Huge decrease in traffic

[TheBohemianDream]

Hi everyone!

I'm starting this discussion because I really have no idea what is happening to my shop stats! I've been trying to find out what it is exactly, but there is nothing I can find which would declare this event.

Since the beginning of May I've seen a huge decrease in traffic and likes in my shop. Normally I have between 400-1000 views a day and between 30-100 favorites. It has been decreasing every day since the beginning of the month. Now I'm at a point where I only get 100-200 views a day and only 5-10 favorites. Strange right!!? My sales are moreless the same, which is also strange.

I haven't changed anything. I've been doing what I've always done. Same descriptions, same model, same photo's, daily social media activity and other. Absolutely nothing changed on my part.

I was wondering if anyone is expierencing the same problem? I live in the Netherlands and my main market is the US. It looks like I can't reach this audience anymore. Is May a month where many people are on vacation in the US? I don't recall having this problem last year.

Any help or advice is highly appreciate! Thank you so mcch!

Blessings from the Netherlands,
Lucia

[Former_Member]

Same for me here but in my case this has been going on since january/feburary. my views have been decreasing steadily and are now half of what they used to be although i have not changed anything. tags and titles as well as photos are the same, i´m promoting on social media and am adding new items regularly. in march and april i´ve had no sales at all,may has been a little better but still not great....

hoping it´ll get better soon
all the best
barbara

[TheBohemianDream]

Oh wow, that has been going on for a while! And no sales in two months... not great at all. I love your bracelets and I think your store looks great! Added your shop to my favorites :). Wishing you all the best Barbara!

At first I thought Etsy changed something, but they wouldn't just do that without letting us know. The first few months of the year have been great for me, that's why it's so strange. From the 1st of May the traffic has been decreasing tremendously. I think it has something to do with Spring break or early summer vacation.

Not quite sure if May is a popular vacation period in the US. Looking forward to hear the opinions from that side of the globe :).

[TheBohemianDream]

Nobody is experiencing the same problem? A huge decrease in traffic since the start of May?

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

I mean, I have had a decrease in views over the past few months. At the beginning of the year, my views were strong because I revamped my SEO. Than there came a decrease. But than again, my photos suck (which I am in the process of working on). So I just chalked it up to my poor photography.

[LucyCarrDesigns]

Hello ladies! I am experiencing something similar, though smaller in scale, to you Lucia (great name, by the way, since mine is the American version of the same). :-)

May is not a typical holiday month here in the States, so not sure there is a correlation there. But I've seen the same thing in the last couple weeks. I am relatively new to Etsy and stated out pretty strong in the stats, but have continued to slowly reduce the visits and likes etc, each week for the last 3 weeks and have been wondering why.

I'm still somewhat new to using social media, and thought that might be my problem, so I'm trying to get up to speed on that, as well as continuing to add new items regularly and changing tags to stay current etc., but I am still not seeing the numbers come back up.

[PaperBoundLove]

I think my views are pretty much the same as previous months. I don't do much on social media, but I'm starting to do it. *sighs* good luck everyone. (:

[WilliamsGiftshop]

I've been selling on Etsy for almost nine years now and I am used to views and favorites going up and down in large waves for no particular reason.

Usually people conclude it is something Etsy did. Usually it really isn't.
What used to work in the past, might not work today. So keep changing, improving, adding new products and finding new ways of promoting.

PS: I'm from The Netherlands too, now living in Belgium.

[TheBohemianDream]

Thank you @Lucy Raybold! :) I thought it had something to do with Spring break. I have never experienced such a huge decrease... I mean it is humungous! Good luck with your store! Cute bracelets :).

@Nikki Lorenzini; oh, been there done that. It's hard as a none professional photographer to create great pictures of your products. It took me a while to get better images. I'd recommend buying a good camera and do research on shops with similar items. Good luck!

@Mitch and Khin Johnson; good luck with that ;). The least favorite thing I need to do daily... deep *sighs*.

@BeaG; bedankt voor je reply :), daar heb ik echt iets aan! Mijn statistieken zijn nooit hetzelfde inderdaad, maar van deze afname schrok ik me kapot! Super leuk dat je al zo lang actief bent op Etsy.

[Former_Member]

I am in the US and I have been getting about half the views I normally do this time of year. May is usually a big month for me with Mother's Day gifts. I have had 4 sales so far this month. Two of those sales were today. I have been here long enough to know you have to work through these times. It should pick up again towards fall.

[kzannoart]

I have had my shop since 2009 and for the past few months I have had the lowest number of views and sales since I've started. Views lower than 50 most days and one sales for last and none this month so far. Don't know what to think. I do the same social media stuff and promotions but nothing is helping lately.

[TheAfternoonTeaSet]

I'm experiencing the same thing. I'm selling from the UK and U.S. was my main market, but sales and stats have dropped off. I've only been on ETSY just over six months so I'm going to keep following your thread, as I just feel I'm too new to understand things like this enough. I just don't have enough experience. Thank you for asking the question! Ps. I've increased my social media daily activity massively, and I was pretty obsessive with it anyway, and it doesn't seem to be making much difference!

