Etsy Seller Spots Listing Dropouts in Search

by: eBay Shill Buster

These drop outs are part of an Algo to induce sellers to buy sponsored listings, eBay is not showing many items in a sellers inventory in search results at all to force sellers to buy promoted listings to sell.

eBay has completely corrupted their search results and they are rigged by top executives, ETSY is doing the very same thing. Sellers will have to keep filing FTC complaints against these marketplaces.

by: maxmad

no worries,,,, it's just an experiment

by: Life During Wartime

I read the blog post and followed the links to more examples.  Yes, this stinks for the effected shops.

But the significant word here is ''small''.  Etsy has been playing with visibility on the site in ''small'' ways for over a decade.  I guess it becomes blog-worthy when a few successful sellers find out they finally got dinged by Etsy's trickster techies.  Oh, and the reluctance of some sellers who have had their items disappeared to have their shop names mentioned is significant, too.  It's pretty hard to make a convincing demand for better transparency from a venue when sellers face with these issues with a virtual bag of anonymity over their heads,.

by: Flying Childers

LDW- you are so right.  I'm glad that Etsy's machinations are getting some adverse publicity but I don't think Josh & Co. will ever do anything about the wrongdoing unless the hammer comes down on them from the SEC or some other watchdog agency.

Cindy Lou has been something of an Etsy apologist over the years so I'm surprised that she's now admitting that there are problems.  I have seen her blame sellers for their troubles, more often than not.

She seems to have good information and good contacts.   Maybe her critique will have some effect. /s

by: SammyCat

Interesting as just yesterday, on another post, I mentioned that when I did a search, what I found were pages of lower priced items and shops with few sales and reviews.   The higher priced items tended to be in the form of paid ads, but even there, so many had nothing whatsoever to do with my search criteria.

I figured it was Etsy's way of giving new shops a wee boost to give them the FALSE impression that they have a future of sales on the site.

They are corrupt beyond belief.    

by: SammyCat

As to CindyLou ... some people have no empathy or compassion and as long as things are going OK for them, we should all shut up and go away.  They only 'get' involved, or what's going on when it affects them adversely.  

I the ODR thread I did some not-so-good words from her on that too.  

by: purpleiris

Etsy is always tinkering with its search algorithm. They have been for years and they do target specific shops. When they want to give newbies a false sense of hope, they steal traffic from the recently successful shops by tweaking the algorithm to favor newbies.

Then, those recently successful shops can spend the money they made on paid ads. Once they feel they've squeezed an acceptable amount out of them, they flip it back to the way it was.

Let's be nice and share the love, everybody. This has nothing to do with business. It's just about making money...for the site.

by: The End

So, since my biz was up reasonably until a few months ago, I guess I can safely assume Etsy is playing a HUGE part in killing my views / traffic.
Now I'm getting only 25% of the action I had a year ago.
I've never paid for ads in my life, and I'm not starting.
At some point, the scales have to tip, and they'll see they would have made More money NOT screwing around with our listings.
I'm surprised Etsy's lawyers haven't advised them of the pending consequences...

by: purpleiris

I should add, Miss Cindy, that this is the very reason why I have always optimized my listings for Google and not Etsy search. I know what Google is doing with its algorithm, for the most part, so there is no guessing or need for investigation. Unless, of course, some third party is hijacking your Google links, like Etsy has been known to do. Either way, I know that as long as I follow Google's simple SEO rules, I'm good with Google search.

Whereas, we have no clue what Etsy is doing unless we investigate like you do when you notice something is off with your own shop or a friend's shop. You will never get consistent traffic from Etsy because they simply do not pay for enough Cloud space to display everyone's listings. Hence, the merry-go-round Etsy sellers are on so you can all "share the love" while the only party really making any money is Etsy.

So, honestly, no amount of investigating is going to provide a solution. You'll only learn what the problem is because there will be no way to fix it. You're completely reliant on Etsy to make your stuff visible at their own whim. Since your listings are optimized for Etsy search only, you won't have Google to fill in the gap.

So, I hope you understand now why I was so adamant about trying to encourage all of you to optimize your listings for Google, instead. Good luck to you.

by: eBay Shill Buster

If ETSY and eBay do not value your inventory by devaluing it in search, pull your inventory and list it on a venue that will show it, that is the power of inventory, they can't live without that life blood. When you pull it they just lost all their leverage.

by: Life During Wartime

The Chinese, Indians, and other Asian manufacturing centers have all the "inventory" a venue like eBay or Etsy will ever need.  

by: eBay Shill Buster

No they don't, I can see in my categories because I am a buyer that eBay's inventory selections are getting real thin as sellers depart the platform, the inventory is going to other outlets.

