The Promotion Game

WE REALLY LIKE PUZZLES, BUT WHY DO YOU MAKE YOUR BUYERS WORK SO HARD TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU’RE PROMOTING, ETSY?

Oh yeah, we admit it - We like puzzles, word games, crosswords, sudoku, and even "Where's Waldo" – but we’re starting to wonder what’s up with all those weird titles all over the site, Etsy?

Do you like confusing visitors and potential buyers coming to the site to find something they want to buy?

By the time visitors FIGURE OUT what Etsy's promoting, their time is up, dinner’s on the table, the dryer just dinged, and there are bills to pay.

They get so confused trying to figure out what the heck "Digging In The Dirt" and "Equestrian Prep" really means that they forget to go shopping!

Is this kind of wacky creativity reaching customers? Or are you just poking fun at your sellers again, Etsy? Heaven knows you like to jerk your sellers around, but the wacky is getting wackier and the titles change so often, we think oh goody, you left BRANDING in the round filing cabinet and re-directed your energies to constantly confusing the shopping public!

'Digging In the Dirt', 'Meet Unique', 'All Natural Grooming', 'I Would, Wouldn’t You?', and so many others we can’t possibly list them all.

Tell us what YOUR FAVORITE idea for a wacky Etsy-ish title is!!

Go ahead, make them up. We know you’re much better than Etsy is at this! (Don't worry, they'd never actually use them - this might actually deter them from using the ones we post here! So let it all hang out!)

Give it a go, because they need all the help they can get.

Hey Etsy, you forgetting something?

The Funny One and I have been discussing Etsy’s lack of promotions for normal events on the retail calendar. We’re all too familiar with seller complaints that Etsy lives by its own calendar, and ignores most of the usual retail marketing tricks.

Etsy promotes retail holidays LATE or not at all, as if it’s an afterthought, or they just made another mistake (even after making the same mistakes 4 years running), and they forget that there’s a shipping time added in for internet business. They’re too busy promoting their favorites and manually picking every promoted item on the site, too busy writing dozens of daily blog posts (mostly about the same stores and items featured elsewhere at the same time) and too busy with their Etsy Merchandising Calendar- A Calendar that has nothing to do with promoting the retail holidays.

Etsy completely missed Valentine’s Day at a time when sellers, more than ever, need them to be aware – and then there’s St Patrick’s Day, Easter, the UK Mothering Sunday, and their inability to recognize that being “trendy” is not in line with the individual spirit of handmade.

So, get over yourselves for a few minutes Etsy, and start promoting Mother’s Day today.

Yes, we know there’s a gift guide - incredibly lacking in 'Mom' items. Where are the cards, the 'Mom' labeled stuff, the kid art...

Instead of “branding” your site and promoting individual pieces or sellers, start acting like a venue and let the buyers know there’s something to shop for!

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.

Etsy's bad press gets colorful

For those of us familiar with the Etsy site, we know we can buy several ways – categories, search, seller list, time machine, colors – but for those who are new to the site, there are just a bunch of graphics they have to sort through and decide where to click.

One such person ended up putting Etsy at #2 on their list of websites that suck! Why? Because of the flash abhorration that is the color picker.

Currently at the top of ‘Ways to shop’ on the front page of Etsy, this tool invites new visitors and buyers to click and find something in a color of their choice. The only problem is that is doesn’t work. What you end up with is a hodge podge of items that may have that color, or a similar color, somewhere in the photo of that item. Supposedly the tool picks from somewhere near the border of the photo upon listing. But who the hell knows!? It doesn’t work! And outside sources agree.

What’s particularly troubling is that this is what greets new shoppers. And it isn’t the only pain in the ass feature on the site. Just the one highlighted by a programmer’s annual list of sites he finds annoying. Which isn’t good press, especially since he has a point.

When the list of sellers is at the bottom of the ‘Buy’ page, having the color picker at the top of ways to shop is just insulting.

Sure, it gives people something fun to do…for 5 minutes. And man hours were spent developing it. Which makes me wonder again what the hell they’re thinking.