Seven ways Etsy can improve in 2009

I've been thinking about website usability and online communities a lot lately. That's partly because it's my job. But I've been thinking about Etsy's usability and community specifically. I also read a fascinating book – "Why We Buy" by Paco Underhill – that focuses a lot on the ways that retail spaces can be made more amenable to shoppers. Since a longer time spent in the store translates to higher sales, retailers need understand what frustrates, annoys or confuses shoppers – and, alternatively, what delights and engages them.

At work, when we're reporting on the success of our clients' sites, we often take note on time on site as a significant KPI. It's amazing how small tweaks can translate to much more time on site – and better sales.

So, back to Etsy. The whole reason I joined Etsy as buyer, a couple years ago, was because I liked the products on the site, and I thought the community (i.e. sellers) were neat. I still believe those things, but Etsy staffers – as creators of a major online community of crafters, tinkerers, buyers and sellers – sometimes screw up, bigtime. And they're missing tons of opportunities to make their site more amenable to buyers and sellers alike.

So here are my ideas:

1. Diversify currency and payment options

Adding Google Checkout would increase sales overnight. So would adding support for British pounds and other currencies. E-commerce is global. It's pretty amazing how provincial Etsy is in this regard.

2. Expand Etsy services

I have a few ideas here, and the beauty is that they would make life easier for sellers, life more fun for buyers and would add to Etsy's bottom line.

a. Encourage the use of gift certificates and coupon codes that are valid sitewide

Etsy currently bans gift certificates. Not only should they reverse this stance, but they should enthusiastically embrace anything that keeps Etsy buyers returning to the site.

Before making any purchase online I search around for coupon codes - and I'm not the only one. Why not offer a coupon code (for $5 or $10 off, say) to new buyers, in order to entice buyers into the Etsy fold? Even if Etsy completely ate the cost of these discounts, I have a feeling it would pay off in buyer retention and the lifetime value of customers.

I'm not the only one who thinks that Etsy needs to do more to attract and retain buyers. Loyal Etsy shoppers are the site's biggest asset, but it doesn't do much to woo them or keep them interested.

As for coupons that are good sitewide: consumers love gift certificates – period. And they don’t always have the time or the desire to shop for the perfect item. Sitewide gift certificates would be immensely popular among the spouses and friends of handmade aficionados, and would help build up Etsy as the #1 online venue for handmade. It would help establish Etsy as a cohesive marketplace for handmade merchants.

b. Offer sellers Etsy-branded goods and services, such as packing materials printed with the Etsy logo

All sellers need padded envelopes, gift boxes, packing tape, and the like, especially when they are first setting up a shop. Etsy can make a profit - and increase the strength of their brand - by selling these materials (Etsy-branded) to sellers. They could also offer some materials gratis to new sellers when they sign up – that would increase sellers' loyalty to Etsy (they aren't the only handmade venue, after all) and help new shops run smoothly in those crucial first weeks and months – which helps Etsy retain shoppers.

3. Allow sellers to gather information

Access to information is addictive. Etsy should do more to promote education among sellers:

a. Promote access to analytics data

Etsy rolled out Google Analytics, but it was badly botched and it's giving sellers useless information. It's insane, really.

If Etsy needs an impetus to fix analytics, here it is: Access to accurate analytics will allow sellers to optimize their shops, leading to more sales and – wait for it – more money in Etsy's pocket, via fee collection.

b. Allow sellers to incorporate surveys into the buying process

This is especially important since sellers don't have access to meaningful stats. Allow sellers to ask their buyers a few short questions after they've completed a transaction. Entice buyers to fill out the survey through contests and the chance to win coupons (valid sitewide) or other cool stuff.

4. Streamline and improve the checkout process (for buyers) and listing process (for sellers)

I shop on Etsy all the time and the checkout process still trips me up. Streamline the checkout process and buyers will come back more than they do now.

If buyers had access to Etsy's shopping cart abandonment stats, they would be shocked. For e-commerce sites, shopping cart abandonment rates of 20-30% aren't uncommon – and that's with a smooth, one-step payment system. Buying stuff at Etsy takes two steps. It's confusing and disjointing and I have no doubt it puts off lots of buyers – not to mention the myriad buyers who don't have a PayPal account or aren't shopping in U.S. dollars.

