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Some sellers may have seen this recent thread (started Friday November 12) which asks the question, "What happened to the Keep Shopping button?". If you haven't seen it, you might want to know what it's all about, because it's morally certain that Etsy hasn't communicated with you directly about the issues it covers.
With the two part rollout of the new checkout system at Etsy, half the buyers will see the old checkout, which had a handy "Keep Shopping" button. This button sent the buyer back into the seller's shop after adding an item to the shopping cart. Half will see the new, improved checkout, which doesn't offer an easy way to get back. Apparently Etsy removed the "keep shopping" button to make the page more visually streamlined.
The OP of the above thread describes it this way:
After I added something to my cart to buy, you used to be able to continue shopping, or you could check out right away. Now there is no option to continue shopping. The sellers name is a link, but a new buyer who isn't used to etsy wouldn't know how to get back to your shop if they wanted another item. Instead there is a big Pay now button.
What this means is that buyers using the new checkout without the "Keep Shopping" button may have problems figuring out how to get back to the store they were just shopping in. When they do figure it out, they have been purchasing (and paying for) items individually. This means that shipping discounts are not calculated, and sellers are later having to make PayPal refunds to their buyers for the discrepancy. And, of course, the sellers have to pay their Paypal percentages on those miscalculated shipping charges.
Just imagine what this is like for supply shops.
When the buyers don't figure it out, they just don't buy multiple items from the same shop, at least not without a lot of help.
SteampunkSupply says, in the above thread:
Over the weekend in my jewelry shop a terrific lady wanted to buy four necklaces for her grandchildren for Christmas. It took nearly twenty emails back and forth before we got it completed, and I just couldn't figure out what was going on. I just couldn't figure out why she kept checking out after only one item. Now I know, it was the "new and improved" checkout. Oh, and I had to manually refund shipping on each and every one too. Thanks etsy.
And, as usual, Etsy has introduced these changes as seasonal gift shopping goes into high gear.
In the same thread, aosleather says:
Etsy, this blatant disregard of the sellers who have put their faith in you to work in their interests is unfathomable. Testing, changing and mucking with things may seem harmless to you... "if we break it we can fix it" sort of thing, perhaps?
But everything you screw up can potentially wreak havoc in the livelihoods of the artisans and other merchants that have entrusted their beloved shop spaces to your stewardship. and to do this in the busiest shopping season of the year? WTF?
And what does Etsy have to say? On page 3 of the above thread, Admin lisajune offers a typically helpful canned response which seems to come from some sort of alien planet where sellers are not reporting that they're losing money and customers:
lisajune says:
Thanks for all of your feedback on this!
We are testing the impact of removing the 'keep shopping' button from the cart. It's really great to hear how you have used it in the past.
This, predictably, got many responses, along the lines of "Are you kidding? What did you think the impact of removing the 'keep shopping' button would be? It makes it harder for buyers to keep shopping from my store!" "I'm losing business!" "You're idiots!"
My own favourite response to this was from ThePlayfulNeedle, who said "Testing the impact"? Is that Etsycorp for 'We screwed up and you know it, but we don't really give a damn!'?"
There was a second thread started on Saturday, November 13, which asked for a more satisfactory Etsy Admin response. OP BeachCoveJewelry said:
I think we as sellers deserve an explanation as to why there is no longer a keep shopping button. You did not even warn us that a change was coming. It has made it increasingly difficult to buy from stores and for customers to buy from our stores. It is a pain to get back to someones store to buy a second item. I can only imagine how this is affecting supply stores.
TooSoonOld wrote:
The forums are overflowing with complaints about the new checkout, changes to profiles, changes to the search function, pleas for site stability during this important holiday season, and requests for functionality that seem to have fallen on deaf ears for years. It's like a house with a beautiful facade, but a leaking roof, rusty plumbing, wires that are shorting out, a crumbling foundation and mold in the basement.On Nov. 14, on page 15 of the second thread, lisajune replies:
There appear to be many talented, hardworking individuals in the organization. I've read in the tech journals about the extraordinary accomplishments of the IT staff. And the marketing people must be geniuses to have built such a positive reputation for Etsy in the media, while sweeping the structural shortcomings under the rug. Finally, my hat is off to the poor forum admins and customer service staff who must bear the brunt of the fallout, and I hereby apologize for my own admin-baiting. :)
The unaddressed issues of 'Coralgate' are a bad omen. Public contempt for the business' customers, a lack of communication (on the structural problems, as well as the Coralgate issues), and the appearance of a total disconnect between Etsy's public profile and its actual agenda, as demonstrated by its actions, do not bode well for the long-term health of Etsy.
