But perhaps I'm jumping the gun a tad...
Let's back up just a moment, especially for those who are not Etsy shop owners. Back around the middle of March, Etsy sent out an email to all shop owners informing them that their shops would be getting a bit of a makeover. These changes would be site wide and were not optional (aka, sellers couldn't select if they want to present a new or an old/existing version of their shop).
Those with Etsy shops were given the chance to preview (and edit) how things would look ahead of time, and from the very get-go, my reaction was one largely of slight back-and-forth head tilting and tentative bottom lip biting.
The details of these planned (and now implemented) changes were discussed in this official Etsy Seller Handbook post, and the reasoning, Etsy states, behind them is to try and give shops a great sense of brand awareness, individuality, and creative flexibility (with a key feature of such being the fact that your shop can now have a cover photo, in much the same way as one can on some social media sites).
While shops can still have small banners, the push is towards creating a cover photo, though both are (at present) entirely option.
Where once people visited a shop, saw a small banner and shop announcement, then dove right into your listings, the homepage of each Etsy shop is now (at least when viewed on a desktop or laptop computer) - to my mind - bulky and somewhat less intuitive for those who may be new to Etsy.
In essence, this homepage layout format remains the same, with an exception made for the fact that some shops will now be using cover photos instead of banners. However, the design ramifications of such are that the whole page is more stretched out and somehow, to my eyes at least, less clean and professional looking (the opposite of what Etsy was trying for).
I fully understand the importance of branding and get why Etsy made these changes, but they're the not the only ones that they've unveiled, and there are others that I like even less.
For example, in the past, when a seller renewed or relist an item, that listing would automatically appear on their homepage, assuming their shop was set up to show a seller's newest listings first. Now, the listing remains in the same spot that it was (assuming it was currently active) in one's shop – unless you manually rearrange it yourself.
I can live with that, though I did like the fact that at times when I hadn't added anything new to my shop, but had renewed/relisted items on a given day, they were shown on my first, second, etc pages, thus differing from the items that viewers would have seen there in recent days.
At present, I cannot find anything online yet that says whether or not renewed/relisted items will appears first in relevant searches carried out by Etsy users (who have their search settings set to "most recent") or not. If such is not the case, this will come as a huge blow to sellers everywhere, as renewing listings has traditionally been a way to get your products on the first few pages of a given search term on a regular basis.
Etsy also unveiled two new features that they say (in posts such as this one) sellers have been asking for: an increased limit of up to 15 shop categories and the ability to hide sold orders.
I'm absolutely delighted about the increased shop categories (prior to this, shops had been limited to a maximum of just ten categories), but personally have zero desire to hide listings that have sold in my shop and will not be doing so.
I love the fact that new and returning customers alike can check out the kinds of items that I've listed and sold so far to date. This gives shoppers an even greater picture of what my store is all about and can also be useful for those who may wish to favourite sold items for their own purposes, such as research, blog posts, and wishlists.
{Nearly all of my day yesterday was spent trying to digest and get my head around the new Etsy changes and how they might impact my shop there, while also reading countless Etsy forum posts from others across the world who have a very, very mixed bag of reactions these developments, too. Vintage image source.}
In addition, customers who want to view all of the listings in a given shop do so by hitting the "more items" button below the listings presently shown on a shop's homepage and are thus presented with a longer (continual) scrolling view. This instantly calls to mind certain social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.
As much as most sites these days want to look like they're a social media hub, it's important to remember that Etsy is not one. Yes, there are Etsy apps that allow you to shop and even upload (as a seller) to your own store, but ultimately Etsy is a communal marketplace and not a shopable version of, say, Pinterest - nor are Etsy shops blogs, which in a way, is what these new changes are making them look more and more like.
I rarely bemoan change in general and am not per se doing so here, as my trepidation about this new look lie far less in terms of how I'll personally navigate and use the site - both as a seller and as a customer - but how buyers will find Etsy to be.
Chances are those who are more web savvy will get along just fine, but those who are not (a demographic that I know for a fact some of my own customers fall into) may fail to find Etsy shops as straightforward and easy to explore as they had previously been.
With these changes (which also include just three items per row, instead of the traditional four, being displayed horizontally in all Etsy shops; as well as rather curtly worded boilerplate shop polices - which I'm not happy about at all) having just come into effect yesterday, it's genuinely hard to say yet what kind of impact they'll actually have in terms of things like sales figures in the long run.
Chances are large, highly popular shops will feel little to no negative impact, but I sincerely wonder how true such will ring for the overwhelming majority of shops that are on the tiny, small, medium, and even medium-large side of the scale.
I worry, too, that some existing/returning customers may not realize - ironically given that Etsy made these changes largely in the name of branding - that they're returning to my store, even though my shop's name, logos, and listings are all the same.
Far from making shops look more individual, I fear that the opposite may have happened and that a more homogeneous quality might have been introduced into the Etsy fold (in Etsy forum threads such as this one, the term "blanding", instead of branding, has already been used to describe the new look).
I would absolutely love it if shops could be far more personalized (and no, I’m talking about in the sense of this strange new "is it a third party site, is it not?" paid service called Pattern that Etsy conveniently opted to roll out yesterday, too – a point that I’m not even going to scratch the surface of here, in large part because so little is known about it yet) and if we had the ability to create a much more unique and dynamic homepage.
It would be awesome to edit far more of the elements of my shop's homepage, from background colours to the number of listings that appeared horizontally and vertically, to being able to have subcategories for listings (oh, how I wish!!!). I'd really welcome the ability to list the same item in multiple categories, post more photos per listings (at present sellers have a max of just five photos per listing), and have visible shipping costs alongside the item price itself, too - amongst other points that would only stand to better the Etsy user experience for all involved.
It's possible that some of these features will be unveiled in the future, but for now, I doubt any of them are going to happen on the heels of a fairly big revamping this month.
I adore Etsy and I've always been very, very grateful for the fact that I opted to set up my online vintage shop there nearly two years ago now. I’ve experienced a lot of wonderful success as an Etsy seller so far and am by no means throwing in the towel – nor am I biting the hand that feeds me with this post.
Instead I am exploring and bringing awareness to the big changes that have transpired there for all sellers this week as a way of helping to sort out some of my own thoughts on them in the process (blogging is always hugely cathartic to me in that "get your ducks in a row" regard). I definitely do not plan to leave Etsy anytime soon and will be making the most of these changes as best I can.
I'd really like to know though - if you're an Etsy seller and/or customer - what are your thoughts on these changes? Do you find the new look of all Etsy shops appealing, confusing, unattractive, or something else entirely? Do you think that these moves on Etsy part will help, hurt, or ultimately have little impact on the success of shops?
As with so much in life, time will tell just how greatly (or not) these changes impact my own Etsy shop (be it for better or worse), as well as countless others across the site.
I sincerely hope that most will be able to weather this revamping and come out stronger, with the increased branding helping their sites, not hurting them. There is however, a very rational part of me that wouldn't be putting down any big bets on such - at least not this week.
