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Revolving Dork announced that Etsy had it's one millionth registration.
One million members and *SIXTY* employees - and still no seamless payment method.
How the hell does a internet business based on sales of goods NOT have a seamless payment option? I'm not talking that abhorrent notion of a in House Payment system they came up with on a ego-driven bender. I'm talking about Paypal.
Thousands of online stores with far less then *60* employees have managed to get it to work. Granted, Etsy has 100's of thousands of stores BUT you can redesign the PROCESS to be more obvious and idiot proof.
Instead Etsy seems to be content to rely on Etsy users making videos, Flickr photo sets and having written instructions saved to simply help their customers make a purchase.
(Raise your hand if you've had to call a customer to process their sale *for them* on paypal because it as too difficult for them. :::raises hand:::)
Hint to Etsy: If there are a half dozen third party sites offering options that your site does not, dissemenate news, one stop info, logging the stuff you would rather be erased as well as calling attention to your bullshit - you are doing it wrong.
If your site was designed right from the beginning there would be no need for tutorials, wikis, or other sites.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
1 Million Etsy Members!
Posted by The Cranky One at 12:54 PM
Tagged: customer service, forums, payment, paypal, revolvingdork
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21 Comments:
I noticed more than a few potential Quotables in that thread.
Well, not really 1 million. Once you take out those with 2 or 3 shops, those who registered, realized their username is their shop name so closed and reopened, those who have secret buying ids and those who have sock puppet accounts the actual number of members is probably closer to half or less.
Haha, the tone of that thread turned uppity mighty quickly.
How long before it goes into lockdown, I wonder?
Oh it'll get locked once RD comes back and sees the criticism. That's my guess. One million accounts and sooo many unaddresed problems.
Call it a minor detail, but just how does that thread 'fit' in the Ideas section? Not sure where else it should go but still.......
your OP BS means nothing to me, RD.
My wish list:
Get rid of the Storque, shut down Etsylabs, and lose ridiculous time-sucking features like "Shop By Color" until we have:
1) a payment system that doesn't confuse the piss out of people
2) customer service
3) customer service and
4) customer service
You gotta eat dindin before you get the dessert...
I only read a little bit of it and then I couldn't take it anymore without throwing up a little.
The self congratulations and ass kissing is so thick in there I couldn't breathe.
It's mind boggling to me that a site that is so apparently successful has so very many problems with basic functionality.
And as someone pointed out when you have so many sellers that have 2, 3, 4 shops, "buying" accounts only, and inactive shops the number of actual users is probably far less than that.
i ditto what "S2 Web Writing" said.
RD's thread should've been posted in promos, no? I'm confident a helpful admin will quickly relocate it to the proper category.
BFD
"
goodbloom says:
That's amazing! Thanks for letting me be a part of it!"
Did you hear that? That's the sound of my head exploding.
we are PAYING TO SELL THERE.
It's not an exclusive club that we're "lucky" to be a part of it, no matter how much some people want it to be.
I cannot stand this attitude like Etsy is this great wonderful clique and we're all so very lucky to be allowed access.
I am a seller, I am paying them to provide a service. I expect decent customer service, I expect decent functionality, I expect them to advertise and bring customers to my store. Otherwise, what the frak am I paying for?
They don't deserve special consideration, they aren't above criticism and I'm not going to excuse their shitty customer service and poor functionality because "hey, they're trying".
I expect to get what I'm paying for, and that doesn't make me a bad person. It makes me a business person.
/rant
sorry, I really needed to get that off my chest!
That should be a press release, not a forum thread.
Until we can have a shipping calculator for UPS and USPS or be able to offer more than one shipping option and FULLY INTEGRATE PAYPAL they are just playing games.
They get no props from me since they have not been able to add much actual functionality in nearly 3 years. Bells and whistles are just window dressing that distract the cheerleaders.
1,000,000 "members" just means more competition since there still aren't enough buyers to go around.
Bah!
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5540343
OOOOOH. MYYYYY. GOOOOOOOD.
1. Word to everything previous commenters have said.
2. The lack of advertising is starting to peeve me. Guest spots on Martha just don't cut it. In fact, advertising only in 'Bust' because that's more Etsy's style is total bullshit because how much more mainstream can you get than MARTHA?
3. The customer service situation is abhorrent, and I won't even get into that rant right now, nor will I start bitching about the forum police, who make almost every thread unbearable with their Etsy-ass-kissing. Their heads are pratically invisible, they are wedged so far up Etsy's butt.
4. I had a buyer who was fully convinced she'd actually purchased my listing even though she never checked out through PayPal, because she got all the Etsy information and thought she was done. The checkout process is RIDICULOUS.
5. So. One million registered users. Even if there are duplicates in there, and I know there are, don't you think that number suggests that you are no longer indie, and are, in fact, mainstream? And that you need to provide actual, real support to the people who pay your bills? It's time to give up the indie ghost.
We all know Etsy is different from eBay, and that it has the potential to be GREAT. Everyone just has to pull their heads out of their butts and take a page from the corporate books on how to run a business, because this isn't just some little whimsical venture anymore.
P.S. The only thing Colors is good for is making a Treasury that might get on the front page.
"marymary says:
I really think if we all work together, that we can keep the forums an unclogged, useful environment!
xoxo,
Mary"
There goes my lunch.
"... the actual number of members is probably closer to half or less."
I'm sure you're right. There's also the abandoned shops, the buyers who signed up to buy a single item and that was it, the buyers who signed up to buy a single item and never paid and that was it, etc..
But still, it is a figure worthy of becoming a serious business for with serious and functional solutions for its customers.
PS. As for the shipping calculator for UPS and USPS, unfortunately that's going to be of no use to the people in the 126 countries represented on Etsy which aren't the US. Shipping definitely does need some major fixing, but many would be deeply disappointed if Etsy only fixed it for US sellers (if they could even get it to work properly!) - especially given the state of the US economy and the need to entice a broader global audience which more non-US sellers would bring. There are other solutions which would greatly improve shipping without using any calculators.
What worries me most about their user stats is the figures they quote about buyers vs sellers. If a large amount of sellers have a secret buying account (or one they started before they became sellers) then there are fer sure fewer *actual* buyers than sellers stumbling around Etsy in a confused manner saying "Storque? Time Machine? What the hell? I just want to buy something!"
Also Simone is totally right about the shipping calculator. We should all be able to work out our own shipping costs as a business & US-only features slightly screw over everyone else (features like fully integrated checkout however benefit EVERYONE)
Etsy feels insular enough as it is with all the US sellers who refuse to ship internationally (not being able to search by who ships to you is SERIOUSLY frustrating, worse than any other search problem I think) (and yest I know about the besty search, but I should be able to do that *ON ETSY*)
Being able to add multiple shipping options (as we can on other selling venues) to give people the choice of "do I want this fast? insured? standard?" etc or, god forbid, the option to add giftwrapping during checkout instead of having to list it as a "supply" in our shops at Christmas (because listing it as a service would go against their Terms of Use, obviously)
Ah, it's good to have somewhere to let these things out :P
I'm so tempted to post a link to http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5561377
in that thread...
I ditto what Ladies Auxilliary said.
Gotta get rid of the "childish, cutesy" add ons and run Etsy like a business not someone's toy chest.
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