It's time for upper management to stop treating the company like a personal playground for themselves and their chums, and either run Etsy like a business or divest themselves before they cause any more harm. And if the objective is to 'Facebook' Etsy, the sellers here deserve to be told, so they can make their own business decisions.
lisajune says:
An update for all who are concerned, I do believe we'll be replacing the link to 'keep shopping' from the shopping cart in the coming week.
Apologies for any consternation, you'll be able to return immediately to shopping from the shopping cart again soon.
On page 16 of this second thread, SanDesign copied this quote from lisajune, from another thread (not specifically cited):
lisajune said:
Long story short, this was simply a minor test done to help us understand how we can design the site to maximize transaction experience. We will -- barring unforeseen circumstances -- be replacing the 'keep shopping' link to the shopping cart in the coming week.
And, finally, later in the first thread (Nov. 15 - page 93) HarrysGirls says:
Just had a "live" chat with "Sebastien". He said "This is part of our transition of the new checkout process" and "We are working on this particular issue and should be able to restore it this week". Unfortunately I neglected to ask why any sort of announcement isn't made regarding this or no admin person has taken part in the forum. When one does respond their words will certainly be chosen very carefully.So, to sum up, Etsy decided to make serious changes in their checkout just before Christmas. As far as Etsy is concerned, removing the "keep shopping" button was just "simply a minor test done to help us understand how we can design the site to maximize transaction experience." They didn't communicate this with sellers ahead of time and they didn't communicate with sellers when it rolled out. They then apologize for the "consternation" they caused and say they'll put things back the way they were.
I've been at Etsy a long time now, and I've seen this happen again and again: Etsy makes major, badly-tested (even seemingly untested) site changes just as holiday shopping is kicking into high gear without communicating with its customers, the sellers. This causes "consternation" among Etsians, apparently Etsy-ese for "those damned sellers are bitching again about something".
And again and again, there's a total lack of acknowledgment from Etsy Admin that Etsians are upset because Etsy's lack of professionalism is interfering with sellers' ability to run their businesses and earn a living.
There's a great moment in this Xtranormal video, Handmade Headquarters (sent to us via a member of the Auxiliary) when the red-headed Etsy boss on the left explains to the newly-hired Etsy Admin on the right that "Now and then we shake up the ant-farm and watch 'em go nuts. It's pretty sweet".
This is another shaken-ant-farm moment, I think.
Aaaand ... Etsy announces that the new checkout now has a 'keep shopping' button.
*headdesk*
Appendix:
(There are also reports that sellers who do manage to sell multi item orders through the new checkout are getting incorrectly-totalled emails from Etsy -- see this thread.)
44 Comments:
"a minor test"
It's pretty fucking major when it's YOUR shop losing money.
There are lots of shops posting in those threads about having to do extra paperwork and assistance with their buyers, who bought multiple things as separate purchases. This especially hurts stores with low-priced small items that are often bought in multiples, like B&B and supplies.
Who DOES this, using live paying customers as unwitting guinea pigs? Did any of these shops volunteer to Beta test this? And this blithe vague reassurance that it will be returned "sometimes this week", I'm still just completely shocked at the carefree way they treat people's business right before the HOLIDAYS.
The make-or-break season for retail, people!
Paying customers: OWWW, Etsy, why did you stab this fork in my eye?
Etsy: it was just a minor test.
3 days later:
Etsy: Hey I am removing the fork now!
Paying customers: Oh Etsy, You are so awesome, thanks for taking that out!
Paying customers: OWWW, Etsy, why did you stab this fork in my eye?
Etsy: it was just a minor test.
3 days later:
Etsy: Hey I am removing the fork now!
Paying customers: Oh Etsy, You are so awesome, thanks for taking that out!
Lately, Etsy has been messing up so bad that I keep thinking 'ah, so THIS is the traditional annual holiday season mess Etsy makes?' but then there's another one and another one and another one...
I really do hope that for those of you who are still selling on Etsy this will be it.
And yes, of course they now rolled it back, hoping some of the cupcakes are still around to cheer them on and thank them from the bottom of their hearts for changing this so quickly.
