I'm from Abroad and Etsy doesn't show my items in USA, or UK!

[E2Dcrystals]

Hi, Etsy community!

We are having some technical issues here, my shop www.e2dcrystals.etsy.com is based in Brazil.

I'm a former computer engineer with a major in WEB analytics, and since we started the business on Etsy we are constantly updating our SEO, pictures, and products to be the best in our niche.

I'm noticing a weird pattern: out of 10 sales, only 20% of them are from the USA, which makes up for 90% of Etsy's worldwide sales.

And if we try to search for some items (any keywords you may want), let me say:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1213878115/pair-of-extraordinary-agate-amethyst

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1346837829/large-natural-lemurian-quartz-crystal

And the listings won't show up.

Do you think that is this a boycott because our store not being able to have Etsy Payments? Any other suggestions?

[BagmakerSupply]

@E2Dcrystals: We can only speculate, but speed of shipping and speed of delivery are two of the many factors that Etsy uses in determining where they will display a listing. And keep in mind that if everyone on this forum searched for the exact same phrase they would all get different results. Because of "personalized searches" you can NOT rely on anyone's search results to define how your listing is displayed. Even exact matches to your title no longer guarantee first page placement.

[E2Dcrystals]

But how would you explain zero sales to the US during the Black Friday period and 10+ sales to Europe, Canada, and Australia?

[CraftyCornishMaids]

I searched for

Large Natural Lemurian Quartz Crystal

It shows up for me, I am in UK

....

don't keep changing tags , headings etc, the AI will have to relearn everything again

[Arcalliq]

You are overthinking this.  If you search the forums, you will find many threads discussing dips in sales from US.  It is definitely not just you.

Also, as @CraftyCornishMaids mentioned, be very careful about changing tags, titles etc. Every time you do that your listing goes to the bottom of SEO packing order and might take up to 3 months to climb back up again. If you want to change something, only do few listings at a time and then leave it alone for at least couple of months to see if the changes were positive.

[AnnaReiJewellery]

Etsy search is relatively strongly localized. The only way how to get US sales when you aren't in the US is by paying for ads.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@AnnaReiJewellery 

That is absolutely not true,

1. USA search is not localised

2. I am in the UK, I don't pay for ads, and have a lot of sales to the USA

[AnnaReiJewellery]

@CraftyCornishMaids I would love to be mistaken.

I base my opinion on the changes in the search years ago when UK and EU search got strongly localized. I remember Etsy claiming that the US search wasn't localized but most sellers who used to have strong sales to the US reported a significant decline in their US sales.

Personally, I used to be on the 1st page for several very relevant top searches for my items. I lost this after their changes. Most of my sales used to be to the US, this significantly declined in the 1st year after the changes and kept slowly declining over the years. I did everything I could to combat this - free shipping guarantee, I am a star seller etc.

Maybe it isn't localization per se, maybe it is the effect of the estimated delivery times (which could easily have a similar effect and basically act as localization) or something like that.

I don't mind using ads, I rely on them quite a lot anyway. I didn't need them back in 2016. But 2022 Etsy is very different from 2016 Etsy.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@AnnaReiJewellery 

My estimated delivery times are 20 working days (even though most make it in 5-7)

I never do free shipping

I currently send tracked, so my postage is expensive

I have sold here since 2014, and my USA sales are a larger percentage than they used to be, many times they are more than my UK sales here

(from yesterday, until after Christmas, I have stopped overseas sales until the strikes and Christmas rush is over)

you are in a saturated market, sellers have increased 5 fold on etsy, maybe your items are not so different any more, to other sellers, selling from the USA, to the USA, so the sales there have reduced

It's probably not the search, it's the buyers choice to shop more locally, if they can

[Arcalliq]

I have to agree with @CraftyCornishMaids on this one. 

I am UK based, I have never paid for any ads (volunarily), I do not offer free shippping, I send all orders outside UK by tracked shippping and I still get sales from US.  Perhaps a little less of them than before the pandemic but I still get fair amount of them.  My delivery estimates are waaaay stretched and in principle, I refuse to guarantee any delivery deadlines. Some of my US customers pay double the price of an item for shippping. 

[BootifulLabels]

I am in Australia, and US sales make up about 65% of my sales.  I am only a small shop, so if Etsy was localizing US listings, I would not expect to see many, if any.

[UpshotArchery]

I searched for "Natural citrine skull" and three of your listings were on page #1. That said, your total number of orders so far is relatively low at 210. As my own show grew over the years, sales also ramped up. New items -- even beautiful -- require time to take off in sales and show up more highly in search results. I would imagine that each of your sales uses a new listing, since each rock is unique.

If at all possible, let me suggest re-using purchased listings for new items of the same type. By this I mean that is someone purchases your "AAA Amethyst Cathedral Geode, Deep Purple Amethyst (Grape Jelly), Large 32 Kg - 71 lb, all Natural & Ethical" listing, and you have another very similar deep purple amethyst cathedral geode, that you replace the photos with photos of the new rock, update any weight or specifics you need, and repost. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@UpshotArcheryis correct. If you are listing a new item but it is essentially the same as the old one there is no reason to lose any positive momentum and history the sold item has.

[NataBurgos]

Hello @E2Dcrystals !

I am a seller from South America too!

Etsy has been changing, but it's not something recent, it has been happening during most of it's existence, I guess that we must adapt to it. This year is a weird year, my sales have also been on a rollercoaster. There are many factors that affect sales, and it for us, seller out of Northamerica, it can be different too.

Your products might be for high end buyers so it does make sense that they might be selling a bit more in other countries, but things can change quickly and we must keep an eye on this.

I hope you have great sales!