Visits and sales dropped

[#1]

All of a sudden in March my sales and visits are non existent . I’ve been consistent for 3 years . Is there something going on ? 

[TheCalamityHouse]

I have had low sales since the beginning of the year.  Right now I am running at below half what I usually do no matter what I do to improve the problem.  I am looking for somewhere else to go.  I have worked very hard to become successful here and I have over 5K in sales.  Since the beginning of the year it is like I am invisible.  They appear to be blocking me from the search 90% of the time.  And some of the stuff they are doing like this pop up crap when you favor something is obviously annoying buyers and seller alike.  It is so strange also when I do get a sale it will come with a bunch and then dry up to nothing like someone blocked me from being seen again.  I am so sick of this and I need the income.  This is not a hobby for me.  If I don't sell I don't pay my bills!  

[LastCentury]

@TheCalamityHouse what are you doing to keep up with etsy changes? Image requirements especially? Those glass lamps are beautiful but difficult to see with the noisy background. It looks like a beautiful chair though and that is not what you are selling. And, Etsy likes large square images. But yeah... good luck to all of us.

[maxStoetzner]

Zero deals since 4 weeks (1st week of April). Before I had 1 or 2 sales per week, average. Visits seem to be stable so far, more or less. But not a single sale in four weeks, the 1st time at all I see this happen.

When I check my search performance in incognito mode, I type in “vintage necktie”, then immediately the search changes into “necktie” and I see not one of my items in the listing. Usually I had a few of my items on the 1st page of such search listings.

[LastCentury]

@maxStoetzner You have beautiful items but looking at your short titles you have not kept up with SEO. You could have been doing better than 1 to 2 sales per week. Listings with 3 or 5 tags only. and one word tags in the listings I looked at.

[TheCalamityHouse]

I would just like to make a comment to my helpful poster "last century".  Perhaps you did not look at all my pictures, but instead only the awful rendering of the thumbnail that etsy provides.  They are literally the only venue in the field that is  unable to properly render a thumbnail from your first image....thus we are left to try and do it for them and even then they keep changing so you never know what you will see.  No other venue I have sold on, and there are several including eBay, has an issue except here!  Way too much wasted space is around it which results in stupid images that in many cases are poor in quality.  All my regular pictures are not "noisy" and in fact I get compliments all the time on how they receive just what they saw and how happy there are with it and they return often for more lamps.  Also until the last 3 mo.  I have sold between 300 and 500 lamps a year..... on average 30 to 50 a month all with the same size pictures and the same style of background.  I also check to see how my pictures look on cell phones and computers...... no problems with scrolling because the images are too big.  No problems with blurring because they are too small.  I've been doing this since the 90's back when we had to write our own html.  The issue with this site is a problem from within and it has been getting worse and worse.  If they want more revenue then maybe they should pay a little attention to their sellers and stop experimenting on us and blocking us from the search!  

[maxStoetzner]

@LastCentury – you may be right with your analysis but I still wonder. During the last 60 days I see a constant visits count. But exactly 30 days ago was the last purchase, none since then. How does that make sense?

[nanebellyART]

Same here.....Star seller badge gone, no more visibility, sales very low, visits low....Not sure what s going on.....

[C20Ceramics]

From me, the worst 4 weeks on Etsy since 2010 - visits, sales and all traffic have plummeted in the past 4 weeks - I think it is mostly due to Gift Mode - which is destroying the Etsy we all knew, plus the sudden disappearance of many items on Etsy in search engine results (ie Google). Etsy appears to be "turned off" in Google search results significantly more than it has been "turned off"  in the past. Not sure if that is because of Google AI or because of Etsy. 

The search engine algorithms were changed by Etsy last year, and things were just starting to settle down on that front when the latest Etsy brain fade of Gift Mode was introduced...and he constant badgering of customers by Etsy regarding Gift Mode can surely only turn away buyers - not encourage them. The whole site has become so "spammy" now it is ridiculous. 

I think too many assumptions are also being made by Etsy about their customers about what they are looking for - very few of my customers buy gifts - maybe 2 or 3 a year out of 100s - they are buying things they collect, like or want. They are not interested in highly curated and biased selections by Etsy staff as to what they should be buying. 

The other thing which has had a major impact I think is the  disappearance of "shop updates" in the top menu of the main landing page to be replaced with yet more Etsy spam ....Etsy have now called the bell icon  "deals" - The little bell icon of "shop updates"  used to be a way potential customers would see newly listed items in shops every time they logged on - now shop updates have been hidden away under  "your favourites" which most customers will just give up on - Etsy is ignored basic internet behaviour I think - that two clicks is too many clicks  - and it now takes 3 clicks to navigate to "shop updates". 

[TheCalamityHouse]

I think you are correct on everything you are saying.  I also think the search is awful.  If you add words to pinpoint something you want like say a piece of sterling with a pattern name you still get hundreds of sterling items (often mixed with silver plate items) in multiple patterns.  Searchers don't want that... if the search doesn't provide what they want they just leave.  Sales right now are AWFUL!!!  Worst I have had in 7 years!!!  Never been this bad.  

[maxStoetzner]

Thank you Ray for sharing your insights, much appreciated. Let us pray that Etsy starts listening … it is a nightmare.

