Why can't we see our lisings as potential customers do?

[CoolCyberCats]

If I go to an item I am selling while logged in, my view is slightly differs from someone else's and I wish that Etsy would make the views the same (less the management things for my version).

Public views get the star ratings as a percent for 5 to 1 star.
Public views show (as an example) "Only 4 left and 2 in carts".

And the feedbacks shown differ for me and public and I am not sure why. I should see the feedbacks in the same order the public does.

I know Etsy reads these forms, or at least bots do and then the humans look. So, Etsy, how about you make ONE standard view that all see each time (except for the seller special listing tools that show for me)? It is helpful when all parties see the same thing.

[ZehOriginalArt]

This drives us all a bit crazy at times.

Why we see things differently logged in and not logged in, is likely because Etsy is continually testing things on the live site. They have been doing this all along for years. And it is set by the user, not the shop. So some buyers will see one thing and another will see something else. This is so Etsy can collect data.

[bradgoodell]

Accurate.

When Etsy does tests, the will show some shoppers one view, and other shoppers another view.  Each shopper will see all shops in that view.  Then they can see which layout has a better conversion rate.  

Amazon does this too, but unless you are on there frequently, you might not notice.  I've seen it where one day the entire site looks different, then reverts back the next day.  

[CoolCyberCats]

@ZehOriginalArt Well, I think it really bad management and poorly thought out. They have test stores and should just make the changes to their own stores. I know someone there would say "yeah, but the public dose not really come to the test shop!". I see 2 resolutions:

1. Make a setting on all accounts that say "I agree to be used as a guinea pig from time to time" and if they REALLY feel no one would check it off, then make it checked as the account defaults till they are turned off.

2. Make the Etsy test shops sell other shop items. WHAT you say? Imagine if they made a test shop and could pick 10 items from other shops and they ALSO show in the test shop. On the page also say something like "This is an etsy run shop and the item you are viewing will be ordered from the rightful shop if you buy it". If the user buys it, we still get the sale and Etsy sees what their silly store with altered views did.

[ZehOriginalArt]

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@CoolCyberCats wrote:

 They have test stores and should just make the changes to their own stores. 

Having a test site would be ideal and I agree with it.

Etsy has never done that to my knowledge. They like to tinker away at the actual site causing all types of potential mayhem along the way.

[bradgoodell]

Having a "test store" wouldn't work.  Putting a label on it would affect the outcome.  Blind testing 2 groups of random shoppers is the only way to collect real data.  

@CoolCyberCats you are a guinea pig everywhere you go.  Online, Google runs tests all the time to check conversion rates.  All websites do testing so when you visit any website, you may be seeing a different view than other users.  Then you are tracked with cookies so each time you visit, they collect more data about you and show you things a little bit differently than the time before, based on the data.  

Brick and mortar stores do tests by rearranging things and watching how people navigate through their stores and what people buy.  I had a friend who did marketing for Walmart and other large grocery stores.  You would be amazed on the sophisticated tests they run and how much data they can collect.  

As I said, I've seen these same tests run on Amazon.  One day, one look, the next day, another look.  Also, the entire display can be different depending on the type of account you have there.  What I see and what my sons see is entirely different.

[CoolCyberCats]

@bradgoodell I hope I am less of a guinea pig than most. *grin* I have no social media accounts at all, I do not use google for anything and I use presearch.org for my searches (distributed search not tracked). I do use Amazon though.  

The brick and mortar do not affect us really, if they rearrange EVERYONE is affected, not just some. But yes, I get your point.

[TBQSC]

“If I go to an item I am selling while logged in, my view is slightly differs from someone else's”

Have you tried viewing your shop & listings in incognito mode?  This would give you a better idea of what your customers see.

[WantableDesigns]

I just use a different browser to get the 'customer' view.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

"I know Etsy reads these forms, or at least bots do and then the humans look."

I'd suggest emailing them if you want to be sure they hear you.