"Materials Available"

[EssentialAtelier]

Hello,

Could Etsy please stop putting “materials available” under jewelry makers listings when they come up in search?  What is the point or benefit for anyone to adding this under our listings?  Is Etsy trying to discourage sales and encourage people to make their own jewelry? 

Surely I can’t be the only shop owner to find this annoying, intrusive, and pointless?  It’s even appearing under vintage listings.

I realize this is a forum of peers but hopefully an Etsy mod will read this.  Please comment if you've noticed this and it annoys you.

Thanks much and best wishes to all. 

[DesertChains]

Yah, that’s weird. It seems to be reading from the attributes, which are already listed by the seller.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

I haven't seen it, but if they are using attributes then I have a suggestion.

Maybe Etsy could take the time to fix the attributes so that they show the real actual materials?

There is a huge difference in price between silver color metal and 925 sterling silver, and between gold plated and 24K gold.  WTF good does it do me, as a shopper, to tell me something is made of "silver" or "gold"?

[BluKatDesign]

I just do not understand what it means, I thought it was they had the materials to make the piece and you would have to wait for them to make it LOL! Or does it mean they have more than one piece available, very confusing!  How does etsy choose "returns accepted" over "free shipping" when I offer both? So weird!!!!

[RHLJewelry]

Yes it is annoying and distracting...  what does it mean?  

[OneEyeCatStudio]

"I thought it was they had the materials to make the piece and you would have to wait for them to make it LOL! "

IMO that little blurb is not only mindless but utterly useless. It just takes you to the listing.

Just last week a friend asked me  "You sell on Etsy.  Where do you find the materials that they have listed as available to make the items? I've looked and looked and I cannot find them anywhere."

[Cathyscomfortcorner]

Could it mean that there are choices when clicked on? I looked up other things and it only seems to be in the jewelry.

[LynnsLittleShop]

Here's another post on it - I think when people first saw it.

“Materials available “ appears under product photo - Welcome to the Etsy Community

[FLcowgirls]

I wondered about these little words...Chat support claims "Material Available" means more can be made and '+more' means there are options for the listing.  Glad I asked because I couldn't figure it out...still not sure why it's being used.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

"Chat support claims "Material Available" means more can be made ..."

Seriously?

Seriously?

Etsy now somehow knows our stock supplies? 

[FLcowgirls]

Mind boggling isn't it @OneEyeCatStudio I think my eyes rolled when they told me that

[PureBlissJewelry]

But how does Etsy ASSUME that more can be made? We list the quantity of the item for sale, and that should be all the buyer needs to know. Good grief!

[AmoreTreasure]

Just came out to the forums to see why in the world Etsy would put "Materials Available" under the photo of vintage, as found, items?  Many, many pieces of antique/vintage jewelry have "materials available" right under the photo that shows in search.  Several of mine show up this way and they are items with a quantity of "1" and there are no "options" to choose from in the listings.  Is there no one at Etsy with an ounce of common sense?

[FLcowgirls]

@AmoreTreasure Chat support doesn't have the answers, only scripted responses as "the reason of this "Materials Available" is because the seller have the materials to create the item"  doesn't make sense at all

[BagmakerSupply]

Perhaps the reason for this nonsensical explanation is the known issue of artificial intelligence 'hallucinating' fake responses when it cannot find an actual one.

[FeltWithAHeart]

I've been seeing that for a while and hoped someone would explain what it meant. If it means you have the materials available to make more of the item (altho how would they know?), it doesn't mean that you'd even want to. Just another piece of etsy weirdness.

[IceMaidens · Accepted solution]

I’ve spent hours trying to get rid of the ‘materials available’ caption and the way to do it is to go into the listing and delete each material you’ve included, then click publish changes. A lot of now been updated and no longer have the ‘materials  available’ caption, but it’s still showing on some. It may be that it takes a while to catch up with the editing. So as far as I can make out, it doesn’t mean that the seller has the materials to make more, it means the listing includes some info about what the product is made from. It’s so annoying and confusing for everyone and worrying that even Etsy staff don’t know what it means. If customers think it means the item is a kit of some sort, so they can make it themselves, countless sales are being lost because of this nonsensical gibberish  It took me hours to get rid of it and I’ve only got around 100 listings. 

[EssentialAtelier]

Thank you IceMaidens!

[AmoreTreasure]

Sorry but this doesn't sound like an acceptable solution to me.  I list out the 'materials' that were used to make all of my items, whether or not I made them or if they are as found antique/vintage pieces.  This is an important section to my buyers who want to know what the items I offer are made of. Not sure about all categories but this is VERY important for vintage jewelry.  

I'm also not convinced that the 'materials available' blurb that shows in search under our photos is really based on the listing identifying 'materials' as all of my listings identify materials but not all listings display 'materials available' under the listing.  

[IceMaidens]

@AmoreTreasure 

No-one is disputing the importance of sellers including  details of the materials used in the products they list. The OP finds Etsy’s decision to add the caption ‘Materials available’ beneath some of the thumbnails in the search results annoying and asked if others do too. I also find it annoying and suggested a way to remove that caption, not a way to avoid the inclusion of details of materials used within the listings - this can be achieved within the listing without using Etsy’s optional attributes materials menu, which in any case doesn’t include key materials such as nickel or silver plated metal. The OP has chosen to accept this as a solution to the issue she raised.

[AmoreTreasure]

@IceMaidens I believe "materials" (at least the preset list of materials) are considered attributes since that section pops up when you click on "show all attributes" and are therefore treated like tags.  Removing them would have a negative impact on search!  Here is an article from the Etsy Seller Handbook that discusses the use of attributes and how they help you in search:

https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/add-attributes-to-help-increase-your/604203126614

I don't like the "materials available" showing under my listing photos in search either but I don't believe your solution is acceptable.  The correct solution would be for Etsy to remove it or at least use it correctly.

I spent a fair amount of time on the phone with Etsy support and, though they contacted the appropriate "team", clearly had no idea of how "materials available" is supposed to be interpreted by the shopper let alone what actually triggers Etsy to display it under a photo in search.  They told me several times that it was somehow verification that the item was really available.  I pointed out how ridiculous this was since EVERYTHING that is returned in search is supposed to be available.  They finally said they would pass on my lengthy comments to the team but, of course, I don't expect to see anything change and think it's unlikely "the team" will ever even see/read my comments.

[RedHotPots]

I thought it was a kit.... 

It is dumb

[IceMaidens]

Just to add to my previous post, you need to delete the materials in the ‘attributes’ drop down menu as well as the other place (can’t remember what it’s called and I’m worn out now) but it appears somewhere or other around the tags area. If you don’t delete in both places it won’t remove the ‘materials available’ caption. I discovered that the hard way. I am now the personification of ‘bitter experience’. 

[Thedinkydoodlestudio]

English may not be Etsy's home language

[DaintyAndVibrant]

My first assumption was that it means just this: a list of materials used in the item is available - as in the seller has filled in the materials tags. I don't find it annoying, just badly formulated. It's a good thing to have the materials listed. The customer will know what they are buying.