Testing new ways to let shoppers know what’s popular on Etsy

[KASSELA]

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be testing new ways of highlighting your products to shoppers and letting them know how popular an item is on Etsy. We believe that giving shoppers more information about what’s trending on Etsy will help them discover and buy products they’ll love. Read on for more information about these tests.

--Telling buyers when an item is almost out of stock--
Beginning this week, we’ll test a new way to let shoppers know that an item is close to selling out. We believe that notifying shoppers that an item is almost out of stock will allow them to complete their purchase before an item sells out.

For listings with an item quantity of three or less, shoppers will see the information “3 left in stock,” “2 left in stock,” or “1 left in stock” as the items sell. The text will not display on one-of-a-kind or made-to-order listings. During this experiment, we’ll be showing this information to a percentage of all shoppers.

--Highlighting best-selling items in search--
During this experiment, we’ll be showing buyers best-selling listings that match the terms they search for. A percentage of shoppers who search for popular phrases will see highlighted best-selling items on their search results page. We believe that knowing those items are popular with shoppers will help new buyers feel more confident making a purchase on Etsy.

--Best-seller badge--
In addition to showcasing best-selling items in search, we’ll be testing a best-selling item badge. The badge will appear on items that are top sellers in their category and will be displayed on listings in search and on category pages. Badges will appear based on sales of that listing, so a shop may only have one listing with a badge even though they have many listings for that item.

We’ll update you with the results of these experiments and let you know if we decide to make any permanent changes.

[KASSELA]

We’ve been listening to your feedback about recent experiments related to highlighting certain items on Etsy and we’re making some changes to the following tests:

--New badges--
Etsy is home to millions of one-of-a-kind and totally unique items and we want to make it easier for shoppers to discover these special items. In addition to testing a badge for best-selling items, we’ll be testing a badge for items that are totally unique. These badges will appear based on information we have about your listings. Shoppers will start to see both badges this week and we’ll let you know if and when they become permanent features.

--Highlighting items in search--
We recently announced that’d we would be testing new ways to highlight best selling items in search. We’re exploring other ways of featuring items and shops on search pages that aren’t based on number of sales. We’ll keep you updated on those tests.

--Telling buyers when an item is almost out of stock--
We also told you about a test that shows shoppers when an item is almost out of stock. This experiment is currently running. We’ll update you if we make this change permanent.

Thanks for sharing your feedback with us!

[KASSELA]

Thanks for your feedback on the best-seller and one-of-a-kind badge experiment. We’ve found that buyers are responding positively to seeing this kind of information on listings, but we hear and understand your concerns about the one-of-a-kind badge. We will no longer be showing the one-of-a-kind badge to shoppers.

We want to help shoppers discover unique items on Etsy, so we’ll be updating the badge to say “only 1 available.” You can see what the new badge will look like here: http://etsy.me/2uYioh6

Because we’re seeing positive results from the best-seller badge experiment, we’re going to continue that experiment and evaluate the results after we’ve gathered more data. We’ll let you know if we decide to launch the best-seller or “only 1 available” badge to all buyers or if we test other ways of highlighting unique items to buyers.