Etsy is a sinking ship. Leave while you still can.
Thanks for the news. I can't actually stomach being on etsy long enough to read these things so I am grateful that you bring them out.
I hate that we are living in this Jabberwocky f'ed up land of mental cases. Do they sit in rooms there in Brooklyn looking at a poster of a red dot and stay until they all say it's chaqua?
What really makes my skin crawl, and it's been crawling a lot these days, is that being reatively successful running 2 shops with combined sales of almost 300 hand-made items in about 18 months, I just can't see why sales come in 1-3 times a day for a spell, getting me all excited and paying off too much on my credit cards, and then nothing for weeks even months. And it's not just no sales, but rare views, and even rarer hearts or favorites.
Am I paranoid to think that they have some sort of cast system where you don't appear in searches even though ready for the poor-house due to dimes lost to relists?
I know when I search from my computer, I appear, but whai the F is this about? It is simply not understandable. The stats don't make any sense at all. Do they lose money when we do? No cause they get their dimes.
It's really a bummer that this company is run by mean brainless vipers. And their big run-up to the holidays. Of course no advertising, just links to buy space in a showcase.
So the reality is that despite any work we do, your etsy success is merely arbitrary, unless you make it to a Green Ball Jar or Machine Knit Turkish Cowl status, your F'ed.
Am I wrong, please tell me I am. I just ordered 2000 new biz cards and I want to throw-up.
Manly Etsy Seller! who knits
When sellers with great, steady sales records start popping up in threads, it's a clear sign that Etsy is on a rapid downward spiral.
lisajune aka "radioactive" (see avatar) must turn bright neon when she's (1) talking like a 10 year old or (2) throwing around BS like a bureaucrat. She goes from cutely wootsy to a snot in 60 seconds. Ah, the Etsy-spokesperson speaks....complete BS.
Etsy Admins, even those with conflict-of-interest-stores have no clue. End of story.
Get yourself to AF and send coupons out to your loyal customers to generate more sales, because shoppers are using them! Don't let Etsy screw you again for holidays 2010. (And don't go back in January.)
This is my absolute LAST holiday season on Etsy. I don't care that I may have to start all over again. I'm done.
And, I refuse to say thank you in that stupid admin thread about it coming back. Really?! You feel the need to say thank you that was a mistake in the first place. You feel the need to thank someone who completely ignored you for 4 days.
Hello! Thanking them is not a nice thing to do. It's just reenforcing their bad behavior to begin with. I would thank them if they had actually given me something I had asked for instead of taking something away then making me beg for it back.
To be honest, I'm more apt to believe that the half assed 'techs' simply forgot to put a Keep Shopping in when they rolled out the new checkout.
Rather then admit this, they come up with some 'we wanted to see if it mattered' nonsense.
It's happened before, after all.
I can tell you is that I found the Keep SHopping button would take me to the forums, the FP, anywhere but back to the shop. Never mind that 'add to cart' shouldn't take you there, for starters.
So yeah, I'm convinced it's simply more shit work and back assery pedaling when it's pointed out.
so--you can send outhe AF coupon/gift cert to anyone--they dont just have to be AF buds--nice--thank ye all
The Keep Shopping button was fucking up right before they removed it. It kept sending people to the forums instead of back to the seller's shop. A few people reported this in the forums.
Then, voila! They removed it during the new checkout update.
My guess is they thought they'd get the thing out of there, since the coding was screwing up, and figured no one would notice it was gone. LOL.
Gee I'd been disappointed if they didn't have the yearly "how can we fuck up shipping this year for the holiday" game. It seems to be their favorite game.
And then the thread announcing they added a keep shopping button like it is something new. Good god, you should be apologizing for screwing up not acting like you invented the wheel but including a button that had already been there.
I love AF's policy of now change to checkout from Oct to Jan. They even have pages set up just for items with speicals, use this years holiday tag, Deals2010, and you are in that search/trending page. This is the same as last year- they push the holiday and help get people to know about the specials. And I know the shopping cart won't break
I've been busy with actual real life paying gigs, which means I come home from my full time job and put in another 8 hours... I guess the perk is that I can sit at my own desk and drink copious amounts of coca cola without the premise of being watched on a surveillance camera, or clocking back in from a "break" on time... oh, wait, when I'm at home (except for the bathroom) — there are no breaks.
