Etsy Search – How Potential Buyers Find You

The topic of the Etsy.com search capabilities (or lack thereof) has been a hot topic for quite some time on the Etsy forums.  In April 2009, Etsy.com launched a new search tools for the site.

HandmadeMarketing.org wanted to take readers through the issue of Etsy search as it has been building for many months and introduce Etsy sellers to the newly implemented changes.

In October 2008, a fed up Etsy seller posted a thread in the Etsy.com forums called “Fixing search needs to be your FIRST PRIORITY, Etsy!!!!“

The thread discussed that sellers are fed up regarding the very serious problem of slow searches and timeouts.  The  seller wrote that these problems have been brought to Etsy’s attention for two months and still have not been resolved.  “2 months? The category slowness has been a big complaint for a loooong time,” wrote another seller. “Maybe a year?”

The seller was angry with the Etsy admin’s slow response time to such a vital part of selling online – being able to connect with potential buyers through a consise search.  “Unacceptable,” wrote the seller in the thread.  “What is your $27 million being spent on? Why can’t you find some way of dividing the huge subcategories into smaller, more manageable clusters behind the scenes?”

The seller proceeded to list the threads in the Etsy.com forums that discussed the Etsy search problem.  The threads dated back to several months and the number of threads regarding Etsy search issues was astounding.  Threads listed included:

• Nice search results…NOT
• Jewelry Category Pages Not Loading
• Dear Etsy, can you at least pretend like you have a real competitor?
• PLEASE make the subcategory loading lag time/search timeout PRIORITY #1
• How has the Search Issues hurt your business?
• Please stop taking my $$$ If you cannot provide the service.
• Any theories on why views are so low this month?
• No WONDER nobody’s buying anything!!!

In February 2009, Etsy sellers were still venting on the Etsy forums about the difficulty a potential customer has when searching on Etsy.  “Etsy makes it so hard to find certain people or items if you don’t type the EXACT name,” wrote an Etsy seller in a February 2009 thread.  ”I have had so many friends and family members not be able to find me on Etsy because they typed in [the seller's name] with a space instead of without a space. Can’t Etsy’s searches come up with possible matches for when you get close to what you are looking for?”

Another seller wrote on the Etsy forums about how they try to work with the way Etsy’s site is constructed in order to connect them with potential buyers.  In April 2009, one seller commented, “I’ve searched a few of my friends’ shops lately and have a heck of a time finding them.  Just wanted to remind you guys to search yourself and your work – see how easy you and your shop’s contents are to find,” the seller wrote in an Etsy thread.

In mid April 2009, Etsy announced significant enhancements to Etsy’s Search.  There are many changes to the way potential buyers can search on the site including a simplified search dropdown menu.  This means a viewer can search by “Handmade”, “Vintage”, “Supplies”, “All Items”, and “Sellers”.

Rather than keeping modifiers like tags, titles, materials and descriptions as main page search options, Etsy shoppers will see these options moved to the site’s new “Advanced Search” page.  This type of search accessible on every search results page via the “Search Tools” box.  A seller’s tagging and titling efforts are not lost – Etsy searches your handmade item’s tags and title in the main search by default.

In addition, the Etsy admin has redesigned search results pages for “Handmade”, “Vintage”, “Supplies” and category-specific searches.  The new Etsy search also displays aprice filter on all handmade item search results pages. Etsy says additional filters will eventually be incorporated to help potential buyers find the items they are looking for.  Best of all, when no results are found for a search, users will now be presented with suggestions for searching.  This will help eliminate the problem of those not correctly typing an exact Etsy store name.

In the future, Etsy aims to create an option to sort search results by “Most Relevant.” The “Most Relevant” option will enable users to sort search results a number of ways – by “Most Relevant”, “Most Recently Listed”, and sort the results by price.

Etsy said in a recent Storque article that the company is working actively to improve the item listing process because it is central to improving the quality of Etsy’s Search.  As more details emerge on the progress of this area, Etsy will share details.

How has Etsy’s new search options helped you Etsy shop’s sales?  Did you have problems with the old Etsy search?  What common problems do you see when you search for products on Etsy.com?

Tell us what you think of the new or old Etsy search.  Sharing your ideas helps the HandmadeMarketing.org community grow!  If our editors like your ideas, we will link to your shop in an upcoming article.