Add a category manually with new listing form

[ellesh71]

I'm forcing myself to use the new listing form and finding that it works ok overall.  It seems somewhat glitchy, and I'm not a huge fan, but I can certainly adapt.  I can't see a way to manually add the category, which is something I often found myself doing.  Selling vintage, it seems that sometimes the categories overlap, such as home decor vs collectible.  Am I missing the manual option or are we losing it?

[VintageRescueSquad]

I tried doing so yesterday too, and it kept giving me an error msg.

[SnuggleBubs]

I'm forcing myself to use the new form. Not impressed at all! 
What you've pointed out about the category is spot on! In the old form if the correct category didn't appear in the dropdown selection we could start typing and the option would open where we could go through and select the category ourselves. Not every possible and common category appears in the option they  initially show you, which might be fine for some items and some sellers, but not for me. But I was coping via the old form. Now with the new form it seems we are forced to choose one of the dropdown terms, even though they don't suit the actual item, and this will therefore be annoying for buyers when there's incorrect items within a category. 

I sell knitted baby clothes and even the options that exist when you can do it via the old form aren't accurate. I was hoping the new form would provide better options, but no. There are heaps of very weird baby clothing items, but not something as standard and common as "cardigan". I can only see "Cardigan" under ladies' clothes. Baby clothes are a specific category that people like to browse.... baby gift buyers, or new mums who want BABY clothing. Why on earth doesn't Etsy provide sensible and commonly used terms instead of the odd terms they have now? And if it's a girl's or a boy's item we don't want to be forced into Gender neutral!

[DollHeaven]

@SnuggleBubs I think part of your problem is the linguistic differences between Australian and American English.  I have noticed that a lot of Americans use the word 'sweater' to describe cardigans as well as what we refer to as jumpers.  I am not familiar with the Etsy categories for baby clothes but is there a 'sweater' category?

[TrashCodeUniverse]

same problem!  ...I can see no line with: "if you don´t see your itme´s category...you can also add them manually"

[DaysofYoreTreasures]

I described a workaround in another thread, that I will copy below.
It is only a way to keep us listing past the 25th, not a solution. I don't believe any of the functionality of the old form should have been removed in the new form.

Categories
The new form does not allow you to search the Categories, which is a big shortcoming.
For example, there are 15 sub categories under Necklace, but when I type in Necklace I only get 5 of them.
Here is a link to a list of categories & sub-cats that you can bookmark & search when needed. Then type that exact sub-cat name into the new form. Note that the list is not in alphabetical order.
https://www.etsy.com/au/help/categories/seller

[TrashCodeUniverse]

not working - I write for example: Art&Collectibles painting mixed - but what I get is only: Art&Collectibles painting oil

[DaysofYoreTreasures]

@TrashCodeUniverse 

I see what you mean, boo. It seems to love that painting oil for just about any type of painting.

I had a play with it and finally found a way to bring up what you need - by typing in:
art & collectibles painting > mixed
No idea why the forward arrow worked...

I hope this helps, but they really need to let us search the categories by the 25th.

[TrashCodeUniverse]

nope....no chance...it still gives me (ramdomly) only watercolor or acrylic for choice

But thank you for trying and playing around (I guess this should be the WORK of Etsy...)

let´s wait and hope for the best

[DaysofYoreTreasures]

@TrashCodeUniverse 
I am sorry it didn't work for you.

I did find that mixed did not come up if I used more then one arrow (greater than sign), like this
art & collectibles > painting > mixed
It only came up when I used a single arrow before mixed.

[TrashCodeUniverse]

I tried both ...but still the same result. I will use the old listing form as long as possible...that´s the easiest solution ; )

(there are other problems too - like no real translation-option etc... long list....)

[CodysKorner]

Just curious when you say new listing form you mean the blue app over the orange? 

[DaysofYoreTreasures]

@CodysKorner 

I don't use a mobile device.
I just wanted to chime in because you have not had an answer.

I can only speak for PC's and laptops:
The new listing form has a blue banner at the top with a link to switch back.
The old form goes away June 25.

The old listing form has a bright yellow banner with a link to the far right called Try it now

Make sure to save your work before switching either way.
I hope this helps.

[StarburstTropics]

Same exact problem....I share your frustration!  I cannot list vintage books right now because the book categories will not pop up, no matter how many million things I type in to try to make them appear.  I wrote Etsy help 13 days ago and am still waiting for help...why in the world is the manual search for an item category gone??? What are we supposed to do to list things?  I cannot believe they would force a glitchy, unready listing form version onto us.  Unprofessional.

[SnuggleBubs]

It really makes you wonder about the commonsense and skill level of those who are responsible for this, doesn't it!!!

[SnuggleBubs]

@DollHeaven Good suggestion about the terminology ... "sweater" instead of looking for "cardigan". But I've tried for sweater also, and I usually do use that term as well as "cardigan" in my listing titles and descriptions as I know it's used in the US. However "sweater" isn't available either. Logicality is missing in the way the levels in the categories work. For example, I might get a needed criteria to pop up under "girls" but no way can it be then focussed on "baby". Or I can find a type of garment under "gender neutral"... but not EVERY piece of clothing is gender neutral. If I want to sell a pink and pretty handknit that obviously is girlish I want it to go into a "girl" category but Etsy only allows "gender neutral". 
It's a mess!

[DollHeaven]

@SnuggleBubs It is annoying isn't it?  And I think they have been changing the categories around because I haven't really had too many problems with my items until yesterday.  I was trying to list a baby doll dress with puffed sleeves and ruffles and the suggested categories were "lehengas" and  "sports shoes".  The closest I could get was for "dolls" which it obviously isn't a doll, and then it said it would be listed in all four categories mentioned.  Well if I'm looking for sports shoes, I'm definitely not going to buy a ruffled baby girl doll dress!

[GoodWASTEofTime]

INTERNATIONAL: same abroad. When looking at books the list shows about 30-50 categories. As for Australia, similar for entirely different languages where AI probably goes back and forth translating. First I had used the exact verbatim German match from the Etsy search results pages (not the list, but the link at the top of the page underneath the URL when you pull up with your PC) // items of others but it didn't work. Seems the different language was the issue.

So scrolled down to bottom page, switched to US language (probably the basic file), looked up the exact US-English wording used - and it worked. At least in this instance.

Might be a feasible workaround here and there. Good luck!

Someone else mentioned it might work with the App

[RetroToWear]

Had the same problem and after reading g above posts also got it to work by typing in the exact wording of what you want including the forward arrow between each section. Not ideal as you have to know exactly what sub category you want, but at least it works!!

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