Anyway, I am obliviously tired.
Maybe if Etsy is going to "play" with "testing" whatever the hell it is - they could do it in JUNE or JULY or AUGUST or MARCH or APRIL.
November? Why? I don't get it.
Don't they have a series of articles about Holiday seller boot camp or something? In a fitting bit of irony - do they not follow their own advice?
I mean I didn't read the articles because I've been selling things for years - but I assume they say something like don't fuck around with shit right at the beginning of your biggest season for sales.
Bwaaaahhhaahhhaaa!
Did you see lisajune's Freudian typo in the forum?
Tell us how you really feel, lisa.
"We do use our Announcements Forum to announce important changes to the shit and other information relevant to our community at large."
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6685852&page=2
rotfl
What a stinking nightmare of a mire. I absolutely cannot understand how Etsy stays in business. Horrendous planning, total failure to communicate, complete technical incompetency and all the admin seem to be possessed by demons.
For those of you who haven't gotten to know Artfire, I'll clue you in on something - they send out regular newsletters and they make specific admin announcements in the forums days before they make upgrades or changes in the site's functionality. Their announcements about changes include the reasons the changes are being made and what differences buyers and sellers can expect to experience as a result of the change. If the change includes a new tool, they include a link to a User's Guide thread that teaches you how to use the new tool. If a bug crops up and someone posts a new forum thread about it, you can expect to see a response from a tech person or one of the company FOUNDERS (usually within three pages) that response usually includes either a request for more information about the bug OR some idea of what is going on and how long it is going to take to fix it.
It didn't take me long to decide that I wanted to be associated with that level of professionalism instead of Etsy's flippant and dismissive attitude.
I'm sending MY ArtFire coupons out today. Right now, even.
Pretty sad that a company who's success has come from something positive is hell bent to destroy it. Please do not ask "What can they do next to screw up seller's lives?" because I believe that is the company's main focus.
And no, Manly, I do not think your ideas about things are off the mark.
Etsy put the Keep Shopping button back probably because they figured out that people like me simply found another way to contact a seller outside of Etsy to make my purchase - thereby screwing E out of their final sale fee.
Once I figured out that the keep shopping button was missing, I simply paid for the first item to get the seller's email via paypal, then made my multiple purchases directly.
Thbbbbbbbbbt. Ninner ninner.
Come to AF, folks. After the culture shock, if you read the directions in the forums and implement them, you'll do well.
If I were still selling on Etsy, I'd probably have had a stroke by now.
To Manly Etsy seller who knits! You told my story and I don't think you are paranoid.
Holy crap. It's hard to be really surprised, because Etsy did this every year, without fail, during the years I was there, but it's still strangely astonishing to me that this corporation has learned NOTHING from the past.
People used to excuse them because they were "young". They're pretty damned old now, in internet terms, ans still as stupid as ever.
sigmundjune: thanks for the link to that thread -- what a fabulous slip :) It's times like this that I miss the fora ...
Oh, there's another great thread there, started by kts815, which asks the following very important questions:
Why are you testing on a live site?
Why are you testing RIGHT before the holidays?
Why would anyone think we may not need a "keep shopping" button?
Why would sellers not be told it was being removed?
Does Etsy have an understanding of how this has impacted sellers in everything from customer service, to lost sales, to having to issue multiple refunds and lose their paypal protection?
Why were there no announcements made? Why were messages from admin hidden in closed threads that could not be linked to, or in 900-post threads?
Will sellers be reimbursed for the .30 per listing PayPal fees they incurred because of Etsy's "experiment"?
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6686118
You'd think the majority of sellers would be used to this by now and have learned their lesson, by starting to move OFF of Etsy.
They pull this sort of thing every holiday shopping season/this time of year.
I'm of the opinion that it's deliberate anymore. They get their cut of the money and don't care what the sellers have to do to ensure that they get their money.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6686118
EVEN with the button back... Still waiting for Etsy to answer the following on the above linked thread:
Why are you testing on a live site?
Why are you testing RIGHT before the holidays?
Why would anyone think we may not need a "keep shopping" button?
Why would sellers not be told it was being removed?
Does Etsy have an understanding of how this has impacted sellers in everything from customer service, to lost sales, to having to issue multiple refunds and lose their paypal protection?
Why were there no announcements made? Why were messages from admin hidden in closed threads that could not be linked to, or in 900-post threads?
