New test? Or a bug?

[#1]

I often go from a listing to a shop home page, to look at what else a seller has to offer.  I just noticed today that clicking on the (now teeny) shop name, within the listing, now goes directly to the "About" section, rather than the top of the shop home page.  It's hard to tell that it's even a shop, let alone that the seller has other listings.

An example, from a listing in my shop ... clicking on the BlackSheepDyeworks link, below the title, takes me to:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlackSheepDyeworks?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=272267816&from_page=listing#about

That #about at the end of the url is the culprit; without that added, the url goes to your shop home; but with it added, goes to the about section.

I see this in a different browser/incognito as well, in all listings.  I sincerely hope this is a bug rather than a test or change - it's a really terrible time to be messing around with any limitation on what buyers can potentially see once they (miraculously) land on one of my listings.

[BlaqKat]

Etsy, like so many platforms has moved away from the early concept of "Less Clicks (and scrolls) are better"

It used to be tech companies went out of the way to reduce the number of times you had to click (or scroll) to get to things.

Now, we seem to be going backwards. Everything is like 20 clicks or an endless scroll without a "back to the top" quick button.

Like websites, where you scroll down and the menu at the top vanishes so you have to scroll back up to click to another page - whereas it used to just be that menus remains on a static bar always visible (yes there are still some like this, but so many more are not)!

*rant over*

[PrettyVagrant]

@BlaqKat Yes, I think you are right there.  More clicks may mean more money on the IT side, even if it means less sales on our side.  

[RaineyGirlVintage]

I'm in this test as well, and it's ridiculous.  I'm so tired of all the constant scrolling and multiple clicking needed to even shop on Etsy.  Why should it be so hard to spend money??

[EightMileVintage]

@RaineyGirlVintage  That is definitely the correct question.

[BlaqKat]

I bought presents off Etsy this year and I had to give up half way through. It was excruciating!

The search was awful, ticking shop location UK still brought up shops from other countries.

And as a Seller, I know how to use the site and it was painful enough to put me off.  How on earth are buyers managing?

[TurtleCrossingArts]

Count us in this New Test for 2023:

Hello, The whole Concept use to be for folks to Click onto a Listing then their Shop Name to see their other items: Not their about page. 

More - - -  New Testing #20 for 2023 & again during the Holidays!  How thoughtful. Hello Why would U  Confuse & Frustrate the Consumer even more for their Search.    

[SmudgePlant]

I guess they didn't fire the right people.

[ButterflyFeetDigital]

I see it too. Confusing at best. There should be a visible link to the shop home page with all the listings. If they want to add a link that goes directly to the about section, it should be labeled "About (shop name)" not Shop Name. And they should not take away the link that goes to our shop with all listings. 

[GroundZeroCreations]

Oh my! You are correct! Mine is going to my about section and not my shop section. It is as if Etsy is trying to circumvent shoppers from seeing other offerings a seller has. All of these negative changes are making me rethink whether I even need to be on Etsy. 

[MagickMermaid]

I'm in this ridiculous test so I did what PieceByNumberQuilts suggested and added my shop link at the top of the About section.

[BlaqKat]

I'm guessing test as some people are just going directly to the shop home page (top) and some (myself included) are being diverted to the about page. This is so dumb if this is a test! 

I swear, I would love to see how they hire people for some of these jobs and who is listening to the dumb ideas - "when people click the shop name, let's take them to see the about section right?? No, buyers don't need to see products, they want to see who runs the shop first!" /s

[ZehOriginalArt]

I do not see it when signed in to my shop, but from my other account, I see it. Yes, it is dumb. But fortunately, I had put at the top of my About description and the top of all my listing descriptions, the link to my shop home. Glad I did that from the start.

[BlaqKat]

@ZehOriginalArtI like the idea of that.

However, when I checked your shop and the About section and clicked the link in your about section - it took me to the "uh oh page not found"

you may wish to check your URL is correct.

[ZehOriginalArt]

@BlaqKat 

Thanks for checking this. That is strange because when I click the link to my shop home either in this account or my other one, it brings me to the shop home. I wonder why you are getting an "Uh Oh"? Tried it incognito just now and it still brings me to the home page.

[BlaqKat]

@ZehOriginalArt  That is so weird!

I just checked it again and on one of your listings and they both still came up with the uh oh page.

I wonder if anyone else can test it too.

[FancyTogs]

@ZehOriginalArt 

"Uh oh!" here too.

I checked the page code (F12) and the link I am being given by your about page is "http://ZehOriginalArt.Etsy.com/uk/"  

When I copy that link into the browser it redirects to "https://www.etsy.com/shop/zehoriginalart/uk/?etsrc=sdt" and I get the "Uh oh!" again,

When I use just "http://ZehOriginalArt.Etsy.com/" it works properly, and redirects to "https://www.etsy.com/shop/zehoriginalart/?etsrc=sdt" .

The uk/ must be added by Etsy because I am in the UK. When I use an incognito browser with region USA I don't have the uk/ added.

I don't have a solution.

It is Etsy going out of their way to wreck sellers' ability to sell, again.

Lawrence

[FancyTogs]

@ZehOriginalArt 

I have a couple of possible solutions:

1. try using the full page url, rather than the subdomain format
   Like this:
   https://www.etsy.com/shop/zehoriginalart  
   Etsy may recognise that and not add the country code.
2. put a question mark on the end of your link. It treats everything after the "?" as additional  data rather than being part of the page url, so the uk/ gets added after the ? and gets ignored.
   Like this:
   http://ZehOriginalArt.Etsy.com/?

Lawrence

[ZehOriginalArt]

@FancyTogs @BlaqKat 

Thank you both. You are both in the UK, so this must be what is happening.

I changed the first URL at the top of the About section to the full URL. Then the one at the bottom of the page, I added a ? to the end as Lawrence has suggested. If you would be so kind as to check again, I'd appreciate it!

[FancyTogs]

@ZehOriginalArt 

The one at the top is working great, it is correctly inserting the "uk/" after the .com/ to give me:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/zehoriginalart

The one at the bottom of the About section is not working. It inserted uk/ into the url before the ?,

That could be because you did not put the ? inside the url, it is in the plain text after the url.

Lawrence

[ZehOriginalArt]

@FancyTogs 

Thank you so much! Cripes, now I will have to edit each of my listings too.

What Will Etsy Do Next??

[FancyTogs]

@ZehOriginalArt 

you may have missed my edit to my last reply, you posted so quick . . .

The one at the bottom of the About section is not working. It inserted uk/ into the url before the ?,

That could be because you did not put the ? inside the url, it is in the plain text after the url.

Lawrence

[ZehOriginalArt]

@FancyTogs 

I just re-typed the one at the bottom to add the ? in the URL (hopefully), but not sure it will automatically be included.

If not, I'll just change everything to the longer version.

[FancyTogs]

@ZehOriginalArt 

Nope, still outside. It may be rejecting the ? on the end.

Lawrence

[ZehOriginalArt]

@FancyTogs 

I guess that must be it. Thank you for checking.

@cindylouwho2  Is this new about the redirect URL (shopname.etsy.com) not working in other countries or did I miss something?

[FancyTogs]

@ZehOriginalArt 

The subdomain format is still working in general use.

The problem is only in the processing of the  about section text, and maybe some other shop text areas.

Etsy reads what you have entered for the About text, it recognises the url text and creates the underscored hyperlink text format plus the hidden HTML page code with the url that a browser is sent to. Somebody has botched the HTML generation for the subdomanian shop url format.

The subdomain shopname.etsy.com format still works on the internet outside of the About section.

Lawrence