Some sellers are worried that Etsy is testing yet another feature that could drive shoppers away from their listings. A seller published the following post about the issue on the Etsy discussion boards on Monday, titled, “First line of title now linked to other products”:
“I’ve seen the gazzillion posts about descriptions now at bottom (mine mysteriously moved back.) But here’s a new one that happened last night. In the app under the picture of your item the first thing is the price and second thing is your title but NOW the first part of the title is hot-linked and when you click on it it takes you to a page with the same type of products from numerous sellers. Here we go again. Etsy is using our hard work to do the SEO to get people to our listing and first thing they do is try to lure someone away. Unbelievable. I can’t be the only one. I only hope this is another test that miserably fails.”
The seller was referring to another test we recently reported that puts reviews front and center on the item page and moves the seller’s item description down the page.
Sellers also recently spotted a test in which Etsy added “photos” to their listings that included hyperlinks that, if clicked, took visitors to search results pages. And in February, sellers spotted a test in which Etsy displayed a prominent “Find similar items” button overlaid on sellers’ product photos – both examples of enticing buyers away from sellers’ listing pages.
On Friday, Etsy confirmed another controversial test sellers had spotted in which it displayed to buyers a message about the environmental impact of shopping from sellers nearby them.
Sellers are greatly concerned about features that take shoppers away from their listings as Etsy explores numerous ways to do so – possibly part of a testing culture at the company.
Thank you, Etsy, for another time-waster for sellers having to respond to buyers who can’t find the descriptions (we work hard to write).
On my listings, feedbacks have been placed right below the photos and the description is below that IF you click on a tiny little link that says “Learn more about this item”
Looking forward to responding to inquiries about features that are in my posted descriptions that the buyers will likely be unable to find!
*** Economic data…it’s all about the Ads ***
This morning, I heard an interesting round table conversation on CNBC. Retailers are saying that the buyer is always on the “verge” of shopping, however, the buyer doesn’t always commit into making that purchase.
For 2023, the purchase of retail goods has taken a back seat to vacations and experiences. It was said that companies like Walmart, Kroger, Target and Pinterest, plan to heavily promote Ads both in-store and online. Walmart said it plans to include TV screens with Ad within their stores, while Pinterest has just announced they plan to hook-up with Amazon to better promote the Pinterest platform.
Even Kelly Evans, with CNBC, said that when she searches for products on Google, that the product she searches for is now at the “bottom” of the screen as Googles Ad market takes over her page.
This is what Etsy is trying to do. Etsy is trying to expose the buyer with more products in hopes that they make a purchase. Etsy believes that taking buyers off our listings to expose the buyer with other products, is going work. I say, this way of marketing will stress out the buyer and will fail for Etsy.
Etsy does not care if WE make a sale, but rather, Etsy cares if Etsy makes a sale.