Will sellers be reimbursed for the .30 per listing PayPal fees they incurred because of Etsy's "experiment"?
Omg did you hear? Etsy was featured on Jeopardy last night!
I got a pic of the TV screen http://www.flickr.com/photos/eclipse_etc/5182838762/
This is the first Christmas I've had as a full-time crafter... and I'm extremely glad that I found ArtFire before Christmas.
Reading this forum post, I couldn't help thinking about Doctor Who (my TV obsession, one of three shows I actually religiously watch). They have a Christmas special every year, outside of the regular season, in which aliens come to earth and attempt to destroy humans in various ways. One year, the Doctor comes to Earth on Christmas and finds everyone cowering in their homes, waiting to see what's going to happen this year.
I can just imagine thousands of craft sellers cowering in their craft rooms, scanning the forums to see what disasters await this year.
Personally, since hearing of this phenomenon, I've been booking all sorts of craft shows, promoting myself and gathering custom orders. I can't say I have a single holiday item in my online shop, but I've got a long list of custom orders and a waiting list for when my schedule clears up a bit more.
Oh, and thanks Eclipse. I needed a laugh.
Oh, come on guys! It's *just* a minor test.
No professional ecommerce site does this. None.
I bet Etsy doesn't even have a staging website, on which they can test changes. 7 of the 8 "dot com" ecommerce companies I worked for had staging sites. One of them did not, but tested the hell out of things on an intranet, before making the changes live in the middle of the night on unimportant days.
Oh, but serious business is not fucking cutesey urban hispter shit.
Get a staging server. If you have one, it's not good enough. Seriously.
Hire real coders, real ecommerce people. Not social networking doofuses.
If we have to bring in our customers, our customers had better stay in our shops. If you're going to go the Wal-Mart route, where Wal-Mart markets everything in the store--and we're all just products with bar codes, then do some fucking advertising.
REAL advertising.
Hipster Doofuses.
Lately, with all the problems, I have been telling potential customers to either shop at my ArtFire store or if they find me via Etsy to let me know and I'll give them a "deal" and I send them a PayPal invoice....keeping the sales OFF Etsy. Etsy has fuck*d with me one to many times....I'll "use" them for the traffic and they won't be getting the benefit of the sale (as much as possible)....I've had it.
As a non etsy seller I'm proud to be able to say Frankly etsy I don't give a damn! and mean it!
Hmm, looks like TooSoonOld was snowed by Etsy's masturbatory articles about themselves.
The tech staff does not have any 'extraordinary achievements'. It's all quite mediocre, actually.
If sellers are going to be their live test bed, then they should be paying us. It's getting monotonous--every other week there's a programming crisis, and every crisis is due to improper planning followed by testing in the production environment. As for the "keep shopping" button, I'm figuring they have to fix it because it will adversely affect their new darlings, the resellers.
I have to urge people to try Artfire as well. I was able to set up a whole holiday section, full of the inexpensive little items it's too expensive to list on Etsy. And I was able to set up two promotions--a percentage off coupon in that holiday section plus free shipping shop-wide. I had a browser-related issue with arranging the shop, and my question in their forums was answered on a Sunday evening by their chief operating officer. (Two other people responded as well. No one treated my question as a complaint.) I was featured in four collections last week. I've been able to begin fine-tuning my keywords because my damned Google analytics work. Referring URL's and search terms are right there for me to see when I log in.
Artfire's a professionally run, responsive operation.
WhoKnewIt said...
Lately, with all the problems, I have been telling potential customers to either shop at my ArtFire store or if they find me via Etsy to let me know and I'll give them a "deal" and I send them a PayPal invoice....keeping the sales OFF Etsy. Etsy has fuck*d with me one to many times....I'll "use" them for the traffic and they won't be getting the benefit of the sale (as much as possible)....I've had it.
------------------------------
Yep! I cautiously contacted all my fave sellers off e and asked them if I may purchase from them outside the venue through email or other means. I told them that I want to support them but not give another cent from their sales to that site. Thinking I was going to get ousted by a do-gooder, I was pleasantly surprised when each and every one of them were absolutely cool with the idea! I'm cracking up how there's no e loyalty when it comes right down to it! Maybe the tables will turn.
Oh, and look at how well that new checkout it working....
