It's that time of year to grab a blanket, build a fire, and roast your favorite treat. It's Bonfire time. Here are some finds for a perfect evening: a rustic sign, to Bonfire party invites, comfy sweater, and more. Click on over and take a peek. Getting ready to be warm by the fire under a clear night sky. Handmadeology
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Will Etsy fix its front page before the Holiday Selling Season?
These items show on a logged-in customer's "front page" and are are a mixture of what he or she has as personal favorites (hearts), favorites from people followed, newly listed items from people followed, and recommended listings that are similar to items in a person's favorites. On the surface, this new approach appears to show shoppers items tailored to the individual customer, not some one-size-fits-all treasury. Having a front landing page for customers based on past interactions sounds like a great idea. However, I see spam. Spam is sometimes a necessary evil in retail. Having the customers exposed several times to the target product makes them more familiar and more likely to purchase. However, there is a tipping point. Too much repeat exposure and the customers feel spammed. Usually, spam = desperation, and desperation doesn't build consumer confidence. As a consumer, I feel Etsy is limited. There is nothing new to see if the same products are repeated. Customers will go find something "new" and that newness may not be on Etsy. Spam can lead to the death of a business. The Spam I see on my Front Page FeedTo make this problem easier to understand, I will use my own feed to show the daily spam. Apparently, Etsy thinks I should buy digital downloads for scrapbooking projects. This is odd because as a consumer, I've never bought a digital download, ever. So, why do they keep showing me these listing? Below, I've posted screenshots of my Front Page Feed; highlighted in red are the repeat listings of recommended products that are digital downloads. Yes, some of these types of items are in my favorites from when I created a treasury. So, I added a few digital downloads to my favorites. But, here's the problem. Currently, I have 991 items in my favorites. Do you know how many of them are digital scrapbook downloads that correspond to the above listings? Two. What about the other 900+ listings? Why are these items being promoted to me, spammed, on my front page when I have never purchased them and have very few of them in my favorites? That's over 900 opportunities Etsy is missing of other listings and other shops that I might want to see and may purchase from. Of those 13 slots on the front page, this one type of item frequently dominates the feed, being given more than one of the 13 slots. While they are good shops offering high quality downloads, I will never buy them. Clearly, I am being spammed by Etsy. Maybe scrapbooking is hot in my demographic? I have no clue. But does Etsy offer a solution? A way to fix my feed so it will reflect more of what I want? Two Solutions?
The only other option is to unfavorite the digital download listings. Will my spam go away? Not yet. Maybe it takes time for Etsy's system to recognize I no longer have these shops' listings in my favorites, but I still see them. Not only do I see these digital items on my front page, but they are shown to me on other places on the website like on my "favorites" page.
Only time will tell if Etsy's Front page will be adjusted to reflect a more consistent marking strategy. Spam is not the answer. Digital listings were a very small percent of my favorites, so they should not show up in this dominate way. I should not have to waste time unfavoriting items to get them out of my feed when there is a large selection and variety of items (over 900) I have liked for my front page feed to show me. Yet I'm spammed. Now, I'm afraid to like an item, giving it a heart and adding to my favorites because I wonder if it will become my new spam. I might be able to get rid of the digital listings, but they might be replaced with a new spam item. And what is deeply puzzling is I am not being shown items from shops that I have purchased from in the past. That's a huge "miss" on Etsy's part. Some have compared the visual appearance of the new Front Page to Pintrest. On Pintrest, you follow boards and their posts end up in your feed. I love my feed and follow people who post a variety of items from home decor to vintage to yummy foods--just like I follow on Etsy. But if someone I follow on Pintrest starts pinning and repinning the same items over and over do you know what I do? I unfollow them because that's spam. Etsy, knock off the spam. You will alienate customers. With the Holiday shopping approaching, Etsy needs to get its Front Page Feed under control. Etsy, your front page has problems. Spam. And, Spam in general, is a problem as a site-wide issue. On-line shoppers do not want to see spam and once that tipping point has been reached, they may move on to other sites to fill their holiday shopping needs. Update: Did Etsy fix this problem? Read the update here.
I love the rich colors, fall fashions. A mix of honey browns and beige. Are you ready for the cold weather? I'm making a cup of coffee right now and going to do a little Etsy shopping. That Sunset tourmaline is on my dream list. Click on any listing below and head on over to some great fall finds. 'I love Fall Fashions ' by jazzjodilove them all! Handmadeology The Search Function Favors Shops and Spams the FeedWhat's happened over at Etsy? Shops are not being found and many are noticing a drop in sales and views. Something is very wrong. Either the search function is broken and they need to fix the glitch, or they are being unfair to many shops that are no longer being found. What tipped me off to this problem was the posting over at the Etsy forum where people have be pointing out a major issue with Etsy's Search function. I've seen countless shop owners in the forums asking "what happened to my views?" and,even worse, they are no longer getting sales. Yes, there is an ebb and flow to retail; however, I will show you a tangible problem that is directly related to Etsy's search. Apparently, a search return will result in many listings from the same shop, over and over for pages, thereby, blocking other shops from being seen. Let's look at a few examples. First, I type into the search bar the general word "Fall" The above is a screen shot showing that my search for "Fall" resulted in over half a million listings: 559,022 items total. But what is odd, many of the listings I see on the page are from the same shops. In the picture below, I have color coded with boxes to show the shops that are repeated. Many of these shops are given two or more (the more I will talk about next) listings per page of search results. Out of over half a million listings, why on earth would some shops get more than one listing showing? Now, before I continue, I want to point out this is not a criticism of these shops. They are fantastic shops with beautiful products. However, there are many shops on Etsy with shop owners who work hard, take good pictures, offer great products, and pay the same fees, so why are some shops given many listings per search when others are not, or not being seen at all? This is about fairness. Let's continue to look at another
Here are some beautiful October Finds from Etsy. Everything from October decor to jewelry, of course opals. I'm so in love with that Antique Victorian Opal ring! And "The Perfect Scarf" is in fact perfect and looks so warm and pretty. I love October; Do you? Go ahead and click below to visit these fantastic shops. 'October, I Love You ' by jazzjodiFantastic seasonal items for October . . . love it! Handmadeology |
JazzjodiI'm a writer and lover of all things vintage. I'm on Instagram and everywhere as jazzjodi, and you can see my vintage finds at my Etsy shop jazzjodi.etsy.com Categories
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