Sales dramatically down after holiday mode

[RobRoyToyMakers]

Hi all, problem... I am a 'gold star seller' and have over 3000 sales. We went on holiday/vacation in January 24 and as normal turned the shop off. When I put the shop back on sales dropped dramatically, this is not due to anything my end because we always 'keep on top' of the shop and nothing has changed. We have been in business over 70 years and learnt allot about marketing. 

Anyone had this problem ?

I would love to talk to Etsy but can't find a way to email them ? the help section just goes round and round.

Thank you.

[SwankyView · Accepted solution]

From what I've read online Etsy likes it when you have constant activity on your site. Optimizing tags, descriptions, and adding new listings. My guess is to do your best to send in as much off-site traffic as possible such as utilizing Social Media profiles and posting in Facebook groups in a non-spammy way.

[RobRoyToyMakers]

Thank you very helpful.

[DougsVintageStore]

I'm trying a page on Facebook to see if I can get traffic from it to my Etsy store here.

[VicenDesignStore · Accepted solution]

I have read on several sites that putting the store in vacation mode is not recommended at all. Place an announcement notifying that you are on vacation and that no orders will be sent. You can also put a calendar of holidays so that your clients take it into account.

[Amaradorn]

When you put a shop on holiday mode the listings become inactive. This means they fall back in the search ranking. Think of it like running a marathon - if you stop to have a drink then everyone else runs past you and your position in the race is now further behind. How long it takes for your shop to recover depends on how long your shop was inactive for. In the past it could help to kick-start the momentum again by listing new products and promoting on Social media. I'm not sure if that still works though. It seems that the algorithm has become so convoluted that only products which are currently selling will get any visibility at all.

[RobRoyToyMakers]

thank you helps allot

[SugarSweetsTreats]

This unfortunately happened to me last year. It took 6 months to recover and I’ll never use it again! 

[RobRoyToyMakers]

Thank you, I won't use it again. I think Etsy should take note especially to shops that make a living from them. 

[DougsVintageStore]

I too have suffered badly with visits and sales after putting my store on vacation made. For the 2 previous years during the same time frame it took weeks to get back to a few sales a week.

Vicendesignstore I'm going to try your advice. Thanks.

[CharlieBGallery]

It was October of 2022, I did not put my page on vacation, but I had clearly announced it on the front of my site.  I was gone for 9 days and sales started happening on my trip.  I contacted each buyer to inform them that I was on vacation actually doing work in Denver and visiting family.  All of my patrons responded and told me to have a good time--totally true.  I was listing on Etsy, when I was in Denver.  One of the packages missed my normal timeline by one day, yet was delivered within the time that Etsy required.  Etsy threatened to stop payments for at least 2 weeks or more. 

Before you go on vacation, I would first change your days or time of delivery to hopefully correspond with your time on vacation.  I had a one day turn around.  I contacted Etsy to discuss and luckily for me they decided to continue to pay me timely.  Good Luck.  Change those days of turnaround and make mention of the vacation on the front of your sales page!!  That is best.

[BagmakerSupply]

@CharlieBGallery: Excellent tips for people putting their shop in vacation mode, but do keep in mind that most of a shop's (potential) buyers will never go to or see your shop home page.

[FallenAngelBrass]

Etsy's calling it "vacation" mode is kinda misleading.  It's more like "coma" mode.  A shop in vacation mode is a near lifeless shop as far as the algorithm is concerned.  A shop doesn't spring back to life immediately after having been on a "vacation." 

[RobRoyToyMakers]

Thank you all for the replies. This might be worth a note... yesterday I spent 2 hours moving Items around in my shop and creating reels and posts for social media,  after uploading posts I was amazed to see my views jump from bouncing along the bottom to almost 70 in two hours ! Hope this helps.  

[RusticandLaceDesigns]

What do you mean by moving items around in your shop?