[TheBohemianDream]

@Sandy Haskins; ok, so there is something about this May that decreases our traffic. I hope it'll pick up soon.

@Kristine Zanno; I know, it can get pretty frustrating. Your art is amazing! I love the modern abstract oil paintings. Do you use Deviantart? It's a great site to show off your art. My brother is a 3D game designer and he has been using it for years, he gets many commissions all the time.

@JoannaK; Oh, I know how you feel :). It takes some time to figure things out and grow into the Etsy Community. The best advice I can give you is to do research. Find similar shops with success and see what they do. I learned a lot from doing that.

About the social media part. Forget about Facebook. I've been using it a lot for years now, it was a very nice traffic source at first, but since Facebook blocks company pages (which affects the small companies the most) from reaching their fans I gave up. I have over 4000 fans on Facebook, but I can only reach 1% of them. Facebook wants you to pay for promotional posts to reach more. Unless you have 100.000 followers, getting traffic from Facebook is very hard. I understand the point of asking for money to promote your page to get more fans, but to pay promotions to reach your own, well deserved fans is pretty shitty. So don't waiste too much time there. I post a few things a day, but it doesn't do much. Twitter is the same thing.

I recommend to start using Pinterest! Wow, I have been getting a lot of traffic from there. I actually started using Pinterest for fun and inspiration, but it became one of my biggest traffic sources. I have over 9000 followers now and growing by the day. This is my page: https://www.pinterest.com/luciafloresd/.

I also recommend setting up a WANELO profile.

[YesterHere]

I am definitely experiencing a low too. My shop started to improve from January and now sales are a t the lowest since last November. My shop has never been so full or my SEO as good as it is now. It's very frustrating. I just don't think people are shopping at the moment.

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

I just compared my views/sales from this time last year. My views so far this month are at 580. This same time frame last year was at 708. So my views are definitely down.

BUT my revenue this point last year was $4. But so far this month, my revenue is close to $200.

I'd rather have slower traffic if it means I'm getting a lot more sales in. Just off to figure out my photography, cause I know thats the one thing that's really holding me back. . .

[DesignRewindFashions]

This article talks about why some of us are experiencing dramatic decreases in views. My shop is started going down in April but this month is something completely different.


www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m05/i19/s04

Google Redirects Are Siphoning Etsy Traffic
By Ina Steiner
EcommerceBytes.com
May 19, 2015

[DesignRewindFashions]

Also, my sales are down about 60% and I have more inventory then I ever had!

[WilliamsGiftshop]

Yes, that is just another fact influencing our numbers of views.

The point is: you have to bring in your own customers!
Don't rely on Etsy doing that for you.

Marketing = defining your target customers, find out where they hang out online and offline and find ways to hang out with them, so they learn about your shop without you spamming them.

Some say you cannot get sales without using social media.
I disagree.
I don't do (anti) social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
Mainly because I disagree with their take on privacy laws and copyright laws.

Yet I sell an average of 10+ items per month over the last couple of years. Just the right amount for me.

Of course it would not be enough if I depended on my Etsy income for paying the bills. But I don't.
We all have different goals and that means different definitions of success. My shop has always been successful, within my personal definition.

[TheBohemianDream]

Very well said @BeaG :). I totally agree on the (anti) social media thing. Especially Facebook an Twitter... pure dreadfulness. But well, my customers use it, so I have to as well (I wish I could just let it be). And Pinterest, totally right about that as well, but it gives traffic. Many of my customers find me via Pinterest.

Anyway, many of you had experienced decreasing traffic over the past months, apparently May is not a special month for low traffic or sales. I think I'm just having a down moment :).

I've been reading about the "Google Redirects Are Siphoning Etsy Traffic" thing. This could also explain a decrease in traffic, but it could be anything really. Etsy can't do much about it. Found a forum thread with some great explanations from Etsy Admins if anybody is interested: https://www.etsy.com/nl/teams/7720/bugs/discuss/16217044/.

[CrudeThings]

yes, April was great & May almost does not exist.

[maydaylabels]

We don't use social media.

In general, if you are still doing all the things you have always been doing, that is your problem. New competition enters the market all the time, and you have to constantly improve your product/presentation/etc. Just doing what you have been doing is not enough.

[Former_Member]

Sales came to an absolute halt in mid April for me. From then on, all my sales have been sales from trading.

[ArcaneArtifactsArt]

My views have never been "good," but I too see a decrease, especially compared to last year at this time. Though, when I first started selling, I was one of maybe 5 or so sellers doing something similar to my style of work and now there are 60,000+ listings. So much competition killed my traffick, even with attempts at SEO and social media (which I am NOT enjoying haha) Depressing, for sure. But when my product style caught on, my main competition turned to marketing and I just don't know how to sell myself/products. I read about it but just can't quite seem to get it right.

[Former_Member]

Same here and i feel really sad. My sales decreased about 4 times in may and since February they decreased so much. Changes really affect my business:(