Etsy announced on Tuesday it would retire its old listing form that sellers use to list items for sale on its marketplace. “Don’t worry; you won’t miss any of your favorite features,” it informed sellers. “The updated listing form has evolved. Thanks to feedback from sellers like you, the updated form is streamlined and now has everything you need to save time.”
Etsy highlighted the following features of the new listing form:
- Scroll no more: Navigation tabs help you quickly jump to sections of your listing details faster and more seamlessly.
- Optimize smarter: The Performance tab displays performance data and reviews for your listing, making it easier to decide what types of edits to make.
- Get a sneak peek: Listing preview lets you double check your edits before publishing live.
- NEW! Skip the mental math: The profit calculator helps you efficiently estimate your profits while pricing your items.
But sellers have been pointing out features missing in the new listing form for some time. On Thursday, Etsy amended the announcement to reassure sellers. “Since we announced that we’re retiring the old listing form on June 25, we’ve monitored and listened to your feedback, especially about the features that you would like to see on the new form.”
As a result, Etsy said it would add the following functionality to the new listing form by June 25th:
- Add manual translations to your listing
- Enable your listing to appear on your Pattern site
- Edit a private, custom listing in the new form
- See and edit all listing states (e.g., inactive or expired listings) in the new form
Etsy also said it was exploring adding improvements to navigation and shipping profiles. It invited sellers to take a survey; among the questions Etsy asked were the following:
- If you could change or improve anything about the updated Seller Listing form, what would you change?
- Is there any other feedback you would like to share with us regarding the updated Seller Listing Form?
It’s always interesting to read survey questions to see what options a marketplace includes in general questions – for example, Etsy asked sellers taking the survey, “What do you currently sell on Etsy” and provided the following options:
Vintage items
Jewelry
Furniture
Clothing
Toys
Art
Craft supplies
Digital items
Home & Living
Other
More information about the new listing form is available on the Etsy Seller Handbook.
Some critiques from sellers about the new listing form that were posted as recently as Saturday include the following:
- “The new form is a nightmare. The cluttered, cramped layout is in no way an improvement over the old, but the real problem for me is that it uploads all of my photos out of order. I contacted a support rep who didn’t address this problem in any substantive way and told me to rearrange the photos manually. And this is being billed as a time saver?”
- “It makes no sense to update a form that was working well, give almost 1 year to “fix” all that the new form doesn’t do and force it upon sellers. All during a time of low sales, low reported revenue, low stock price, and a well documented messed up search. Even if the new form was an actual improvement, not a reduction in ease and functionality, Etsy’s priorities are skewed.”
Note that Etsy only allows sellers to access discussion board posts except for those relating to technical issues, so it’s possible there were more positive comments about the new listing form that were inaccessible to us.
Heheheheheehehehehehe, I wish etsbay CEO Josh Dunderman could read this. The new listing form sucks? Won’t affect me one bit. I stopped listing new items on etsbay two years ago in April when they jacked up the fees for us sellers.
I’m just going to list on other venues and when I’m down to one item (down from 1200 items at most) then I’ll simply close up shop.
I left evilbay and fled to Etsy and now I’ll do the same. I’m beginning to understand people who pick the wrong spouse and end up divorced….