Sudden stop of sales

[AnuszkaDesign]

Hi

I have been an active seller on etsy.com for 10 years. I have always had regular sales, which have increased every year. The beginning of this year was also record-breaking in terms of sales. In March I noticed some changes and a significant drop in sales. I only sold a few products at the beginning of the month and then nothing. In April, it was also about the same, and since then there has been complete silence. I am a seller from Europe (Poland). I am in contact with several other sellers who have the same problem. At first I thought maybe customers suddenly lost interest in the products, but I don't think so. After analyzing the problem with other sellers and delving into the topics of the functioning of Internet search engines, we come to the conclusion that it is related to the search algorithms used by etsy.com. I wonder if artificial intelligence is not hurting us sellers, cutting off our stores from sales, because that's how it looks. Does anyone have similar problem? What can be done to get sales back on track?

Anna

[VintageGiftsEE]

Same - very low sales in April and May with no sales at all .

My recent reviews is for items sold in 2 months ago , we can not always blame economic , I think it is something else 

[SparkleAndPixelCo]

I noticed a dramatic change beginning mid April. May has been absolutely horrible. I do have a few days where I get 20-30 sales followed by a day of 4 or 5 sales. Economic impact doesn't result in daily, rapid shifts in stats. I'm not sure if there's anything we can really do other than continuing to add products. Hope it gets better for you!

[AnuszkaDesign]

The question is, how often does etsy.com update?

[PrintFanaticShop]

Etsy's algorithm is constantly changing. Only they know.

[MiloPop]

Mis ventas bajaron mucho desde marzo.

Mi tienda es pequeña, solía vender 3 o 4 artículos por semana, ahora 1 o nada.

Hice el experimento de abrir pestaña de incógnito y buscar en etsy mis productos, y no aparece ninguno, miré alrededor de 20 páginas para encontrar alguno de mis gorros, y no salía ni uno!

Ya veo por qué no tengo ventas, no aparezco en los resultados.

Lo peor es que en la búsqueda salen objetos que no escribí en vez de salir lo que yo estaba buscando.

Literalmente escribí el nombre de uno de mis artículos en el buscador y aún así no me aparecía, y todos mis artículos están activos 🥲

[AnuszkaDesign]

I have exactly the same. Even when I enter the name of my store, the store does not appear, only completely different/strange products.

[MiloPop]

Mis ventas bajaron mucho desde marzo.

Mi tienda es pequeña, solía vender 3 o 4 artículos por semana, ahora 1 o nada.

Hice el experimento de abrir pestaña de incógnito y buscar en etsy mis productos, y no aparece ninguno, miré alrededor de 20 páginas para encontrar alguno de mis gorros, y no salía ni uno!

Ya veo por qué no tengo ventas, no aparezco en los resultados.

Lo peor es que en la búsqueda salen objetos que no escribí en vez de salir lo que yo estaba buscando.

Literalmente escribí el nombre de uno de mis artículos en el buscador y aún así no me aparecía, y todos mis artículos están activos

[STAYMI]

ich habe dasselbe Problem. Solche Probleme gab es schon in Vergangenheit. Meistens nach einem etsy Update. 

[AnuszkaDesign]

The question is, how often does etsy.com update?

[ZenCatPottery]

SO many people have posted about this.  A lot of sellers are experiencing the same thing.  Most agree it’s the economy.  When people are struggling to pay for food and housing, they’re not as likely to buy something that isn’t 100% needed.  

I’ve been selling mostly small items (under $20).  I suggest adding some items to your shop that are less expensive, ie under $30.

[clotheslinesvintage]

Good point @ZenCatPottery I call it the earrings + scarf effect. I know the economy is to blame when ppl start purchasing earrings and scarves - lower priced items. This doesn't typically happen until post-holiday Jan/February, though. You have inspired me to list more jewellery and scarves!

[lalarossa]

I'm from Poland too. For me, the interest in my shop has been decreasing since November last year and thus the sales have also decreased. And drastically. Despite the excellent customer service, I have also lost regular customers. No favorites. Very few visits especially at night in Europe. My clientele is mostly from the United States. I feel like my store is not showing up there at all. I also think Etsy messed up something with the search. It's awful. Many sellers complain. The worst part is that Etsy doesn't seem to care at all about killing us.

