Will Etsy Sellers Welcome Changes to Search?

by: Garcia

Just when we are told to use tag phrases and not single word tags, we have single word searches.  Of course, this is not going to work for sellers.  How could it when most buyers use specific not general searches?  But Etsy throws things out that are less than helpful just because they can.

by: Ihatethebay

Doesn't make a whit of difference to me; I haven't had any sales to speak of on Etsy since they announced that they are going public several months ago.

Seems to be following the Evilbay business model......

by: Watching the Wheels

Has any of Etsy's ?SEARCH IMPROVEMENTS? ever worked?

But then again, aybe this shift in stupid will flip my none exisitant views and sale back over to some sort of positive.

ETSY, LOOK UP AMAZON AND EBAY AND COPY WHAT THEY DO. YOUR INCESSANT EXPERIMENTING COSTS PEOPLE MONEY.
ARE YOU REALLY THAT STUPID, AND INCAPABLE OF CONNECTING THE SIMPLEST OF DOTS?

by: Robin

I've seen this as a test and I love it.  It definitely will help in my category, when you search for "custom pet portraits", you are offered paintings, drawings, fiber arts, sculpture and mixed media.  

I think it's brilliant!

by: Rexford

Here's the line in the article that raised my antenna: "It's designed to engage the shopper and guide them to products they may find interesting. "

This sounds very much like steering a customer away from what they are actually looking for and steering them to what some machine learning mechanism "thinks" that they are looking for.  CASSINI anyone?

On eBay, I can simply check completed listings on eBay to see what an item has sold for, and all of a sudden eBay think that I want that item. I am then bombarded with eBay showing me those items and anything related to them. Looks like this is where Etsy is headed.

by: Flying Childers

When I read this article, I felt like my head was going to explode. Over at Etsy it appears that the inmates are running the asylum. They don't care if sellers sell or buyers buy. All they care about is changing the social order or "re-inventing commerce" as that buffoon Chad keeps saying. For the life of me I don't understand why they can't have a working search engine and why they don't stop with the constant changes.

The stock market is taking notice of Etsy's problems and there is a lack of confidence in general that is making the stock less desirable. Even the big guys are selling their shares. Who knows what the real objective is, maybe they want Amazon to buy them out so they can double their money.

All I know is that it has become almost impossible to get found, even in a niche market that only has less than 3000 items for sale.

Search was broken, is broken and will remain broken until there is someone besides losers like Chad running the show.

by: StayClassy

Flying Childers , you had me at "buffoon Chad"

by: Noneya

1 Buffoon and a handful of coders who just love to play with that software. It doesn't matter if Etsy needs updating for not. Like little kids with a scab, they just can't keep their hands off it. My sales dropped by 75% when they made their last major change to search and it's never come back around. I've stopped trying to relearn Etsy and have since been moving to more and more sites that are picking up where Rob left off - honest handmade for buyers looking for quality products. No more sharing space with made in China leg warmers for me.  

by: Rexford

Flying Childers,  "re-inventing commerce" sounds very much like JD's "disruptive innovation".  Different steaming pile, same smell.

by: aim04744

All of these sites keep trying to create this AI type system. They truly believe that a computer will know better than the human in terms of what they want. It wont work. It wont ever work. It failed on Ebay and it will fail on Etsy as well. When people search for something, they want to see what they searched for. Nothing more and nothing less. THAT is how you have a successful e-commerce business. K.I.S.S.

by: Rexford

aim04744, I think that these sites think that it somehow makes them cutting edge or technologically deep.

We see what it did for eBay.

by: AnneMarie

Every time Etsy ''fixes'' the search function, it gets worse. The search function they had years ago, while not perfect, seemed much better than the current one. (I had fewer products listed and sold more.) Each time they ''improve'' search, my sales, and those of other sellers I know, go down. How is that a fix? Has this group of ''hipsters'' never heard that if something isn't broken, don't fix it?  

by: flybuy

I like the changes.  It helps me search for things I want. I buy and sell on the vintage side of Etsy and this week sold 9 items at a very slow time of the year.  I do add the listing to twitter so that may help.  

by: Ilka

Etsy search mystery: my shop had been closed for almost 18 mos. and was getting about 50 hits daily, besides several favorites. I noticed traffic was coming from all over the web, Google, Pinterest, etc.
I reopened the shop and now only get traffic from the Etsy teams when I play games. Where did all the traffic I was getting from other searches go? This is a total mystery to me.

by: amshene

I'm sick and tired of their messing with their search. Every time they ''improve'' their search engine, my business dies, until I scramble around and change all of my keywords .. oh wait, I first have to figure out how to change them … I just did that, then last week all of a sudden, I’m back up to pre 5/20 sells levels (that is when they started messing with this new search) … As soon as they implemented their new and improved search, my shop died, AGAIN!
I went and looked at the new search and I think it is going to lead to more confusion among shoppers.

I just got my Handmade Amazon acceptance letter yesterday and if business is as good as I think it will be, I will phase out my etsy business over the next year … I think etsy is killing themselves and they now have a lot of unhappy and desperate sellers that have only been sticking around because there has been no place else to go.