Similarly, the process of listing an item is needlessly complicated. Making listing a one-page process.

5. Remarket to buyers - elegantly

When I first began shopping on Etsy, I found it kind of amazing how little Etsy itself seemed to care about the process. After learning of Etsy through blogs, I found shops I liked (with no help from Etsy's search), picked out some fine art prints I liked, paid, and then…nothing. After receiving the confirmation emails from PayPal and Etsy, I didn’t know what to expect, really. The prints came in the mail a little while later, and that was it.

Etsy misses opportunities to connect and re-connect with shoppers at several points. For example:

a. Right after shoppers order something, many sellers take it upon themselves to convo them to confirm receipt of the order and to tell them when they’ll ship the item. Others convo buyers as they ship the item. Why can’t Etsy automate this process? Sellers have a dashboard where they can mark items as “shipped” – why not have that action trigger a convo or email to the buyer telling them their item has shipped? Nearly all other online retailers send out Shipping Confirmation emails. Why doesn’t Etsy? Why put the onus on sellers to do it manually?

b. At the conclusion of the payment process, guide shoppers back to Etsy so they can fill out the seller’s survey, sign up for the seller’s newsletter (if they have one), or shop more items from their Favorites. Better yet, do what Amazon does – show shoppers “related items” based on color, type, cost, etc. Even a simple algorithm based on item tags can put appealing items in front of shoppers’ eyes in the moments after they’re purchased something. (To Etsy's credit, they did add a little screen with "items from your favorites" after you purchase something, but that's horribly simplistic for this day and age.)

c. Give sellers tools for sending out email newsletters or writing blog posts right on the etsy.com domain. Both keep users coming back to Etsy – adding value to individual shops and Etsy as a whole. (I know this will never happen because Etsy is has kindergarten-esque community standards, but hey, a girl can dream, right?)

d. A week to ten days after a user submits an order, send them an automatic email asking them to leave feedback for the seller. Also, present them with other items they may like.

Those ideas were all Remarketing 101, basically. Some would be construed as spam by buyers. Obviously, Etsy would need to sort out opt-in processes and such. And they would need to listen, very very carefully, to customer feedback.

6. Fix search and employ filters

First, Etsy should fix the site’s horribly rudimentary and dysfunctional search. The search needs to encourage shoppers to search early and often, because it’s the #1 way they’re going to find stuff to buy.

Additionally, Etsy should work on behavioral targeting, so search results are customized based on users’ earlier queries and whenever they buy an item, they are presented with others they may like (a la Amazon’s insanely successful “you may also like….” feature). If done well, this feature could have the feel of an excellent salesperson at an upscale boutique – the kind that suggests a beautiful matching belt when you’re buying a pair of pants. (Similarly, it would be amazing if the front page was populated with items that the algorithm predicts a user may like based on their Favorites and past purchases.)

As for filters – searchers today, especially on e-commerce sites, are used to being able to sort and filter items in many ways. Any set of search results should be easily sorted by color, price, date added, and so on.

Clothing e-retailers like Bluefly have really put filters into action. I’m an especially big fan of their clickable color swatches, since clicking around on colors is a lot more fun than having to search something like “gray sweater.” (Etsy has already taken a stab at this, in this bizarre Colors thing, but it's a toy rather than a useful tool that acts on sophisticated user input.)

7. Listen to your community

I don't have time to read the forums or poke around in the other community features much, but I do peek at Closed Threads. I'm not in the least amazed by the crazies and jerks that come out in the Etsy forums, because every online community has them. But I am amazed by how much contempt Etsy's staff has for the Etsy community, how determined they are to ignore user feedback, and how eager they are to censor legitimate community discourse.

This article by Muhammad Salim – How to Survive a Social Media Revolt - says it much better than I can. Etsy staffers would do well to print this out, highlight it, underline the best bits, and read it every day as a refresher on how communities really should be run. His very first lesson – Communicate Even if You Have Nothing to Say – is especially applicable to Etsy.

So there you have it - my seven wishes for Etsy in the new year. They represent a complete 180 from the way Etsy currently approaches its operations and community, which just goes to show that Etsy is ignoring many marketing, website usability, and online community best practices.