More Than 20 People Have This Item In Their Carts…

[#1]

I appreciate that Etsy gives Sellers an idea of how many people currently have one of our items in their carts. However, it cuts off at “20”… as in “more than 20 people currently have this item in their carts”. I would love to know more details, as we obviously don’t know whether 21 people have got the item in their carts OR it’s in 121 people’s carts. If we had a higher threshold like 50 instead of 20, it would allow Sellers to better prepare to meet customers’ needs. Or not having a “cutoff” level at all would also be helpful. I’m dealing with this issue currently related to two of my items that are handmade for Valentine’s Day. They’re both in “over 20 people’s carts”. I realize that just because an item is in someone’s cart does not guarantee that it will become a sale, but knowing if I’m dealing with 20 or 50 or 100 people possibly interested in these items would help me better decide how many to hand-make in these days & weeks leading up to the holiday (as ready-to-ship items). I don’t want to make too many of these items, but I also don’t want to miss out on potential sales. Just a suggestion. —Amy

[NapkinNook]

This is an interesting thread.  To be honest I always that that was just something Etsy put up, in other words, fake.  I thought it was just to give prospective buyers a nudge, i.e., there's only one available you better act now.  Do buyers actually have the item in their cart?  If so it could serve as an indicator of what's popular on a particular day.

[bohemians]

I wouldn't go making a whole lot of an item based on Etsy's 'in cart' announcement (I've read often in the forum that those 'stats' are often skewed). You may find you are left with too much stock.

Better to see what people actually buy and if they are proving to be popular then either make up a few more to keep in stock or extend your processing time so that you have enough lead time to make up the order.

[CuriousityShop]

Many times I have just done a "Buy it now" on stuff that is in X number of carts. Do I feel guilty? Heck no. If they really wanted the thing they would have bought it.

[hopeandjoystudios]

Lol..I am "mean" like that too,, "Ope..ya snooze, ya lose!"

[SewJoyfulandBlessed]

What I've also noticed is interesting is that a listing will not have anything underneath saying how many people have it in their carts, then it will sell several times and all of the sudden it will have, "6 people have this in their cart", corresponding with the number of people that bought the item. Or the quantity that someone purchased! I wonder if it really is in people's carts or if they just use previous sales to make it look like that. I obviously have NO idea but found it interesting that almost every time it corresponds with the quantity I have sold.

[BagmakerSupply]

@SewJoyfulandBlessed: A very interesting observation. Presuming that the cart number is accurate, we do not know if it is as of an hour ago, a day ago, or a month ago. Early on, we tried to correlate the cart numbers and sales and were never able to do so.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

That happens because the buyer has to put it in his cart to be able to purchase it and Etsy doesn't take it out of the cart when they purchase it and the buyer isn't going to come back and remove it, so it sits there until they move everything to "saved for later" approximately once a month, 

[PillowDetails]

@SewJoyfulandBlessed   I have noticed the same thing.  I am highly skeptical.

[SewJoyfulandBlessed]

@BagmakerSupply 

It is interesting and why I'm not sure I'd put much stock in it.

@NoFrogsAllowed 

That would make sense.... Although why your cart wouldn't clear when you buy it is beyond me! (Smiley)

@PillowDetails

I am also highly sceptical. 

[TimoneArt]

I have few sales, so I can assure you that they all appear among those "6 people have this in their cart".
Every time I sell something, I then look at the product and yes "someone has it in their cart" (they actually had it) but it stays there for a month.

[JustMeToo]

@AmySueCrafts   I don't pay much attention to what people have in their carts.  It doesn't mean much.  The messages stay there for a few weeks and then go away.  Meanwhile, I am selling mostly other things.

[SmudgePlant]

Whatever Etsy shows, divide it by 3.

[AAANativeArts]

The purpose of that snippet is to create urgency so some people will feel they better buy it now or it will be gone if they wait till later. It is not intended to be a statistic for sellers. You can create a coupon, however, that is sent to people when they leave something in their cart to encourage them to come back and buy it. But they will only get it if they are subscribed to receive notifications from Etsy.

