Truncated Titles Causing Major Decrease In Sales

[QuiltStencilsAndMore]

Truncated titles are causing a major decrease in my sales. I sell quilt stencils and one of the most important pieces of information that my buyers look for is size. Yes Etsy size does matter! The majority of my listings start with size, i.e. 2". When you truncate the titles everything after the size is eliminated. My buyers search for size as (2") not 2 inches or 2 in. Since this test was implemented, my sales have decreased significantly. Every so often the titles will reappear for a day and on those days sales  show a large increase. I thought Etsy wanted more revenue but maybe I'm wrong. Search is bad enough as it is without making it harder for buyers to find what they are looking for. FIX THIS.

[BurgundySeeds]

Oui, c'est très pénible, aussi bien pour les vendeurs que pour les acheteurs

[FrameTowne]

I have seen this term a lot lately on forums, forgive my ignorance, but what are truncated titles? 

[QuiltStencilsAndMore]

@FrameTowne  An example of one of my titles is 11" Rose Stipple Quilt Stencil (QC# EL32)

What shows in search is 11"

[vintageNCtreasures]

@QuiltStencilsAndMore 
The other day when I was in this absurd test, I only saw the numbers, 2, 11, 8, 12 etc on the search pages.
I didn't see the " indicating inch.

I've seen titles with Autumn, Free shipping, 50, Holiday, etc.
The 50 in that one listing was for the quantity. I think the listing title was 50, 75, 100 available but I don't remember what the item was. 

Now I'm seeing mostly normal titles in search that have a ", / or  - but I see shortened titles that have a comma.

[NanaLetha]

@FrameTowne  for some people, the title stops at the first punctuation mark.

[FrameTowne]

OMG all my listings start with the size.  Good grief.  What can be done to fix it?  What is REALLY ODD is my stats show today 53 visits and 908 VIEWS!  How is that even a thing?  Yesterday, something like 200 visits and 700+ views, there is something way weird going on here.  And super super low sales like 70% down.  I am so confused.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@FrameTowne 

What is so odd about those visits/views?  900 views to 50 visits is a little high as that is 18 views per visit, but  200 visits and 700 views is only 3.5 views per visit which would seem about normal or even a little low.  It all depends if people are looking for something specific or if they are just looking to see what you have.

[ZehOriginalArt]

It needs fixing. If it's a test, it's a really dumb one. But Etsy has been doing some really strange things. If it were me, I would put 2 inch in the title and 2" in the tags at least for the most popular items for now. There is no telling how long it will take for Etsy to fix this.

[QuiltStencilsAndMore]

@ZehOriginalArt  I don't want to spend the time changing 600 titles only to have Etsy change it back. I'm spending my time working on a Shopify store.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

"If it's a test, it's a really dumb one."

and the fact that anyone could possibly think that doing that would increase sales on the site is just effing frightening.

[HouseofWhisperingFir]

This test has been going on for several weeks now.

This post was very helpful:

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/Current-Workaround-for-Wrong-Images-and-Truncated-T...

[Adorabilities]

If you're absolutely sure that this particular test is causing fewer sales (and it's not the messed up cropped photos, or the hidden descriptions, etc...) then it would make sense to take some time and bulk-edit your titles.
2" can be changed to 2 inches in the titles.
You won't lose out on those searching for 2" if you have that in your tags.

[QuiltStencilsAndMore]

@Adorabilities  I am sure. Sales Jan thru July were up 68% over the same period last year. August was only up 42% which is when this mess started. Sept to date is down from last year. The days when my tiles are visible, I'm selling 32-53 items. The days when they are truncated mostly 9-18. I track items sold & revenue on a daily basis & have since I started here.

[TinLizziAntiques]

OP, Etsy prefers simple language structured like a sentence in titles. One of the principles of good writing is making sizes clear by spelling out words like "inches" instead of the symbol " and spelling "two" instead of the number 2. You can refer to Strunk and White's classic The Elements of Style for more information. I like this change by Etsy as a former editor and author.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

I might be out of the test for truncation but I thought that test had to do with commas and pipes not the quotation mark as that is not part of the usual reasons for truncation.

I could find your items easily.

The test only affects a sampling of users at a time.  Not everyone is in the test.

If the use of quotation marks does make for truncation then maybe you would need to use inch or remove the quotation mark.

[NotOnlyButtons]

Don't know about you guys but I CANNOT put 2" in my tags.  No symbols can be used.  I have started putting Inch Inches in titles and tags and getting rid of " and commas, and / and such.  My titles are just a run of words.  Search is a hot mess now and this test isn't helping any.  I am pulling at straws to do something to generate some sales.  I have been in this test for weeks now.

[FallenAngelBrass]

Why are you getting rid of all commas?

[FallenAngelBrass]

I'm going through my titles and making sure that the first phrase before the first comma is a complete, relevant & descriptive phrase. Yes, some users are seeing only the first phrase before the first comma in the title on the search pages. 

[AnchorRoadVintage]

That's what I'm doing. 

[NoFrogsAllowed]

It would never even occur to me to search for 2" anything.  First off, people outside the US probably don't know that " means inches and second, people on tablets and phones have to go to another page to select ", so in is much easier.

[QuiltStencilsAndMore]

@NoFrogsAllowed I only sell to the US & Canada and buyers message me all the time looking for a x" blah blah. The other thing is that a lot of buyers do a generic search for quilt stencils. When they do, they should be able to see the size in the title.

[CobnutCottage]

This should help you fix your problems for now.

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/Current-Workaround-for-Wrong-Images-and-Truncated-T...