I have also read about buyers on eBay saying the very same thing, the selection on eBay is no where near what it was 15 years ago.

by: Life During Wartime

I don't know what you sell, eBay Shill Buster, so your category many not be easily replaced by Asian imports.  

I agree that for vintage collectibles that I used to sell (jewelry, kitchenware, dinnerware, glassware), the listings are fewer and the items less interesting.  Lots of stuff has vanished into private collections.  Items I used to find at local estate auctions (for low bids, too) can't be found locally or online now, at any price.  

Another issue for me is the HUGE number of old items that were purchased by Etsy crafters and either altered or disassembled for materials .  Lots of furniture, mirrors, books, prints, jewelry, depression glass (to make birdfeeders!) and dinnerware (decorated with potty mouth graphics).  Plus all the vintage clothing that was chopped up for fabric and yarn.  

by: eBay Shill Buster

It is not what I sell, but what I buy across all segments, eBay inventory is very thin on multiple searches.

I know that they are having problems presenting their full inventory to buyers, but some of that is their ineptitude in programming a search engine, some of that might be deliberate to force sellers into promoted listings.

But, on searches where there is thin inventory they have to show everything, and on a lot of those searches, eBay simply does not have the inventory because of sellers abandoning the platform. One reason is new phone apps like OfferUp and others that have taken huge volume from eBay.

The inept executives at eBay have no idea what they are doing in charging sellers for promoted listings when they have no sellers in the first place adding inventory to eBay.

by: littlesaint

I find it very amusing that this person decides to write a blogpost about an old issue that is hardly revelatory. Some of us have been acutely aware of this phenomenon for a few years and the strategy and pattern is very easily observed. There are millions of sellers on Etsy and the only time you are booted is when trademark infringement or 3rd party access is involved. Otherwise, you're free to sell, dropship, or steal n' sell and Etsy is very busy figuring out how to re-arrange and squeeze sellers. The throttle is a real thing and if I'm not mistaken, this blogger (whom I agree is a known apologist) has poo-pooed this theory whenever it's come up. Yes, sounds like the old "it doesn't matter til it happens to me" syndrome that is all too common in the current climate. It hurts much less when it finally hits the naysayers. Reality tends to work that way.

by: eBay Shill Buster

littlesaint, the executives of ETSY and eBay are not original, they copy everything Amazon does, so they keep your products from showing up in search to force you to buy ads.

Amazon is being investigated by the FTC at this very moment for this, all sellers can do is send your reports to the FTC when you see this sort of activity, they want to hear from you right now.

by: hawk

etsy has become so greedy that all their CEO's brain cells went in the toilet. when you threaten the very people making your venue money , hide your listings  because you won't pay more blackmail fees , etc , etc , etc , it will eventually all go away , as it always does. it will make them wealthy , and the sellers very poor.

by: BargainzBabylon

Etsy: "We've got plenty of sticks and carrots".  

by: SammyCat

Its a good strategy for newbies to give them that little boost, its intoxicating and really makes people feel they have arrived, especially if they're new to the biz.

I've been selling antiques since the 70's and stopped for a while to raise kids.  Years later, and after a 3 day auction, I took the leap and put my new-found treasures on ebay in 1997 (using a dial-up internet connection),  I remember so clearly how absolutely giddy I felt after that first auction went crazy before closing.  

However, they know what they're doing is amoral and dishonest.  I remember sending etsy emails about their stupid 'quite your day job' emails and how irresponsibility it was to put people's lives at risk when they knew full well that a small percentage of people will actually succeed on their skewed platform.

by: Life During Wartime

The Etsy seller community has online shop newbies and Etsy shop newbies, which are not the same thing.  Remember the Pounce feature that was supposed to give a little extra exposure to new shops?

Since Pounce bounced (heh) shops out after making just one sale instead of keeping new shops there for, say, a month, any competitors you had on Etsy were lined up to purchase the cheapest item you had listed to make your stay on Pounce a brief as possible.  Anyone who got a thrill out of that first purchase during the Pounce era probably didn't have the chops to make it long term in online sales.

Oh, and my first customer (who had an Etsy shop) tried to convince me to join a ''buy and replace'' game team.  No way.

There is still ongoing discussion of this issue in the Etsy Forums, with a ''fly'' buzzing around one thread trying to figure out how to place the blame for missing listings on the sellers   Etsy's theme song has to be ''Smiling Faces'' by The Undisputed Truth.