When Ebay decided on their long Haul to “improve” the site and “improve” things for the sellers and buyers It made me nervous as a seller. I’m Glad it did because I moved on and opened my own web site and wandered off to etsy which seemed a lot like the old Ebay.
Ebay in the meantime morphed into a powerhouse for buy it now name brand new items and not so much the unique , weird and wonderful it used to be. So be it. Its their company and they can direct it any way they choose. Just happy I moved along when I did as what I sell is not new.
Now Its been awhile since I settled into etsy. Love it. Funny, Friendly, Relaxed, weird one of a kind stuff. Seemed like a home away from home again with a family rather then business atmosphere.
Now etsy’s starting to make me nervous as a seller and buyer the same way ebay was back in the day.
There’s a new CEO I believe. There’s lots of “improvements” in the user experience. Now there’s a change in the search and how items appear. Used to be stuff newly listed would be the stuff a searcher would pull up first. Now its relevancy.
Prior to the relevancy change the newly listed stuff would float along the first pages first. Now I see my Vintage Dresses but their some dresses that have been in the shop a bit. I get exposure but I’d really like my newer listed items to be up front as I List by seasons for sales. Right now I’d like my Halloween and Christmas Vintage Dresses to come up on the first few pages. Heck if I know how to do that anymore. Before I’d just list them daily and re-list them so They’d be what buyers would see first When they searched .
Now I’ve read the tutorials on the new search and I could play around with all the listings to make them more ”relevant”. Change the titles. Play with the tags. All the stuff I’d done before with ebay when they started tinkering with everything. To be honest I’m not wasting my time just yet. Been there, done that. I’m going to wait a bit to see where etsy is going with all these changes.
Fixing my listings Didn’t work out with ebay because after I’d fixed them I’d wake up to find another “change or improvement” and A new list of things I had to edit again to make my listings work again. I’d edit again…..and again….. and again.
Maybe etsy will just make one change to search and thats all she wrote but I am going to wait it out and see in case they get a case of the ebay fix it again and again syndrome. I hate editing and the thought of doing it over and over makes me shudder!
Another new Thing on Etsy is you can now buy ad’s. I think Ebay did that too But don’t call me on that one as that was a long time ago and its hard to remember the order of all the chaos.
Alla Ebay now I can pay just an additional 5.00 a week or more if I’d like to make my stuff more visible to the buyers. More I pay the more visible I become I guess. Call me naive but again as with ebay I thought being visible to buyers was what my listing fees covered. My bad.
So as the new etsy changes are in effect I know I just need to change and tweek and edit and morph all my listings to work well with the new search and then Pay more to get myself more visibility on top of all that and its all good again Right?
As long as they don’t change it back or again or ?????
Since I already Built my own web site after the hard knock lesson of ebay. “Its their business and they can do what they choose with it” I’m taking etsy changes more in stride. I realized with ebay that any time your listing and selling on another businesses site that things can change. Sometimes for the good. Sometimes for the bad. You have to play by their rules , adhere to their fees and if they suddenly change the whole game plan accept that your business may suffer or grow as a result of the changes. Its their playground like it or not.
I still love etsy. Folks are still friendly and cool. Still laid back and fun. Yet all the new changes are definately making me leery as they work to improve the site for the buyers and sellers. Like with ebay I really didn’t see much wrong with it in the first place …..I was really liking it.
I hope as Etsy “ improves” itself it stays the same personal, family style, fun, funky, weird and wonderful site thats focus is more on the fostering of creativity with profit coming secondary to the experience site. If etsy changes to be a site more interested in making a buck then in listening and supporting its users that built it in the first place I will just move on the same as I did with ebay.
There’s Always the new kid on the block just hovering around waiting for “improvements” and “improved Buyer Experiences” to send an established sites users running off for greener friendly pastures.
With etsy though I would really really miss it!