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6684362&page=1
Seriously. Everyone should try setting up on ArtFire if they don't already have or want to deal with their own website. Or, even to expand beyond their own website.
I am no longer buying on Etsy. Period.
I search ArtFire first for anything I might want that's handmade, art, etc. If ArtFire doesn't have it, I run through a list of bookmarked private websites, or check our Zibbet, eCrater, or even eBay.
No more shopping on Etsy for me. And I have spent tons of money over the years. I cannot be the only one, either.
Oh yeah. Etsy is rolling out coupon ability. A week before Thanksgiving. People are climbing over each other to thank Etsy and say how wonderful this will be if they get it before next weekend. Why?
Unless you have an ad set to start for next week and can get a coupon code into it its pretty useless. Are you counting on people coming back after the holiday to buy? You going to put the coupon in your announcement. People don't read announcements.
Of course they rushed it so you can only take a percentage off, and it can't be restricted in any way and your customer could use it over and over until you cancel it so its no good for business cards and ad slots. I only see being able to use it for a VERY short term sale or for incentives for customers to return and each one gets a unique code.
I hope it works, I hope it takes the right percentage off, I hope they cancel when told to cancel, I hope they take there fee off after discount.
Just occurred to me though, I wonder how this will work if you have items from multiple sellers in your cart?
Again, this is something you roll out in February through August when you can see what if any bugs occur. Not now.
I love all their little tests! It's the perfect time of the year.
Yesterday saw the release of various new poorly tested features.
What does Etsy do? http://twitter.com/kellan/status/5064460695773184
The usual! Congratulate themselves on how 'awesome' they are and throw a 'dance party'.
I wanted to address the post by "Manly Etsy Seller! who knits", in regard to his paranoia about a cast system, and appearing in searches.
My response: Ever since we have had GA from Etsy I have carefully been tracking highs and lows on both my very successful shops (used to be) with a total of over 30,000 sales (yes, commercial supply shops) - in March something major happened, and even before then, I was noting crazy, inexplicable sales drops, and then crazy busy - like a switch - GA shows clear regional lines, where hits originate from and where not. I then started watching sales for other categories in these "regions", they too had serious drops in sales.
My theory is that data is being manipulated by Etsy servers, which is most likely divided by regions of the USA and Country.
I have very clear lines, it is consistent. Days with no sales, no views, not even bots, bots are a regular visitor.
These FACTS in GA tell me that something is seriously wrong, and that I am on a server that is not being found, and is probably hidden in some dark corner somewhere.
Tried renewing due to lack of sales, no views, no traffic, which is unheard of in my category. For weeks the only sales were repeat customers.
At this moment in time, I have pulled all ads, and am waiting to see what happens.
With all of these updates, my views and sales went to ZERO, as did others in my region.
Something to think about.
I do not post in forums, I simply do not have time.
I agree that data is being manipulated, maybe their website can not handle all the listings, then there are bursts of sales, like crazy - they are switching data around!!
For now, I must remain hidden. Sorry.
The latest issues, coralgate, exposing names in treasuries, keep shopping buttons, can't check out issues, along with all of the sadly lacking seller tools (for years, been there since 2007) it's nuts... I question my sanity for even considering selling there again!
I can't thank you enough EB, for keeping us informed!
Yet again, I have to say that I feel awful for the people who depend on that asylum to pay their bills and put food on the table. If this doesn't prove to the cupcakes that all etsy wants to do is screw you over and get their dimes and FVf's-nothing ever will.
I will add that even though they have closed my shopd own, they never closed my buyer account that I started out with. After I opened my store there, I did email them twice and ask them to do that, so even though I no longer have a store there, I can still be a thorn in their sides if I choose. LOL! Wanna bet I choose to be a thorn?
I just had a customer try to use a coupon code in my shop. On my sales receipt, it shows coupon code [edited] was used.
Great, right? Only I don't have any active coupon codes for my shop, and no way of knowing how much this coupon was for. Was my customer trying to use it in another shop? I have no idea, my transaction page certainly does not say.
Now I have to contact my customer, explain that I don't have any coupon codes in my shop and hope she isn't too disappointed. Or do I honor the code anyway, regardless of what is it for? Not looking forward to dealing with this on a regular basis. Awkward.
hiddenFORnow, I have had the same inexplicable swings in sales since March!! And I am a high volume supply seller with lots of date to refer to. It's as if there is an "on off" switch. I think their servers may indeed be over-taxed and that they are shuttling us around hoping no one notices. The 50,000 item cap might have been another way to stop the hemorrhaging. I really hope some of that venture capital goes to new systems.