[AnuszkaDesign]

I wonder if it's some kind of discrimination against sellers from Europe... I've heard such voices somewhere.

[witchshopgypsyheaven]

No, discrimination. I'm in America and sell to Canada. My sales stopped a month ago. I usually get five to eight orders a week. I spend lots of money on etsy ads and renewing listings. Seems as though we have been forgotten somehow. 

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

I would run a sale with 20% off to see if it makes any difference.  The less you sell, the less you will sell so, even if you sell items at less than your usual price, your shop will become more visible with each sale. 

[AnuszkaDesign]

I am in contact with sellers who are already doing 30 - 40% price cuts and it doesn't change anything. It all looks as if the stores are invisible to shoppers, regardless of the prices of their products.

[theinkbotanista]

Same issues here but I blame it on the broken search. I don't know if it's just for us in Europe or for everyone. But I noticed this over the weekend when searching for a specific product that returns maybe 5 pages of results. I went through all of them and didn't find what I was looking for. After some time I accidentally done the same search in a different browser and voila, I have found a shop from Poland selling exactly what I was after. Same search terms, just different browser and later during that day. This is so shocking!

[SmallthingsbyAmanda]

I am in Europe and although sales are dowen a little over the last month as they always are at this time of year, my sales compared to the same time last year are up massively. Search is personalized on etsy so yes different people searching the same thing see different results and even same person with different devices or browsers will see different results. That is nothing new on etsy it's how search as worked for a long time. 

[theinkbotanista]

I am well aware of the search being "personalised" however as I said the shop I found doing the 2nd search did not appear at all in my initial search and I went through all the pages. It's great your sales are doing well but that doesn't mean something isn't broken for the rest of us. 

[SmallthingsbyAmanda]

"After some time I accidentally done the same search in a different browser and voila, I have found a shop from Poland selling exactly what I was after. Same search terms, just different browser and later during that day. This is so shocking!" all I was saying was its not unusual to get different results using a different browser.  "It's great your sales are doing well but that doesn't mean something isn't broken for the rest of us. " who is the rest of use ? yes there are sellers who's sales have dropped but there are also sellers who's sales are up you just dont here about it so much. Are sales down because something is broken usually no usually its a combination of things. Yes changes etsy makes can change vews and sales for sellers some in a good way some in a bad way but if it improves sales over all then that's not something broken. Etsy dos not worry about individual shops it worry's about over all profits and as hard as it sounds as a business then that is exactly what they are supposed to do. some times as sellers we can sort of work out how things changed and adapt and work with the change. Sometimes changes are short lived and things go back to how they where. Its also a possibility at anytime etsy could do something that will mean etsy will no longer work as a place to sell for us. I dont mean to sound like I dont have sympathy for sellers who are struggling I do and have been there meany times over the years but as I say posts about drop in sales as been happening for years this is nothing new this happens all the time on Etsy. I really hope you can work it out and get the sales back and often sellers do.

[Eiderglass]

I purchased two rugs from you many years back and still love them everyday! Since then, I've 'Followed' your shop and I always see notifications when you add new items etc, so at least that part of the site is still working. I hope you can figure out what is happening to search.

[AnuszkaDesign]

It's wonderful to read such messages, because it confirms my belief that my products are really good and serve for years

[DeviantDollDesigns]

Same, busiest month I've ever had in March, April 12th rolled around and the lights went out.

The economy *may* be a contributing factor but I can't imagine everyone suddenly decided to stop purchasing from one specific site in unison on a specific date. My AH and Shopify continue to work just fine. It's solely Etsy with this issue. My stats look like a heart rate monitor, and they've always been consistent until now. They're also heavily down yoy.

May started slow, but it's started to shift its way back to normality. It's still not right though.

[witchshopgypsyheaven]

My sales completely stopped a month ago. It's not just the economy. I usually get five to eight orders a week. Now, nothing. I tried everything. Etsy ads, renewing listings, adding new items and so on. Today I had 732 people that saw my etsy ad. No orders. Lastly, I think this is an Etsy problem. I am going to put my shop onto vacation mode for a week and see if things change after that.