Correction on Made By Items

[NancyQstudio]

I wanted to make sure I updated fellow sellers here just in case they are also copying incorrectly labeled listings and relisting them as a new listing to have them show up correctly in the right category.  I'd successfully do this with expired listings and it worked. When listings were copied the new handmade listing would show up correctly as Made By.  However, these listings have now ALL been changed to Designed By.  The following information in the Core Details of my painting listings are checked correctly: Physical item, Who Made it - I did,  A finished Product, Made from scratch, Hand guided tools (paintbrush).  

My original paintings and jars are hand painted from start to finish and labeled as Designed By instead of Made By.  My art prints share the same Etsy designated category which is  correct.  They are labeled as Designed By.

I didn't want others to waist time as I have so I hope sharing this helps.  Hopefully Etsy can fix this program before it before it becomes a crucial part of their search system.  They are likely continuing to work on it which is why this new problematic change just occurred.

[cindylouwho2]

ugh, sorry that didn't work, but I am glad we can tell people not to relist items, as losing quality score, faves and backlinks (and in some cases, spending more money) is not really a good solution anyway. 

[NancyQstudio]

@cindylouwho2 I agree, this was only beneficial for items which were lower performers to begin with which needed to be updated anyway.   But now, it won't help with those either.  

[audreytherese]

For now I've added a disclaimer to my announcement to try and clarify. Of course this won't help once they make it a filter to sort by, and I don't know how many people will actually see it, but that was all the effort I was personally willing to put in while (if) Etsy works out the issues. At least at this time. As of now my last live show is in October, so after that I may start putting effort into my shop here again (maybe, depends on how much more they tick me off in the meantime). 

[NancyQstudio]

@audreytherese Your disclaimer is very informative.  It's a good idea.  But also too bad it's become needed. 

[cindylouwho2]

@audreytherese just a warning - as someone who has sold here almost 16 years, Etsy's capacity to tick us off tends to infinity. 

; - P

[TheCraftyLittleBug]

Why can't Etsy just add a dropdown we can select to correct their mistake? And yes, it's a mistake. They chose "designed by" for everyone. Life would be much easier, when you're editing your listings, if you could just select the correct option and be done with it.

[NancyQstudio]

Maybe this is due to the diversity in items and sellers?  Thankfully it is not a crucial part of the search algorithm yet.  Otherwise it would be another problem making it even more difficult for shoppers to be matched with what they are looking for.  

[YasaMT]

@NancyQstudio Sorry, I don't understand how you fixed it. I had all my paintings designated as "designed by'. I complained to support and only received boiler-plate reply that there is nothing they could do and please fill out a survey. I created new listings since then with correct details (made from scratch with Hand guided tools (paintbrush)). New listings show up as "made by" for 24hours and change to "designed by" the next day automatically. 

I also tried copying and relisting expired with all correct details, but nothing worked. Thank you. 

I honestly don't know what to do because I look like a fraud now - saying I hand-painted everything and having "designed by" in item details. I complained to support that Etsy is misrepresenting my shop and makes me look like I'm lying to buyers, but support is useless. 

[NancyQstudio]

@YasaMT You are understanding correctly. Made By items are automatically being recategorized as Designed By.  There is NO fix.

I attempted to open a ticket via chat.  These are a great group of folks.  But they don't have the authority nor tools to help with this.  They are a customer service call center.  Since Etsy is not currently allowing tickets to be opened there is nothing we (or they) can do.  

Etsy has a survey which can be filled out.  The errors can be listed in it.  I was told Etsy is monitoring it.  Here is the survey:

https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7878278/Etsy-Feedback-8733265084

[ModBloomArt]

The same thing has been happening to me with my new listings correctly labeled as "made by" only to change the next day to "designed by".

Pretty frustrating!

[NancyQstudio]

@ModBloomArt I'm sorry this is happening to you too.  A lot of sellers are dealing with this.  I've seen a lot of original paintings wrongly categorized. Etsy is now starting to market Made By items on Instagram so this is becoming a relevant problem for many of us who make some of our items by hand.  We can't use their marketing as we should.  Nor will be included in searches for these items once this program is live for shoppers. At this time there is nothing we can do but hope Etsy fixes their problematic programming since there is no available support for this problem.   