This isn't really about the Keep Shopping button, frankly, I'm tired of all of this shit happening and while it's outrageous, it really comes as no surprise.
But ever since last night when I learned that MySpace and Facebook were linking up, I just had this terrible feeling that Etsy and all this talk about social commerce and networking is heading toward a formal union with Facebook. Maybe an acquisition or merge.
It's just too much focus on this aspect for a selling venue, in my opinion.
I have a facebook page, and have found it invaluable in many respects. I've connected with my high school graduating class and even found my 4th grade 'boyfriend'. But it has morphed into something else with all the games and apps you can add, I get endless invitations and recommendations to join this or that, or friend this person or that person. I have thousands of things people have sent me that require me to allow my information to be mined in order to view them.
I realize all this stuff is optional, but I'm beginning to get the feeling like Etsy is trying to pressure me into more of the social networking arena than I am comfortable with, but by opting out (so to speak) I am losing opportunity to sell with them.
Which is fine by me, as I believe my last item has expired there. I just can't shake the cult-like feeling that we are being conditioned to conform and assimilate or be shunned.
It seems kind of silly to me to give Etsy that kind of power because, after all, it's just a selling venue. But sometimes I just sit back and watch it like you would a mystery movie, trying to put the pieces together and figure out where it's all leading.
OH NOES!!!
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6688113
I love it - "it's a test!"
So, when they screw something up, they can just say they were "testing".
Oh, your listing didn't appear in search? We were testing what happens when we don't actually give you anything for your renewal fee.
What, you're getting error pages over and over again? We were testing what happens when we serve error pages instead of actual content.
Oh, your search brings up a bunch of completely random junk? We were testing what happens when it's impossible to find anything on the site because we just send lists of random items.
E is just one big "test if the spaghetti is done" experiment - what sticks to the wall stays, what falls behind the stove (like promoting the real handmade product) is gone & forgotten.
I bet most of their "tests" are just that - shots in the dark because some other more popular site used that trick and it worked.
It follows E's entire promotions-gimmick. If 25 of their handpicked faves sell well, they get $$$$free promotions for months, and they, hmmm, sell well. Work done, go home, do it again after another 3-day weekend.
It's a collection of mismatched mishmosh, which goes to show that a site as messed up as E has no clue what it is or who its customers are --- sellers or buyers.
We know one thing for sure ---- the holiday retail weeks, which we are smack in the middle of, are NOWHERE TO BE FOUND ON ETSY.
Agree with you Cosmic Yuk. The writing's on the wall and all leads look to me to be pointing that way. What's his name WORSHIPS Mark Zuckerberg and wants to turn his project into the facebook for shopping. I can see him in a Starbucks somewhere jotting down which actor is gonna play him and the supporting cast in the social shopping network movie.
Elle,
Hmmmm, something I'm not sure was asked but maybe you just encountered. What happens if a buyer is shopping from multiple sellers and one of those sellers has a coupon code that the buyer enters on checkout. Does it just work for the one seller, or everything in the cart. Hmmmmm. Not good that the buyer checked out with a discount that was not yours.
I hope you were able to get it straightened out without a huge hassle and/or upset customer.
I have the option of coupons in my shop now. I think I will skip it. Stick to Artfire for that.
all this talk about social commerce and networking is heading toward a formal union with Facebook. Maybe an acquisition or merge.
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Facebook would never buy Etsy. That's not how they work - ironically, deservedly, they would just add their own commerce system and f**ck over Etsy longer before deciding to give them money. I mean, they have the users - almost every etsy member is an FB member -why pay?
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What's his name WORSHIPS Mark Zuckerberg and wants to turn his project into the facebook for shopping
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God yes he does. Notice how he's like a shitty little Zuckerberg doppelganger? Curly hair, awkward, Jewish, a social loser with something to prove - just not as successful. Robert Kalin sits around fantasizing about being Zuckerberg, which is really pathetic considering he should be happy with Etsy as it is. But he's not, he's a sociaopathic megalomaniac, just like Zuckerberg.
Etsy's social experiments are doomed for failure, just like their last confused, pathetic distraction, 'Etsy Labs'.
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