Messages from shops

[TwilightAlchemy]

Why would a message from a shop (that I purchased a product from) count towards my “star seller” progress? I believe I am currently at 80% star seller progress for ‘speedy replies’ -  due to belatedly answering one message about an item I purchased. The item I bought was out of stock so the seller contacted me about other options. So I took the time to consider my options and replied two days later. Could someone explain to me why this would affect my star seller eligibility? 

[FeltOnTheFly]

There is no answer to your question other than, “it is what it is”… 

[Amaradorn]

All (first) messages count regardless of whether you are the seller or the buyer. That's it.

[FeltOnTheFly]

From day one of this star seller thing, sellers have been required to always respond to an initial communication within  24 hours.  That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone any more. 

But why?  Who knows….  

[Former_Member · Accepted solution]

Because Etsy has no way of determining if a message is from a buyer or another seller.

Mark it as spam and your score should go back up in a day or two.

Open a separate buyer only account to use for purchasing.

[vintageNCtreasures]

Because you have to answer every, single, NEW message.
There's a gazillion trillion posts about this and how the star seller program works.
It should not be a surprise.

It does not matter if it comes from a buyer, a seller, a friend.
Etsy has NO way of knowing what the message is about, only that it's a NEW message.

These rules have been in place for over a year now and it's noted on your star seller info on your shop manager page as noted below:
Can't get any clearer than this.

Reply to the first message within 24 hours

Just the first message in the thread counts, not the ongoing convo.

Messages that you mark as spam don’t count.

Set up an auto-reply when you’re unavailable. It counts as a reply.

[RamenSandwich]

Or stop worrying about something that is pretty much meaningless (i.e., Star Seller) and keep doing things in a way that works for you.

That is also an alternative.

[PlatypusDream]

You can learn how Star Seller works here:

https://www.etsy.com/starseller

[NanaLetha]

Sellers are also buyers. How would the automated program know the difference?

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@TwilightAlchemy: As has been stated by Etsy and innumerable times in this forum, the Star Seller metric is that the FIRST message of a NEW thread must be replied to within 24 hours. It does not matter who sent it, the subject matter, if it is a duplicate or blank or anything else. If it is SPAM then it should be marked as such. Those have always been the rules. Subsequent messages from the same account (a buyer may have multiple accounts) are supposed to be combined into a single thread, but don't rely on that.

Help Requests always start a new thread. By the way, if you are creating a custom listing based on a new thread, you still need to reply to the message. Etsy is now putting a blue text warning / advisory on those messages they consider to be a "new message" but should semantically be called a "new thread".

At least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered message as SPAM (even after the 24 hour deadline has passed) will cause your reply percentage to change in a day or two if the original message was within the current star seller period.

[Hertfordweaver]

Another alternative is to respond with, I need to think about it and get back to you. We are all learning work arounds here

[mommawhazelsquilts]

It always helps to read what Etsy puts on our Dashboards for us to read.

It's only been 15 months or so.

[FallenAngelBrass]

You can also open a separate buying account so that your purchasing activity doesn't impact your shop. 

[AAANativeArts]

Because it is the rules. ALL convos have to be either answered within 24 hours or marked Spam. You could have marked it Spam while you were making up your mind, then answered it at your leisure without it counting against you. The other person won't know it was marked Spam. Or you could have replied with something like I'll get back to you shortly.

[SugarTaffySoap]

Here's what a Community Specialist has posted in several threads recently regarding Star Seller.

"We suggest using the Forums' Search function prior to posting (just be careful to not bump an old thread that hasn't seen any activity in the last months/years), as questions regarding the Star Seller Program have been extensively covered by our fellow members since its launch, as well as our official Star Seller Guide, which contains in-depth answers to some of the more common questions regarding Message Response Rate, Shipping, Local Pick-Up, Digital Orders, and other topics. You can check it out here:etsy.com/starseller. "