By the way, you have a wonderful shop. Stunning articles, all beautifully photographed – great!

[C20Ceramics]

Thanks so much @maxStoetzner 

[Z2Nstudio]

I actually joined the forum to research this exact topic. I'm definitely having this problem too. For example in the last 12 hours I have only 22 views and 5 visits! that's abnormally few. naturally I can make maybe one sale in 2 days. this was not the case before. In the last month or two Etsy has changed and my algorithm is broken. I hope this problem will be fixed soon.

[FeltWithAHeart]

I was the first person to post a reply to this thread, and unfortunately, since then I keep getting messages from people wanting to "help me" learn how to get a lot more sales. Interesting how they never have shops of their own linked with their names, so....they go direct to spam and are blocked. Be careful, everyone!

[TaracudaJewelry]

That has been happening to me as well. It's usually creepers from Instagram that I block, so they visit these forums and send me messages, which are immediately transferred to the Spam folder. Ugh!

[Duckwells]

Views and sales have plummeted since May 1.  Best month in 9 years was in January.  This has my alarm bells going off big time.  

[LBclothingStudio]

I am about to raise a white flag and surrender.  May has dropped in sales about 80% and overall sales all year have been down 50%.

I have gone from approximately 25-30 sales a day down to 9-10.  This is my only income and as a single mom with three boys this is beyond anything I ever dreamed would happen overnight.  It is NOT the economy, SEO or size of quality of pics.  Something is broken....

[C20Ceramics]

@LBclothingStudio exactly. I get so tired of people saying its the "economy" ,"size of the pics", "SEO", "tags" "not enough social media" "not advertising enough" etc etc etc.  Etsy appear to have broken the site and the traffic flow with all their playing around.  You just need to look at the Etsy share price to see what investors are thinking. The share price on this day 12 months ago was $89.10. Today it is $64.75. 

[WalkBackInTimeWithMe]

Yes ever since Gift mode  Zip in sales!! hey need to fix this.

[ArtByMiriamHansen]

Sales are down 30-40% as well. It might be gift mode but what I have noticed most is the impact on localization ranking. I only get sales on east coast region where I reside. This has a huge impact because  all last year (My first year) I was getting lots of sales from Canada, UK, west coast, Australia ... no NOTHING since the first of the year. This is NOT fair. I have unique products that should reach everyone. Etsy is not what it was a year ago and in my opinion not supporting it's artist community anymore.

[CreativeInfinityShop]

I agree with you, Miriam. I live in the midwest and most of my sales have previously come from the west and west coast. Now, they are mostly coming from the midwest and east coast and are few and far between. 

I think Etsy should allow buyers decide how long they wish to wait for a handcrafted item. That's why we have processing times.   

I think it's more important that buyers choose, rather than having the decision made for them. My experience has been that buyers would rather wait a few extra days for an item that they really want to have, rather than get frustrated by irrelevant search results and then leave the platform to go shop elsewhere.

[BumblebeeMeadow]

I’ve had one sale in may. Views are down 85%. I’m trying not to panic, but my shop has been very busy until now. Scary 

[SaraWeberJewelry]

Same here, my sales have taken a nose dive. 

[SimplyHookedGiftsUSA]

I too have noticed a drastic decrease in sales, views and visits. This started in April and has been worse in May. When trying to chat with Etsy support about what is happening I am given what feels to me to be a run around about “many factors can influence” same products being sold, people’s search history….. in other words lip service. Does anyone know if Etsy sees all these concerns with the same theme? This can’t be a coincidence that so many of us have experienced the same thing happen around the same time. My sales were so good the first 3 months of this year I was struggling keeping up and putting in very long days (I make crocheted handmade baby blankets and loveys made to order) then came April and I thought it was terrible until I experienced May. Yikes. I am not going to keep paying Etsy to have my items listed when my items aren’t being seen!!! I now offer free shipping, send come back coupons for items left in carts and even had a sale which I will never do again as I didn’t realize people could put your item in their cart and purchase it within 60 days and they still get the sale price??!! What in the world!! If a sale ends on a certain day so should the opportunity for the customer to get the sales percent. I don’t get to go to a retail store and say I want the sale price they offered last month applied today. What in the world? Craziest thing I have ever heard of. Never again!! 🤦🏼‍🤦🏼‍🤦🏼‍ nothing I have done has changed my poor drops in sales, views, and visits. So very frustrated to say the least. 

[AuroraSphere]

I'm currently searching for other online venues with which I can sell my products as well, but can also help me with promoting such as what Etsy did. There's no question this all affected sellers' livelihood and whatever it is, I hope to find these similar online ecommerce venues and will post here as well once I find them. If any of you find these as well, please let us know and thanks in advance!

[SilverSwanEstate]

My theory:  the pop-up ads harassing buyers about something being in their cart.  They are actually motivating customers to empty their cart, and remove items from favorites, and sign off.  If you shop on Etsy you know how that is, it makes me stop shopping to get away from it.  I used to enjoy browsing for hours, now, no way.  I really believe that is what is making sales plummet, pop-ups that won't stop.  Takes the pleasure out of shopping.