What's happened to the Keep Shopping button, and why you should care.

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.

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.

On Nov. 14, on page 15 of the second thread, lisajune replies:

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.)

From The Auxiliary Guild: So, here is the thing

Etsy refuses to take care of itself under any circumstance.

Advertising: This is obvious. They refuse to advertise for no known reason. They claim that it's 'better' for grassroots advertising. I don't understand this at all. Ebay had commercials until they decided that EVERYONE knew so they didn't have to shout it out anymore. Amazon did the same thing. Clearly commercials bring customers. And I kind of think that even if they DID buy a commercial slot, instead of it being informative and drawing people in it'd be some crappy handmade commercial that shows a dancing doll or people wrapped in cowls holding a mustache and an owl and says HANDMADE ETSY! And nobody would know what the hell it was. Nobody would ever go check. We need an actual informative clear commercial. Otherwise, people aren't going to give a crap.

Webdesign: This is such a joke. There are complaints that are years old. Things that people are frusterated with indefinately. Honestly, I think that they have to redo the entire website. I think they can't fix it at this point because they didn't start in some sort of way to allow for this kind of expansion. I don't actually think it's that big of a deal. They need to hire a team of people to start from scratch and completely rebuild. And hell, I think everyone would be okay with that. They'd say, "we're only updating emergency situations on Etsy (such as when paypal money goes to the wrong person- oh wait, did they even bother to fix that?) And in 1.5 years we'll have a new and improved site up."

And if they can't move shops over (because well, they can't figure out a way to do it without using the exact same broken system) then they should just say that, "we screwed up horribly, this switch is going to be disasterous. So, to compensate for that, no listing fees for 2 months so you can move your items over by hand, and yes, we agree it sucks and we wish we had a better solution" Wow. People wouldn't love it, but I bet they'd survive.

But no no no, instead they hire (are they even getting paid?) a college class to practice on Etsy. Great. I'm sure they are really good at programming long term solutions. I bet they have all that experiance and stuff. Yeah. What a joke. It's grassroots programming. "Just call your friends and send in some snippets of programming and we'll pick what we love!" DOES THAT SOUND SMART? How can these people possibly be qualified to work on a system this big? How can they possibly be capable of planning long term, what if Etsy grows BIGGER? Etsy never ever planned for this kind of expansion, and it's running into problems because the expansion is overwhelming and breaking the system. Etsy cannot compete with other sites because other sites have planned ahead and incorperated features as functionally as possible.

Etsy did not and does not plan ahead, and they refuse to increase functionality and increase advertisements. Basically at this point, I think the first site to get commercials will be the front runner. Artfire has been nipping on the heels of Etsy, and if they pump up the advertising, then Etsy will lose what little upperhand it had.

Etsy is only on top because it was first. It's not smartest or prettiest or best. It was just first. And it's luck is starting to run out. And so are customers