What is Wrong with the Visit Listings?

[#1]

Is there a point to having number of views of each listing made visible to potential customers? I don't understand Etsy. Looking at my Dashboard, over last 7 days (yes I posted earlier this week), I have 67 views. I went through my three pages of items and counted up each supposed view for each listing, which is 74 views. Now these items have been up for several months, so I don't think any of these 67 views are reflected under items, nor will they ever be. And no it won't take up to a month, because the view numbers are still very low, a struggle to get above 5 per individual item, and that's with the daily drip of views, which never get past 8, 10 views for a single item. What is the point? 

[NedsDrawings]

Thank you for clarifying that, NoFrogsAllowed, that helps. Perhaps Etsy could add the word "Homepage" in front of that "Visits" number, and specify what "Views" are (such as "Individual Listing Views"), right there on the page. 

[NedsDrawings]

If it's any consolation, WNYTrading, I had a 40% off sale from June to July and no more visits, views, than usual, I believe, and not one sale. I was following the advice of a Youtube video Etsy seller. That is odd that your listings diminished the next day. Do you have your own site? I assume you'd then have more control and understanding of what's going on with it, in contrast to here. 

[WNYTradingCo · Accepted solution]

I think I did find the solution in an earlier post. Seems Etsy adjusts the number of views to account for bot views. They remove those "false" views. That does seem to be a reasonable explanation. Sorry your sale wasn't more fruitful. June seems to have an abysmal month for many of us!

[JoLuFabricCreations · Accepted solution]

Maybe she is talking about what I sometimes see.  If I go in and look at the stats for seven days it may say I have 21 visits for today, but when I go and just look at today's stats it may say I have 11 visits.  I don't know why they numbers are different, but they are.

[NedsDrawings]

Thank you WNYTrading, I wish things were better for all of us. As for these bot things, does it say somewhere that these are netted out of the pool? I have a junk mail folder, and I don't pay for that. Why pay for these mirage-like, accurate-some-of-the-time-if-ever results? I'm sorry; I've gone on too long with this. Best of luck to all.  

[WNYTradingCo · Accepted solution]

Hi NedsDomeDrawings. Re the bot thing, I haven't found anything within Etsy's handbook or notifications about how they handle/count/report bot searches.  My only info came from a previous posting in this thread from VibeEnvy.  I absolutely agree with you with regard to the accurate-some-of-the-time-if-ever results.  Etsy as a platform would do us all a great service if there were more transparency concerning these metrics and how they're reported.  Savvy shop owners could actually use the data to become more successful, thereby making them - and Etsy - more profitable.  It seems like such a no-brainer that I feel as though I must be missing a huge piece of the puzzle!

[WNYTradingCo · Accepted solution]

Hi NedsDomeDrawings. Re the bot thing, I haven't found anything within Etsy's handbook or notifications about how they handle/count/report bot searches.  My only info came from a previous posting in this thread from VibeEnvy.  I absolutely agree with you with regard to the accurate-some-of-the-time-if-ever results.  Etsy as a platform would do us all a great service if there were more transparency concerning these metrics and how they're reported.  Savvy shop owners could actually use the data to become more successful, thereby making them - and Etsy - more profitable.  It seems like such a no-brainer that I feel as though I must be missing a huge piece of the puzzle!

[CraftyCraftsCorners · Accepted solution]

People are window shopping right now as inflation rises to very high numbers. I have seen these types of numbers before but, I have two generations that have not seen and are getting hit with high costs of buying things the have always just bought,  now they can not just buy as they dont have the money or very little for extras. They are also stretched thin as CCs bills are higher with Interest increases, Household bills are going up utilities we use every day. Banks are pushing interest rates up 1% to 2 % to try and slow things down. Cost of good are rising every day, week, month, on things we depend on for Life Basics food, housing, clothing and medical, our vehicles to get to work and appointments. Right now and for at least 2 months people have been traveling spending that saved money. Coming home to bills higher and their cash in bank not looking good for bills and basic living expenses which keep rising somewhat and seeing the need is there for them to cut back on spending and sit window shop for some things, and the have to buy things to live and money to pay bills. Governments are not say much expect it not a recession and we in general say its looking that way to us. So seems like its a waiting game to see what going to happening in the next 3/6 months. Numbers can mean different things to different people, they can be made to fit or look good no problems, so-so should be good or should be bad, or just plain bad and not much will help. Etsy number are no different they put what they think we want to see, which is only what Etsy want you to see. To me Visits are possible shoppers window shopping on maybe limited budgets we have heard so much about lately seems it a new thing now or again, I dont know, I have always used a budget and stuck to them even putting a small amount away. Numbers are what you make out of them and high visit to a item does not mean a sale most likely not. Buyers have a purpose that is to buy, it is the number of sales an Item gets that tells you about buyers. Putting items on sale do not necessarily work all the time, may depend on what kind and how many times in a year you do them. Again you need to figure what the numbers mean to your shop and Etsy's are not the greatest for what they give sellers you will need to look further outside of the box,  other sites have numbers for what is sold and not selling check them out. 

[WNYTradingCo]

I absolutely agree with you, CraftyCraftsCorners, when you say that we all are experiencing this horrible economy, and that our Etsy visits represent window shoppers more than buyers these days.  We're running our sale, frankly, with the intent of getting folks to look and visit our shop and to attract those window shoppers who will have disposable income again in the future.  Not expecting many sales from it now, but this economy can't last forever! 

That being said, I was hoping to rely on the "visits" metric to help show me those items that were at least receiving interest -- to use for planning future postings for the upcoming gift-giving season.  If nobody is interested in these sale items, I have items in other categories to list instead.

That is why I expressed my frustration with the inaccurate numbers.  And of course now that I understand a little better what these metrics can and cannot do to help sellers, I can take them with a grain of salt.  Just seems as though Etsy could make things a little easier for us! 

[NedsDrawings]

Makes sense yes, I'm not buying anything other than basics myself, with food prices rising etc. I don't even window shop; I have all the windows I need at the moment. 

[NedsDrawings]

I've reduced my already low digital print prices. We'll see. Someone might say this is wrong, that it projects a lack of confidence, but at this point I might as well try it. 

[NedsDrawings]

At the risk of sounding (or being) dumb, is this window-shopping concept really that prevalent? If something is just a few dollars, do they really thinking I'll wait a month (as if they'd remember it)? I suppose some people favorite a product page. Similarly, when I look at somone's shop, I usually look at one or two specific items. I'm already there, I don't tell myself I'd better stop now, that is the correct thing to do, a last-second frugality. If someone follows my shop, for example, I typically follow them. If they like something of mine, then I like them back, and I'm curious to see what kind of work they do. Even if I don't get it, or it's not really my thing, which I see from their homepage, I'm usually curious enough to click on a specific item precisely because I don't understand the appeal fully.