellers making $10,000+ a year, Etsy, in February 2020, started charging at least 12% for automatic ad placements on sites like Google and Pinterest that result in sales. Hinman said she began to see the charge in December, after a successful holiday season. “To add transaction fee increases on top of it, it’s really a tough pill to swallow.”

“Our sellers’ success is a top priority for Etsy,” COO Raina Moskowitz said in a statement to Retail Brew. “We are always receptive to seller feedback and, in fact, the new fee structure will enable us to increase our investments in areas outlined in the petition, including marketing, customer support, and removing listings that don’t meet our policies.”

Hinman admitted she isn’t convinced the strike will change much, but is participating out of principle. Still, she understands that not every seller is in a position to take part.

Click here to read more.—KM

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy yesterday penned his first annual shareholder letter since taking over from Jeff Bezos last July, nodding to a Foo Fighters song and addressing topics like the e-comm giant’s rapid growth amid the pandemic and worker safety.

Labor pains: The letter highlighted labor challenges Amazon has faced, particularly after the country’s second-largest employer doubled its fulfillment centers in the last two years and hired 300,000 workers (many of them inexperienced, Jassy noted) in 2021. While a new study this week found US Amazon warehouse workers experienced twice the injury rate of their peers last year, Jassy said these numbers are “sometimes misunderstood.”

• He pointed out that while Amazon’s warehousing incident rates are higher than its peers (6.4 vs. 5.5), rates within the courier and delivery segment are lower (7.6 vs. 9.1).
• Efforts to boost safety, Amazon says, include improved shoes for better protection and wearables that warn them when they’re making “dangerous movements.”

The letter didn’t address Staten Island Amazon workers’ vote to unionize earlier this month, which Amazon has appealed. But the topic did come up when Jassy spoke to CNBC yesterday. Cue the not-so-surprising comments. Jassy recognized that joining a union is an employee’s choice, but stated, “we happen to think they’re better off not doing so,” citing swifter change implementation and more direct connections with managers.

At all costs: Though Amazon added a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge to third-party sellers earlier this week, Jassy told the outlet it will “keep looking at how costs evolve and revisit.”

• He said raising costs for sellers was “the last thing we ever want to do,” but Amazon has found that it can’t absorb costs like it did early in the pandemic and continue to run “a business that’s economic.”

+1: Bad news for Bitcoin bros: Despite previously expressing interest in cryptocurrency, Amazon is “not probably close” to accepting it as payment, Jassy told CNBC. Selling NFTs, though, is “possible down the road on the platform.”

+2: For those curious, Jassy admitted he doesn’t own Bitcoin himself.—EC

It’s been over a month since companies like H&M and Nike announced they would halt operations in Russia. And earnings have started to shed light on how they’re being impacted.

• More than 600 Western companies have indicated they would stop or cut down on their ops in the country, per researchers at Yale University.

Take it slow: H&M, for example, reported a return to profit in Q1, but the rest of the year is uncertain. The retailer said closing its 185 stores and pausing online sales in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus slowed sales growth to 6% in March, down from 18% in Q1 at the end of February.

• Russia also accounted for 4% of H&M’s Q4 sales.

Victoria’s Secret, too, expressed concerns over losses piling up in Q1 and potentially beyond. The lingerie company, which has a small store presence in Russia, recently hinted at how “global unrest” (and inflation) could contribute to disappointing results in the future.

• The war has also caused broader supply-chain disruptions, extending to businesses that don’t have a presence in the country, like Kohl’s.

More to watch: For McDonald’s, sales from Ukraine and Russia collectively made up ~9% of the company’s $23 billion in global revenue last year. And Ikea, which is one of the largest Western employers in Russia, saw the country bring in $1.8 billion, or 4%, of its total retail sales in the year through last August.—JS

Today’s top retail reads.

Shake it up: Over the past two years, Bread Financial has invested $1 billion in tech and data analytics, which it hopes to use to “disrupt” the buy now, pay later space. (Insider)

Puff your chest: Since its founding in 2013, Gopuff has approached rapid delivery differently from its competitors. Its founders say they don’t want to rely only on delivery fees to make profits. (The New York Times)

Community building: Social commerce isn’t necessarily new, but retailers in Southeast Asia are using platforms to form deep connections with local communities. (TechCrunch)

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• How growing a beard went from a rejection of grooming to a grooming bonanza
• Anheuser-Busch InBev on its rapid-delivery success in Brazil
• Why brick-and-mortar retail should consider moving into mixed-use developments