Blast-fax kudos, all around!

Far be it from us bitches to refrain from giving credit where credit is due. Etsy has announced a useful (gasp) new feature - related items showing up in sold listings! (Don't panic if you can't see them- they don't show up in your own shop when you're logged in, but you can see them in someone else's shop.) More information can be found on Marymary's announcement thread.

While the feature probably won't be any use to people already browsing through Etsy, since most shoppers would not sift through already sold items before looking through a shop, it will really help sellers who have items linked to by blogs and outside websites, or buyers who are looking through the "just sold" Time Machine or Pounce. This way there's an eye-catching, easy way to click through to the shop from the sold item screen.

Of course, there are lots of things that could make this feature even better. Here are a few quotes from the thread with great explanations and suggestions:

Ivydee says:
I think its less for those who are coming into your store through the "front door" than it is for those who may have linked directly to a sold item through either a blog, favorites page or google search.

It would seem to be more useful if it linked to items within the same category, though. So if someone ended up on a page with a pair of your earrings, it would show them other earrings from your shop.

eclipse says:
I really like this.
The best part is that if a sold item is relisted and has the identical title, it's the item shown. That is much smarter than just showing the 3 featured items for example.

I go through my favorites periodically to clean out sold items and this way it really helps me find the relisted identical item quickly! (I used to have to search the shop)

Is there any way to get a similar thing for expired items?

glittercritter says:
System pulls from tag matches after the title match.
* System pulls from same shop section sold item was listed in (love this one).
* Move "this item sold on..." text below the three active items.


Please add

*suggest items on shopping cart page

*suggest items that have sold out in our favorites

As nice as this update is, it does come fairly hard on the heels of Rob and Maria's little chat where they floated the idea of a "see similar items" widget that would NOT pull exclusively from a seller's shop. It does make one a bit suspicious that they were planning this all along and then changed the plan midstream when they realized that doing so would turn even Team Cupcake against them.