Etsy Inserts Search Links in Sellers' Photos

by: Stone Cutter

*** So they jerk around the Buyer?  ***

This is SO desperate on Etsys part. It makes me wonder who’s job is on the line because sales on Etsy are dwindling. How low will this company go.

What if the buyer was actually interested in the listing item? And now, Etsy takes the buyer completely out of that listing. If Etsy jerks around the buyer, they won’t be back to the website.

What an ignorant company run by a bunch of idiots!

by: Doggoneit

I could tell you what I think about that, but I fear your site would self-combust.

Suffice it to say I do not direct anything, anywhere, towards my shop there; all the attention goes towards my own website.

by: LDWCallsOut

I read about this in the Etsy Forums yesterday, but I haven't seen it in any listings.  Guess I am not in that test, yet. Totally agree with Stone Cutter that this is messing with shoppers.  I wouldn't shop on a site that abused every opportunity to send me back to their poorly coded SEARCH results.  And, unlike the average person, I have plenty of $$$ to spend.

I wondered what was in the pipeline when I noticed the tags vanish from listings.  Now we know.

by: Dea

I have it on all my listings it is a picture they had added, other than the ones the give us to use.  I tested 20 of my items that have all photo slots filled and it is there in a space etsy created.  Right here is the reason to never drive your social media to etsy, never do paid ads on google/facebook/instagram to your etsy store.  Etsy works all the time to find ways to drive them out of our shops, instead of encouraging them to purchase from our shop.  Your own website is the way to go, when you are ready, and drive all your outside traffic there.  Somedays I think etsy can't do anything else that would infuriate me, and they continue to prove me wrong.  The good news is, its not often I have discovered that customers look at all the photos.  I think in my last photo I am going to ad something with arrows that says "this black box will take you outside "my shop" - name, and into other sellers items"  I am going to make it fun/colorful and have my logo, now to go design it and add it too all my 1,050 listings. Screw etsy!!

by: Ina

I updated the post to include a link to our report from October when eBay did something similar, advertising its Vault in a "photo" on sellers' listings.

by: The End

Well, Son of a Bitch !

by: COVID-19

It's almost like these websites don't want their sellers to make successful sales. 😢😭

by: pace306

Well, if "big brother eBay " can do it, why cant "little brother" Etsy do it?

Make every sale by making ANY sale and screw the individual seller .....

Mantra of the greedy platforms.

by: Lisa

Hopefully, this test will FAIL. And on a positive note, etsy has  made the black box so ugly, it looks suspicious.  

by: The End

I signed out, "traveled" the site as a Guest.
Found one of my items in a search.
Clicked on it.
Then, I clicked on the black box in my listing, and Low and Behold :
Every time I clicked on a button in the box, TONS of my items came up on the search page along with stuff from other sellers.
But I seemed to have out numbered the others.
Possibly because I have the distinct honor of having created the most unique, collectible and heirloom - quality items.
So mine is and UNeven comparison.....but it seems it may boost my sales....
We'll see.....

by: Stone Cutter

@ The End

Etsy has your IP Address and they know what you look at. Your shop items will show in the search because you sell them.

I’m in the test. Every shop I view now has this black box. When I search from this box, Etsy displays items I had previously viewed if the items fit the search criteria.

And this is similar to my homepage which is filled with items I had previously viewed and items that are similar.

Every shop member will see something different in “search”.

by: The End

Interesting......

by: Rexford

What else would you expect from Little eBay?  

by: Chicago48

I read about this in the Etsy Forums yesterday, but I haven't seen it in any listings.
^^ I tested it using the search term personalize candy jar and then using the term collectible casey pottery.  Both times I noticed a black box picture the last one and it seems that ETSY is indeed inserting diversions to other products.  What else will they do?

by: Chicago48

Here's a discussion on Etsy: https://community.etsy.com/t5/Marketing-Your-Business/Listing-photos/t
d-p/142195977

by: regina

Yet they still only give sellers and shoppers only TWO drop-down menus in which to use to customize products.  Amazon handmade has provided 10 drop down menus from day one.   Inexcusable Etsy.  I can’t add some listing on Etsy cause there is not enough drop down menus available in which an actual handcrafted made to order product needs.  Shame on that department at Etsy.  

by: KatyDids Cards

I am seeing this in my Etsy shop now too. Talk about adding insult to injury! I wonder if there is any legal recourse sellers may have, we pay for our listings, and Etsy wants to direct traffic away from our shops? If the links were for other items inside our shops that would be one thing, but to send people out of my shop to a competitor's shop just isn't right.  

by: I_Fix_Dolls

My opinion is that sellers should be able to file a class action suit. When you rent an apartment, you don't expect your landlord to move in his grandmother to live with you. Isn't paying to have your listing on a venue, similar to renting an apartment? You pay for the use of it following all the rules of policy, shipping descriptions etc, and they STILL take over with their ads in your listing?

by: cvsharkey

...and what if the buyer had landed on the sellers site to begin with by way of an off-market ad, which locks in for 30 days? Etsy is running out of legit methods to screw over the sellers. The only ones who don't seem to care are the mass-market sellers from China. I'd bow out if I were still selling on Etsy. I left because of their off-market mandate, but even before that those "similar products" added to my listings had my buyer believing I was competing with them. (I sold product used by my customers to create finished product but did NOT sell any of what they created.)

by: Queen of the Jungle

The people who run Etsy do not have the best interests of the sellers at heart.

They are not normal human beings.  They don't even care about actual people even though they claim to "make commerce human" or whatever their BS mantra is.

I'm glad that we can come here and exchange thoughts and information, but I don't think any of us has enough money or time to start a class action lawsuit.

The only thing the Etsy execs will notice is if they get hauled away in handcuffs.

Other than that it's business as usual.