[YasaMT]

@NancyQstudio I see. For a moment I thought you found some kind of fix to redo the listings into correct category. But it's the same. Thanks anyway. I filled out the survey last week. 

I put a disclaimer in the announcements section of my shop but it's just ridiculous. As if buyers all know what's going on. One will probably read it, the rest will pass by and think "ah, some excuses, she's probably just printing stuff and trying to look real". 

Even before this change I've had people asking me if paintings are really hand-painted, is the paper is really hand-made like I'm describing. Now who is going to believe me? Gosh, what a nightmare. I wonder if Etsy is familiar with an old wisdom - don't fix what's not broken. I guess, they are not... 

[NancyQstudio]

@YasaMT I'm questioning if Etsy is still a good site for listing original art on anymore too. In the past is was a great site for original works.   Hopefully this program can be fixed.

[YasaMT]

@NancyQstudio I don't have a good answer about art and Etsy. Art is a luxury item by default, regardless of the price. It will always come secondary to the essential goods and even after clothing and shoes. So, I don't know. I haven't been selling long enough on Etsy but I am not happy with a lot of things already. What I am observing from other sellers is that Etsy shop serves best as a store front, in addition to your own site, not as a stand-alone business. It's not an art-dedicated platform.  

[NancyQstudio]

@YasaMT I've been selling for awhile on Etsy.  I've had success with selling original paintings here.  I'm hopeful this will continue which is why I  think it will help if these types of items are categorized as Made By correctly when this area impacts search.   There is a large targeted audience which can be tapped into for original art.  This is why I believe it's important to have this program working as it should for all of us.  I absolutely agree that it's always beneficial to sell in various ways in addition to Etsy. These things can work in tandem together.

[ButterflyFeetDigital]

I know a lot of us are not happy with the designed by designation. Hopefully they will pay attention to the survey results. And fix it. 

[NancyQstudio]

@ButterflyFeetDigital It makes sense to have these categories for improving shopping experiences. Not all items will fit perfectly into each category.  So it's understandable that some sellers aren't happy with it.

 The problem I'm sharing is not about preferences.  It's a technical program error.  According to Etsy's policies an original painting made with nothing except paint and a paintbrush is Made By.   If the program can't recognize its own definitions it will cause more problems for both sellers and shoppers.  

[BagmakerSupply]

As @NancyQstudio says, the problem is the implementation. A drop down where the seller chooses will probably not work (how many mass produced items do we see marked as 'handmade'). And there is already a debate if a 100% digital item is 'made by' or 'designed by'.

I think that the solution is a better set of questions in the core details to make the decision. And which category the item is in should be largely irrelevant.

[ButterflyFeetDigital]

All of my items still say "I did" as the answer to the question, 'who made it' in the listing form. I have no production partner. I believe "designed by" implies someone else is involved somehow. If they don't change it, I won't panic, but that is still my opinion. 

[NancyQstudio]

@ButterflyFeetDigital Your creative area is a hard one because it can fall into both categories.  Some of my smaller prints are printed by me. I'm fine with these being categorized as Designed By because they too can fit into both categories.  

But this simply isn't the case with specific types of items such as original hand done paintings where no machine, processor, AI or even a subject was used.  In this case Etsy's own policies are not reflected.  This is a technical problem.  And when this area becomes part of search it is unlikely these items will be shown where shoppers are directed to find them because they are categorized wrongly.  

[CanningCrafts]

I wondered if the misclassifications were due to which category the item is in to begin with? I sell labels that I print & ship. Everything I have listed in the “Labels” category says Made By which is correct. But I had a handful of wedding items in the Wedding Favors category that were marked as Designed By. That is the only difference in the listing details compared to my other items. I had duplicated these listings years ago so I could try different tags, titles, & category. I hoped it would change after answering all the questions & switching to the Paper Goods category, but it did not.

[NancyQstudio]

@CanningCrafts This is interesting.  It is a possibility.  I'd think this would be a fixable problem too. 

[cindylouwho2]

@CanningCrafts some people are finding that changing the listing category puts the item into the correct creativity category, but it doesn't seem to work with everything. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@CanningCrafts: Reading between the lines of the many posts about this, category definitely seems to be a factor. Obviously just a guess, but it almost seems like category is the first factor and depending on what the category is some listings do not even have the other factors considered.