customers with items in their baskets

[fifisfinds]

I have a perpetual sale in my shop, at 15% to make customers feel good about their purchases, however this means I can't see when someone has an item in their basket. Why can't we have both visible to us? The sale price AND if someone has an item in their basket? Those baskets help me get through the rough patches when sales are down to zero. Thanks.

[Amaradorn]

There's only so much space on the webpage so you either get one or the other.

I don't take much notice of what is in baskets. It means very little until they actually purchase, which might never happen. 

[fifisfinds]

Then just a small symbol will do. It does not have to be a sentence.

[secondarycreations]

The notice of items in baskets is meant for buyers - to entice them to purchase something more quickly. It can't really be used as any kind of accurate measurement for sellers. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@fifisfinds: "I have a perpetual sale in my shop ..." You do realize that this is illegal almost everywhere, don't you? It is considered fictitious pricing and fraud. And it you are selling across state lines there are federal laws and rules.

[fifisfinds]

Actually, I was exaggerating...I have a few days between sales, so I can look for basket volume

[BagmakerSupply]

@fifisfinds: You may still want to talk to an attorney qualified in this field. The FTC says that items must be offered in the regular course of business, honestly and in good faith at the non-sale price on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time. Not a lawyer, but "I have a few days between sales" does not seem to be in the spirit - if not the letter - of the law.

Plus if buyers see that everything is always on sale they are likely to think you are trying to trick them rather than "feel good about their purchases"

[PinkCoyoteJewelry]

In the past, I used to be able to see the items that were in a buyers cart. My Etsy page would indicate the number of particular items that was in their cart. I noticed that when I signed into Etsy with a browser other than Microsoft's Edge, I did not get this information. Any browser that maintains your strict privacy (Mozilla Firefox), you will not get this information.  Also, it depends on your privacy settings in whatever browser you are using. Remember that any browser that Etsy advertises with, gets more information about you for their own advertising purposes. Fire Fox really respects your privacy, along with Duck, Duck, Go (an excellent search engine).

[UppNorthCo]

I have this shop in Firefox and what's in carts shows.  They show in Chrome too. 

hi.  small world. 

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

@PinkCoyoteJewelry

Same with me - I have Firefox and I get the in the carts.

[MoonstruckCottage]

I run sales very infrequently but am running one now. I agree that it would be nice to see Carts somewhere. They could add it to Stats on the Listings page. Carts are helpful if, for example, I am considering lowering the price of an item. If I were to see that it's in a number of Carts, I would probably not lower the price.

[BagmakerSupply]

@MoonstruckCottage: The problem with the in people's carts message is we do not know how current it is (as of 5 minutes ago, 5 hours ago, 5 months ago), how accurate it us, and how inclusive it is (does every listing in someone's cart show this message), We need to look at that number for what it is - a nudge to get buyers to buy.

Don't you think it would be on your listings page along with views, etc if it was meant to be useful to sellers?

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@BagmakerSupply 

The problem with the in people's carts message is we do not know how current it is (as of 5 minutes ago, 5 hours ago, 5 months ago), how accurate it us,

Since Etsy moves items in carts to Saved for Later approximately every 30 days, 5 months is not a very likely scenario.

I have carted and uncarted items and watched the number of items in cart go up and down accordingly, so know it is somewhat accurate.  That being said I have also observed that when an item is put in a cart for purchase the number goes up, but when the purchase is completed the number does not go back down.

[BagmakerSupply]

@NoFrogsAllowed: I was being facetious about five months but we often get messages with a cart screen shot to make sure finishes match and none of the listings show that they are in someone's cart. All in all it just does not seem like a safe number to make business decisions on, particularly since it appears that so many people put a listing in their cart for various reasons when they have no intention of ever purchasing it.

[MoonstruckCottage]

Re accuracy, who knows. One thing I have noticed is that an item can be in let's say 3 Carts. But when it sells and I view that item on my Sold page, the Cart number is often significantly higher. Who knows why. Maybe that higher number includes Saved for Later. After a few days, that number gets smaller and then is gone, which makes sense.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@BagmakerSupply 

I would never base a business decision on cart numbers.  I wouldn't even base a purchase decision on them.  In fact I wish Etsy would get rid of them.  It's beyond tacky and abysmally misunderstood by too many.

[AAANativeArts]

Those little notes aren't for you. They are meant to entice shoppers to hurry up and buy. There is only so much room for those notices, so Etsy will pick what they think is best if you have more than one thing that is applying at any moment.

As @Amaradorn said, what's in people's cart doesn't mean much. If they haven't purchased within a couple of days, they probably aren't going to. Etsy does have an automatic coupon you can sign up for that will send them a coupon for 10% off (or whatever amount you decide) if they complete a purchase that has been left in their cart. I have used those before, and they work pretty well.

It's not a good idea to have a perpetual sale on your whole store. After a while, customers will get wise to it and realize it is just a fake sale where you have marked up all your prices so you can put them on sale, and you will lose credibility. I never put more than 10-20% of my store on sale at any given time, and run the sale for just a few days, then change it to something else. When it gets into the last 24 hours, there will be a countdown clock that will tell customers this deal ends in XXX hours, which will encourage them to buy now or lose out on the deal. Having sales too frequently can hurt you more than help you in the long run.

[timelapse]

@AAANativeArts - I agree with the comment that a constant sale can be a turn off...I know it is for me, because then I think the sale price is not truly a sale price. It is like certain retailers where everything is always on sale....

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@fifisfinds 

You can go into incognito mode and see carted items even if you are running a sale.  You will have to open each listing to find out though.

Running a perpetual sale is not a good idea in many ways.  Here in the US running afoul of the FTC is not a pleasant experience.  It happened to a fabric company I managed a store for.  The owners ended up in court, lost and had to pay a hefty fine and we were haunted by people from the FTC checking up on us every week for over a year.

[fifisfinds]

with over 900 items, that would be too time consuming..

[AWeeBitOfLove]

Can you explain how to go in cognition mode and do this, even if running a sale?

[JDTotesnDolls]

Becasue you are running a sale, you cannot see who has the item in a basket.  However what difference would it make since it does not mean the item will be purchased.  Some people use the cart to hold items while they are deciding and then they remove.  Also Etsy removes after 30 days.

Also running a perpetual sale is illegal in many countries.  In the US it is not illegal but it can run afoul of certain guidelines on pricing as written by the FTC,    

[fifisfinds]

Thanks...the perpetual sale was an exaggeration...I have a day or 2 inbetween....so I can look at baskets, which is a moral booster when sales are slow...

[BagmakerSupply]

@fifisfinds: "... the perpetual sale was an exaggeration...I have a day or 2 inbetween ..." You are in the United States and subject to FTC regulations concerning 'deceptive pricing' plus whatever state and local rules may exist. Consider also that if your shop visitors see that everything is on sale all the time the conclusion many will have is that you just mark prices up to run fake sales.

[GlassyFields]

when the places I shop have regular sales ... I just wait for the sale.

I have several places I buy from regularly and they rotate their sales ... I just wait for the sale.