Your stats on click through rates would be a better indicator of how  you are doing on a specific product.

When I am shopping myself, I tend to put similar items in my cart, then at the end I will go through and see which one is the best deal and delete the others. So I use the cart as a comparison tool. I never did intend to  buy every item I put in my cart.

[Amaradorn]

If Etsy intended for sellers to use those metrics as a tool then we would have it in the shop manager. They simply show that to encourage buyers to purchase using FOMO psychology. I think they also vary the visibility as they are still testing whether it actually helps sales.

After about 30 days, items still in the cart/basket will be moved to a 'saved for later' section. So you could have it in 20 carts one day and none the next.

[MyMontessoriCorner]

It’s especially silly for digital items where there is an infinite number available…

[VintageGiftsEE]

Ok , pretend you have I formation who is having your items in their carts .

What will you do next ?

Spam people ?

Maybe they do not even think about buying the stuff 

You can use only abandoned cart coupon and that is all you can do about it 

[BlackSheepDyeworks]

Another aspect of this - for craft supplies especially, the '# in carts' can be very misleading.  Etsy removed the ability for buyers to see the quantity available for listings over $20, requiring them to add to cart in order to do so.  If you want to knit a sweater, for example, you need to add lots of my listings to your cart now, just to see which colors which might have enough available to meet your needs (most buyers will not do this, of course, they will just shop elsewhere.  But that's a whole 'nother issue).  So I often see lots of my items in carts, and they could be just checking quantity.  The '# in carts' reset to zero periodically too (i.e., buyers carts are emptied to 'saved for later'), so I wouldn't use that # as an actual guide for my production schedule.

[clotheslinesvintage]

Sadly, I don't think this is ever entirely accurate, so maybe it doesn't actually matter if 100 ppl seem to have an item in their cart? I have had 20 ppl have one of my items in their cart one day and the next day that total number disappears entirely - so no one had it in their cart or they all did and similtaneously decided to remove it? I just don't trust it. I feel like Etsy just uses it as tool to boost sales, but creating a sense of urgency around often viewed items.

[TheArtfulTwig]

@clotheslinesvintage 

I've had the same experience.  A number of people have items in their carts, maybe for weeks, even.  Then suddenly they are all zeroed out.  It made me wonder if Etsy empties carts at some point during the month?  Either way, it has never been an accurate indicator of upcoming sales for me in my shop.  

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@Crochetlovemelbourne  and @TheArtfulTwig 

Etsy regularly clears "Carted Items" automatically

"An item in my cart was automatically saved for later

When you have an item in your cart for more than 30 days, we automatically move it to saved for later. To purchase this item, scroll to the bottom of your Cart and select Move to cart under the item."

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015437807-How-to-Remove-an-Item-from-Your-Cart?segment=sh...

[TheArtfulTwig]

@CarpetCollectionAU 

Thank you!  So that clears up the mystery, sort of? 

It seems people would be putting things in their carts at different times, so, it still seems strange that the number for people having it in there carts would zero out all at once.  It seems the decline  would be staggered, according to when the buyers added the item to their carts. 

[TimoneArt]

What I would like is to be able to see it while registered. When I'm registered I can't see the cart messages, unregistering or visiting incognito yes.

[CuriousityShop]

I can see it if I go to my shop. (Near the bottom of the list on the left side of the Shop Dashboard)

[SewNSewSister]

When Lithium arrived I remember it being discussed about the Items in the Cart question/issue and why sales weren't created then. It was discovered that E bots were responsible for most of it. A hopeful 'boost' to get buyers to buy. Now whether that holds true now I don't know. I don't get my hopes up for multiple sales. I just ignore the numbers. Blessings.

[MrsDsHandKnits]

to me the "X" number of people have item in cart is a similar ploy to Etsy's views & visits that change periodically throughout the day= Etsy's "projected" stats VS actual(factual?= I don't believe any of it) stats which to me are also basically useless & meaningless. The only stats that count/that matter are SALES > It's SALES that matter!